Sermon
Delivered By
The Reverend
Canon Eugene A. Stormer,
President of
the Standing Committee and Canon Pastor of the Diocese
at
The Ordination
of Ann L. Alley, Donald E. Coventry, Bruce U. DeGooyer, George W. Howard
III, Sylvia L. Howard and Gene R. Tucker to the Diaconate and Thomas D.
Patton to the Priesthood
Tuesday, June
29, 2004
Being the Feast
of St. Peter and St. Paul, Apostles
The
Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Springfield, Illinois
I welcome you to
this ordination tonight. It is one of those important times we the
diocese of Springfield comes together to express it belief in Jesus Christ
and ministry to the world. Tonight we are here to take some ordinary
Christians, followers of Jesus by virtue of their baptismal promises, put
a stole on them and turn them into something totally different. This
stole was once a sign of Roman nobilities high status in the community.
But for those who are ordained already and for those about to be ordained
this stole is a yoke similar to that put around the necks of oxen and
other beast of burden. Be assured that Jesus did reassure his followers
that his yoke was easy and his burden light (Matthew 11: 28-30). Still by
any standards in this world having a yoke around your neck is an odd way
to start a job. You will hear in the ordination service that follows,
that after the church has prayed for you, and you will need all the prayer
you can get, a few of your favorite people will be called forward to put
this stole or yoke around your neck. Now it is true that tonight you get
to pick who puts the stole around your neck, in the future that will not
be the case. You will not get to pick your job for that will be decided
by the bishop and others in the church.
The stole or yoke
is a good symbol for what is taking place here tonight. You can get some
real fancy ones like the one I am wearing with tapestries of important
events in the life of the church. But in the end it is still a yoke that
binds you to Christ’s service to His Church. Now if you’re being ordained
a deacon you get to wear it cross ways, across your heart. This also is a
good symbol for it will remind you that what you are pledging here tonight
is to always give your heart to Jesus in his Church. If you are being
ordained a priest, the tradition is to cross the stole in front of you.
There have been various interpretations of this through the centuries. My
favorite is that it is to remind you that you should not get crossways
with your bishop who traditionally wears his uncrossed.
So as you wear
this stole during your life of service to the church remember what it
means. If you search the scriptures and the stories of those who accepted
the yoke of Christ, you will note that many were reluctant at first.
After their reluctance faded, they also found it difficult to learn that
it was God’s ministry they were doing. -Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings
(London: Faber and Faber, 1964), 82 said, “Placing ourselves squarely in
the hands of God is difficult because it is so hard for us to give up
control of our choices. And we know that submitting to God's will can be
a hard and perilous thing! But without our willing submission to him and
a ready conference with his will through prayer and meditation, all of our
choices fall at last to dust. "Thy will be done - 'To let the inner take
precedence over the outer, the soul over the world' - wherever this may
lead you."
First, your life
is to be a ministry of service to the church, the bride of Christ. For
those of you becoming deacons, you have studied that “διάκονος” in Greek
means servant. For those being ordained priests remember you were first
ordained a deacon so that you would know service is your true ministry.
Ministry is an act of God; it is a part of His self-giving love and the
way in which He has chosen to continue showing his love for his people
throughout the ages.
Remember also that
this stole makes you a minister in the Church and for the church. Most of
you can remember back to the start of your process towards ordination when
various people started asking you if you were called by God and how did
you know it. I am sure that you thought there was a good answer to that
question and that those of us who were asking it knew what the answer was.
By now you know that really we just wanted to hear from you that God was
involved in this call and that it was going to take place inside the
church and as a service to the church. There are others who have a call
that stand outside the church and point to the way to go. People like John
the Baptist in the scriptures or maybe Billy Graham in our time.
Ministry in the
Church and for the church is important. The new dimension that you receive
in ordination tonight is called Holy Orders. The operative word here is
orders. Your ministry is meant to bring order to God’s people through
service. Your ministry is internal to the church. You can take a clue to
the meaning of this service from the Gospel read this evening.
We are celebrating
the feast of two of the greatest apostles of the Church, Peter and Paul.
