Sermon for Renewal of Ordination Vows
Bishop James Mathes
Sermon for Renewal of Ordination Vows
St. Paul's Cathedral, San Diego
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
I Corinthian 1: 18-31
Mark 11: 15-19
Come Holy Spirit: Touch our minds and think with them, touch our lips and speak with them and touch our hearts and set them on fire with love for you. AMEN.
I.
In September of 2001, just days after 9/11, the House of Bishops met in Burlington,
VT. As that meeting concluded my bishop collapsed and was hospitalized which
meant that I was called on to be the last minute preacher at the clergy day
on the following day. I comforted myself that day with the knowledge that everyone
knew that I was a "pinch-hitter" with little time to prepare. I don't
think I will get that break today!
As I prepared to stand in for the bishop on that day, I thought that I really wasn't worthy or up to the task, except by the grace and presence of Jesus Christ. And that it really how each of us engages our preaching and our entire ministry. And so today, I begin with that sense of dependence of Jesus Christ, and with deep gratitude to God for all that each of you do in this wonderful and sacred mystery call the church, particularly how it manifests itself here in Southern California. Thank you for your faithful and dedicated ministry through which the gospel is advanced in word and deed. Our ministry is challenging tiring and demanding. But it is also grace-filled, precious, and holy. Let us pray God's blessing on our work as we gather for refreshment and renewal.
Today we reaffirm vows we made at our ordinations whether made two weeks ago or fifty years ago. We come at this particular time in the liturgical year between the telling of Jesus' passion and the hope of Easter because it is at this time that we can most keenly see the need for the proclamation of the gospel as the shadow of the cross looms, and yet we can also feel the pulse and power of the approaching light of Easter. These are vows that connect us to each other and to the wider manifestation of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic church. What we do today connects us to those who in this hallowed time are about to be baptized and all who will again reaffirm their faith in God as revealed in Jesus Christ. For we must always remember that, as we affirm our ordination vows, we affirm our primary ordination in our baptismal covenant, from which all ministry stems.
II.
The greater context for this reaffirmation is a time of contending and conflict
in our world and in our church. Having just returned from our Episcopal House
of Bishop, I can assure that the conflict is real as is the immense effort to
resolve our differences. Yet, it remains and echoes in many ways the broader
conflicts in our society and across the planet. We are a nation in conflict.
The border to our south is a place of a conflict born out of fear and poverty.
Our own ecclesial conflict has its roots in a complex web of differences of
scripture, sexuality, authority, and cultural differences.
III.
Into the midst of the time of strife, we assemble for renewal. I pray that it
is more than a renewal of vows, but a chance to rediscover more deeply the faith
that we share. And so we do well today to remember the conflict of Jesus as
his own time of trial approached. As we heard in the gospel reading, "because
of the Pharisees they did not confess it, for fear that they would be put out
of the synagogue". Fear causes us to hold back, not to confess our faith.
And as Paul experiences in Corinth make clear, fear and conflict can lead us
to claim special wisdom and stand over and against others.
In the midst of a temptation to create walls and divisions, Jesus speaks of
light and forbearance: "I have come as light into the world, so that everyone
who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. I do not judge anyone
who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world,
but to save the world."
As I hear these words from Jesus in the midst of Holy Week, I am astonished
again. I am astonished that even in the midst of betrayal and rejection Jesus
continues to acknowledge that His work is not to judge but to save. I am astonished
because I am not that good. I am not that strong. I am not that noble.
I am too ready to accept the authority to judge that Jesus suspends, suspends
until the last day, when with the Father, the word he has spoken will judge
sufficiently. My indignation and sense of being right is too strong. I am simply
not that patient. But Jesus is…which brings to mind a story given to me
by Michael Battle, the associate dean of Virginia Seminary.
IV.
Interestingly enough the story, told to me last week at the House of Bishops,
is about an eight year old boy named Danny from Chula Vista, who for a third
grade assignment was asked to explain God. Danny wrote:
One of God's main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace ones that die, so there will be enough people to take care of things on earth. He doesn't make grown-ups, just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way He doesn't have to take up His valuable time teaching tem to talk and walk. He can just leave that to mothers and fathers.
God's second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lot of this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray at times besides bedtime. God doesn't have time to listen to the radio or TV because of this. Because He hears everything, there must be a terrible lot of noise in His ears, unless he has a way to turn it off.
God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere which keeps Him pretty busy. So you shouldn't go wasting His time by going over your mom and dad's head asking for something they said you couldn't have.
Atheists are people who don't believe in God. I don't think there are any in Chula Vista. At least there aren't any who come to our Church.
Jesus is God's Son. He used to do all the hard work like walking on water and performing miracles and trying to teach the people who didn't want to learn about God. They finally got tired of Hi preaching to them and they crucified Him. But he was good and kind, like His Father and He told His Father that they didn't know what they were doing and to forgive them. And God said okay.
And God said okay. Jesus is patient and kind and good. In the shadow of the
darkness of the cross he endures in his love. He shows us that the way of the
cross is the way to true life and true humanity.
V.
These are turbulent times. It is too easy to forget what it is that we are fundamentally
about. Our task is to live ministries that remember Jesus. Surely we do that
Eucharistically when we re-member Jesus in the bread and the wine transformed
into his body and blood. As we partake of this feast, we become what we eat,
Jesus presence in the world.
And as that body of the resurrected Christ, we proclaim a new reality that
challenges the powers and presumptions of the world in which we live. We do
so with a very different standard for wisdom:
For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
We are caretakers of a different way of understanding reality. We see the world
through the cross which proclaims more eloquently than Greek wisdom that God
is love and that the love of God has reclaimed us from all that would corrupt
us, including death.
VI.
So today, as we renew our vows, let us keep clearly in front of us the cross
of Christ. It is our sign and guarantee of God's love. It calls us away from
our impatience and pettiness. It calls us to depend totally on Jesus and the
Father who sent Him. It reminds us that we are embraced by a loving God who
holds nothing back…even his forgiveness for our greatest offenses. But
he was good and kind, like His Father and He told His Father that they didn't
know what they were doing and to forgive them. And God said okay. Let us not
forget that we are in the business of compassion and forgiveness. May compassion
of Christ and the forgiveness of the Crucified be the mark of our ordained ministry
in Jesus' name.
AMEN