Disturb Us Lord, 161st Diocese of Texas Council Address

By The Rt. Rev. C. Andrew Doyle
Lay-delegates to the 161st Annual Council of the Diocese of Texas, members of the ECW, reverend clergy, fellow-bishops of the church, and visitors, I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

We all give thanks to the people of Killeen, and the area congregations who have joined forces to welcome us and provide for us last night and today. We are very grateful for your expertise and all your efforts on our behalf!

I am pleased to thank Bishop George Packard for his sermon last night, which was well received by all and honed our attention t the work of the church, and especially the work of this church in this place. I was also delighted to have Bishops Benitez, Payne, and Wimberly join us. What a gift each of them is to me and I treasure their wisdom and willingness to be present with our church family for the great celebration we had last night.

I, of course, also welcome Bishop James Tengatenga, Bishop of the Diocese of Southern Malawi and president of the Anglican Consultative Council, who joins us while on sabbatical. Bishop Tengatenga is waiting expectantly for our vote on the resolution that would partner our diocese with the good and faithful people of the Diocese of Southern Malawi.

Our prayers are with Bishop Dena Harrison and her husband Larry as they travel with Episcopal Relief and Development to Africa. Let me say though that I am grateful as ever for Bishop Rayford High and Harrison’s companionship in this journey of the Episcopate. I am also grateful for the work of Canon Ann Normand and Jaime Case.

These first eight months have been amazing. I love my job. I love my work and ministry. I love worshiping with you each Sunday. I love listening to you. I love seeing the great works of service and ministry you are taking up as Jesus’ hands and heart in this world. I love celebrating the birth of your children and it is humbling to share the darkest moments of your life. I love being an Episcopalian. I love being an Anglican. I love being your bishop, and I am proud to say so and proud to talk of your work and ministry with those outside the confines of this diocese. I am a blessed man, a grateful man, and a humbled man.

So it is that I begin simply with a word of thanks to you, the people of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, for the wonderful beginning I have experienced as your bishop. Thank you.

I found a business card of Bishop Quin’s, on the back it reads: “Drive safely, you might hit an Episcopalian.” Today I am ever more keenly aware that the Episcopalian in question might indeed be your bishop! It has been a busy year that found all three of us on the road quite a bit. I traveled more than 15,000 miles, with my duties completed as coadjutor and now fully engulfed in the work of diocesan; I am already on track to break 20,000 miles in 2010.

With your help, we have been about the work of visioning and goal setting. It has been busy with the politics of the church. It has been busy with the everyday work of the office of bishop: pastoral care, teaching, sacraments and administration.

This year I have provided a published Bishop’s Report that puts in your hands a tremendous amount of information about what I, the other bishops, and your diocesan staff have undertaken in the past year. Next year, you can expect us to cover the goals set forth by our vision work.

You should have received this report via email this week, and each delegation should have a copy to review today. It is also available on our epicenter website.

I am asking that the written report be included in the minutes of this council, along with the official acts, mission, and ministry of your bishops.

Sir Francis Drake was an adventurer and a legal pirate, raiding Spanish ships with permission out of Portsmouth. He was a friend of Queen Elizabeth and a strong Anglican. Optimistic and courageous he withstood storms of every kind as he circumnavigated the world.
He wrote these words:

Disturb us, Lord, when

We are too pleased with ourselves,

When our dreams have come true

Because we dreamed too little,

When we arrived safely

Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Staff Development

As we look back at the great work we have accomplished in the area of Christian Formation we cannot rest on our laurels but must dream greater dreams, we must venture further from shore.

The first initiative that I want to draw our attention to is the thinking through and reworking of our ministry in the area of Christian Formation.

Our vision states that we hold as a primary work the forming and growing of our diocese. We understand that those seeking a deeper relationship with Jesus are nurtured and equipped to share the love of Christ in the world. They find lifelong opportunities for spiritual formation and servant leadership grounded in scripture and our historic catholic faith.

We must be unambiguously Episcopalian, rooted deep in our Anglican ethos. We need leadership that will focus our efforts, connect our resources and build bridges of communication.

Using the Charter of Life Long Christian Formation as a guide to flesh out our own ideas, I will begin new strategic work with the Christian Formation Committee this year. The charter, written in part by our own Janie Stevens, missioner for Christian formation, is reprinted in part in the Bishop’s Report.

Following Council I will meet with the Executive Board Sub-committee on Vision and Mission to go over and review staffing in the area of formation. With Janie’s Steven’s retirement from the post of Christian formation missioner, the Christian Formation hire will be a major, strategic move for our common mission and ministry.

We must find some one with Janie’s passions, and someone with skills to take us into the future. We need someone who will dream dreams with us, such dreams as will engage our hearts and minds for the undertaking of this essential and expanded work. Someone who will help us sail into deeper spiritual waters further from shore.

