Many Members

December 9 2000 - Saint James' Goshen
Celebration of a New Ministry - M Carl Lunden, a/bsg
Jeremiah 1:4-9 Romans 12:1-18 John 13:1-15

For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to each of us.

The service for which we are gathered this afternoon is a great event in the life of this parish. The formal recognition and welcome of Father Carl as your priest is an important life-moment, an important chapter, in the ongoing story of this parish, and of each of you, its members. I'm happy to be asked to preach at this service, as Carl and I were classmates and breakfast-at-the-Moonstruck-Diner-mates at the General Theological Seminary. We were ordained together to the transitional diaconate and six months later to the priesthood. Carl is an associate of the Community of which I am a life professed member, the Brotherhood of Saint Gregory. And perhaps most importantly, we are friends who share our joys and problems, the challenges of pastoral ministry at two different Saint James Churches, and the higher mysteries of just what the authors of the prayer book rubrics might have been thinking of. So it is a special treat to share one of the joys today, as Bishop Sisk and this parish come together for the Celebration of a New Ministry.

That's what they call this service we are gathered for: the Celebration of a New Ministry. But what I would like to suggest to you this afternoon is that a better title would be the Celebration of a Whole Lot of New Ministries. All of us have gifts that differ according to the grace given to each of us. And even though we are one body sharing one bread, any new addition to the mix is going to change the whole recipe, sometimes in ways we cannot not foresee. Each new member of a parish brings some unique gift; each new arrival brings new possibilities and opportunities, and all of these gifts and possibilities change the parish as a whole, leavening or flavoring the loaf, until it is transformed from simple whole wheat into, who knows, maybe foccaccio!

To carry the bakery analogy in another direction, people are not cookie-cutter copies of each other. Of if we are cookies we are more like the wonderful and various jumble in the circus wagon-load of Animal Crackers than those stolid conformists, the stuffy and identical Fig Newtons packed shoulder to shoulder in their two neat,  solid and boring rows.

Saint Gregory wrote a brief work in which he described each of the members of his monastery with the characteristics of different animals, so I've got some precedent for applying Animal Crackers to life in a parish! When a new member is added to the body of the church, the body of a parish, whether that person is a giraffe of aspiration, a tiger of zeal, or a hippopotamus of patience, it will change the atmosphere of the whole menagerie. For life is largely if not entirely about relationships, and relationships change as the cast of characters changes, and new relationships offer new opportunities for ministry, new challenges, new possibilities for transformation -- and that leads to even more change.

Now I realize many people think that the unwritten last line of the Episcopalian Creed is, "We believe that change is bad." But from what I know of this wonderful congregation, and what I know of Carl, I don't perceive much of the Fig Newton in your present or your future. I don't think rigid conformity is an article of your faith. If I did, I think I should have taken the text of my sermon this afternoon from the Jeremiah reading, and counseled Carl, "Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord"!

But I rather believe that this congregation and its new pastor are not afraid of change. I think these particular zebras and giraffes and lions and tigers and bears are more than ready to burst out of their circus wagon and get the show on the road. I rather believe that you are open to the Spirit of God the Spirit that moves where it wills, the Spirit that hovered over the waters at the beginning and brought them into order from chaos, forming them not through conformation, but transformation. I rather think that this body gathered here this afternoon, celebrating its augmentation, richly rising with the yeasty spirit that leavens it through and through, knows that in doing so it will change as it grows in grace as well as numbers, and knows as well that its aim is not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed in the renewal of its very being, its substance, its body, newly seasoned, newly leavened, changed through and through in every part and particle. Today, and every day, God is making all things new.

And in this newness each of you has a part. God's hand has touched each of you on the mouth; God has given each of you a word, a story, a song to share. Each of you has been known by God from before you were born, and each of you has been consecrated and commissioned, no matter how young or how old, given something precious that only you can bring to light, given a song that only you can sing. And to live in harmony, we each sing our God-given song, in a chorus of unending praise.

So it is that each of you here this afternoon is taking up a new ministry, for even your old ministries will change and be renewed from now on. The new additions, not only Carl but Patti and Bethany and John, have already generated change, change in them and change in you, and will continue to do so as all of you together become a new body, a new creation, transformed by your openness to God's Spirit working in you, a spirit that has been working God's purpose out from before time began and will do so for ever and ever -- through you, through you chosen and precious, unique in your gifts and yet one in your Spirit.

Though this is the good news brought to you here and now, it is the same old but good news that the church has known since that day long ago when the Spirit blew through the windows and gave the apostles something new to sing about, and new tongues to sing it with. The church has rejoiced in its various gifts ever since. And the passage we heard from Paul's Letter to the Romans shows us the model church, whose ministries, while contrasting, work togther for the good of the whole. In this brief catalogue you will find just about everything a church can do -- and it is a very thorough catalogue, because it talks about the sad times as well as the joyous. There will after all be times for patience in suffering, for weeping with those who weep, for bearing with persecutions. The amazing thing is that these seeming weaknesses are gifts of God just as much as the more upbeat charisms that the Spirit lavishes on the church.

