WEBVTT 00:00:02.099 --> 00:00:04.740 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 00:00:04.740 --> 00:00:10.380 of the Holy Spirit, amen. Christ is risen. Christos 00:00:10.380 --> 00:00:18.460 vos kresa. Christos anesti. This morning I'm 00:00:18.460 --> 00:00:23.160 going to share with you a few ideas about ministry 00:00:23.160 --> 00:00:29.739 and ministries in the church. Now, from today's 00:00:29.739 --> 00:00:33.609 epistle, with the ordination of deacons, you 00:00:33.609 --> 00:00:36.369 might think that that was my inspiration for 00:00:36.369 --> 00:00:43.490 speaking about ministry. Well, it was. We see 00:00:43.490 --> 00:00:49.469 here the only explicit ordination in the New 00:00:49.469 --> 00:00:54.490 Testament. It's that powerful gesture of prayer 00:00:54.490 --> 00:00:59.979 and the imposition of hands. or the laying on 00:00:59.979 --> 00:01:06.659 of hands. This was not something new that the 00:01:06.659 --> 00:01:11.019 apostles invented. No, it was an Old Testament 00:01:11.019 --> 00:01:17.379 sign of blessing, transmission of power, of grace, 00:01:17.620 --> 00:01:21.519 of authority. We've seen this a number of times, 00:01:21.599 --> 00:01:28.150 even beginning with the patriarchs. This is the 00:01:28.150 --> 00:01:32.049 gesture which was adopted by the apostles and 00:01:32.049 --> 00:01:37.090 has been maintained by the church for over 2 00:01:37.090 --> 00:01:43.549 ,000 years in setting aside certain men within 00:01:43.549 --> 00:01:47.629 the Christian community for a specific ministry. 00:01:48.430 --> 00:01:54.349 Three -fold ministry of bishop, priest, and deacon. 00:01:56.890 --> 00:01:59.670 Ministry of reader, there's an imposition of 00:01:59.670 --> 00:02:03.450 hands when the bishop blesses someone to be a 00:02:03.450 --> 00:02:10.949 minister. And there are other gestures. And the 00:02:10.949 --> 00:02:18.110 richer the symbolism is, the more difficult it 00:02:18.110 --> 00:02:24.729 is to define, decide, and define a gesture. Now 00:02:24.729 --> 00:02:28.620 we're all... familiar with gestures. If I went 00:02:28.620 --> 00:02:31.319 like that, you'd all look up to see what's going 00:02:31.319 --> 00:02:41.599 on. Or, hi, how are you doing? Gesture may be 00:02:41.599 --> 00:02:45.500 too much money. So all different kinds of gestures. 00:02:46.479 --> 00:02:49.300 Sometimes there are gestures when we are driving. 00:02:51.780 --> 00:02:55.960 Now, we don't mention, we don't... gesture when 00:02:55.960 --> 00:02:59.539 we drive, but occasionally other drivers gesture. 00:03:00.479 --> 00:03:03.259 And maybe once in a while they've gestured at 00:03:03.259 --> 00:03:07.759 you like they have at me. So gestures are something 00:03:07.759 --> 00:03:15.020 that are common to human beings. And even the 00:03:15.020 --> 00:03:19.159 gestures, just to mention a couple other, notice 00:03:19.159 --> 00:03:23.139 how often in the liturgy the priest blesses the 00:03:23.139 --> 00:03:27.729 congregation. Now, I mean, how do you define 00:03:27.729 --> 00:03:33.090 that? Like I said, the richer the gesture is, 00:03:33.210 --> 00:03:36.189 the more difficult it is to say in simple words 00:03:36.189 --> 00:03:40.409 what it entails. You make the sign of the cross 00:03:40.409 --> 00:03:43.090 in your prayer. That's a gesture. That's a bodily 00:03:43.090 --> 00:03:50.930 gesture which shows that you're praying. So gestures 00:03:50.930 --> 00:03:53.509 are something that can be used to communicate 00:03:53.509 --> 00:04:00.229 something. Grace, power, blessing. The gestures, 00:04:00.430 --> 00:04:04.110 even the imposition of hands, laying on of hands. 