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The Sixth Sunday After The Epiphany
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Scripture citation(s): I Corinthians 3:1-9
A Sermon by
Fr. Mead
on
I Corinthians 3:1-9
✛
Ordination Anniversaries Sermon
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I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Some months ago Father Austin and I noticed this is a year of big ordination anniversaries for us. This week Victor is 25 years a Priest; in June and December yours truly will pass 40th anniversaries as Deacon and Priest. We decided to combine them today, with Victor as celebrant and me as preacher. The Church lectionary’s appointed reading from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, on the work of different ordained leaders in the Church, is timely.
On Easter Sunday evening in the year 2000 my son Matthew knocked me over with the news that he wanted to be ordained (which he now is, and serves as a Rector up in Westchester County). He said to me, “You haven’t exactly encouraged me to do this.” I replied, “That’s right. First of all, the Church is a mess and I would spare you this. Second, even if the Church weren’t a mess and things were swimmingly good, you can’t possibly do this job unless God calls you to it. For a priest to be in harness who is not called, not a minister of Christ, is the very definition of hell – for the priest and for all around. And besides that, it would be a very wicked thing to push you into the ministry just because it’s the family business.” He said, “Well, that’s what I really want to do, and I feel called to it.” With that, I told him I was thrilled, and I am.
The Call is a most forceful prompting from God to preach, teach, minister and in all other things serve the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It makes you hop to it, and you simply have to do it. I had to. So did Victor. The Church discerns such calls, disciplines, and then authorizes them with ordination. Here we are after all these years, hopping to it.
A few years ago a classmate (Class of 1971) of mine at Yale Divinity School, a Presbyterian pastor, visited me as part of project he was doing, a paper on those of us still in parish ministry. His question: “After all these years, what has sustained you?” Without hesitating, I replied, “God and Nancy Mead.” Then I added, “I need to define a little how God has done it.” And without much hesitation four vital elements in my relationship to God – which sustain a priest – rolled out: 1) Mass and Holy Communion on Sundays and Major Holy Days; 2) the Daily Offices of Morning and Evening Prayer said either publicly or privately; 3) regular sacramental confession to a discreet and understanding priest; and 4) tithing my income to the Lord. Even though my old friend was a Presbyterian and had some variation of these four points, he knew just what I meant.
The old Book of Common Prayer says it is every Christian’s duty to worship God every Sunday in his Church. The Eucharist is the principal service, set up by Christ himself, and it our air, water, or should I best say our food and drink. It is Christ, crucified and risen for us, the Gospel made visible as a Sacrament. We cannot do without it. We need the fellowship of the Body of Christ; and, except we eat and drink the flesh and blood of the Son of man, said Jesus, we have no life in us.
The Daily Offices of Morning and Evening Prayer expose us to the whole Psalter, all the Psalms, read in appointed rotation, and also the Old and New Testaments, read pretty much in their entirety, year by year, and framed in the prayers of the Church. Saying the daily office gives the user a biblical mind, well rounded as the Church reads and sets forth Scriptures as the written testimony to Jesus Christ. It preserves the reader from private eccentricities and heresies. One “goes with the Church” and her ancient heritage. Morning Prayer (Mattins) starts the day: “Open my lips…give me grace…” Evening Prayer (Evensong) offers the day’s events and prepares for rest: “Lord have mercy…Thank you…” And one day is as a whole life.
Sacramental Confession, especially for the priest, immerses us in the honesty of what the Christian life is: always repenting, ever forgiven, always dying to sin, always turning and rising to new life. All of us in some way need to confess our sins to God, and “not to dissemble nor cloak them,” in the words of the old Prayer Book. Since the priest ministers this life in Christ in many different ways, publicly and privately, in groups and individually, the priest himself (Victor and I, and all your other priests) must be themselves genuine penitents. We must, out of the authority that only personal experience provides, we able to say to you: “Join me…God’s grace is very good.” In the words of Paul, we must be able to comfort others with the comfort by which we ourselves are comforted.
Tithing also is a matter of the immersion of the priest in ministerial honesty. For me, ever since a beloved mentor witnessed to me about it almost forty years ago, tithing has meant offering back to the Lord, through the Church, the first ten percent of my salary before taxes. That is not a New Testament law, but it does get you into the biblical principle, and the Episcopal Church has affirmed it for a long time. At first it took my breath away, but Nancy Mead took the plunge first and hauled me into the water with her, thanks be to God. And I have enjoyed leading Every Member Canvasses ever since, because, as with Sacramental Confession, I can say “Join me…God’s grace is very good.” It won’t kill you; far from it, you’ll find blessings you never otherwise would know. So those are the four points of my quadrilateral relation with God by which he has sustained me (I know I speak for Victor too) all these years: Holy Communion, Daily Office, Sacramental Confession, and Tithing.
There are many things I could say about the “Nancy Mead” part, but I think she’d let me leave it at this (Victor, I think you and Susan are similar): God, I should say Jesus Christ, is a present force and living Person in our house. We pray to keep the house under God and in such a home a relation with the Lord is a natural thing. The kids picked this up through things like grace at supper and night prayers and in conversations. God somehow underlines and punctuates the big things; he’s involved. And the children learned it and made it their own.
By the way, did you notice that what sustains a priest is not a sacerdotal secret hidden from lay people? It can and ought to sustain any committed Christian, ordained or not. Just apply it to your own situation as you can.
Finally, from the first promptings of the Call to this moment: joy and gratitude! Christ crucified is risen! He’s my Savior, our Savior! The foolishness of God is wiser, the weakness of God is stronger, than the world! Above all, join us in this joy, because your sharing is a big part of it! His service is freedom. My dear brother Victor, how wonderful to serve with you! Twenty five years, forty years, of Masses, sermons, classes, pastoral conferences, Vestry meetings, Every Member Canvasses, triumphs and pleasures, even the sorrows and pains…God has brought us this far. He has given us a wonderful vocation, job, and family of faith. Now let’s hop to it and go the distance! One plants, another waters, another harvests, but God gives the growth. And you are God’s field, God’s building.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
