6th Sunday after Pentecost [Pr. 9] July 4, 2010 “Series C”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, you sent your Son among us to reveal your grace, to proclaim your forgiveness, and to assure us that through our baptism and faith in Christ’s death and resurrection, we, too, might have eternal life in your heavenly kingdom. But through our baptism, Jesus also calls us to serve as messengers and ambassadors of your kingdom. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, strengthen us for service and empower us for witness, that we might continue the ministry of revealing your redeeming grace to others. This we ask in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
During one of the classes that I taught at confirmation camp, I made reference to the fact that Jim Judy, who had been teaching with our camp for several years, was now Pastor Judy. This past December, Jim had completed his studies, received a call to continue serving as pastor the congregation he had been serving as an appointed lay leader, and was ordained. One of the students then asked, “What does ordained mean?”
I then responded to the class that as a result of our baptism, everyone is a member of Christ’s Church. As we progress through our confirmation instruction, we are learning what it means to be a member of the Church, and to begin to assume adult responsibility for our faith. Our baptism does not just assure us that God forgives our sins, and promises us life eternal in his heavenly kingdom. Through our baptism, we are also called to become ministers for Christ, to serve our Lord through various ways that enable his ministry to carry on from generation to generation.
That is why, in our enrichment year at camp, after our students have been confirmed, they spend several hours doing a service project to help further the ministry of the camp. They are encouraged and given the opportunity to exercise their ministry as an adult member of the church. In this regard, every member of a congregation of Christ’s church is a minister. Some congregations even state that fact in their bulletins when they list their staff, where they include the word “Ministers,” after which they state, “The members of St. John’s,” for example.
But then I added that some persons are called by the church to do a very specific ministry. After many years in college and seminary studying the Bible and Theology, and receive a call for a congregation to be their pastor, they are ordained. The bishop and others lay their hands on that person and confirm that their ministry is preach the Gospel, teach God’s Word, and administer the sacraments of baptism and communion. In other words, when a person is ordained, they are given the responsibility of helping the other members of the congregation do their ministry. My answer seemed to suffice.
According to our Gospel lesson for this morning, the number of persons who came to follow Jesus as his disciples seems to have grown to far more than the twelve that he had invited to follow him at the beginning of his ministry. In fact, he commissions 70 or 72 of his disciples to go out and prepare those in the towns and villages that he was about to enter, that the kingdom of God was coming near to them. According to the commentaries that I read, this number may have well included men and women disciples of Jesus, but not the original twelve.
As Richard P. Carlson points out in his commentary, “The first verse in this Gospel lesson raises some eyebrows, in that Jesus is now sending seventy or seventy-two others for mission. Jesus has gone from twelve to at least eighty-four followers. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus has a large group of disciples accompanying him. The original twelve are a subset, selected by Jesus to serve as apostles. By the time of Jesus’ ascension, this number will reach 120 or more.” End quote.
The point is, that Jesus did not just pull these 70 some persons off the street and commission them for ministry. They had been following him as his students, learning from his teaching and preaching, witnessing his healings of those in need, and coming to affirm that in Jesus, the very kingdom of God was in their midst.
The point of this lesson is the fact that as we grow in faith, to come to trust in the teachings and ministry of Jesus, Jesus commissions us to go out and carry on his ministry. As a result of our baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection, each of us are adopted by God as a redeemed child of God, and an heir to eternal life in his heavenly kingdom. But this is not something personal to grasp, as if it were an insurance policy for future protection. We are also called to live our lives acknowledging to others that this gift of God’s grace, which we have received, can make a difference in their lives as well.
As I think about this lesson, and the fact that the original twelve were not sent out with the others, I can not help but think that the apostles, or us who have been called into the ordained ministry, might not have the easier job description. Our job is confined to the ministry of Word and Sacrament, of providing our congregations with basic facts of what Jesus had taught in light of today’s environment, and celebrating the means of grace that comes to us in the sacraments. In other words, we are simply to equip you, the members of the congregation, with the basics needed to carry out the ministry of our Lord.
And oh how grateful I am, as a pastor of Christ’s Church, when I see real ministry come to fruition. At our confirmation camp, as I sit in on the staff meeting every morning, along with our counselors and other support staff, as they discuss concerns about campers and programs, and how we might enrich each student’s experience, I am humbled. I am humbled by the seriousness by which they approach their ministry to help our children grow in grace. Even though there may be times when things do not go well, I see this team of commissioned lay folk, most of whom have not yet graduated from college, working to help our children to experience life as a redeemed child of God, through Jesus the Christ.
And what a blast it was this past week, at Baobab Blast, our Vacation Bible School. It was so well organized, and even though we had some unexpected interruptions, where some of the teachers could not be there, others, including some of our young adults, picked up the mantle, and things went well. I am so impressed with the ministry that took place in these walls of our building over the past week, that I am humbled, and so pleased just to say thank you to our staff.
And in case you don’t know it, I am the very least important person in this ministry. All I have to do is be there at 9:00 in the morning, when Joanne tells me it is time to start. I put my crazy hat on, do a goofy song with the kids to get the energized, then help then focus on prayer, and turn them loose to those who actually do our Lord’s ministry. And what a ministry they provide for these children, many of whom are not even members of our congregation, or any congregation.
But let me assure you, that the ministry to which our Lord commissioned those 70 or so first ministers, is being done here at St. John’s. Several years ago, I had invited a good friend of mine, who lives in this area, and who has a camp near mine, to enroll his granddaughter in our Vacation Bible School. She has been coming for the past four years, even though she is not baptized or a member of any church.
On her way to opening day of Baobab Blast, her grandfather’s vintage mustang broke down, and she became so upset that she would not be able to make it to Bible School, that she became sick. Yet she insisted, that when her Mom came to pick her up at the breakdown, that she take the pictures that she had drawn from last years Vacation Bible School, and give them to me. She was so proud of those pictures, that she insisted that her Mom enclose them in plastic envelopes.
As I looked at those pictures, I was so humbled, and at the same time, so proud of our lay ministry here at St. John’s, that I nearly cried. Here was a young child, who wrote on her opening page, “I Love Church.” And then she drew pictures of our facilities, in which she was involved in the learning experience that she encountered. Of course, missing in any of her pictures, was a drawing of me, with my “Crazy Hat” on, leading the opening.
But it is a testimony to the fact that the lay ministers of our congregation do the work that our Lord has commissioned them to do. As a result of our baptism, we are not only redeemed by God’s grace, we are also commissioned by Christ to carry out his ministry. May God’s Spirit so inspire and equip us to meet the challenges that lay before us, and inspire us all to witness to his saving grace.
Amen.