00:04:04.449 --> 00:04:10.110 This is not something exclusively for ordained 00:04:10.110 --> 00:04:15.069 ministry. Even beginning at baptism, the priest 00:04:15.069 --> 00:04:18.589 lays his hand on the person who will soon be 00:04:18.589 --> 00:04:25.720 baptized as an exorcism. Then in... In the New 00:04:25.720 --> 00:04:30.100 Testament also, the laying on of hands is a symbol 00:04:30.100 --> 00:04:37.180 in many of the sacraments. The ordination, the 00:04:37.180 --> 00:04:42.699 sacrament of chrismation or confirmation. One 00:04:42.699 --> 00:04:45.920 of the ways that's mentioned in the New Testament 00:04:45.920 --> 00:04:49.480 is the imposition of hands for the Holy Spirit 00:04:49.480 --> 00:04:54.160 to come upon that person. Now we use anointing 00:04:54.160 --> 00:05:00.360 with chrism, with oil. But also, whether you've 00:05:00.360 --> 00:05:03.420 thought of this, I don't know, but when you go 00:05:03.420 --> 00:05:07.839 to confession, the priest imposes his hands on 00:05:07.839 --> 00:05:13.339 you. He puts the stole as, again, a gesture to 00:05:13.339 --> 00:05:17.939 show that the grace that's coming upon you in 00:05:17.939 --> 00:05:21.860 that prayer of absolution is not from him. It's 00:05:21.860 --> 00:05:25.259 from God. And to show that transmission of grace, 00:05:25.500 --> 00:05:31.540 the priest imposes hands on the person who is 00:05:31.540 --> 00:05:44.100 there for confession, to be absolved. The ministries, 00:05:44.100 --> 00:05:48.560 there are other kinds of ministries as well. 00:05:49.629 --> 00:05:52.990 In today's gospel, I don't know if you ever thought 00:05:52.990 --> 00:05:57.029 of this, but the myrrh -bearing women, they were 00:05:57.029 --> 00:06:01.750 commissioned to do something. The angel didn't 00:06:01.750 --> 00:06:07.069 impose hands, but he said, go and tell. Go and 00:06:07.069 --> 00:06:12.149 tell to the disciples what you've seen. And strangely 00:06:12.149 --> 00:06:16.370 enough, in a way, the myrrh -bearing women are 00:06:16.370 --> 00:06:20.050 the first evangelists. They're the first ones 00:06:20.050 --> 00:06:23.990 to go to the apostles and to convey the news 00:06:23.990 --> 00:06:29.170 that Jesus is risen from the dead. So an evangelizer 00:06:29.170 --> 00:06:34.410 is someone who announces the good news. We normally 00:06:34.410 --> 00:06:37.970 think of evangelists as the four evangelists, 00:06:38.009 --> 00:06:44.529 Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But anyone who 00:06:44.529 --> 00:06:49.129 announces good news is an evangelist. Even you, 00:06:49.269 --> 00:06:52.370 when you see someone, if you say something pleasant 00:06:52.370 --> 00:06:56.670 and happy, that's a ministry. You're saying something, 00:06:56.790 --> 00:07:00.230 doing something to lift that person's spirits. 00:07:01.230 --> 00:07:09.829 So there are many ministries in the church. The 00:07:09.829 --> 00:07:14.370 ministry, probably the most important one, which 00:07:14.370 --> 00:07:17.300 I wrote down last, but it's most important. is 00:07:17.300 --> 00:07:21.540 the ministry of prayer. When someone asks you 00:07:21.540 --> 00:07:26.980 to pray for someone else, that is a genuine ministry, 00:07:27.139 --> 00:07:31.660 to unite your mind and your heart with someone 00:07:31.660 --> 00:07:35.620 who has asked for that, some type of help or 00:07:35.620 --> 00:07:40.180 a favor. The ministry of prayer. Then there are 00:07:40.180 --> 00:07:43.699 ministries all over. There's the ministry of 00:07:43.699 --> 00:07:47.310 the altar servers. There is the ministry of the 00:07:47.310 --> 00:07:50.910 choir director and the choir. There is the ministry 00:07:50.910 --> 00:07:55.470 of the greeters who welcome either parishioners 00:07:55.470 --> 00:07:59.730 or newcomers into the church with either a gesture 00:07:59.730 --> 00:08:04.370 or a smile. Smiles are the best gesture and welcome 00:08:04.370 --> 00:08:10.930 possible. Then ministries galore. There is the 00:08:10.930 --> 00:08:15.779 ministry of cooking. in the church for meals. 