Fully Empowered and Authorized
The Rev. Canon Frank Logue gave this sermon at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Savannah, Georgia on December 30, 2019, for the liturgy marking a Celebration of New Ministry with the Rev. Guillermo Arboleda.
Fully Empowered and Authorized
Joshua 1:7-9 and Romans 12:1-18
Celebration of New Ministry. That’s what the bulletin says anyway. New ministry? You have already put enough mileage on your priest that if he was a car, you would have to sell him as used. He’s been here a couple of years! You have already gotten the new priest smell out of him.
This year I returned to my parent’s small hometown for the second time. canada viagra prescription Pur3X is an excellent levitra 10 mg vehicle to propel you to financial freedom. Half of the recommendations in the US are affected tadalafil side effects by it. The main component in cheapest viagra for sale, Sildenafil Citrate functions to repeal the action of this PDE-5 and thus allowing blood flow into the penis to achieve and maintain an erection.
Y’all working together have already gotten to the part where you get real with each other. He has been here long enough that y’all actually know each other, good and bad, and you want him to do this anyway. I find that encouraging, because the fit does matter. I was joking with your priest about this as I asked him about what sort of screws or bolts we needed to bring to install him as rector. I explained that the last time I preached one of these services, I wasn’t the Canon to the Ordinary. I am not exactly sure how installing a rector goes. I told Guillermo that it would be embarrassing to discover that he didn’t align with the bolts in the floor. He told me we might have to drill some new holes. So I came prepared. I did bring some tools so we can make it work on the fly. [show a drill]
But there is no way he is a perfect fit, have you looked at him? He’s a big strapping priest. [spin the drill, swap out the battery and power up the saw.] I assure you, one way or another, we are going to get Guillermo properly installed as your rector tonight.
I am, mostly, kidding. Installation of a Rector was a way of describing what we are doing tonight that we have left behind, we don’t call it that any more as it didn’t fit with a biblical understanding of ministry. You will notice the bulletin describes this service as the Celebration of a New Ministry. Then within the notes “About this Service” on page one of the bulletin we read, “Crucially, the Celebration of a New Ministry is not only about the new rector.” The word “only” is in italics so we will note, that this liturgy is about Guillermo, but not only about him. This liturgy is about every parishioner of St. Matthew’s as well.
So the note in the bulletin goes on, “It is about the mutual ministry of the rector with the whole parish. This services emphasizes the ministry of all baptized Christians and the ways in which priests and laity partner together to fulfill the church’s mission.” So this is about partnering together.
To continue reading the sermon, click here: Fully Empowered and Authorized, continued
Comments are closed.