How Are YOU Called? by the Rt. Rev. James Tengatenga, Ph.D.
Posted on
Sermon at the Ordination to the Diaconate of
The Rev. Kim Jeanne Litsey, Deacon
Trinity Episcopal Church
Hartford, CT
October 5, 2014
Numbers 11:16-17,24-29;
1Peter 5:1-4;
John 4:31-38
Greetings....
What if you missed your own ordination? Most likely that will never happen. But suppose it happens how would it be handled. Chances are that the bishop, if satisfied that there was an acceptable reason that you would not make it, would set up a new date for you to be done.
It should come as no surprise if God does things differently! Eldad and Medad missed their anointing/commissioning. They were numbered among the 70 but did not make it to the tent of meeting with God (or are we talking about an extra 2? This is the same problem with Biblical counting we find in the Gospels). Everyone who had been selected except them was there. The 68 (or is it still the 70?) got their infilling with the Spirit of God: A measure from that which Moses had from God. They prophesied for a while and all was calm and work had to begin. If there were more signs and wonders we do not know as we are not told. Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' Canon to the Ordinary, asks Moses to stop them. Moses answers in a very unexpected way:
“Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit on them!”
A strange thing happened to our two absentees! When the great spectacle at the tent of meeting was over, the two got possessed of God and began to prophesy in the camp where they were. How could this be? They missed the occasion. Things only happen at the designated place! What's with this clandestine activity in a place where God was not to be found and with no visible connection to Moses, a portion of whose spirit they were going to get. All irregular!! I suppose the point is that if you are marked by God for a task he will make sure you get to be empowered to do it by hook or by crook. If it means some irregular style, so be it!!
The Spirit in Moses was not Moses' own. It was God's. The ministry and office he held was not his own. It was not his choice that he was possessed of God. If we can recall his story we would know that in fact he tried to get out of it at the very beginning by positing so many reasons why he could not possibly be the one to lead God's people.
Another theme that runs through this is that God specializes in giving people more work than they can handle and then making them share the load with others. We have Moses in this scenario, in the Gospels we see the same with Jesus who makes it very clear to the disciples that once they are one with him as he is with the Father they will do what he has done and more!! As they too in turn get to do the job they quickly realize that they cannot do it all and so they have to choose among them some people full of the Spirit of God to administer food distribution and other alms:
“Select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, 4 while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.” 5 What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6 They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them”
And as their ministry grows beyond their local region the apostles in turn appoint elders of all sorts to carry on the work. It is to such that we hear Peter in the Epistle addressing his advice.
As Tradition has it, it is in this spirit that the ministry of deacons developed. They are to serve as helpers of the bishops and priests: a ministry of "assistance". Hear what the ordinal says of this ministry:
“As a deacon in the Church, you are to study the Holy Scriptures, to seek nourishment from them, and to model your life upon them. You are to make Christ and his redemptive love known, by your word and example, to those among whom you live, and work, and worship. You are to interpret to the Church the needs, concerns, and hopes of the world. You are to assist the bishop and priests in public worship and in the ministration of God’s Word and Sacraments, and you are to carry out other duties assigned to you from time to time. At all times, your life and teaching are to show Christ’s people that in serving the helpless they are serving Christ himself.”
A ministry no less in importance than that of those for whom the assistance is envisioned. Just a different charism of the same Spirit!
The same spirit that was in Moses is on the 70. The same spirit that was in Christ is on the disciples. The same spirit that was on the disciples was on the deacons.
Back to the absentee "ordinands". God has a tendency to do stuff in his own way and in his own time. Once God has decided you are to serve him and you indicate your willingness to do it he finds a way to make it happen. We on the other hand have a tendency to want it to happen where and when we want it. We quickly take over the initiative forgetting whose it is. The initiative has always been God's and so are the means by which all is accomplished. You cannot push it, shove it or pull it to make it happen. God will find you in his time and place and at his pace. When he has not kept what we believe to be the timetable we sometimes think that we are less than the others whose timetable seemed to go according to "plan".