I believe this reorganization and hire will be a cornerstone in continuing a strong tradition of leadership locally and nationally regarding Christian Formation; moreover, I hope it will not only help people become Christian disciples but help us form people in the unique and rich tradition of our Episcopal Church. We are about making Christian disciples who are particularly Episcopalian and members of a global family, the Anglican Communion.

Finance Development

Drake prayed:

Disturb us, Lord, when

with the abundance of things we possess,

We have lost our thirst

For the waters of life;

The diocese is a strong diocese, a wealthy diocese, and a healthy diocese in many respects. We are given abundant gifts. But we must be wise stewards of this abundance. We must seek to be disturbed to use our resources for ever greater good in the name of Christ.

Therefore, I have asked the Finance Committee of the Executive Board to begin work this year on the issues of denominational health care and how it will affect the clergy and institutions of the diocese. We will spend close to $17,000 on a clergy family’s health care this year. We may see that rise to $25,000 in five to ten years. We must take steps to curb this cost lest it be detrimental to our missionary dollars.

I have asked the Finance Committee to review the diocesan assessment and asking calculations and their missionary function. When congregations are struggling our formula is not helpful and this makes rebounding from financial stresses very difficult. Furthermore, we only receive half of what we ask for in the missionary asking budget. We have to look realistically at both of these formulas and move carefully into the future. We have had this formula since 1992.

All of this is maintenance work in my opinion. But if we do not undertake it, and undertake it well, we find ourselves managing instead of leading to greater health, wellness, and growth. We find ourselves resting on the assumed abundance of the past without a care for the stewardship of our future.

Church Planting

Drake prayed:

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,

To venture on wilder seas

Since I graduated from high school in 1984 we have managed to successfully plant: three parishes and eight missions; of which five, which were begun in the 80’s, today have less than 40 people each Sunday.

Our growth in the diocese has predominantly come from our transition and larger congregations over this same period of time. I believe this shows a successful mission to revitalize congregations through congregational development.

However, we, as a diocese, must revision strategies for church planting. In 2010, we will begin to develop a collaborative strategy for church planting that will combine the resources of leadership at the diocesan level with local leadership in the congregation to bring about long-term results. We have several new congregations underway. However, we must develop a long-term plan that will strategically allow for a new church start every year!

I will appoint a group to chart this course for us made up of leadership from around the diocese, from the foundations, and diocesan staff.
Proposed Anglican Covenant

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,

To venture on wilder seas

Where storms will show Your mastery;

Where, losing sight of land,

We shall find the stars.

We have been playing it safe in this diocese when it comes to the proposed Covenant and the issues of diversity. For a while we only heard from our bishop. For a while we did not talk about it. For some time now we have been talking about our problems in our separate camps. We are quick to scapegoat others in order to find relief, yet at the same time we fail to recognize our own stubbornness in not setting about doing the work God has given us to do.

It is time for us to venture more boldly into wilder seas; seas wherein we do not rely upon our own selves but upon God’s mastery.

For the remainder of this year, I am calling for a year of prayer regarding the proposed Anglican Communion Covenant and its meaning for the church and for our diocese in particular. I am appointing a task force to help the diocese focus our attention on the Covenant and will ask them to develop a study curriculum and resources. I also will be asking the task force to propose a model for congregations to engage in conversation around the proposed Covenant and its principles.

I hope the process will enable members of congregations to communicate to their leadership and make known to their delegates their mind on the proposed Covenant.

I also want the task force to work with the Committee on Order of Business and plan for discussion at Diocesan Council so that we may arrive at a statement on the mind of Council concerning the Covenant. This will mean our deputation will have listened to the people of the diocese prior to taking part in the national discussions expected at our next General Convention.

Furthermore, such a mind of Council will help me in my work as a leader within the Episcopal Church and the wider Anglican Communion.

My statements and work with the wider Church are strengthened when I am able to communicate, clearly capturing the position of this diocese (a bishop and his people listening and speaking in communion with one another).

Church unity in the midst of diversity

In 2010, I will also be putting together a special task force to review the issues that may arise from General Convention in 2012 and to create a strategy with a means of leading into the following Convention as opposed to reacting to it.

Such a strategy will help us navigate what is already a turbulent time, with a steady course. This will help us to live within a relationship of mutual affection for both the structures of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. Moreover, we must discover how we in the Diocese of Texas are going to move through these next few years together for the sake of the Gospel, Christ, all of God’s people, for justice and for peace, and for the mission of the Church.

Let me be clear, we have got to learn to live together, how we discern the outward and visible signs of that life together, and the daily living out of Church, as our common work – not only the work of your bishop.

 We will be tempted by cynicism to say this work can’t be done; but the scripture reminds us of God’s desire to gather us all under his wing.

 We will be tempted by our ego to say we cannot work with the enemy; but the scripture tells us go with a friend to our brother and sister and be reconciled one to another before offering a sacrifice at the Lord’s Table.

 We will be tempted to say I have tried to speak but they will not hear, but we must be reminded of Christ’s model of listening first to the other.

