By virtue of our baptism, all Christians are ordained for ministry. Do you remember when you were ordained? You are, you know, ordained. You are a minister of the gospel. In the early rites of baptism, the church made this clear. The newly baptized Christian was given a white robe, symbolic of the new life now being lived. Hands were laid on the person’s head, oil was poured on their forehead and the sign of the cross was made—all symbolic gestures that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been bestowed upon the candidate in the act of baptism. Through baptism, the candidate was ordained for ministry in the world. Alas, most of us now associate the laying-on of hands with clerical ordination or perhaps confirmation. Over the centuries, baptism has lost its significance as the making of “priests” and become only a rite of initiation into the church. This has led many to the unfortunate conclusion that bishops, priests and deacons are the real ministers of the church, and that the laity exists just to support the clergy. You may remember the old 19th-century adage that the role of the laity is to “pray, pay and obey.” But that is wrong. In Luke’s gospel, chapter 3 verses 21 to 22, there is an account of the baptism of Jesus. When Jesus is baptized, a dove descends and a voice proclaims Jesus as God’s beloved son. Following this event, Jesus begins his ministry of preaching, teaching and healing—a sign that the reign of God is breaking into the world. Jesus’ baptism is the day of his ordination, the beginning point of his work, his ministry. From the baptism of Jesus I draw this conclusion: our baptism conveys the gift of the Holy Spirit, which commissions us for ministry. We are given the Spirit in baptism so that we might be empowered to participate fully in the ministry of Christ in the world. All of us are ordained by God to be ministers. Clergy, in the New Testament sense, are not here to do the ministry of the people, but to equip the people to do the ministry. How different this understanding is from the view that the clergy are the paid professionals who minister to a passive congregation content to be served. The New Testament has no such view of ministry. Of course, we do have different functions. We have different roles. We exercise different gifts. But we are all ministers because we all have been ordained by the Holy Spirit at our baptism.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Apr 2014 15:54:09 +0000
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