Ordination Sermon for Chad Moir 21 April 2002
Mark 4:1-9 / 1Timothy 4:14-16
Rev. Roger Haugen
“Listen, a sower went out to sow.” “Listen, today we send a sower out to sow”. Who is the Chad that you know? Help me out – I have my list but it may not include the Chad that you know. I first knew Chad as the intern who was to come from Seminary to be with us in North Battleford for the year. Here was one called by God to ministry and willing to test that call in a parish and discern how he would live out his call with the gifts that he was given.
I soon discovered he had a passion for languages and study. Who but a person passionate about languages would get up early to study his Hebrew before breakfast?
I got to know Chad as a gifted musician, always ready to find new ways of expressing himself. It was in North Battleford that he first sang in a classical choir. I saw him taking lessons on a violin simply because he had one and wanted to learn. I have listened to his Rock CD’s and have heard of his various bands and exploits.
I came to know of his passion for old cars and watched him restore his beloved 1959 Plymouth Sport Fury as well as work on numerous other cars with his skill as an autobody man.
I know Chad as a fine preacher who demonstrated wisdom far beyond his years as he preached the Gospel to us in his own personable way. I know Chad as a person and a friend who is so approachable and kind.
Some of you know Chad as a farmer. One aware of the soil and what is required to make a crop grow and flourish. One who has the patience and gentleness to raise white tail deer.
Chad is a person uncommonly gifted by God. Did I miss any? Probably -- and there will be more gifts to discover as he steps out into parish ministry. The words of Paul to Timothy are good words for you, Chad, “Do not neglect the gift that is in you.” God has given you gifts for ministry and it is your task to explore these gifts, the passion that comes with each of your gifts and use them for ministry wherever you find yourself.
Our other text speaks to the farmer in Chad. “A sower went out to sow.” A farmer knows the importance of knowing the soil in which he seeks to plant. The soil of the future where you are going to sow, Chad, is one that is much different than the soil of the past. It is soil with large patches of pluralism with many different sorts of people with many different cultural values that need to be understood and respected if a seed of Gospel is to sprout and grow. There will be ‘postmodern soil’ that is confusing to many of us – a soil that thrives on ambiguity and paradox -- soil that thinks differently than some of us do. You will be sowing into depleted soil, soil that has been depleted by migration of young people from rural areas and by familiarity with the Gospel that has robbed many of the passion for the Gospel.
As any farmer knows, you need to keep your methods and implements current. The plow was replaced by the discer, that gave way to the press drill and now we have the air seeder and who knows what is next? A wheat seed looks much the same but the delivery is far different. The church is no different. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is still the same, the delivery changes. New conditions need new approaches.
Paul’s words to Timothy are words I would set before you today, “Do not neglect the gift that is in you.” Remember the farmer – the gentleness and calm required to build trust among deer will make you an unthreatening presence in so many situations. We live in a world of people so easily terrified, by war, disease and terror. In a skeptic and fearful world, people need one who will walk amongst them with reassuring words and presence. You carry with you the Living Word, one who lived among us, lives among us still to bring us peace.
Remember the languages, which help you to understand how the words we use shape our reality. Use the passion for words to make the Gospel relevant and immediate to the world in which people live. Make the word a living word, live the word. Preach the word with clarity so that people are able to recognize the unmistakable movement of God in their lives.
Remember your gift of music. It will take you places that would not be otherwise open to you as a messenger of the Gospel. It will also help you make worship alive and vibrant, helping people to praise God in ways that are meaningful to them. We need new musical expression for our worship that will open the worship of God to a new postmodern, pluralistic world.
Remember the old cars. I can’t imagine you forgetting! There are people pulling old cars out of the bush to be restored who need the gospel of Jesus Christ lived out amongst them, to hear about the grace of God.
Paul ends this short passage with another instruction to Timothy, “Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching.” You are entering a period of the church that will be difficult and new. Ministry as we have known it is stretched by a multitude of expectations and challenges. It will be only as you pay close attention to yourself and use your particular gifts for your own particular ministry that God will be best able to lead you in your ministry in difficult times. Pay close attention to your teaching because in a world that pulls us in so many ways, it is essential that the essentials of the gospel not get lost. As our national bishop said recently, ‘remember to keep the main thing the main thing.”
A sower goes out to sow. We give thanks! We gather as people who have been a part of your nurture in varying degrees. Some are here who look forward to you being their pastor with great anticipation. Each person here has contributed in some way to create the person we now present to the church for ordination, and we celebrate!
I would leave you with words by James Stalker which have been important to me in my ministry:
I like to think of the minister as only one of the congregation set apart by the rest for a particular purpose. They say to him: Look, brother, we are busy with our daily toils, and confused with cares, but we eagerly long for peace and light to illumine our life, and we have heard there is a land where these are to be found, a land of repose and joy, full of thoughts that breathe and words that burn, but we cannot go there ourselves. We are too embroiled in daily cares. Come, we elect you, and set you free from toil, and you shall go there for us and week by week trade with that land and bring us it treasures and its spoils.
God bless you, Chad and give you the grace to use the gift that you are in God’s church and particularly the parish of Gravelbourg and Mossbank.
