Exodus 4:1-17 Click here for the reading
Today is the anniversary of my ordination in 2007. It's funny, every time someone asks me how long I have been ministering I respond; "Since I was Baptized." Participating in the body of Christ is ministry. AND I firmly believe that baptism trumps ordination.
Reflecting on this event that changed my life when the bishop and other ordained ministers laid their hands on me in the covenant of annointed leadership, I am moved.
There was a time in my life where Exodus 4 summed up my resistance to God's call: 'can't you find someone else?' God literally had to throw down the gauntlet or staff as it were. Picking up the staff of leadership is one of the most rewarding and formidable tasks I have had the honor to experience.
I felt the call to ministry early on (about the age of 15) but spent most of my next few years trying to run away from that call. Who wouldn't be suspicious of God calling someone like me! And yet that is the point of the staff of leadership that God lays down, it belongs to one (God) who then shares it with a whole bunch of ordinary people to accomplish extra ordinary things! Moses holds on to this staff, moves the people of God from slavery to freedom. And when his time is done, Joshua (someone Moses mentored) picks up this staff to complete the task.
As I think about how God has used me in demonstrating and proclaiming the Kingdom of God, I'm humbled and proud at the same time. In one of my favorite hymns, the last line I can never get through without welling up...."Sing, sing a new song, sing of that great day when all will be one, God will reign." To me this is what this ministry is all about! We are called to participate in what God is doing....and we will participate until that great day when all will be one, GOD WILL REIGN!
Lord, I thank you for calling me out of baptismal waters to participate in your kingdom, thank you for the people who helped me hear and discern that call, thank you for surrounding me with people to speak this kingdom life into, thank you for a gracious partner in ministry, and thank you for your church. It is the most terrifying thing I have particpated in. - Amen
Today is the anniversary of my ordination in 2007. It's funny, every time someone asks me how long I have been ministering I respond; "Since I was Baptized." Participating in the body of Christ is ministry. AND I firmly believe that baptism trumps ordination.
Reflecting on this event that changed my life when the bishop and other ordained ministers laid their hands on me in the covenant of annointed leadership, I am moved.
There was a time in my life where Exodus 4 summed up my resistance to God's call: 'can't you find someone else?' God literally had to throw down the gauntlet or staff as it were. Picking up the staff of leadership is one of the most rewarding and formidable tasks I have had the honor to experience.
I felt the call to ministry early on (about the age of 15) but spent most of my next few years trying to run away from that call. Who wouldn't be suspicious of God calling someone like me! And yet that is the point of the staff of leadership that God lays down, it belongs to one (God) who then shares it with a whole bunch of ordinary people to accomplish extra ordinary things! Moses holds on to this staff, moves the people of God from slavery to freedom. And when his time is done, Joshua (someone Moses mentored) picks up this staff to complete the task.
As I think about how God has used me in demonstrating and proclaiming the Kingdom of God, I'm humbled and proud at the same time. In one of my favorite hymns, the last line I can never get through without welling up...."Sing, sing a new song, sing of that great day when all will be one, God will reign." To me this is what this ministry is all about! We are called to participate in what God is doing....and we will participate until that great day when all will be one, GOD WILL REIGN!
Lord, I thank you for calling me out of baptismal waters to participate in your kingdom, thank you for the people who helped me hear and discern that call, thank you for surrounding me with people to speak this kingdom life into, thank you for a gracious partner in ministry, and thank you for your church. It is the most terrifying thing I have particpated in. - Amen
RSS Feed