 We will be tempted by our fear to say it’s just better if we don’t talk about it at all; but we know “to you all our hearts are open, all desires known, and no secrets are hid.”

 We will be tempted by our lack of trust in God to say it is impossible, yet the scripture tells us all things are possible with God.

 We will be tempted to say, I have already heard what they have to say, what else is there, and we will hear the words of Jesus to Nathaniel, “greater things than these you will see.”

Until we get these pieces worked out as a body of faithful people following Jesus Christ, we are going to have difficulty doing the greater work of mission and attracting people to our church.
A divided house cannot stand.
I would add to Drake’s prayer:

Disturb us Lord that we may see your hand at work in the world, that we may see your mastery, and help us to boldly lose sight of our own needs that we may see you face to face in our neighbor.

The Church’s Mission

Disturb us Lord, Having fallen in love with life,

We have ceased to dream of eternity

And in our efforts to build a new earth,

We have allowed our vision

Of the new Heaven to dim.

One church in mission is not simply a piece of our vision – it is not just a few words on a page. It is not an idea. It is not a dream. Such thoughts and the willingness to deny the sacramental nature of church unity rise out of our own love for the way things are and the way things have been. We are managing our selves into decline; rather than building upon the sacramental unity God’s reign.

The communion, or koinonia, of the Church is an essential doctrinal principal. It is a principle that runs throughout the scripture, creeds, early church fathers, the monastics, our prayers and liturgy. Oneness and unity are that quality of the sacramental life from which all acts of peace, justice, service, and dignity course out into the world.

Communion is a dominant theological building block that describes the very essence of what it means to be church. The church as one communion in mission is not dependent upon humanity. It is not a concept determined by how we feel about one another today.

There is an intimate theology between the sacramental unity of the body of Christ, broken for the world and celebrated every Sunday for the distinct, and I would say unique, purpose of being Christ in the world. This unique presence is lived out week after week from the Northeast to the Southwest, from Carthage to Palacios, and every where in between where a priest stands at the altar, and in the place of Christ and Bishop, makes bread and wine the sacrament of God’s very body and blood and transforms everyday people into the holy people of God.

As Saint Paul described it in his first letter to the Corinthians chapter 12 and in his letter to the Romans chapter 12, Christ and the people of his church are as one body. This image and mutual relationship between the church and Christ’s body is also found in John 15, Ephesians 5, Revelations 21, and 22. The Church in Texas exists as an extension of the human life of Jesus, concrete and with history. The Church is to be, and I believe meant by God to be, the fulfillment of God’s creative work through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Church exists as the vessel of the historic and apostolic faith. E. J. Bicknell wrote, “The church is…a school for Christian character. Fellowship in the church is a moral discipline…the modern idea of separate free ‘churches’ ministers to the desires of our fallen human nature by providing a means of escape from the need of self-control. The Church exists to carry on the work of Christ in the world, and that work is hindered by open divisions among Christians. Our Lord’s will is that Christians should be manifestly one, so that the world may believe in His divine mission (John 17:20-23).” (Thirty Nine Articles, 238)

Regardless of the parts of our church who believe this way or that way -- I believe in the Church that is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.

I believe in the greater church’s witness to the Trinity, the uniqueness of Christ, the historic faith of our councils, the creeds, the scripture, the practice of apostolic worship and apostolic teaching.

No one person or council action may dilute or overturn the church catholic’s traditional and historic faith.

This is an important point because it means that for me, your bishop, the Church does not exist to have councils where it makes pronouncements that divide the body of Christ and weaken Christ’s mission to the world. Councils themselves exist to build the church catholic and universal. Councils exist to interpret that faith of Jesus crucified and resurrected to a world seeking divine intervention and to insure through stewardship that the Church does indeed undertake Christ’s mission and Gospel proclamation in word and in deed.

The church is one. It is unified. It is so by its nature. Such catholicity is a sacramental substance regardless of where we as individuals stand in relationship to it.

Our church exists because God makes it a gift to us by his own presence in the world and not by our own labors.

A great example of this is our vocational deacon Tracie Middleton who serves as chaplain to the volunteer fire department in Vidor. Through Christ’s sacramental presence in the community through Tracie, Bishop High baptized a child and several adults at the firehouse last week. The church is Christ in the world.

“The Church is an instrument for the realization of God’s eternal design, [the glory of God and] the salvation of humanity… It is within the Church, where the Holy Spirit gives and nurtures the new life of the kingdom, that the Gospel becomes a manifest reality. The church is therefore called to be, and by the power of the Spirit actually is, a sign, steward and instrument of God’s design. (ARCIC Statement, Salvation, 1987, 29)

The Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Texas exists as a unified church not out of our own work but the very work of Jesus Christ through the sacrament and through the presence of the Holy Spirit within it.