00:08:17.740 --> 00:08:20.519 I've always thought it's a little bit of irony 00:08:20.519 --> 00:08:24.139 when we think of deacons. They were first ordained 00:08:24.139 --> 00:08:28.920 to wait on tables, as we were talking about before 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:33.539 the liturgy began here. But that's about the 00:08:33.539 --> 00:08:36.740 least thing that we think of with deacons nowadays, 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:43.470 because their role has been expanded to... A 00:08:43.470 --> 00:08:47.730 liturgical function. But the deacons, just look 00:08:47.730 --> 00:08:52.970 at two of them. Philip. He went out and announced 00:08:52.970 --> 00:08:57.289 the good news to the people. To that Ethiopian 00:08:57.289 --> 00:09:00.750 eunuch who was reading Isaiah. He said, I can't 00:09:00.750 --> 00:09:04.649 understand this at all. Who's the prophet talking 00:09:04.649 --> 00:09:09.909 about? Himself or someone else? And Philip explained 00:09:09.909 --> 00:09:14.980 Isaiah to him. The Ethiopian eunuch said, well, 00:09:15.100 --> 00:09:18.639 what's to prevent me from being baptized? Here's 00:09:18.639 --> 00:09:23.120 some water. And so Philip baptized him and welcomed 00:09:23.120 --> 00:09:30.679 him into the church. Stephen, the proto -martyr, 00:09:30.679 --> 00:09:36.259 the first martyr, is the one who, even though 00:09:36.259 --> 00:09:42.320 all these deacons They weren't ethnically Jews, 00:09:42.500 --> 00:09:46.580 judging from their names. They were proselytes, 00:09:46.679 --> 00:09:51.639 which means people who were interested in... 00:09:51.639 --> 00:09:57.200 People converted to Judaism, even though they 00:09:57.200 --> 00:10:02.639 weren't ethnically Jews. So these seven deacons 00:10:02.639 --> 00:10:07.059 were ordained to help out in the ministry of 00:10:07.059 --> 00:10:10.870 others. while the apostles went on to preach. 00:10:11.409 --> 00:10:17.230 And so ministries abound in the church. I mentioned 00:10:17.230 --> 00:10:22.490 cooking, serving on the parish council. There's 00:10:22.490 --> 00:10:25.570 the ministry of dusting and cleaning the church. 00:10:27.350 --> 00:10:33.110 There's the ministry of pulling weeds, working 00:10:33.110 --> 00:10:37.809 in the garden. Doing things, very mundane things 00:10:37.809 --> 00:10:42.269 that are for the benefit of the Christian community 00:10:42.269 --> 00:10:47.269 and for the benefit of other people. So there's 00:10:47.269 --> 00:10:52.149 no one in the church that doesn't have some type 00:10:52.149 --> 00:10:58.330 of ministry or ministries. This all began, as 00:10:58.330 --> 00:11:01.029 I said, when you were set apart from the world. 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:05.059 at the prayer of exorcism at the beginning of 00:11:05.059 --> 00:11:10.559 your baptism. So do what you can to exercise 00:11:10.559 --> 00:11:15.159 the gift and the blessing and the ministry that 00:11:15.159 --> 00:11:20.120 God has given you. And I'm sure that if you're 00:11:20.120 --> 00:11:24.820 wondering what to do, you can ask your pastor, 00:11:24.879 --> 00:11:29.279 and he'll give you several suggestions of things 00:11:29.279 --> 00:11:33.169 that might be done. as a ministry, a service 00:11:33.169 --> 00:11:39.389 to God and to others. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ. 00:11:39.649 --> 00:11:41.629 Christ is risen also.