Celebration of Ministry
Sermon Pentecost 8 1 Corinthians 12.12-27, John 15.1-17 by Geoff Smith
It’s great to be here with you today. Thanks, Desiree, for your invitation and for your invitation to me to speak.
Lynn and I met Greg and Del Ezzy and Geoff and Carol Vidal in the mid ‘80’s. I was Greg’s curate at Lismore, and in time Geoff became my curate at Ballina parish. Geoff and I were also colleagues in the parish of Surfers Paradise. Through all the years from then until now Greg and Geoff have been friends, mentors and encouragers of me.
I met Charlie a long time ago, but I am not sure when-but it’s been a while. I met Desiree earlier this year and Cathy this morning. It’s a privilege to be here and be part of this celebration.
In some important ways today is about numbers. Important numbers :60, 40, 30, 20, 10. Years served in ordained and licensed lay ministry. That’s worth a celebration.
I wonder as we do that, if we could think about some other numbers alongside those numbers. I’d like to discover who here this morning has been baptised for the greatest number of years.
We might not all know when we were baptised but let’s do an experiment. Let’s start with 70 years. Who has been baptised for 70 years. How about 75 (and so on). I wonder who here might have been baptised for the shortest time! One year maybe (and so on).
The reason I am asking about years baptised is that baptism, whether we receive it when we are young or old, whether it’s with a lot of water or just a little, and no matter which Christian church we receive baptism in, baptism is incredibly important.
Through baptism we become members of the Christian church and God does some important things. First, through baptism we are adopted by God as his sons and daughters, we are made co-heirs with Christ. Second, through baptism we are given the gift of eternal life and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Third, through baptism we receive a vocation, a calling, to follow Jesus as his disciple. We are called to follow Jesus for the rest of our life.
Following Jesus includes serving his mission, his ministry in the world. As Jesus pointed by his words and actions to the reality of the new era called in the gospels the kingdom of God or the Kingdom of heaven, so we are called to do the same thing by our words and actions.
A clue to this is part of the Lord’s prayer where we pray- ‘your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’. God’s great project is to bring about that state of affairs where God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. Where there is a new creation on earth-heaven comes to earth.
That’s what Jesus came to announce and point towards by his actions and words and inaugurate through his death and resurrection.
As baptised people we are called to carry Jesus’ ministry on. So, we point to the reality of this new state of affairs by what we say-we tell people about what God is doing, and we do things to make this state of affairs real right now as much as we can.
And so, we seek in God’s strength to love others, to bring life and wholeness, peace and justice to the creation including the human part. To try to make things right on earth as they are in heaven. To help others know about Jesus’ project and invitation to join in.
The church is quite unique in many ways. The church is one of if not the most international, multiracial, multilingual, multigenerational organisations in the world. And there are no spectators in it. All the members of the church have a vocation. We all have a purpose, we all have a meaning for our life, and that is to serve Jesus’ mission as his disciples, as his followers.
In the New Testament the word that is mostly used for this service is translated ministry. All the baptised are called to serve Jesus. All the baptised are called to ministry.
This ministry is lived out as we live our everyday lives. As we interact with family and friends and neighbours, in our community, with the creation and as members of the church, we seek to be working models of the kingdom of God, bringing the life and love and peace and wholeness and healing and connection with God that Jesus brought in his ministry to the people and the creation we interact with. In other words, doing what we can to bring heaven to earth.
This ministry that we all have as baptised people is a great privilege and we share it equally. Our purpose in life is to serve the mission of Jesus in every interaction we have, using the gifts and opportunities God gives us. No one person and no gift is more or less important than others.
If the body of Christ is going to fulfill its function all the baptised are important. That’s the point St Paul is making in his letter to the competitive Corinthian Christians which was today’s first reading. All the members of the body of Christ, all who are baptised must play their part, exercise their ministry, serve Jesus as they live their lives.
Jesus puts this slightly differently in today’s gospel reading, but with the same intention, when he reminds his disciples: ‘you didn’t choose me remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil.’ We bear fruit as we serve Jesus’ mission, continue it, show forth the reality of the new era that is the kingdom of God.
It’s great that today the theme of the service is the body of Christ and the ministry of all believers. It’s a great reminder to us that we are all called to minister, that is, to serve Jesus’ ministry.
It is the case that God calls and the church sets aside a very small number of the baptised for particular service. Forty years ago, the church, in the form of this parish, asked the bishop to license Charlie Handley for service as a lay reader, and forty years later Charlie is still doing that ministry alongside his other Christian ministry as a baptised person. We thank God for Charlie’s faithfulness to that call, and we thank Charlie for that faithfulness.