So we must pray faithfully:

Disturb us, Lord, when

We are too pleased with ourselves,

When our dreams have come true

Because we dreamed too little,

When we arrived safely

Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when

with the abundance of things we possess

We have lost our thirst

For the waters of life;

Having fallen in love with life,

We have ceased to dream of eternity

And in our efforts to build a new earth,

We have allowed our vision

Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,

To venture on wilder seas

Where storms will show Your mastery;

Where losing sight of land,

We shall find the stars.

We ask you to push back

The horizons of our hopes;

And to push back the future

In strength, courage, hope, and love.

This we ask in the name of our Captain,

Who is Jesus Christ. Amen.

Jesús nos llama a seguirle. Todo están invitados, algunos se convierten en seguidores, y otros cuantos dejan sus redes.

Jesús nos llama a seguirle. Todo están invitados, algunos se convierten en seguidores, y otros cuantos dejan sus redes.

 

Nací en la Iglesia Episcopal. Mi papá fue un sacerdote Episcopal. Mis padres crecieron en la Iglesia Episcopal. Asistieron en su escuela dominical. Estaban involucrados en ministerio con otros jóvenes. Fueron a la universidad donde estaban involucrados con otros que fueron episcopales. Estaban casados en la Iglesia Episcopal. Mis padres se enamoraron dentro de la Iglesia Episcopal y ellos aman la tradición de la iglesia también.

 

Mi madre me dio a luz y me dieron el regalo de bautismo y luego me nutrieron en la fe cristiana y me condujeron a confirmar mi fe. Fui un cristiano. Fui un episcopal.

 

Agradezco por siempre a mis padres por el regalo de amor, por el regalo de fe, y por el regalo de la iglesia Episcopal en mi vida.

 

Al fin fue Jesús haciendo trabajo en mí que abrió las puertas para el ministerio. Fue Cristo en mí que me condujo al ministerio. Y, fue mi voluntad dejar caer mis redes que llevaba delante de mí y al final rendirme para que Cristo agarre mi vida, mi corazón, y mi ministerio.

 

Hoy en el Evangelio de Lucas recibimos una vista de lo que nuestra respuesta podría ser cuando el reinado de Dios se acerca a de nosotros.

 

Muchos están invitados, algunos se convierten en seguidores, y unos cuantos dejarán sus redes.

 

Empezamos por ver a Jesús rodeado de personas. Éstas son personas ocupadas con sus vidas. Son personas con trabajos. Son: Los comerciantes, los cocineros, los limosneros, y toda clase de personas que a menudo sigue a las fuerzas armadas. Las personas le presionan a Jesús echarse adelante. Ellos escuchan lo que él dice. Oyen la invitación. Son movidos por la invitación dada a ellos para seguir la Palabra de Dios. La redención, la gracia, y la misión de Jesucristo son animadoras. Por eso que le presionan adelante. Todo está invitado.

 

Jesús se sienta entre algunos pescadores que han terminado el trabajo de su noche. Él se sienta y escucha y enseña. Jesús escucha y enseña. Finalmente, el pueblo continúa presionándole a él. Podemos suponer que su estilo de escuchar y enseñar hizo la invitación para acudir a la vida con él en el reino de Dios, y aún más atrayente.

 

Entonces, Jesús dice, vuélvanse a las aguas más profundas. Metan este bote a la fuerza y pon tus redes en ella.

 

¿Cuántas veces nos pide Jesús a nosotros que nos arriesguemos en lo profundo, y cambiemos de dirección y que no estemos contentos para permanecer en agua pacífica?

 

El modelo para el discipulado en Lucas no está sin la lucha para un seguidor, sin preguntar por qué. Simon ciertamente hace esto diciéndole a Jesús, respetuosamente, “no hay pez para pescar. Hemos trabajado toda la noche.”

 

¿Cuántas veces oímos esto? Cuántas veces oímos la invitación de Jesús y le hacemos caso - damos un paso adelante. Oiremos su invitación para ir más profundo, y pondremos un pretexto. Los seres humanos, usted y yo somos hábiles en dar disculpas.

 

Estos hombres fueron verdaderas personas de fe. Cada uno de ellos mira al otro fijadamente en los ojos y dirá que no podemos; ni modo, lo probamos.

 

Oh que queremos creer que nosotros somos diferente. Usted y yo, ambos, conocemos que somos mejores que Simon, pero tanto que admiramos también a Simon, al menos nuestros corazones heridos serán. Queremos creer que esa la llamada de Jesús entraría al fondo sin dificultad. Queremos creer que nosotros no volveríamos más resistentes, algo que nosotros en realidad queremos hacer. Nosotros muchísimo, adentro nuestra reconditez queremos que la fe sea más fácil, pero yendo más al fondo, cavando más profundo, viviendo más profundo, es realmente muy difícil.

 

“Boga mar adentro” señala Jesús. “Y, arroje esa red.” Por supuesto que recogen una red tan llena hasta que la red está por reventar. ¡La red en el Evangelio de Lucas se arriesga hasta quebrarse! El amo estaba en lo correcto, el maestro fue sabio.

