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Dear Friends,
We will ordain and install new elders and deacons this Sunday, the Baptism of the Lord. Before I talk about that, I want to say as loudly as possible: THANK YOU TO OUR OUTGOING ELDERS AND DEACONS! On behalf of the whole congregation, thank you to elders Curt, Laurie, Sean, Ed, and deacons Carol, Marlene, Erminia, and Paris!
Even though it’s one of those “C-list” holidays on the church calendar, Baptism of the Lord is the perfect moment to launch people into new ministries, particularly leadership positions. Because baptism is where everything starts. Baptism reminds us that we are named, claimed, and sent, not because we are impressive or especially qualified, but because God delights in calling ordinary people into holy work.
That’s exactly the work elders and deacons are stepping into. Ordination doesn’t make someone more holy than the rest of us. It simply makes visible a calling that was already ignited in baptism: to love God and neighbors, and help build up the body of Christ to serve the world in God’s name.
As I’ve been preparing for Sunday, I’ve been sitting with a poem written for me when I was ordained as minister of word and sacrament. The author, Bobbie Sanders, who I’ll tell you about some day, wrote:
How holy must I be, Lord,
before I hold a baby in my arms
and three times pour the water on her head,
declaring her to be forever a beloved child of God?
How holy must I be
to take a common loaf and break it ,
declaring it to be the very Bread of Life;
or pour wine from the grocery store into a silver cup
and declare that drinking this
will quench our deepest thirst?
How holy must I be, Lord,
to stand before an open grave
and declare to those who weep
that this is not the end?
How can I make them see,
The holiness is not in me?
The holiness is in the baby and the water
in your presence at the Meal,
in the earth to which we must return,
in the power that raises us from dust,
in the Word that was Beginning, Alpha and Omega.
How holy must I be?
The holiness is not in me,
For I am so filled with Self
there is hardly room for God.
Here, then, at this starting place, on this Ordination Day,
I do not ask, Lord, to be filled with holiness.
I pray only for the grace to learn
the necessity of emptiness.
Leadership in the church isn’t about having it all together. It’s about learning the necessity of emptiness, making room for God to work through us, precisely because we are not the heroes of the story. It begins with water and a voice that says, “You are my beloved.” That’s a pretty good place to start.
In faith, hope, and love,
Pastor Bart
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