Another example of the church setting aside people for particular ministry is ordination. Ordaining baptised people to be deacons or priests or bishops. A holy ordering with particular responsibility for teaching the faith, administering the sacraments and leading. Members of the body of Christ who already have a ministry of serving Christ, being called by God and asked by the church to live their ministry in particular ways as deacons, priests and bishops.
The expectations of the church for people being ordained are heavy. There are life-long commitments. Before people are ordained, they face a formation process which usually takes a number of years, and if they are deemed suitable and ready they turn up usually to the cathedral and face a public examination with questions concerning their faith, their commitment to Christ and the work they are being set aside to do, and their lifestyle.
People who are ordained are expected to abide by those public commitments and be faithful to the service they are called to do. This is a weighty responsibility which impacts not only the individual but their families too.
As part of today’s celebration of the ministry of all the baptised we thank God for Greg’s faithfulness to those commitments for 60 years. That’s a long time. We thank God for Geoff’s faithfulness for 30 years, Desiree for 20 and Cathy for 10. Ordained ministry is very public. It is a ministry of leadership and public interaction.
When ordained people live their ministry out well there is great benefit. When ordained people live it out badly there is the potential for great damage.
So, we thank God for the faithfulness of Greg and Geoff and Desiree and Cathy. Thanks for what you have done on our behalf, as part of the body of Christ, doing what the body of Christ has asked you to do so well and so faithfully.
It is the case that all of us are called to ministry, to service. We are called to serve the ministry of Christ who is the head of the body, the church. It’s his ministry we serve. He is the head; he is in charge. That means we need to be well connected to Jesus. My body will not do what my head wants it to do if the two are not well connected, and it’s the same with the body of Christ.
Jesus highlights this in the gospel reading. We have already noted Jesus reminding the disciples that he had chosen them, not the other way around. Jesus also makes clear that to bear fruit, in order to serve his mission, the disciples need to be connected to him, as the branch of a grape vine needs to be connected to the vine in order to bear grapes.
We have been baptised. We have been called to serve; to minister, we can only do that effectively as we are connected to Jesus. As we are well connected to Jesus, he works through us bringing his love and wholeness, peace and healing and life to whoever and whatever we connect with.
People who are about to be ordained make commitments to do things which will help keep them connected to Jesus. So, for instance people being ordained as deacons and priests and bishops are asked: ‘will you be diligent in prayer and the study of the holy scriptures? Will you undertake such other studies as will help you in your ministry? Will you constantly seek the help of the Holy Spirit to use and develop Gods gifts to you so that you may serve all by word and deed?’
These are public commitments by those being ordained because doing these things; praying, studying the scriptures and constantly seeking the help of the Holy Spirit all help keep us connected to Christ the head, and these actions will help the ordained to live out their commitments for the benefit of the church and its mission. Ordained people who lose a vital connection with Christ struggle and often the church suffers.
But this is not just for the ordained. This is for us all. All the baptised are given opportunities to serve Christ’s ministry every day. All of us really need to be well connected to Jesus in order to be directed by him.
If we are going to be fruitful and live out our baptismal vocation we all need to spend time in prayer often and study the scriptures often and keep learning of Jesus. We all need to be praying for the strengthening and filling of the Holy Spirit. This isn’t just for the ordained but all the members of the body of Christ.
Today we celebrate the ministry we all have and the different opportunities God gives us to live that ministry out. In a few minutes we are going to have the opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to our baptismal calling. And I wonder too whether we could recommit ourselves to doing what we can do to remain united to Jesus. Prayer, the scriptures, asking for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, so that we are well connected with him and so be able to serve his mission fruitfully. We can’t do that in our own strength. Only by being connected to Jesus, the head.
Sometimes, even though it is vital that we spend time in prayer and reading and reflecting on the Scriptures, we actually find those things hard to do. We may not be confident in praying. We may find difficulty in understanding the scriptures. Lynn and I have come across an app for our phone which we have found to be very helpful. This app is called lectio365. This is a free app, which doesn’t ask for personal information, there are no in-app purchases and no ads.
Lectio365 can be downloaded for free from the app store and it provides a devotion, a reflection including prayer, scripture and an explanation of the scripture passage for morning, midday and evening every day of the year.
Lynn and I have found lectio365 really helpful and I would encourage you to try it. If you don’t like it or its not helpful, then delete it. But I strongly suspect that if you try it each day for a week you won’t delete the app.
The church, the body of Christ, really needs all its members to be engaged in ministry. God’s project of a new heaven and a new earth is stunning. And we can be part of the fulfillment of that project. And the more so as we use our gifts and opportunities to share in that mission. So that we do our part in making Gods will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That’s our ministry. That’s our purpose. That’s our God given vocation.
Let us pray.