 

Tan grande es la recogida que Simon llama a los otros para ayudarles. “Vengan, ayuda,” él grita. No sólo un bote es lleno sino dos botes están llenos. Éste es un hecho que pocos olvidarán.

 

Esto es lo que nos ocurre como individuos.

 

Descubrimos la abundancia de la gracia de Dios cuando vamos a fondo. Descubrimos el regalo abrumador de Dios cuando nos volvemos más confiados. Nuestro sentido de escasez se convierte en una comprensión de generosidad.

 

Haciendo frente a la gracia abundante, Simon cae de rodillas antes del Mesías. En este momento milagroso vemos la imagen de la gran reunión, la nube de testigos como Peter reconoce quizá el mensaje de la Palabra de Dios que ha venido a todas las naciones. Quizá en el mismo instante Simon reconoce el significado de lo que Isaías y Simeón nos profetizaron a nosotros – todas las naciones serán recogidas debajo de las alas del reinado de Dios a través del ministerio de Jesús.

 

La respuesta de Jesús es darle al ministerio a Simon y Santiago y Juan. Cuando la revelación de Cristo es discernida, y la respuesta de alabanza humilde y arrepentimiento es emprendida, Dios nos da ministerio. Aquí vemos el patrón muy antiguo que corre a todo lo largo de las Sagradas Escrituras, y se capta en este momento. El punto de vista de Jesús dice que no teman que ustedes irán conmigo y seremos una red para personas.

 

Aquí obtenemos lo que será el sello de los lingotes de oro de Evangelio de Lucas: Dejaron caer todo y entendieron. Pues para Lucas la imagen del discipulado del Mesías es claro: El reconocimiento y la realización del señorío de Cristo, una respuesta de humildad y arrepentimiento – un deseo de verdaderamente cambiar su vida y volverse la espalda a la vida antigua, sólo para Jesús. Es el don del ministerio por el Espíritu Santo y la inmediatez de entender.

 

Todo son invitados, algunos se convierten en seguidores, y los otros cuantos dejan sus redes.

 

Cuando nosotros, los episcopales, elegimos seguir a Jesús le hacemos a Dios una promesa que seguiremos Jesús en una forma particular. Prometemos:

• Lear la Biblia regularmente
• Rezar diariamente
• Participar de la Cena de Señor
• Trabajar para abstenerse de pecado, y arrepentirse cuando se encuentra en pecado
• Proclamar por palabra y el amor el ejemplo de Jesús para el mundo
• Intentar servirle a Cristo en todas las personas
• Amar a otros como a si mismo
• Luchar por justicia en sus comunidades
• Buscar la paz en sus vecindades
• Respetar a los demás, hombres y mujeres
• Tratar otros con dignidad

 

Éste es trabajo arduo.

 

La red tiene que aferrarse para sus redes. Es trabajo arduo mantenerse enfocado en el ministerio de Jesús. El mundo querrá que usted enfoque la atención en otras cosas. El mundo le jalará.

 

El trabajo le jalará. Sus amigos le jalarán. Los poderes y las autoridades le jalarán.

 

Usted puede permanecer en agua de poca profundidad toda su vida entera, puesto que no le invita como Jesús los invitó. Pero uno confirmado está en las aguas profundas, el agua de discipulado donde la vida en Cristo es vivida.

 

Usted debe descartar la red de adicciones, comodidades, y una vida fácil y elegir arriba de la cruz y siguen a Jesús.

 

Deje caer las cosas que le entrampan y enreden. Deje caer sus redes.

 

Las voces de este mundo le dirán ya haya estado allí. “Usted ya ha probado eso. Usted ya se ha vuelto lo suficientemente profundo. No arriesgue nada. No juegue juegos de azar en Jesús. Él es simplemente otro profeta. Ésta es simplemente otra iglesia.” Éstas son las mentiras que le dirá a usted mismo para que usted no tenga que dejar caer sus redes y seguir Jesús.

 

¿Seremos usted y yo tan atraído para oír las palabras radicales de Jesús para seguirle en las aguas profundas?

 

¿O, nos quedaremos dentro de la seguridad de la costa?

 

Estaremos listos, cuándo nos es preguntado, alcanzarán lo profundo y oscuro para llegar a la gente, haremos eso?

 

Estaremos dispuestos a ir a esas personas a quienes Jesús nos envía?

 

Estaremos dispuestos para obedecer el señoría de Cristo?

 

¿Somos capaces verdaderamente arrepentirnos y nombrar las cosas que nos poseen?

 

Estaremos dispuestos apartarnos de ellos y seguir a Jesús?

 

Vacilar, demorarse, es perder la oportunidad de ministerio.

