Kendall's Notebook 2
Sermon: Watery Reflections by Kendall Brown
Jan. 12, 2002 Mark 1: 1-7
This time of year, we are all changing our calendars and engaging in new year activities. Standing on the threshold of a new year, causes each of us to pause at some point, become a bit reflective and philosophical, and think ahead to the milestones and celebrations that the new year will bring to our personal lives.
It might be a birthday – like the big 5 – o…
…Or maybe a 40th class reunion with your old high school chums…
…You and your spouse are looking forward to a 25th anniversary cruise with pride for the years you have had together and the family
you have raised and maybe still raising.
For me, the year 2003 also brings another anniversary.
Thirty years ago this coming June, I was ordained by the Vermont Conference for ministry in the UCC in a beautiful small town set in the green mountains and sparkling lakes of northern Vermont.
Today's Gospel lesson is John's rendition of Jesus' ordination by his Baptism in the Jordan and those events which authenticated his call from God to God's ministry…
… – not as a pastor, nor as a bishop …
…– but as God's own beloved Son.
That lesson combined with an approaching anniversary - and throwing in our installation of officers today - makes 'the call" a natural focal point for my reflection this morning.
I begin this reflection by comparing two verbal pictures of two ministers.
One of those ministers is my father, who will be celebrating his 62nd ordination anniversary on the same day this coming June when I will be remembering my 30th anniversary.
Dad became an officially retired, UCC minister in 1977, when he turned 65. However, over 20 years later Dad was still holding forth as the pastor of a small coastal village church in Maine. A few years ago we had to re-retire Dad and he left the pulpit kicking, spitting and screaming. (Not a pretty sight.) (if Dad and Ma were here today in the front row I'd preach this same sermon and say the same things. – go ahead send the video to them – my mother will love it.) It had gotten to the point where the Deacons (Elders, here) had to assist Dad to the pulpit and watch over him that he didn't topple over in the middle of the service. At Dad's last weddings, family members stayed as close to him as the bride and groom to make sure that he stayed on his feet for the entire ceremony.
To Dad, none of that matters. Today at the age of 90 he is as ready for his next sermon and next wedding as I am.
When it comes to Dad's call and ordination, the saying couldn't be made truer, than how he makes it true, that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
Let us switch to another picture. A couple months ago I was at a gathering of UCC ministers. We were at different tables. As usual we were sharing our stories, our joys and our struggles. One minister began to talk about his up-coming retirement this year. It quickly became obvious that he can hardly wait until that moment when he walks out the church door and never has to stand in a pulpit again. He knew, at that table last fall, the number of months, days, hours and even minutes to his retirement. I strongly suspect this morning that he is watching his countdown, and is probably a little happier because he is a little closer to the end.
Something awful has happened to the call and to ordination in the UCC and other churches.
What was seen as a special lifetime gift to both the pastors and the people in the pews has become just another job – a job to do, get done as best as you can with as much of your skin in tack as possible, and to get out of. A job that as the end approaches offers the most joy in simply watching the countdown till it is finally over. The number of despondent ministers, who today talk about how they can’t wait till retirement, is a sad commentary on the church and what the church has become.
To Dad and to the people in the church who have been all around him all his life, his call and his ordination is a gift from God. As you might expect of any gift from God there is a shine and sparkle on it like all these candles this morning representing all our calls. The brilliance of that shine will outlive Dad's aged and aching body.
There are things that we can do to keep the shine on the call and the sparkle in ordination. One of those things is a matter of language. Language shapes our world. Not the other way around. Language is something that we humans apply to the world around us, and in the application we make the world what it becomes to us.
There is a lot of language used around the church that reduces the ordained ministry to just another job. Ministry shines a little less every time
We call the Letter of Call a contract
We talk about hiring a pastor instead of calling a minister.
Ministry shines a little less and we all become less of a called people when we think and talk about the pastor/parish relationship as an employer/employee relationship…
… and not as a covenantal relationship…
… where two covenanted partners…
… the church and the clergy share different roles in the same work..
… the work of the church…
…the work of ministry…
… which belongs to all the church …
…not just the clergy.
We reduce the importance of ministry – the laity's and the clergy –when we spiritualize Christianity.
The spiritualization takes place by thinking and acting as if Christianity is all about being saved, and more importantly, all about individual's being saved and how individuals are saved.
There is more in the Gospels about Jesus calling people and about God's calling all than there is about individual salvation.
Mark's Gospel begins with the story of Jesus baptism, his ordination at the beginning of his ministry where the heaven's themselves break open, and a voice is heard authenticating Jesus' call from God.
Mark's story moves on to the story of Jesus calling his disciples. The rest of the Gospel can be presented as the story of Jesus teaching his disciples what their call is all about – even unto the cross.
Because of Jesus and his disciples, there have been people being saved for 2000 years.
The people we can thank for the fact that we still have a church are those who not only were saved but, also heard and responded to God's call in their lives.
That is what this service celebrates and lifts up today.
Those of you, who are asked to come forward to be installed as officers, have been called. At Jesus' Baptism a voice was heard saying, "You are my beloved son." It is important for the church's leaders to know that they are beloved.
You are, as Jesus was, beloved by your God. In your roles, you also need the support and nurture of being loved by your congregation.
You have, as Jesus had, a call. Every person in this room has a call.
There is one thing about my ordination that I still remember as if it happened an hour ago. It was the laying on of hands. I was on my knees. That doesn't happen too much - it is too far down and my knees have always been prone to aching. There were a lot of people in the church. Every UCC congregation in that part of the world was represented by their pastors and lay delegates. Ordinations are big things in little churches in northern Vermont. They don't happen very often, and when they do, it is an event for pulling out all the stops.
What I remember is the laying on of hands. I was on my knees and I couldn't see out through all those legs and robes gathered all around me -like baptismal waters at an immersion. That in and of itself was weird for someone who is 6'4" and usually looking over everyone else's heads.
But that immersion in a sea of feet, knees and robes is not what I remember the most vividly. I still remember the feeling of all those hands on top of my head. They were heavy, I thought I was going to break my neck and that the conference minister was never going to stop praying and say, "Amen." But he finally did and the memory of that moment stays on in a crystal clear picture of memory. It was a once in a lifetime thing. Jesus' Baptism was a once in a lifetime thing. Jesus arose from the Jordan to a new purpose. Ordination reoriented my life and put it in a different direction and gave it a mission.
I hope that for those of you who are being installed today that there will be a parting of the clouds and the reorientation in the new purpose to which you have been called.
May the Lord be with you. Amen.