In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit, amen. Christ is risen. Christos
vos kresa. Christos anesti. This morning I'm
going to share with you a few ideas about ministry
and ministries in the church. Now, from today's
epistle, with the ordination of deacons, you
might think that that was my inspiration for
speaking about ministry. Well, it was. We see
here the only explicit ordination in the New
Testament. It's that powerful gesture of prayer
and the imposition of hands. or the laying on
of hands. This was not something new that the
apostles invented. No, it was an Old Testament
sign of blessing, transmission of power, of grace,
of authority. We've seen this a number of times,
even beginning with the patriarchs. This is the
gesture which was adopted by the apostles and
has been maintained by the church for over 2
,000 years in setting aside certain men within
the Christian community for a specific ministry.
Three -fold ministry of bishop, priest, and deacon.
Ministry of reader, there's an imposition of
hands when the bishop blesses someone to be a
minister. And there are other gestures. And the
richer the symbolism is, the more difficult it
is to define, decide, and define a gesture. Now
we're all... familiar with gestures. If I went
like that, you'd all look up to see what's going
on. Or, hi, how are you doing? Gesture may be
too much money. So all different kinds of gestures.
Sometimes there are gestures when we are driving.
Now, we don't mention, we don't... gesture when
we drive, but occasionally other drivers gesture.
And maybe once in a while they've gestured at
you like they have at me. So gestures are something
that are common to human beings. And even the
gestures, just to mention a couple other, notice
how often in the liturgy the priest blesses the
congregation. Now, I mean, how do you define
that? Like I said, the richer the gesture is,
the more difficult it is to say in simple words
what it entails. You make the sign of the cross
in your prayer. That's a gesture. That's a bodily
gesture which shows that you're praying. So gestures
are something that can be used to communicate
something. Grace, power, blessing. The gestures,
even the imposition of hands, laying on of hands.
This is not something exclusively for ordained
ministry. Even beginning at baptism, the priest
lays his hand on the person who will soon be
baptized as an exorcism. Then in... In the New
Testament also, the laying on of hands is a symbol
in many of the sacraments. The ordination, the
sacrament of chrismation or confirmation. One
of the ways that's mentioned in the New Testament
is the imposition of hands for the Holy Spirit
to come upon that person. Now we use anointing
with chrism, with oil. But also, whether you've
thought of this, I don't know, but when you go
to confession, the priest imposes his hands on
you. He puts the stole as, again, a gesture to
show that the grace that's coming upon you in
that prayer of absolution is not from him. It's
from God. And to show that transmission of grace,
the priest imposes hands on the person who is
there for confession, to be absolved. The ministries,
there are other kinds of ministries as well.
In today's gospel, I don't know if you ever thought
of this, but the myrrh -bearing women, they were
commissioned to do something. The angel didn't
impose hands, but he said, go and tell. Go and
tell to the disciples what you've seen. And strangely
enough, in a way, the myrrh -bearing women are
the first evangelists. They're the first ones
to go to the apostles and to convey the news
that Jesus is risen from the dead. So an evangelizer
is someone who announces the good news. We normally
think of evangelists as the four evangelists,
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But anyone who
announces good news is an evangelist. Even you,
when you see someone, if you say something pleasant
and happy, that's a ministry. You're saying something,
doing something to lift that person's spirits.
So there are many ministries in the church. The
ministry, probably the most important one, which
I wrote down last, but it's most important. is
the ministry of prayer. When someone asks you
to pray for someone else, that is a genuine ministry,
to unite your mind and your heart with someone
who has asked for that, some type of help or
a favor. The ministry of prayer. Then there are
ministries all over. There's the ministry of
the altar servers. There is the ministry of the
choir director and the choir. There is the ministry
of the greeters who welcome either parishioners
or newcomers into the church with either a gesture
or a smile. Smiles are the best gesture and welcome
possible. Then ministries galore. There is the
ministry of cooking. in the church for meals.
I've always thought it's a little bit of irony
when we think of deacons. They were first ordained
to wait on tables, as we were talking about before
the liturgy began here. But that's about the
least thing that we think of with deacons nowadays,
because their role has been expanded to... A
liturgical function. But the deacons, just look
at two of them. Philip. He went out and announced
the good news to the people. To that Ethiopian
eunuch who was reading Isaiah. He said, I can't
understand this at all. Who's the prophet talking
about? Himself or someone else? And Philip explained
Isaiah to him. The Ethiopian eunuch said, well,
what's to prevent me from being baptized? Here's
some water. And so Philip baptized him and welcomed
him into the church. Stephen, the proto -martyr,
the first martyr, is the one who, even though
all these deacons They weren't ethnically Jews,
judging from their names. They were proselytes,
which means people who were interested in...
People converted to Judaism, even though they
weren't ethnically Jews. So these seven deacons
were ordained to help out in the ministry of
others. while the apostles went on to preach.
And so ministries abound in the church. I mentioned
cooking, serving on the parish council. There's
the ministry of dusting and cleaning the church.
There's the ministry of pulling weeds, working
in the garden. Doing things, very mundane things
that are for the benefit of the Christian community
and for the benefit of other people. So there's
no one in the church that doesn't have some type
of ministry or ministries. This all began, as
I said, when you were set apart from the world.
at the prayer of exorcism at the beginning of
your baptism. So do what you can to exercise
the gift and the blessing and the ministry that
God has given you. And I'm sure that if you're
wondering what to do, you can ask your pastor,
and he'll give you several suggestions of things
that might be done. as a ministry, a service
to God and to others. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ.
Christ is risen also.