 

Debemos suplicar, Señor que me llamas, da me la fuerza para entrar en las aguas profundas contigo. Da me la fuerza para ir a fondo y ser tu misionero de las buenas noticias. Da me la fuerza Señor para dejar caer las cuerdas que me atan por el amor que me llama por señas a seguir.

 

New Post for this weeks Gospel Lesson: Are you ready to go deep?

Sermon on the ministry of Priesthood: The Rev. Dean Lawrence's Ordination

Many of you probably do not know that Dean sang and led music at JoAnne’s and my marriage. You also probably do not know that he and I are a song writing duo: Dean and Doyle or D2.

I remember Dean playing the guitar under the pine trees, I was writing down lyrics. It became a favorite that year. To this day we are apt to sing it in our car, as my family and I do, recalling the great Camp Allen oldies but goodies: Kumbaya, One Tin Soldier, and Pass it On, or the more serious songs like Hagalena Magalena, Father Abraham, A Boom Chic-a-Boom. The song goes like this:
Dean Dean Jelly Bean, Dean Dean Jelly Bean, Watermelon on my head, Watermelon on my head. Aooga! Aooga!

But we have not come here tonight to talk about our mutual music accomplishments; though Dean’s credentials in this particular area are lengthy.

Rather, we are here because today Dean is choosing to order his life in a new and profound way.

There are only four times when a bishop lays hands on a Christian, each time is to ask the Holy Spirit to give the gift of ministry: confirmation, ordination to the diaconate, ordination to the priesthood, and ordination to the episcopate.

Tonight we are here to make a priest in Christ’s one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.

John Chrysostom wrote in his Six Books on the Priesthood, “The priest must be dignified, but not haughty; awe-inspiring, but kind; affable in his authority; impartial, but courteous; humble, but not servile, strong but gentle.”

Of course St. Chrysostom did not know of the demands on the modern clerics’ time. You are going to be overwhelmed with administrative duties, vying for attention and pressing you to make pastoring, celebrating, and preparing last on your to do list.

The life of clergy today has become disordered in what many might describe as a dizzying array of duties far from resembling priesthood and more akin to small business management.

Running a growing business, Dean, may be something you do under the category of other ministrations assigned, but it is neither the primary work of priesthood, nor should it be the ordering principle of your ministry.

You are about to commit yourself, through the calling of the Holy Spirit, to a trust and responsibility given to you when I lay my hands upon your head. This trust is given through me, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, directly from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. “Come Holy Ghost our souls inspire, enlighten with perpetual fire.”

You are ordering your life tonight, recognizing that the church is the dwelling place of the same Holy Spirit. It is not the buildings or the budget or the vestry or the dwelling place called your office. The church is that in which we believe and proclaim God’s Holy Spirit dwells and you will be forever yoked to its bridal veil as it awaits the coming of Christ.

The church you are choosing to serve and upon whose orders you will form your life is the very Body of Christ and the family of God. It is created through the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus and his first gifts of the spirit making it the living body of Christ in the world God loves.

Christ envisions a family of God where the unity of the Holy Spirit binds together the healthy with those in need of healing, the wealthy with those who hunger, and the powerful with those without voice.

Just as Christ’s primary work was the work of glorifying God, so too Christ’s very body on earth, the church, is given the life of the spirit that it may glorify God. Each Christian within it is given new life, through the Holy Spirit, at Baptism and then Confirmation, to glorify God by making Christ known chiefly through the renewing of God’s creation, serving as missionaries to restore the fallen, heal the broken, and feed the starving. We are to proclaim freedom from the things which bind us up and rest to the weary.

This church, the missionary Body of Christ the family of God, the bride of Christ, needs you to be a pastor, a priest, and teacher.

Today you are ordered as a pastor. You are to love and serve God’s people. Young and old, strong and weak, rich and poor, you are to be their pastor because they are all God’s sheep, they are all lambs of his flock, and they are all sinners of his redeeming.

You are God’s pastor, this is the promise you are making and the goal of your life and ministry. Jesus is the great shepherd of the flock, and these are his sheep. We are here and they are ours only for a little while. But, Dean, they are all ours. We are to love them all, pastor them all, call them all to repentance, and lead them all out into green pastures. We are to rescue them from rocky cliffs, and help them to look beyond their own lives to the lives of their neighbors.

The flock of Christ needs you to be a pastor with the all seeing eyes of Jesus and the loving embrace of its good Shepherd.

Today you are ordered as a priest.

As a priest you are to share in the administration of Holy Baptism. And, you are to celebrate the mysteries of Christ’s body and blood. You are to share. You are to share because there is only one great High Priest and that is Jesus Christ. It is Jesus Christ who is the chief celebrant at Baptism and Eucharist. I am Christ’s representative in this diocese and you as a priest stand in my place and in the place of Christ at his font and at his table. The water, the bread, and the wine are symbols of yours and my ministry in this place. These are symbols that we together share at table with Jesus Christ as he breaks open the doors of death and breaks bread and gives us wine.

