Sermons on The Sacraments : Summer 2010

4: Ordination

A sermon preached by Fr Michael Fuller on 27th June

One of the questions I have been asked recently by people interested in this series about sacraments is "what does ordination have to do with me? I am not a priest."

Well, actually, it has an awful lot to do with you! My calling to the priesthood came from within the church, and so it is the people of the church, people like you, which have called me into the priesthood!

I could say also that it is the Bishop who has called me into this vocation, and when we use the word of vocation it is not only the priest who has a vocation; we are all called by God to something.

First, however, I would like to look at the background to ordination or holy orders. What is ordination?

Ordination is the act of conferring holy orders and so admitting a candidate into the ministry of the church. Strictly speaking only priests undergo ordination, bishops are consecrated, and deacons are made. The central element, the outward and visible sign, in ordination is the laying on of hands with prayer, and various NT passages as (Acts 6.1-6; 13.1-3: 20.28; I Tim. 4.14; 5.22; II Tim. 1.6) are regarded as the basis for this practice.

In the early church the priest or Presbyters were ordained by the laying on of hands with prayer, of both the local bishop and other presbyters. Notice that the presence of the Bishop, for the priest always acts on behalf of, and for the Bishop, even now.

In the ecclesiology of the church the sacrament of holy orders is essentially bound with the realization of the church as the body of Christ (I Cor. 12.27; 10.17). The directly implied ecclesial structure of this body is hierarchical, having head and members. The hierarchical order, however, is not to be confused with a power structure. The ministries of the church are those of love and service, not power and domination. All ecclesiastical functions are performed precisely within the church - not over and above it. The Holy Spirit, the one source behind all ministerial gifts, resides in the whole church (I Cor. 12.4-11). It does not reside in one member to the exclusion of others. The church taken together is the realization of the body of Christ.

The priestly function is no exception to this rule of corporate-ness. It is a function ascribed to the whole membership of the church: "... you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation...' (I Peter 2.9). All church members are called upon to '... offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ' (I Peter 2.5). This wholeness lies at the root of our understanding of the specifically ordained functions of bishop, priest and deacon.

The ordained priest has a role in the church subordinate to that of the bishop, in the early church each individual community had its own bishop, and the priests, or presbyters as they are called in the NT served as a council of advisers and assistants around him. The growth of the church expanded the role of the priest. The bishops began to send priests from their councils to lead the life of the new parishes. The role of the parish priest or presbyter is that of an 'elder', the one who leads his parish in the name of the bishop. The essential link between parishes, parish priest and bishop is continuously emphasized by the presence of a cloth called a corporal on the altar. This cloth is unfolded at each celebration of the holy Eucharist and the holy gifts are placed thereon. It used to have to bear the signature of the bishop and demonstrates that the realization of the church is dependent upon communion with him.

The priest is to lead the congregation in the celebration of the Eucharist. He is therefore ordained in the ordination service prior to the consecration of the holy gifts.

So we see that the sacrament of Holy Orders is the vehicle through which the church is provided with its essential, hierarchical order and assured of an objective, sacramental basis for an inner life of unity and harmony.

I'd like to take a moment here to look at what the Anglican Church got up to. To do this you have to remember that it was not Cranmer who devised the BCP, there were many versions before his much altered BCP appeared in 1662, two year after his death. Services of ordination did not appear in the 1549 BCP but were published independently in March 1550. In 1552 they were revised and annexed to the second BCP. A third edition appeared in 1559, again as a separate document, and finally a fourth edition was annexed to the BCP of 1662.

In the Preface to the 1550 Ordinal, the Reformers stated their intention of continuing the threefold order of bishops, priests and deacons, which had existed since apostolic times. In an attempt to simplify the obscurities of the medieval Roman rite though they retained the Eucharist as the frame for Ordination and emphasized the essential elements as expressed in the NT and by the early church, namely prayer and the imposition of hands.

So how is it that you have here this morning three persons in Holy Orders? People who believe that they were set apart by God for a special task.

I think if I asked the other two to come forward and talk about their journey to Priesthood you would hear three very different stories. For just as we recall the calling of Moses or Elijah or Isaiah and see very different methods, so it is with us. There is order with the God all creation that does not mean uniformity or a prescriptive way of working however. The thing that three OT figures have in common is their awareness of their inadequacy to perform the task. I suspect the three of us would agree with them.

For my part I always knew form the very earliest age that I was going to be a Priest. That was my focus from the age of 7. For Ivo and Robert there are probably different points. I was 47 when I was ordained; Ivo was 37 and Robert 27. Each one of us has different story to tell.

