8.14.22 Well, Not Exactly a Sermon, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

No sermon this week ... but some comments offered, extemporaneously, on THE NINE QUESTIONS, which might make a good sermon title sometime ... or maybe even a crime-thriller movie.

Anyway, for your pleasure and your pondering, THE NINE QUESTIONS OF ORDINATION for the Presbyterian Church USA ... with the 9th question (here, for a Ruling Elder) differing for a Deacon or a Teaching Elder, a Minister of Word and Sacrament (that's me, folks) ... followed by the laying on hands for the one to be ordained - and, once ordained, always ordained, unless stripped of the office, having been found guilty of terrible things, as tried by a church court (yes, we have those, too).

What's important here is the dignity of ordination - for those called by God to the office or Teacher Elder, and those called be Ruling Elders or Deacons. With the exception of The NINTH question, the ordination questions are precisely the same ... and unique to our Reformed Tradition, the laying on of hands for the lay offices of Deacon and Elder. We take ordination very, very, seriously.

It's a great moment in the life of a Presbyterian Congregation to ordain and install new officers ... in the case of Westminster, no deacons, only elders ... who then fulfill the duties of the diaconate.

And, of course, congratulations to Lee Powers upon the occasion of his ordination.

~ The Ordination & Installation of Elders ~

Reflections on Ordination: Rev. Eggebeen

"The Three Offices”

The Elders Elect - before the congregation

Questions to the Elders Elect

Moderator, The Rev. Dr Tom Eggebeen, Interim Minister

a.   Do you trust in Jesus Christ your Savior, acknowledge him Lord of all and Head of the Church, and through him believe in one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? I do!

b.   Do you accept the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be, by the Holy Spirit, the unique and authoritative witness to Jesus Christ in the Church universal, and God's Word to you? I do!

c.   Do you sincerely receive and adopt the essential tenets of the Reformed faith as expressed in the confessions of our church as authentic and reliable expositions of what Scripture leads us to believe and do, and will you be instructed and led by those confessions as you lead the people of God? I do and I will!

d.   Will you fulfill your ministry in obedience to Jesus Christ, under the authority of Scripture, and be continually guided by our confessions? I will!

e.   Will you be governed by our church's polity, and will you abide by its discipline? Will you be a friend among your colleagues in ministry, working with them, subject to the ordering of God's Word and Spirit? I will!

f.   Will you in your own life seek to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, love your neighbors, and work for the reconciliation of the world? I will!

g.   Do you promise to further the peace, unity, and purity of the church? I do!

h.   Will you pray for and seek to serve the people with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love? I will!

i.   Will you be a faithful ruling elder, watching over the people, providing for their worship, nurture, and service? Will you share in government and discipline, serving in councils of the church, and in your ministry will you try to show the love and justice of Jesus Christ? I will!

Ordination of Lee Powers as Ruling Elder

~ The Laying on of hands & Prayer of Ordination

~ All Elders and Ministers of the Word and Sacrament are invited to gather around Lee for his Ordination

Moderator: God of grace, pour out your Holy Spirit on Lee Powers,

that he may be your faithful elder in the church. 

Give him prudence and sound judgment,

wisdom and courage to order the life of the church

in obedience to your Word.

Nourish him in the life of the Holy Spirit,

that he may exercise the ministry of discipline with humility and compassion.

Guide him in governance, on this session and in every court of the church, that he may be a servant-leader following Christ who came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life to set others free.

Give him joy in his walk of faith and a sure sense of your abiding presence

for their work of ministry. Through Christ our LORD we pray. Amen!

Questions to the Congregation

Clerk of Session, Norman Haynes

a.   Do we, the members of the church, accept those who stand before this morning as ruling elders, chosen by God through the voice of this congregation to lead us in the way of Jesus Christ? We do!

b.   Do we agree to pray for them, to encourage them, to respect their decisions, and to follow as they guide us, serving Jesus Christ, who alone is Head of the Church? We do!

Declaration of Installation

The Moderator

You are now elders in the church of Jesus Christ and for this congregation, in this time, and in this place, for these people and for all who shall come our way. Be faithful and true in your ministry so that your whole life will bear witness to the crucified and risen Christ. Be kind and generous, be sympathetic and prayerful; seek the truth, listen with care, speak with purpose, learn constantly of Christ, pay attention to your world, and give all the love you can. Amen and Amen!