You have been chosen by the church to stand in this holy place and offer our prayers and to make Holy Sacraments. The church does this because we believe your manner of life recommends you to the service of priesthood in this world. But you are also here because God has chosen and called you to eternal service.

You are to be a priest after the eternal order of Melchizedek as the first priest of the Most High God, mentioned in Genesis as the keeper of the bread and the wine. And, Dean, you are ordered, dressed, and made a priest forever -- serving Christ both night and day in this world and the next.

The sacraments of the church are the means of grace by which the people and family of God are fed food for their life’s journey and their life’s ministry. You must endeavor to prepare your self in heart and mind to pray the prayers faithfully, to be attentive and soulfully present in the leading of worship, to plan worship that is life giving and world changing, to offer the sacrifices of God which is holy work, and to make disciples baptizing them with the Holy Spirit of God, marking the flock as Christ’s own forever.

Temper your intentional liturgical leadership with humor and grace that God may be glorified in worship that you lead both through its perfection and its mistakes.

The worshipping and sacramental church needs you to be a priest so that the reconciling love of Christ may be known and received

Today you are ordered as a teacher.

As teacher you must first pedagogically model good Christian virtue. Love God and love neighbor. You will teach your people more by your actions than you will ever teach them by your words. So model your life as pastor and priest out of your understanding of Christ’s mission as given to us in the Holy Scripture – fashion your life with gospel principles and precepts. Live a life that is pleasing to God, because you glorify God by proclaiming the Gospel in deed and in word.

As a teacher you must model the reading and study of the Holy Scriptures. You cannot teach the bible if you don’t read it. You cannot teach the bible if you don’t pray it.

The scripture is the Word of God, and it is a witness to the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. It is inspired by the Holy Spirit and without error in matters pertaining to salvation. It is a collection of books which show the diversity of life lived under the Lordship of God and in particular the paschal mystery of Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension.

You must read, mark and inwardly digest these books. For as the Scripture transcends, as the Word of God, all cultures, it must be interpreted and expressed in cultural concepts in order to reach the ears and hearts of all human beings who are themselves culturally bound. The sacrament of scripture is present in this modern age, but it takes the holy teacher of God to bring its faithful precepts to life for those within and without the church.

Only, when you have done these things continue searching for the knowledge of such things that will make you a stronger and more able minister of Christ. After you understand who the person of Jesus is and who he embraces, then read a book on newcomer ministry. After you understand Jesus’ mission to the poor, then read a book on how to lead a good mission trip. After you understand the grace and bounty given to us by God in creation, then learn how to run a good stewardship campaign.

The world is hungry for good things and you are to nourish it and Christ’s people from the riches of His grace.

Today you are ordered as pastor, teacher, and priest. You are to be obedient to Christ and faithful in your work as you have promised to him before me, his bishop, and the people of his church.

Dean please stand for your charge.

To be able to fulfill what you promise you have got to pray. In a little while we will pray and call down the Holy Spirit. There will be a period of silence as the whole church of God calls the Holy Spirit to make you a priest in his church. It will take the prayers of all of us to make you a priest. It will take your prayers to become one.

1. Persevere in prayer, Dean, both in public and in private. Out of the richness of ministry and God’s grace begin daily with repentance, asking God to reform and form you for his work. Then pray the scriptures, the psalms and canticles of praise to God, then pray the creed that your unbelief may be transformed, and then pray for your people by name. Pray each day for the people entrusted to your care by name. Every week in my own daily prayer I will pray for you. You in turn must pray for those with whom you work and those to whom you are called to serve.

As we approach God on our behalf and on the behalf of others we carry the thought of them into the very being of eternal love, and as we go to him who is eternal love, so we learn to love whatever we take with us there. So take yourself, your family, and those you serve into the arms and saving embrace of the one who is love, Jesus Christ our Lord.

2. Always have imprinted on your heart and in your mind the great treasure that is committed to your care and your charge by Jesus Christ.

You are given the very sheep of Christ which he bought with his death and for whom he shed his blood. The church and congregation in which you are called to serve is the very Spouse of Christ and his body.

And if it shall happen that the same church or any sheep of Christ’s fold are harmed or hindered in their walk with Jesus by reason of your negligence, you and I know the greatness of the fault, and the cost of such actions.

So look upon the sheep of his fold, and the lambs of his flock, look upon his spouse and never cease your labor, your care, and your diligence, until you have done all that is within you, all that is your bounden duty and service, to bring all that are committed to you to the faith and knowledge of God, and to the perfection and the maturity which is the life in Christ.
3. Do all these things for the pleasure of serving Christ and the glory of God. Do them for the healing and betterment of your own soul, indeed for your own salvation. Do these things that when you come to the last day when you meet your Lord wearing you priestly robes you may hear words of Jesus, “well done good and faithful servant, well done.”
Today you are ordered pastor, priest, and teacher in Christ’s one holy, catholic, and apostolic church. And, I count this an honor and privilege to know you as friend, to ordain you a priest, to be your bishop.

