As you have no doubt noticed, today we are vested a bit differently: we are in rose. This only happens twice a year here at All Saints, and never in many other congregations! Both in Advent and in Lent, we mix a little joyful white into our penitential violet right around the halfway point for our two Rose Sundays. In Advent it is Gaudete Sunday and in Lent it is Laetare Sunday, both names taken from the traditional Introit passages. Gaudete means “rejoice” and it comes from the well-known verse in Philippians 4, “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.” But if you remember from previous Advents or if you just read ahead, you’ll have noticed that the “Rejoice” passage opens our Epistle for next week rather than this week! There’s some interesting liturgical history behind this apparent mismatch, but it basically reflects a change in customs at Rome that didn’t filter over to the British Isles until long after our parting of ways in the Reformation. All that is to say that while we see the theme of rejoicing in our vestments, advent wreath, and Introit, we’ll focus more on rejoicing next week.
This week the focus is on John the Baptist and the ordained ministry. If you look at our Advent Collects so far, you’ll recall that the first week of Advent established the theme of preparing for Christ’s second coming as we remember his first coming. He entered our mortal life so that we can have an immortal life. We are therefore to cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, by God’s grace. Last week was our Bible Sunday when we saw that the Holy Scriptures were given to us as God’s message of salvation for us so that we might have that grace we’ve been asking for all Advent. This week we see that God has also given us ordained ministers to bring that message of salvation and grace. Just as John the Baptist was sent to prepare God’s people for our Lord’s first Advent, so Christ’s ministers in the Church are sent to prepare God’s people for our Lord’s second Advent. We prayed:
O LORD Jesus Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee; Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen.
Our Collect says that the “ministers and stewards” of God’s “mysteries” prepare you for Christ’s second coming by “turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.” This is a reference to last verse of the Old Testament, Malachi 4:6, which describes the ministry of Elijah. But this is not the same Elijah we read about in Kings and Chronicles. No, that Elijah had been long dead by the time Malachi was writing. Malachi’s new Elijah is a promised prophet who will come with the same spirit and power as the original. In the New Testament, Jesus says that the verse was a prophecy talking about John the Baptist.
So, what was John’s ministry? John was the forerunner of the Messiah. He was the messenger sent to prepare the people for the Messiah’s coming. He describes himself as the “friend of the bridegroom.” He is the best man, as it were, at the Wedding of the Lamb. John exercised his ministry by calling the people to repent. He baptized as a sign of repentance, turning hearts from disobedience and sins to God and his righteousness. As I mentioned two weeks ago, repentance is one of the primary themes of Advent.
In one of the texts parallel to today’s Gospel, Jesus describes John as the greatest person to be born by that time. Yet John dies before Jesus’ own death and resurrection. John doesn’t get to see the redemption he foretold. That’s why Jesus goes on to say that the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John. As New Covenant people, we have something greater than even John the Baptist had. We have been given greater blessings than even John the Baptist.
In this New Covenant era, we ministers are similarly calling people to repent in preparation for meeting God. We, too, baptize people as a sign of that repentance. But just as the least in the New Covenant is greater than John, so the Sacraments of the New Covenant are greater than the baptism of John. Indeed, through the New Covenant Sacrament of Baptism, we have rebirth and new life in Christ. We are new creatures who have been joined to Christ. This is not due to anything intrinsic in the water itself, but it is rather due to the promise God has attached to the water. Your baptism is God’s promise to you that you belong to him and have been united to his Son.
So, the Church, though the ordained ministry, brings God’s message of salvation and grace through the Word and through the Sacraments. We call folks to repentance so that they might receive that message of salvation and grace. In our Epistle, St. Paul speaks of how the ministers ultimately answer to God, not man. This is because the word “Minister” indicates that we are servants of Christ. He is the master, and we are Christ’s servants for the sake of his people.
Now, we recognize three orders of ordained ministry in the Anglican tradition, a pattern that goes back explicitly to the 2nd Century, but is in embryonic form all the way back to the Apostles. The 2nd of these three orders, the Presbyters or Priests, is the order that focuses on Word and Sacrament. Since priests also are the on-the-ground ministers at the local congregation, we are the ones most folks identify with New Covenant ministry. The New Testament word from which we get Presbyter or Priest means “Elder.” The most important thing we can do as priests is to faithfully bring you the Word and the Sacraments. We preach from God’s Word. We teach you God’s Word. We help you apply God’s Word to your lives. And in the Sacraments, we give you God’s living Word in the tangible signs of Water, Bread, and Wine. In all the various Sacraments and rites of the Church, we are giving you God’s Word. C.S. Lewis describes this as the dual role of prophet and priest, visually represented when the minister either faces the people or the altar. That is, in our prophetic role, we bring God’s message to you, God’s people. And in our liturgical practice, we face you while doing so. In our priestly role, we represent you before God in the prayers and ceremonies of the Church. Liturgically, this is represented when we face the altar. We like to tell the kids that we are being the “line leader” before God in our prayers. While all Christians certainly hear from God directly in his Word and are to pray directly to him, when we gather together as the Church, the presbyter functions as the representative of both God and the people.
