The Ordination of Deacons ~ February 4, 2007
St. James Cathedral – Chicago, IL
Jeremiah 1:4-9; Acts 6: 2-7; Luke 22:224-27
The Rev. Elizabeth Gordon Meade
“I am among you as One who serves,” Jesus said.
I saw a t-shirt at a street fair last summer that said:
“Most people want to serve God, but only in an advisory capacity.”
Today, happily, we are here to ordain two people who don’t fit that mold. Two people who want to serve God with no strings attached and no holds barred. Two people who have spent the last 5 or 6 years of their lives discerning, studying, and praying for this day – and for the years of ministry they have ahead of them.
Dan and Debbie have opened their hearts and their lives and their minds to deanery discernment committees, to the Commission on Ministry, to their peers, and to their bishops, and, after what probably seems like an eternity to you guys, Dan and Debbie, it appears that we are all of one accord. We all are here to shout “AMEN” as God and the Church agree that you are two people who deeply desire to serve the Lord, and NOT just in an advisory capacity.
Jesus said, “I am among you as One who serves.”
Dan and Debbie are among us as TWO who serve.
Both of them demonstrate an innate compulsion to represent to the Church the ministry that Christ modeled for each one of us – a ministry of service. As vocational deacons, they do not seek to work IN the church – to take a salary and a pension from the church. No. Dan and Debbie seek to be visible reminders to the world – and to each and every one of us – that Christ came to the whole world as One who serves.
A couple of weeks after I was ordained, and the people in my first parish had had a chance to see what my liturgical functions would look like on Sunday mornings, a dear friend (who happened to be the parish matriarch) approached me at coffee hour and said, “You had to go through two years of discernment, and go to school for three years, and have that big ordination down there in Chicago – just to unfold a napkin and pour some water into the wine? Why didn’t you just join Altar Guild?” The fact was, I had almost failed Altar Guild at another parish, but I didn’t tell her that! What I did realize, however, was that diaconal ministry is rarely well defined.
So what are you getting – those of you who are members of Calvary Church Batavia and St. Martin Des Plaines? What is going to change when you have a deacon in your midst? And HOW IS THE GREATER CHURCH GOING TO CHANGE when we ordain these two and release them out into the world?
On the surface, Dan and Debbie will function liturgically as symbols of Christ’s servant ministry.
Some of you may wonder what all the hoopla is about – why it took them so long to go through this process. Not to oversimplify it, but you might be thinking, “How much time can it take to learn to process with the Gospel book and how to mix water with wine? Why all the schooling? All those retreats?”
The only answer I can give you is to remember first and foremost that a deacon’s role – whether it be in the liturgy or in the world – is to point to the words that Fran just proclaimed in today’s gospel:
Jesus said, “I am among you as One who serves.”
And He ALSO SAID, “Go and do likewise.”
Diaconal ministry dwells somewhat amorphously in between those two statements.
In the liturgy, picture the deacon as symbol – a visible reminder in a complex Eucharistic dance that unfolds each week at the table. Deacons of the liturgy are, for us, a symbol of Christ’s humanity and his role as servant: setting the table, pouring the wine and the water, clearing the table these tasks are visual reminders to us, God’s people, that Christ came not to be served, but to serve.
But, there is more to diaconal ministry than Sunday mornings. Believe it or not, all that time at the Deacon’s School was not spent learning what color stole to wear on a given Sunday!!! You see, in really hearkening to their calls to the diaconate, Dan and Debbie have delved into what servant ministry will look like for them. In community, they have discovered that they have a passion for advocacy – a passion for naming injustice when they see it and shedding light on it. The have developed a passion for attending to the plight of the poor, the sick, the lonely, and the forgotten. In ordaining these two individuals as deacons, the Church is getting two people inextricably linked to the cares and the concerns of the world.
Two people who are passionate about ensuring that all people feel the tender embrace of God’s love. Two people who are working diligently to realize the Millennium Development Goals, as adopted by our Church at its last two General Conventions. Goals that focus on establishing global partnerships to eradicate poverty, improve health, education, and the environment by the year 2015. Goals that, with the help of deacons like these two who are before us today, are entirely achievable.
The Church today is receiving such a gift in Dan and Debbie, and we give praise & thanks to God who raised them up. They will, tomorrow, in their parishes, be present in the liturgy as visible reminders of Christ the Servant. But on Monday, they will be out in the world, shining light into dark places, dispensing hope and love to those who Jesus loved: those crippled by poverty, despair, and dysfunction.
Our job here today is this: We get to be the “heavenly host” who shout, “Amen. Alleluia” when we look at what a marvelous work God has begun in Dan and Debbie.
Okay…… Now, to you two. I’ve been virtually ignoring you by addressing my remarks to this wonderful crowd here today to support and affirm your call to ministry, but now it’s your turn.
(And you thought I’d forgotten YOU?)
Remember, in John’s gospel, when Jesus tied the towel to His waist and washed His disciples’ feet? As deacons, that passage will become a rich part of the tapestry of your ministry. As deacons, we may want to run out and start washing everybody’s feet. We may want to eradicate extreme poverty and child mortality all by ourselves, but that’s not what Jesus asked us to do.
Let me refresh your memory. Here’s the passage:
Jesus said to His disciples:
“So, if I, your Lord and your Teacher have washed your feet, so you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”
Jesus said to his disciples: WASH ONE ANOTHER’S FEET.
Jesus didn’t say this to just the ordained, to just the deacons & priests. He said this to ALL his disciples – to the body of Christ. The Book of Common Prayer tells us that “At all times, a deacon’s life and teaching are to show Christ’s people that in serving the helpless, they are serving Christ Himself.”
Here’s my one bit of advice for you: DON’T DO IT ALONE!
You’ll burn out faster than a plate of aluminum foil in a microwave. Your job, aside from functioning on Sundays as visible symbols of Christ’s servant ministry, is to PROPEL people out into the world and encourage them to live into their OWN baptismal covenants.
It is our common calling – the calling of all God’s people – to follow Jesus wherever He goes.
YOUR job is to point the way. Your job is to model servant-hood, but that does NOT mean you are the ONE designated parish servant.
Through your teaching and preaching, through your presence at the Eucharistic feast, you are to engage, inform, empower, and enlist all of God’s people to serve one another – to wash one another’s feet. In other words, your job is to be very clear about the needs, cares, and concerns of the world – and to rally the troops.
It is a holy and ancient circle: God’s transformative power unleashed in the world. You, as Deacons will send the people out into the world as you dismiss them each week, and they, empowered and equipped for ministry, will go out into the world with you, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit, to collect Jesus’ dear ones: the poor, the sick, the lonely, and the forgotten.
Send them out with CONVICTION! And then stand back.
Because when the winds of the Holy Spirit blow, its time to put up the sails!
I pray God’s blessing on each one of us here today, that we will EACH be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, and led by these two who God has called, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.