Jesus is teaching in the temple. Are we listening?

Some thoughts about our Gospel for the 3rd Sunday After the Epiphany, Ordinary Time



Luke 4:14-21


14Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 15He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. 16When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 18“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

The picture is a Korazim or teaching seat from an ancient synagogue.

Prayer


On this day which is holy to you, O Lord our God, your people assemble to hear your words and delight in the feast you prepare. Let the Spirit that anointed Jesus send us forth to proclaim your freedom and favor. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year C, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.


Some thoughts on the Gospel of Luke 4:14-21

In our liturgical reading we have moved from the Epiphany through the Baptism of our Lord, to his first miracle at the Wedding in Cana of Galilee. We arrive this week to settle into a reading of Luke’s Gospel as Luke intended it, sequentially. We land in this first reading (following the propers for Ordinary Time) on Jesus in the synagogue in Nazareth. It is never easy to come home, and it certainly brings its own challenges when you have been filled with the Holy Spirit, as in Jesus’ case.

We certainly have the parallels for this section in Matthew 13:53-54 and Mark 6:1-2 if you wish to read through them. And, as in Acts 13:15 and the parallel passages we are given a view of the worship that dominated synagogue gatherings of Jesus’ time. (Haslam)

We are in transition mode in the Gospel once again, and here the words from verse 14: “filled with the power of the Spirit” remind us that in Luke’s Gospel we haven’t been at the wedding but rather at his baptism. So we are in the midst of Jesus’ inaugural preaching mission which begins, according to Luke, at home.

For Luke teaching and preaching flows out of the Holy spirit, as do all the activities of ministry. This is clear throughout the Lukan Gospel and certainly in the first chapter of Acts: 5:3, 5:17, 6:6, 13:10, 22, 19:47, 20:1, 21, 21:37, 23:5, Acts 1.1. The scholar Luke Timothy Johnson believes the Holy Spirit sent Jesus out on a preaching tour of the many towns and villages and that he is just now coming to Nazareth. Jesus has returned to “where he has been raised.” Interestingly, Luke uses the term “nourished” here. Jesus is returning to where he was nourished, and the word frequently means where he was nourished in his religious studies (see Luke, Luke Timothy Johnson, p78).

Some scholars believe that the words “as was his custom” were used to describe Jesus’ custom of teaching in synagogues. I believe this better belongs to the idea that as a pious Jew, Jesus knew that the custom of attending synagogue. He was nourished in a Jewish home and educated in their religious customs and it was his nature to follow what his family had given him and return to the synagogue to worship on the Sabbath. (The Sabbath is a theme in Luke’s Gospel and can be picked up in these passages: see also 4:31-37 (teaching and casting out a demon ); 6:1-5 (his disciples pluck some heads of grain), 6:6-11 (restores a man’s withered hand); 13:10-17 (heals a crippled woman); 14:1-6 (heals a man who had dropsy).

Third Isaiah, or later Isaiah, is so very essential in the early Christian understanding of who Jesus was and understanding his ministry. This is true for Luke that begins with several citations and now continues in this passage with a reading that helps the reader know who Jesus is. Just think about the prophetic words being read and how here in the midst of the people of Nazareth is Jesus the person who will fulfill in his ministry the very words of Isaiah. Jesus will cure, bind up the broken-hearted, and announce the day of the reign of God, comfort all who mourn, provide for those who mourn free the captives, and to proclaim a Jubilee year. You and I can think of moments throughout the Gospel narrative when Jesus does these things. Moreover, you and I can also tell stories of when Jesus Christ did these things in our own lives, along our journeys.

Handing the scroll back to the minister or Hazzan – a person who is a synagogue leader, Jesus sits down.

We of course continue with the second half of the story next Sunday. What is very important here is that Luke has moved this event to the very first part of Jesus ministry – considering where both Mark and Matthew place it in the Gospel. Luke is illustrating, and highlighting, who this is, what his ministry is and what kind of messiah is he going to be. Luke’s Jesus is here for the disenfranchised and for the poor. Luke wants this message to get out right at the beginning as if to inaugurate Jesus ministry with clarity about his coming from God on God’s behalf to restore creation, making the wounded whole, and filling the hungry with good things.

Like so many stories in the Old Testament where God acts on behalf of his people because they are not being cared for, Luke gives us a vision of the incarnation where God is seeking to restore creation. The restoration of creation for Luke begins with the understanding of God’s special interest in the poor, powerless, and voiceless. Jesus’ work is a freedom and release from evil through exorcisms, healings, education, and economic transformation. Luke Timothy Johnson writes, “the radical character of this mission is specified above all by its being offered to and accepted by those who were the outcasts of the people.” (Luke, 81)

Some questions I am pondering: Are we as a church involved in this work? What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus and not be directly involved in the work that Jesus was involved in? Who are God’s people today that we are not being attentive to?