Concluding Hymn - see Bulletin

August 22, 2010, "Jesus Didn't Wait"

Luke 13:10-17

Do you notice anything unusual about the timing of this healing?

That’s right … on the Sabbath … and let me ask you a question, “Why didn’t Jesus wait until the next day?”

After all, the woman suffered her infirmity for 18 years … couldn’t she have waited 24 hours?

I imagine the synagogue leader taking Jesus aside later in the day, saying to him, What’s your hurry Jesus? This woman could have waited 24 hours. You could’ve healed her tomorrow, and everything would have been just ducky. Why did you did have to do it today, on the Sabbath? What’s the rush?

The synagogue leader is right.

Jesus could have waited.

The woman could have waited.

Everyone could have waited.

And the results would have been the same.

The woman would have been healed.

Folks would have seen it.

No rules violated.

No laws broken.

All would have been ducky.

Couldn’t Jesus have waited?

Of course, he could have waited.

Everyone could have waited.

24 hours.

That’s all.

I bet all the Gideon Bibles in the LAX Hilton that if ya’ had asked the woman, “Can ya’ wait 24 hours?” she would have replied, “Of course I can. I’ve been sick 18 years; one more day isn’t going to be the end of me.”

Jesus could have waited.

And everything would have been fine.

But Jesus didn’t wait!

And that begs a question.

[what’s the question?]

That’s right.

Children ask it all the time.

“Why?”

Why do waves crash?

Why does the sun shine?

Why do birds sing?

Why do I have to go to bed right now?

Why?

Why didn’t Jesus wait?

Because Jesus is God-with-us!

God in the flesh.

God, here and now.

Yes, just a man.

Born of Mary.

But God-with-us.

Who suffered rejection and humiliation.

Dying cruelly at the end.

At the hands of the State.

God-with-us on that cross.

Executed by Rome.

Between two terrorists.

God-with-us on the cross.

Because Jesus didn’t wait.

Mercy can’t wait.

Love doesn’t wait.

God doesn’t wait to forgive and make things right.

God doesn’t wait to love us and make a way for us.

God doesn’t wait for us to get outta the way.

God doesn’t wait to heal the woman afflicted for 18 years.

Time and again, Jesus comes against the rules and regulations of religion.

Everyone’s upset.

What kind of man is Jesus?

What kind of a God is this?

Didn’t God institute the Sabbath Day?

Didn’t God create the rules and regulations that govern it?

Six days you shall labor, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On that day, you shall do no work. Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy.

The Fourth Commandment.

But Jesus didn’t wait!

What’s up with God on this one?

Does God change God’s mind?

Does God contradict God’s own ways?

Or is it possible that we’ve misunderstood some things?

Is it possible that what God intends and what we do with God’s intentions are two different things?

That maybe we don’t always get it right when it comes to the things of God?

Remember Jesus in his hometown synagogue?

His first public sermon?

He spoke of God’s redeeming ways, of God’s love going to work, and everyone nodded their heads and said, What a good preacher he is.

And then Jesus began to speak about Elijah in a time of great famine.

That God sent Elijah, not to the house of Israel, but to the home of a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon, and provided food for her … and she was a Gentile.

And how there were many in Israel with leprosy, but not one of them was cleansed, except Naaman the Syrian.

And then all the people in the synagogue were furious.

They know what Jesus was saying: God’s love is bigger than you are … and they didn’t like that one bit.

They got up from their pews, then and there; they took Jesus to a nearby cliff and tried to kill him.

God-with-us is not always so easy to handle.

God-with-us says this is the way, this is the truth, and this is the life.

And it may not be our take on things.

God’s people frequently get it wrong.

Our ways are not God’s ways.

And that’s a hard lesson to learn.

Especially for God’s people.

Even when we are absolutely convinced that we understand God, it’s likely that we don’t.

God says Keep the Sabbath day holy.

And that means, totally devoted to God.

Don’t work for yourself – ya’ got six days for that.

But on the Sabbath, deal with God.

