Sunday of the Myrrhbearers 2023 Fr. James Jorgenson

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit, amen. Christ is risen. Christos

vos kresa. Christos anesti. This morning I'm

going to share with you a few ideas about ministry

and ministries in the church. Now, from today's

epistle, with the ordination of deacons, you

might think that that was my inspiration for

speaking about ministry. Well, it was. We see

here the only explicit ordination in the New

Testament. It's that powerful gesture of prayer

and the imposition of hands. or the laying on

of hands. This was not something new that the

apostles invented. No, it was an Old Testament

sign of blessing, transmission of power, of grace,

of authority. We've seen this a number of times,

even beginning with the patriarchs. This is the

gesture which was adopted by the apostles and

has been maintained by the church for over 2

,000 years in setting aside certain men within

the Christian community for a specific ministry.

Three -fold ministry of bishop, priest, and deacon.

Ministry of reader, there's an imposition of

hands when the bishop blesses someone to be a

minister. And there are other gestures. And the

richer the symbolism is, the more difficult it

is to define, decide, and define a gesture. Now

we're all... familiar with gestures. If I went

like that, you'd all look up to see what's going

on. Or, hi, how are you doing? Gesture may be

too much money. So all different kinds of gestures.

Sometimes there are gestures when we are driving.

Now, we don't mention, we don't... gesture when

we drive, but occasionally other drivers gesture.

And maybe once in a while they've gestured at

you like they have at me. So gestures are something

that are common to human beings. And even the

gestures, just to mention a couple other, notice

how often in the liturgy the priest blesses the

congregation. Now, I mean, how do you define

that? Like I said, the richer the gesture is,

the more difficult it is to say in simple words

what it entails. You make the sign of the cross

in your prayer. That's a gesture. That's a bodily

gesture which shows that you're praying. So gestures

are something that can be used to communicate

something. Grace, power, blessing. The gestures,

even the imposition of hands, laying on of hands.

This is not something exclusively for ordained

ministry. Even beginning at baptism, the priest

lays his hand on the person who will soon be

baptized as an exorcism. Then in... In the New

Testament also, the laying on of hands is a symbol

in many of the sacraments. The ordination, the

sacrament of chrismation or confirmation. One

of the ways that's mentioned in the New Testament

is the imposition of hands for the Holy Spirit

to come upon that person. Now we use anointing

with chrism, with oil. But also, whether you've

thought of this, I don't know, but when you go

to confession, the priest imposes his hands on

you. He puts the stole as, again, a gesture to

show that the grace that's coming upon you in

that prayer of absolution is not from him. It's

from God. And to show that transmission of grace,

the priest imposes hands on the person who is

there for confession, to be absolved. The ministries,

there are other kinds of ministries as well.

In today's gospel, I don't know if you ever thought

of this, but the myrrh -bearing women, they were

commissioned to do something. The angel didn't

impose hands, but he said, go and tell. Go and

tell to the disciples what you've seen. And strangely

enough, in a way, the myrrh -bearing women are

the first evangelists. They're the first ones

to go to the apostles and to convey the news

that Jesus is risen from the dead. So an evangelizer

is someone who announces the good news. We normally

think of evangelists as the four evangelists,

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But anyone who

announces good news is an evangelist. Even you,

when you see someone, if you say something pleasant

and happy, that's a ministry. You're saying something,

doing something to lift that person's spirits.

So there are many ministries in the church. The

ministry, probably the most important one, which

I wrote down last, but it's most important. is

the ministry of prayer. When someone asks you

to pray for someone else, that is a genuine ministry,

to unite your mind and your heart with someone

who has asked for that, some type of help or

a favor. The ministry of prayer. Then there are

ministries all over. There's the ministry of

the altar servers. There is the ministry of the

choir director and the choir. There is the ministry

of the greeters who welcome either parishioners

or newcomers into the church with either a gesture

or a smile. Smiles are the best gesture and welcome

possible. Then ministries galore. There is the

ministry of cooking. in the church for meals.

I've always thought it's a little bit of irony

when we think of deacons. They were first ordained

to wait on tables, as we were talking about before

the liturgy began here. But that's about the

least thing that we think of with deacons nowadays,

because their role has been expanded to... A

liturgical function. But the deacons, just look

at two of them. Philip. He went out and announced

the good news to the people. To that Ethiopian

eunuch who was reading Isaiah. He said, I can't

understand this at all. Who's the prophet talking

about? Himself or someone else? And Philip explained

Isaiah to him. The Ethiopian eunuch said, well,

what's to prevent me from being baptized? Here's

some water. And so Philip baptized him and welcomed

him into the church. Stephen, the proto -martyr,

the first martyr, is the one who, even though

all these deacons They weren't ethnically Jews,

judging from their names. They were proselytes,

which means people who were interested in...

People converted to Judaism, even though they

weren't ethnically Jews. So these seven deacons

were ordained to help out in the ministry of

others. while the apostles went on to preach.

And so ministries abound in the church. I mentioned

cooking, serving on the parish council. There's

the ministry of dusting and cleaning the church.

There's the ministry of pulling weeds, working

in the garden. Doing things, very mundane things

that are for the benefit of the Christian community

and for the benefit of other people. So there's

no one in the church that doesn't have some type

of ministry or ministries. This all began, as

I said, when you were set apart from the world.

at the prayer of exorcism at the beginning of

your baptism. So do what you can to exercise

the gift and the blessing and the ministry that

God has given you. And I'm sure that if you're

wondering what to do, you can ask your pastor,

and he'll give you several suggestions of things

that might be done. as a ministry, a service

to God and to others. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ.

Christ is risen also.