Knowing one's place in God's design helps us focus on the ministry that God has called us for. It may seem strange to some and out of step for yet others. Hind sight helps put things into perspective. St Paul is a good example. In fact he even calls himself the least of the apostles, one still-born. Yet he was used of God in amazing ways to the extent that even the other apostles were envious and even tried to proscribe boundaries to his ministry. When others were copying his style and preaching everywhere some of his followers wanted him to stop them but he did a Moses on them when he said that as long as they preached the same message they can preach on, whether they preach out of competition or not they can preach on! This does not mean that any charlatan can get away with an imitation Gospel. Another of St Paul's stories is that of the sons of a certain Mr. Sceva who tried to imitate Paul. The demoniac gave them a good hiding that they ran out stark naked!"
Depending on how the Lord works in, with and through you, you may find yourself being very successful. This has a tendency to make you feel special. The chosen one. The one who was not expected to amount to much but has demonstrated that they are something. This may happen to you as it happens to quite a lot of us. What causes this in us is that we tend to forget that the Spirit who is enabling us to do this is not our Spirit, the gifts we have are but just gifts from that same Spirit who is the Spirit of Christ Jesus who is at work in you to do God's good pleasure just as She is in others doing the same. In fact as the Gospel we read today poignantly reminds us:
"I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor!"
So much for what we consider our innovativeness and special gifts that bring about extraordinary results! Whether you are inside the tent meeting or missed your own ordination it is God's Spirit who does his good pleasure in you. In fact this is why the Gospel constantly reminds us that it is not about us. When the 72 disciples came back from the preaching mission on which Jesus had sent them, Jesus quickly told them not to rejoice in their accomplishments but to rejoice that their names are written in heaven. It's not about accomplishments but about what the Spirit of God is able to do through us.
I suppose the foregoing is a scenario when all is going well and one is on fire for the Lord and blazing through ministry. What of those times when the going is tough and there aren't that many results to show for it? I am talking about a feeling like one has during CPE when you have to go back into that depressing ward in the hospital and face those in pain and the irascible ungrateful. Work and a pain it all seems! Done under compulsion and not from a happy and willing disposition. Done from a position that says one has got to earn one's keep! But do you really? I am referring to that time when the euphoria is gone and you are no longer "prophesying". At this point one has to hear Peter, the seasoned elder, speaking to others like him and take his word to heart when he says
“To tend the flock of God that is in your charge, ... not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you do it; not for sordid gain but eagerly.
As the field shrinks but vocations are on the rise we wonder what the Lord is up to. Are we seeing the field right? Is it the problem of seeing only through one set of lenses? Has the field really shrunk? What of the saying that the harvest is plentiful and the laborers few? I cannot claim to have the inside knowledge of what this is. What I know for a fact is that the Lord is calling people for a purpose and there is work to be done. It seems that those of us who are already in the field already know the full extent of that vineyard and dare to judge the number required to fulfil the task. Are we God, I wonder? Sometimes we know who all his workers are because we have a census that tells us who they all are and the limits of the pool from which to draw. Certainly our duty of oversight as some of us who are bishops and recruitment officers gives us some insights into this and we have a sense of it all and operate under a certain rule of thumb. Is it not time we paused awhile and asked ourselves what God is about and figure or rather discern what new thing he is setting in motion. Is it possible that he has some other people for this and other tasks, who are prophesying outside the tent of meeting, in the camp?
I would like to suggest to us today that God is calling us to his tent meeting to give us a word which word we would need to obey and set in motion a ministry, if not ministries, that we have not thought about or even imagined. Moses had not even thought about what kind of help he needed until God spoke to him through his father-in-law and then directly to him. Once he obeyed and did as God suggested he unleashed ministry to God's people he had not imagined. Only then can we appreciate the prophecy from the camp and unleash ministries relevant to this day and age. We will then have the humility to recognize that the Holy Spirit is at work among this generation to will and to do God's good pleasure.
“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. 16 I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18 I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”