Jesus says to the folks there in the synagogue – if you have an animal tethered on the Sabbath, do you deny it water? Of course not! Ya’ untie it and take it to the well for a drink. And if you wouldn’t treat an ox or ass this way, why treat this woman this way and deny her the water of life?

Because our ways are not God’s ways.

The super-religious of the world have it wrong.

The Bible-thumpers and the go-to-hell preachers have it wrong.

And why that should be, I don’t know.

Why did the leader of the Synagogue miss the point?

Why did so many of the religious authorities in Jerusalem miss the point?

Why did so many professors of theology and so many pastors sign on with Hitler?

Why did so many Presbyterian pastors deny the humanity of the slaves and tell their folks every Sunday that slavery was a God-given mandate?

And why were women told to stay in the kitchen and let the men handle it?

Why were women denied ordination for so long?

There’s a lot of wrong in the church.

And there was a lot of wrong in Israel.

In the hometown where Jesus was raised.

In Jerusalem where he died.

God’s people are often the last people to get it.

That’s why God has to come against us sometimes.

Because God is always more than we are.

God is always bigger in love than we are.

To make a point: God’s love doesn’t wait.

Throughout my ministry, I’ve heard good and decent people say a common four-letter word … easy now … calm down … don’t head for the gutter … a four-letter word that begins with the letter “w.”

Hazard a guess?

That’s right.

WAIT!

Since 1976, the Presbyterian Church has been considering the question of ordination for gays and lesbians. And for many of those years, I waited!

I read and I studied.

And I waited.

It wasn’t clear in my mind, so I waited.

I’ve always been an open-door kind of a guy.

I knew some gays in college, and I was appalled at the words my friends used about gays.

I tried, in my own way to befriend the few gays I knew.

I said “Good morning” in the classroom, and I had lunch with them a time or two.

I was ordained in 1970.

It wasn’t a question then for most Presbyterians.

I sort of accepted the maxim: “The Bible tells me that gays are just lost, that homosexuality is wrong, sinful, and abomination before the LORD, and they’ll all go to hell when they die if they don’t repent.”

That’s what I thought the Bible said.

It wasn’t an issue.

So I could wait.

And then I read my first Bible study on homosexuality in 1976.

And my eyes were opened.

I was wrong about what I thought the Bible said.

I said what a lot of pastors said, “We can welcome gays into the church, but we can’t ordain them.”

So I waited.

In the early 80s, I had a funeral for a young man who died of AIDS.

I called on him in the hospital.

He was so bitter.

He was a gentle soul, an artist and musician, but the church had told him that we he was no good.

That he was going to hell.

The church slammed in his face every door it could.

I knew his parents and siblings, and they were a loving family … deeply and faithfully Christian.

I began to think all the more.

I began to teach.

It’s not gender that counts.

It’s how we live that counts.

That’s what the Bible teaches.

And then in 1992, an associate pastor came to work with me.

Her brother was gay.

Her parents were involved in PFLAG, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and I had never heard of the organization.

We talked a lot.

I told her, “Wait!”

And Wendy said to me, “My brother can’t wait any longer. And neither can my parents. And neither can I.”

And I thought, and I thought, and I thought. And I waited.

I prayed and I studied, and prayed some more, and I waited.

And then folks like James Dobson and Chuck Colson began to weigh in on the issue … Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority … James Kennedy and Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale.

They didn’t wait.

They shouted, “We have the Bible on our side.”

And I said to myself, “No you don’t. That’s not what the Bible says!”

But Dobson and Colson didn’t wait.

And neither did Falwell and Kennedy.

They wrote and they campaigned against gays and lesbians.

And millions of Americans believed them.

The louder their voices grew, the more disturbed I became.

Why should I wait any longer on this?

Dobson and Colson and Falwell and Kennedy do not represent me!

I am a Christian, too, and I see things differently than they do.

They’re not quiet about it.

So why should I be quiet?

I have a message, too.

And the message deserves to be told.

I will not wait any longer.

God-with-us doesn’t wait to heal the woman.

Jesus doesn’t wait even 24 hours.

Jesus heals her now.

Love has to be now.

Mercy and kindness are now.

That’s the God who saves us, now.

That’s the God who loves us dearly, right now and here.

The God who doesn’t wait!

Amen and Amen!