The 2nd Sunday after Epiphany Year B

The Second Sunday after the Epiphany-Year B January 14, 2018 It was the summer of 1996. I was entering my junior year in college and had not yet declared a major because I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. I had thought I might go to law school (it’s ok, you can laugh at that, it’s funny!), but that just didn’t seem to be the right fit. One day, I was sitting on the window seat in my parents’ kitchen and talking to my mom about the vocational difficulties I was having, and she said to me, “Have you ever thought about being a priest?” I was stunned. Not because I hadn’t thought about it, but because I had. But I hadn’t told anyone, because I just wasn’t sure. But when she asked me that question, it was as if I could actually start really considering it, because someone else had seen that in me. But still I was nowhere near sure. That summer I entered a semester long program of study abroad through Rhodes and Sewanee, and so I set a goal for myself that I would spend much of that time in prayer and reflection, and I would come back with an answer—am I called to be a priest or not. It was an incredible semester! We spent 8 weeks in England, and we tramped around all the old monastery ruins, so many thin places where so many prayers have been offered and the veil between this world and the next seems to be non-existent. We learned about our fathers and mothers in the faith, and I was steeped in English and European history, art, religion, and culture. And in all those holy places I kept praying, “God, please, let me know if you are calling me to be a priest.” I was still so very uncertain. Then one day, we had an extracurricular assignment in a church outside of Florence overlooking the city. It was a very simple church, and my college roommate and I went in and sat and started working on our assignment. As we worked quietly, a woman soloist came in and started rehearsing; she was singing Ave Maria, and I found myself praying my same old prayer, “God, please, let me know if you are calling me to be a priest.” And then suddenly, unexpectedly, a voice, that was as familiar as my own and also not, spoke in my soul and said, “Faith is not knowing but doing.” When I came back to myself, I knew, right or wrong, I was going to pursue the priesthood because what I understood that one sentence to mean-- “faith is not knowing but doing”--is that we are called to act, even when we are uncertain, and we are called to trust that God will pick us up if we fall. That was probably the first time in my life that I heard God’s call in my life, and I answered, like Samuel, “here I am, Lord. Speak, for your servant is listening.” Last Sunday, during the sermon, I took us through the prayer book and did a teaching on the sacrament of baptism and what we think that we are doing when we baptize someone. But there are more sacraments in this church besides baptism, and so I decided to do something like a sermon series on all of the sacraments. (Who remembers how many sacraments there are? 7 and who remembers what the definition of a sacrament is? It’s on page 857: “The sacraments are outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace, given by Christ as sure and certain means by which we receive that grace.”) So who can guess what sacrament we’re going to talk briefly about today? Ordination. But before we talk about ordination, we need to talk about ministry in the church. Turn in your prayer books to page 855, and someone tell me who are the ministers of the church? “The ministers of the Church are lay persons, bishops, priests, and deacons.” Now, in the Book of Common Prayer, order is always important when it lists different options. The first thing listed is always the preferred, the norm, or the most important. So which order of ministry of the church does the BCP say is most important? The lay people. And what does the prayer book say is the ministry of the lay people? (We’re still on p 855) “The ministry of lay persons is to represent Christ and his Church; to bear witness to him wherever they may be; and, according to the gifts given them, to carry on Christ's work of reconciliation in the world; and to take their place in the life, worship, and governance of the Church.” So, if the laity is so important, which it is, then why do we even have ordination? What is ordination anyway? (p 860) “Ordination is the rite in which God gives authority and the grace of the Holy Spirit to those being made bishops, priests, and deacons, through prayer and the laying on of hands by bishops.” What are the different ministries of bishops, priests and deacons? (p855) Let’s start with bishops. The word bishop comes from the Greek word episkopos which means overseer. (How many of you ever wondered what Episcopal meant? The Episcopal church is the bishop church. And the ministry of a bishop? “The ministry of a bishop is to represent Christ and his Church, particularly as apostle, chief priest, and pastor of a diocese; to guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the whole Church; to proclaim the Word of God; to act in Christ's name for the reconciliation of the world and the building up of the Church; and to ordain others to continue Christ's ministry.” The word for priest that we find most frequently in the New Testament is presbyteros which means elder. This is where we get the word presbyter, that we use interchangeably with the word priest. And the ministry of a priest? “The ministry of a priest is to represent Christ and his Church, particularly as pastor to the people; to share with the bishop in the overseeing of the Church; to proclaim the Gospel; to administer the sacraments; and to bless and declare pardon in the name of God.” The word deacon is also from a Greek word—diakonos--which means servant. And the ministry of a deacon? “The ministry of a deacon is to represent Christ and his Church, particularly as a servant of those in need; and to assist bishops and priests in the proclamation of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments.” So, three distinct orders with three distinct roles. And each one has its own unique ordination service that has elements corresponding with the unique role of the order and then there are elements that each of the three different ordination services share in common. What they have in common is the fact that at each ordination service, the ordinand makes what is called “the declaration of conformity”: each one must “solemnly declare that I do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation; and I do solemnly engage to conform to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of The Episcopal Church.” Every ordination is presided over by at least one bishop. (If it is an Episcopal ordination-ordination of a bishop-anybody know how many bishops must be present? At least 3. Likewise at both a deacon and priest ordination, at least 2 presbyters must be present.) And every ordination includes an invocation of the Holy Spirit, the laying on of hands by a bishop upon the head of the one or ones being ordained, a vow made by the ordinand that is unique to the demands of that particular ministry, and the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. (If you’d like to learn more about ordination as a sacrament, I encourage you to take read the three different services in the prayer book. They begin on page 510 and are under the heading “Episcopal services” because they require a bishop to preside.) What’s important to remember about the four different orders of the church is that we all have vows, and we all have the opportunity to renew those vows. And we are all called to the ministry of building up God’s church and being agents of Christ’s reconciliation in the world. The only way that any of us are able to accomplish any of this work is together, as the body or Christ and through the grace of God and with the gift of God’s Holy Spirit to console, empower, guide and direct us. Your invitation for this week is to spend time inquiring how God might be calling you to grow more deeply in your ministry by opening yourself to God in prayer and, possibly using the words of Samuel, make space for God to speak to you and for you to listen: “Here I am….speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”