2024 ordination service sermon
Homilies & Addresses
“A life in Holy Orders is a life of holiness, visibility, presence, servant leadership, and commitment. And we who are called to this ministry are as human, frail, sinful and imperfect as anyone else on God’s earth. However, God calls us regardless,” said Bishop Denise Ferguson
Holy God open our ears to hear your word and know your voice. Speak to our hearts and strengthen our wills, that we may serve you faithfully today and always. Amen.
Jesus said, “Follow me!”
And the disciples responded, left their homes and livelihoods, and followed.
I often wonder if they had any idea what they were stepping into, or what they started?
Today’s Gospel reminds us of Jesus commissioning Peter to “feed my sheep”. I really feel for Peter. Look how many times he got it wrong, or just didn’t understand. However, despite all this, Jesus reaffirmed his call for Peter to follow, over, and over again.
This is the legacy we embrace today as we gather in this place to ordain Kate, Lydia, Matt, Nia, Richard and Sara, to the diaconate, and Lyn and Courtney to the priesthood. And for each one of us, lay and ordained, to recommit to our calling as disciples of Christ.
It is always a privilege to support people as they discern how God is calling them to live out their ministry, lay and ordained. It is wonderful to experience those light bulb moments of connection when the jigsaw puzzle of life comes together to reveal God’s plan and path, and then to walk with that person as they are equipped and enabled to fulfil the picture that the puzzle reveals.
For most people the picture that God reveals will be a call to lay ministry, a ministry all Christians are commissioned to embrace at our baptism and live out in our everyday lives.
Sometimes the picture God reveals on this journey of discovery takes a person down a different path — usually unexpected, always life changing and eternally life challenging. Sometimes, this picture reveals a call to Holy Order. A call we celebrate and affirm today.
Kate, Lydia, Matt, Nia, Richard, Sara, Lyn and Courtney, your call to Holy Orders has been discerned. You have been examined, trained, formed, and equipped as well as possible for the task ahead. Yet today isn’t the end, rather it is only a further stepping stone of the journey.
It has been a privilege to share a little of your journey this past week, as we have retreated from the busyness of life, to intentionally set aside time to wait upon God and reflect upon the sacred commitments that you will make today.
A life-long commitment to ministry demands much from its ministers: it is a life and ministry of holiness, visibility, presence, servant leadership, and commitment.
While the call to Holy Orders may feel personal, the outworking of that call is always public because it can only find its existence in and for the heart of community.
So, what might it mean, in this context, when Jesus says, “Follow Me” and “Feed my sheep”?
Ordination is for life
The commitments made today aren’t temporary — the warranty doesn’t run out in five years or 10. Ordination is for life. While there may be a time when we who are ordained step away from active ministry, that doesn’t diminish or void God’s actions in this sacramental commissioning.
Ordination, whether as deacon, priest or bishop is like Baptism; it can’t be erased or undone.
Those who stand before us today do so with great courage and commitment.
A call to follow is a call to servant leadership
All who are baptised are called to ministry, all are called to follow. Those who are called to Holy Orders have a particular responsibility to lead God’s people. However, we who are ordained will never be the “Head” or the CEO of the organisation to which we have committed our lives. Rather, we are called to serve in a Church that has only one head: Christ, and we are called to be servants of the “Head” by serving the Body.
The only authority we have comes from God, through Christ and the Church, and that authority isn’t to stand alone in leadership, it is to work in partnership with God and God’s people to fulfil a particular function within and for the Body of Christ.
The model of leadership we offer is one where actions speak louder than words and is symbolised by a bowl and towel. We are called to kneel at the feet of the ones we lead, wipe the dust from their sandals, wash their feet, pour oil upon their heads, seat them at the head of the table, nourish them with the scriptures and build bridges into their lives. We are to love unconditionally, as God loves us.
This is a ministry of servant leadership that witnesses to sacred trust, commitment, compassion, courage, loyalty, integrity, and humility.
And we who are called to this ministry are as human, frail, sinful and imperfect as anyone else on God’s earth. However, like Peter, God calls us regardless.
A call to follow is a call to embrace a ministry of presence
The call to Holy Orders, is a call to a ministry of presence, sometimes described as a sacrament of presence — intentional, privileged invitation, instigated by need or circumstances to be present for people, and communities, at some of the most important and often most vulnerable times of their lives, times of great crises and times of great joy and transformation. It is a ministry of being, rather than a ministry of doing.
A call to follow means offering a ministry of visibility
No matter how we might be called to fulfil our ordained ministry, no matter how we might function, we are inescapably God’s public representatives in the world.
There will be times when this visibility is a great joy. There will be other times when it will bring challenge and scrutiny. While this visibility can give us a recognised, and sometimes privileged place in the community, when difficulties arise it can also be a lonely and isolating place.
In my experience, nothing can prepare us for this experience. All we can do is ensure our spiritual foundations are firm.
A call to follow means choosing a life of holiness
Firm foundations for ministry are deeply anchored in our relationship with God.
Fifty-one weeks ago, many of us gathered in this Cathedral to support Archbishop Jeremy as he responded to the same call placed on Peter, that call to “Follow Me” and “Feed my Sheep”. I recall vividly the opening lines of his sermon as he recounted a conversation with his spiritual director, who asked him ‘Who do you work for?”
Archbishop Jeremy replied, and I quote, “Well, obviously, the bishop, and the wardens, and the parish council, and the strategic plan, and the music director, and the Mothers’ Union, and the youth worker…”
Following a further exchange, which went into one of those deep, “aha” moments we experience in spiritual direction, a further question was posed — “What might it look like if you worked for God?”
His reflection — and his sermon is readily available if you would like to read it or refresh your memories) — his reflection touched me deeply and was a profound reminder that firm foundations for ministry are ones deeply anchored in our relationship with God.
Kate, Lydia, Matt, Nia, Richard, Sara, Lyn and Courtney, I encourage you to ask these same questions of yourselves frequently, especially when the demands of ministry feel overwhelming — and they will.
As a wise mentor once said to me, “We must stay plugged into the source.” Regular nourishment with daily prayer, engaging with scripture, and waiting on…being with God. These are disciplines essential to the Christian life in general, and critical to those who are called into Holy Orders. These are disciplines that can too easily become subsumed by the demands of the many facets of ministry.
There will be many voices, including your own, urging you to “do” as you step into your new ministries; however, before the “doing” I encourage you to grasp and embrace the “being” of your call, a call to a life of holiness.
A life in Holy Orders is a life of holiness, visibility, presence, servant leadership, and commitment. And we who are called to this ministry are as human, frail, sinful and imperfect as anyone else on God’s earth. However, God calls us regardless.
On the shores of the Sea of Galilee Jesus commissioned Peter to “Feed my Sheep”.
Kate, Lydia, Matt, Nia, Richard, Sara, Lyn and Courtney, today you follow in St Peter’s footsteps as you make this lifelong commitment. You do so willingly and sacrificially, and I am sure, a little fearfully. Thank you for your faithfulness, courage and commitment.
And thank you to your families who have also sacrificed much for you to respond to this call.
To you, the gathered people of God both present and online today, I ask that you pray for each of them. For while they take this courageous step, they do so in their full humanity.
To our Ordinands, Kate, Lydia, Matt, Nia, Richard, Sara, Lyn and Courtney, may you each know God’s abundant grace as you step into a new season with God and God’s people.
May you be a blessing to the people you serve, and may they be a blessing to you. Amen.
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