The readings are about their ministry to the church and should be examples
for us all. In the Gospel of John the 21st chapter is often
considered an add-on. It really looks like the whole thing should have
ended with statement of Chapter 20. “30Now Jesus did many
other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in
this book. 31But these are written so that you may come to
believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through
believing you may have life in his name.” But in reality chapter 21 is
all about ministry in the church. It occurs at the lake as Jesus appears
to his chosen apostles before his ascension into heaven. He helps them
catch a lot of fish and then cooks breakfast for them. It is at this
point after breakfast when he has been a servant to them that today’s
Gospel reading begins. Before Peter is given the ministry of the church,
Jesus asks him not once but three times, if he loves him more than these.
Just who the “more than these” are has lots of interpretations. The one I
prefer is a simple one. Since Jesus response is about his sheep, the
“these” referred to are the sheep, the people. So the text means you are
to be of service to the church (the sheep) and you really have to love
Christ more than they do to understand your role.
In the second
lesson, Paul expands on this as he instructs one of his beloved sons who
is a bishop in the church about how much it takes to be of service to the
church. I think for Paul it was a continual struggle to love them. He
had such great expectations for them and they always seem to fall short.
Actually there are times I think the “thorn in the side” Paul refers to
and reveals that Jesus gave him to make him better was His people in the
church. By church I do not just mean just the people but also the other
bishops, priest, and deacons. But Paul does give Timothy some good
instructions on how to do this. “Always be steady, endure suffering, do
the work of preaching the gospel and carry out your ministry fully.” Good
advice that we all constantly need to hear.
Finally the yoke
you take upon this evening ties you in a unique way to the church, the
believing community of Jesus Christ. Part of the joy of any Christian is
being tied to someone and something more important than you. For those in
ministry this communal attachment is especially significant. We have put
you through many classes so that we can professionalize you in your
service to the church. I use the word in its root, meaning that you will
profess the faith given to us through the centuries. Again a theme in
Paul’s Letter to Timothy.
We also read from
the prophet, Ezekiel this evening who gives us both an example and a
warning about being a minister to God’s people. The prophet was called
upon to say that God is taking back being a pastor to his own people
because those appointed forgot to make the community of God’s people their
first and most important function. Ezekiel was a prophet in exile. He
was given a job to tell the people they had not exactly done what God
wanted and so they would be taken into exile where they would find it hard
to practice their religion. Ezekiel used some pretty neat images to
describe the situation of the people. One of his most famous is the
vision of the valley of the dry bones. Tonight we heard his vision of God
taking over the pastoral responsibilities of his people because the ones
called to do it were not exactly doing it in accord with His wishes. Many
are today saying that you who are being order tonight into God’s service
are in much the same situation. The vision of God has been corrupted and
we are proceeding into an exile not unlike the Babylonian captivity. You
can take heed from Ezekiel for your ministry. You may be called upon to
help the people of God go into exile and preserved a remnant of those who
see the vision of being God’s people differently.
Indeed there is a
wealth waiting for you to learn about the ministry in which you are
ordained tonight. Traditionally the preacher at an ordination asks you to
stand and gives you a charge for your ministry. I have chosen not to do
this. I think it takes away from what we do here tonight. The words and
what we do here tonight in the service of ordination much more fully
expresses the charge you get from the Church which is all of us, bishop,
priests, deacons and people and from God himself. Pay close attention to
the words for they are full of promise and meaning for your ministry in
Christ. Know also that we all are praying for you. Tonight we have
already invoked a litany of saints to lend you strength for your
ministry. Many of these Saints were also in Christ’s ministry and became
shinning examples of how to do ministry. We will also sing over you that
the Spirit of God may come upon you and make you all that he and we have
called you to do. And finally we have accented to your ordination and
with that know that our pledge goes with you of prayer and help in serving
Christ today and forever more.
In my own ministry
I found that the prayer that help the most was one many of you know that
Reinhold Nieburhr wrote. Most have heard the first lines and never went
on from there. It is called the serenity prayer. In its fullness it goes
like this.
“God grant me the
Serenity to accept the things I cannot change
the Courage to
change the things I can;
and the Wisdom to
know the difference.
With this
Serenity, I shall live one day at a time;
enjoy one moment
at a time;
accept hardships
as the pathway to Peace;
take, as Christ
did, this imperfect world as it is and not as I would have it to be;
trust that God
will make all things right if I surrender to God's will
so that I may be
reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with God forever in the
next. Amen.”
