shoulder to shoulder

I ran into another one of those cool word pictures this morning, reading in the book of Zephaniah. 

Zephaniah 3:9-10 says "Then I will purify the lips of the peoples, that all of them may call on the name of the lord and serve him shoulder to shoulder. From beyond the rivers of Cush my worshipers, my scattered people, will bring me offerings."

What I love about these two verses is the purpose statement caught in the five words "serve him shoulder to shoulder." That image of all of us working side-by-side in the garden, lifting side-by-side at the wall, fighting side-by-side at the gate, ministering side-by-side at the poorhouse, is such a beautiful thing. 

Not someone else charging out ahead and me running behind, just trying to keep up. Not me off doing one thing when most of my church is working on something else. Not the pastor doing the grown-up work while I get handed some minor chores within my puny skill set. No, serving shoulder to shoulder suggests not just a mutual willingness to work, but a lot of communication and attention given to each other and the goals of God's kingdom.

There's nothing here of competing for leadership, or of squabbling about which ministry should get more resources, or of being offended and looking for a new church. There's only this image of all our collective effort applied in harmony to the same work.

This is all enabled, Zephaniah says, by another common activity: all of us calling on the name of the Lord. With purified lips, in this prophesy all of God's people are focused back on God. That's the thing that lets us make our own identities and goals of lesser importance than what the church is doing.

It's a wonderful vision of the future, but it's also one of those things we can be doing right now. And I think the work is the outcome; the thing I should concentrate on doing is calling on God's name, both in praise for his goodness and equipping and in petition for strength and help in doing the work.