My story culminated on a steamer on the Yangtze river in China saying Morning Prayer and finding a bookmark that someone had left there seven years previously causing me to surrender my will the leading of God's Holy Spirit, for someone had written on the back, 'now is the time to follow Jesus, no turning back!'

Call it the voice of God, call it coincidence, call it synchronicity, I don't mind, what I did know was that now was the time, when like St John the Baptist, whose feast day we are celebrating today at our sister church, for me to say, 'I must decrease and He must increase'. And, by God, is that a tough lesson?

It was the moment that I gave in; let go, to let God, that life became well, difficult. Every possible obstacle, temptation and fear seem to arise. Offers of a year's sabbatical on full pay, the promise of a new job on the positive side. On the other side there were fears about the loss of income, pension benefits, private health care etc.

Then even worse, threats of massive indebtedness to the taxman, the suicide of a close colleague leaving a wife and three kids, all conspired to cause me to doubt, even to doubt my sanity.

Finally a physical collapse, emergency surgery, together with four months in hospital all conspired to 'persuade' me that perhaps, as Billy Graham used to say, 'if you don't respond at first to God's gentle tapping then He'll use a bigger hammer!'

Then followed three dreadful years working in a church and studying at theological college, a deskilling process of enormous magnitude. However I survived and on the 29th June 1993 I was ordained a priest.

On that evening two amazing things happened. The first I am convinced was a wonderful example of God's synchronicity. The guest preacher turned out to be Bishop Kenneth Newing, who as a priest in rural Devon told me at the age of seven that God would make things clear to me in God's good time!! Even more synchronous was the fact that he was the one who nurtured my vocation and who was, incidentally, Ivo's Bishop in his previous Parish.

Secondly I received a number of gifts, during the service: firstly a stole to remind me that my new role historically descends from the early deacons whose tasks included serving at table, the lowlier jobs.

Bishop Kenneth said this, "Of course you might be doing all the more glamorous jobs as well, and those that will call for all your gifts, all your training and all your personal strength, compassion and prayerfulness. But you will also have to do some jobs, which you may feel like complaining about. I used to complain about the time I had to spend in administration. I now realise it has been a training for me. It has formed my character, and it has all been a learning experience, I hope you too will learn this".

The stole he reminded would now be worn over my neck and shoulders, which we can see as very similar to a yoke. I wonder how many remember what a yoke is? There are several meanings. It can be a wooden bar carved to fit neatly over the shoulders of one person to enable them to carry a load at each of the two corners like the old milkmaids in children's nursery rhyme books. It can also mean a wooden bar tied over the shoulders of two oxen joining them together for ploughing, making them into a team. When Jesus said, "take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for my yoke is easy, and my burthen is light" in the stole both meanings are intended.

Priests are there to carry burdens and also to share in a collaborative ministry with all the people of God.

Then I was given a chalice, probably the most moving moment for me. Bishop Kenneth said this, "Sanctification is something that has to be achieved in EACH ONE OF US by the Holy Spirit, but the process begins when we offer all we are and have to God. The chalice then becomes something different, a vehicle of God offering Himself to us. So the second symbol we offer Michael for his ordination, as a priest is that of a chalice - a container, an emptiness to be offered to God, and that chalice coming to us is filled with light. That chalice is our lives, Michael's in particular ...Michael, as you offer your life to God tonight in ordination, may you become a chalice filled with the light of God. And always use this chalice to make holy the gifts of God for the people of God".

Lastly I received a Bible. Bishop Kenneth said, "The Bible would bring joy, confusion, consternation and consolation. The Bible is the Word of God in human words. Never think more highly of yourself, and your own view, than you do of the Bible for it is in the Bible you see God's interaction with the Beloved".

His final charge was simple and yet for me profound, "God's call to a priest comes at a number of levels. The 1st call is to be a human being; the 2nd to be a Christian and only then the 3rd call is to be a priest. It was St Iranaeus who said that the glory of God is a human being fully alive and this is not only central to our priesthood, but to our existence. Following Christ is the viewing platform from which the panorama of life makes sense. Being a priest requires a humane outlook on life and an acceptance that God moves in a mysterious way. Always remember that your vocation, your priesthood is what is left over when the thrill of being a vicar has long gone. But that vocation is more precious than fine gold, because it is God's vocation as well as yours".

My friends: pray for your priests and pray for each other that God's will may shine through the gloom and point you to the skies. Amen.