For what this vision of the church shows us is that there is no one, however weak, however afflicted, however sorrowful, who does not have their special ministry, perhaps the most important ministry of all: the ministry that is the reason and ground of all the other ministries -- the ministry of being ministered to.

Jesus affirms the importance of this ministry in his sharp words to Peter in our Gospel: the servants must let themselves be served if they are to be one with Jesus, to have a share in him.

It is common to see this text primarily as a lesson in humility for clergy -- it is very easy for clergy to see themselves as Jesus in this picture, and in that capacity this gospel passage serves splendidly each Holy Week. But there is more to Jesus' message than merely "leaders should remember they are servants." No, there is much more to it than that. For Jesus ends with the command that all are to wash each others' feet. All serve and all are served.

And the message I want to stress, is that the task of being served is sometimes just as challenging as the task of serving. And clergy can get so caught up with serving -- identifying with Jesus in our Gospel -- that they end up burning out before they've had the chance
to spread much light!

One of my favorite religious paintings is Ford Maddox Brown's portrayal of the Maundy Thursday scene. Jesus is kneeling, his sleeves rolled up, intent on the work, looking down as he washes the big fisherman's callused, rough feet. And Peter sits tensely, enduring this ministry in a pose rather like how some people sit in a dentist's chair: eyes closed, shoulders tight, head bowed, dreading the touch of his Lord and Master, almost ashamed to be served. It is Peter, the apostle, Peter, later to become the first bishop of Rome, who sits uncomfortably as the Lord serves him. And perhaps the clergy need to be reminded from time to time that they are much, much more like Peter than they are like Jesus.

For believe it or not, unlike Jesus who is fully divine and fully human, clergy, like Peter, are only human, and not even quite so good at walking on water! It is sometimes hard for clergy to admit they need the help of those whom they are called to serve. But perhaps the greatest gift a priest can give to a parish is the gift to say, "I need your help!" Those four words can do more to empower and liberate the unused gifts, the untapped potential of a congregation than almost any others besides "Thy will be done." To say, "I need your help" is to give the gift that empowers giving, one might say, the gift that keeps on giving! What gift, after all, can you get for the Man or Woman Who Has Everything? The priest who needs no help will soon have no parish -- and the parish that cannot or will not help its priest, will soon have no priest.

For there can be no gifts without needs, and only open hands can receive or give a blessing. Truly, God's power is made perfect in weakness, and it is weakness -- our need for each other and for God -- that permits us to rejoice in the mutual exchange of gifts that we celebrate today.

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But there remains one last question. Why their feet? We know that Jesus wasn't all that fussy about washing hands before dinner. And so I ask, Why their feet? In addition to the sign of humility -- the command to serve and to be served -- there is something else at work here in our Gospel. And the answer lies in one last verse from John's Gospel, which continues where we left off: "Very truly I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them." Those who received Jesus' object lesson -- I am tempted to call the footwashing an abject lesson ---- those on the receiving end of this teaching are the apostles, the messengers and ministers of grace -- and their feet are washed not just as a sign of humility, but of mobility!

To paraphrase Sherlock Holmes, "The gospel is afoot!" The gospel is news, good news to send you running down the street to tell the neighbors, news to be told and news to be spread, not just enjoyed in the comfort of the church like home delivery of the New York Times, but carried forth from this place, by all of us with feet freshly washed and ready to go, ready to kick up dust, or shake it off if need be. Young Jeremiah was prepared from before the foundation of the world, prepared and consecrated to be sent, to spread the word that God put in his mouth. Jesus washed the disciples' feet knowing that they would go forth to the ends of the earth to spread the message of his glory, and how glorious are the feet of the messengers who bring good tidings!

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We are the church, the Body of Christ, in all of our wonderful and crazy variety, in all of our needs and all of our gifts. Like the Animal Crackers, we are not caged in a zoo, but ready to move our circus wagon, to go forth and pitch our tents in the places where the word has yet to be heard, or where it has been forgotten, or where it has been obscured by the shouts of the merchants who offer cheap substitutes for grace in this world's noisy marketplace.

There are challenges aplenty for each and every one of you new ministers here this afternoon, new opportunities for service and for being served, new ministries bursting at the seams. And so rejoice, beloved, rejoice, with scrubbed feet and a song of praise on your lips -- as you celebrate your ministries renewed and transformed -- go forth from this place at the end of this service to the beginning of your new service, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit of God, to whom alone be glory.