The third order in our three-fold ministry is the deacons. Every priest has served for at least a little while as a deacon. The title Deacon comes from the Greek word for Servant. In Acts 6, the first deacons are appointed to care for the widows so that the apostles can focus on preaching the Word. This pattern continues into the ordained diaconate today. The call to service is reflected in the deacon’s traditional liturgical duties of assisting the priest at the altar to set the Table, to read the Gospel, and to serve the wine. Out among the day-to-day ministry of the Church, deacons typically focus on pastoral care (especially of the vulnerable in the Church), on catechesis and teaching (especially of children), and on evangelism. Since all priests remain deacons, we priests have a duty to those three ministries as well, but those called to the vocation of deacon will typically specialize in one of those three areas of ministry. We currently have three men in the parish who are discerning a call to the vocational diaconate; please keep them in your prayers and help them as they think and pray about this call. I mentioned in the announcements that this week includes our Winter Ember Days; the Ember Days are set aside specifically to pray for those discerning a call to the ministry. Remember A.J., Jason, and Reece in your prayers these Ember Days.
Now, we’ve talked abut the second and third orders of the ordained ministry as the Church has traditionally seen them. That leaves the first order, our Bishops. The bishops, or episcopacy, gets its name from the Greek word for overseer or superintendent. When we compare our two New Testament passages that discuss the qualifications for the ordained ministry, Titus 1 and 1 Timothy 3, it’s pretty clear that “elder” and “overseer” are used interchangeably. That is, at least in those two passages, there’s not any significant difference between the terms for bishops and priests. Looking a bit deeper into other epistles, it seems that some of the men the Apostles ordained were given authority to preside over the group of ordained elders in a given locale. In at least some cases these overseeing elders appear to have the authority to ordain and appoint other elders as well. And everyone was under the authority of the Apostles. If there is a difference in the first generation of Christians, bishops are those presiding over the rest of the elders.
When the Apostles began to die off, we see the bishops and priests becoming more explicitly distinct, with the bishops, especially those who had directly been taught and appointed by the Apostles, being raised up to carry on the Apostolic teaching with a measure of Apostolic authority. The typical model by this second generation was for there to be one bishop in a given city, with a number of priests and deacons serving under his authority in the suburbs and surrounding rural areas. From time to time all the bishops in a region or even throughout the Empire, would gather together to discuss and decide on issues of controversy. They would apply the Apostles’ teachings, particularly as received in the Scriptures, to the controversy to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit. These gatherings give us the early councils and creeds of the Church.
The main role of the bishops is to be a guardian of the faith as taught by the Bible. The buck is supposed to stop with the bishop. Our catechism says that he is the chief pastor of the Church. As such, he alone exercises the authority to ordain and confirm. He is also the one we entrust with disciplinary authority. In the phrasing of the Ordinal, he is to “drive away from the Church all erroneous and strange doctrine contrary to God’s Word; and both privately and openly to call upon and encourage others to do the same.”
Just as all priests remain deacons, so all bishops remain priests and deacons. Many bishops spend a lot of their time continuing the priestly ministry of Word and Sacrament, and the diaconal ministry of service. This means that being a bishop is a really big and really difficult job. I don’t know about other dioceses or jurisdictions, but I don’t know any ACNA bishop who is especially well paid. Some of our bishops, like many of our priests and most of our deacons, are volunteers. No bishop I know has as much support staff as he needs. And all are under constant attack from the World, the Flesh, and the Devil, and often under attack from folks within the Church as well! So, please pray for your bishops, support your bishops, and honor them when they visit. Bp. Orji recently told me that he can always count on All Saints; so, keep up the good work!
Again, St. Paul tells us in today’s Epistle that we who are ordained are ministers, servants, of Christ. He will hold us responsible for what we teach and preach. He will hold us responsible for the care we are entrusted over your souls. He will hold us responsible for living lives that are holy before him and for your sake. The ordained ministry is a huge responsibility and a very serious call. Yet, I can also say that it is a blessed calling. I can’t think of anything I’d rather do with my life. I love God’s word and I love God’s people. I love brining you the Sacraments and leading you in prayer. And I love my brother priests, deacons, and bishops. So thank you for your support and prayers. Please continue to do so. And pray for an increase in the ministry, and faithfulness in those who are so called.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
