Deacons

Deacons in our tradition are charged with tending to “the spiritual life of the church.” Today I googled “Deacon” and came across this definition by Martin B. Copenhaver , pastor of the Village Church UCC in Wellesley, quoted here because I could not say it better. He wrote that a deacon complained about washing dishes after communion and delivering food to the homebound. “How could they tend to important spiritual matters when they were occupied with such mundane tasks? ‘I feel like a glorified butler,’ one of the Deacons complained. So we looked together at the book of Acts, where the word ‘deacon’ first appears, and discovered that the apostles commissioned the first deacons so there would be someone to take food to the widows (it was a time when to be a widow was synonymous with being poor.) The word ‘deacon’ means, literally, waiter or servant. So those who are deacons are, indeed, butlers, charged with the mundane task of delivering food. They are also glorified because that simple act of taking food to the widows is an important expression of love. . . . In God’s realm, everything is turned upside down, and many of our assumptions begin to shake loose. To lead is to be a servant, as Jesus was a servant, and the greatest honor is not when we are given a gold watch, but rather when we are given a dish towel.” from Lyn Pickhover, Servant