“To continue his or her instruction in the Faith

so as to remain an effective minister for the Lord Jesus Christ”

Well, we come this morning to the ninth of the ten duties the ACNA expects of all its members as sort of the minimum standard of what it means to live out our profession as biblically faithful, orthodox Anglican Christians. And so again to quote Canon 10: “It shall be the duty of every member of the Church…[ninthly] To continue his or her instruction in the Faith so as to remain an effective minister for the Lord Jesus Christ”

Of course you know we have a new minister here at St. Stephen’s – our beloved Deacon Alan. It’s always great to have a new minister in the church, not only because they’re so gung-ho and ready to get out there and save the world – and are inspiring in that way – but also because they provide a good deal of comic relief in their first year or two as they stumble around trying to get their ministerial feet under them. Whole books have been written just by collecting the funny stories of the liturgical bloopers of new ministers. I’m sure if I looked hard enough I could find some of mine in them.

I can remember when I was a new deacon, it came time for the distribution of Communion. And it must have been the first or second time I was given the responsibility of distributing the Host, the bread. And I came to a woman who was piously kneeling at the altar rail with her hands held together and lifted up about chest high, but she happened to be wearing a fairly low-cut blouse that Sunday. And she was – how shall on put it – ample in her figure. And, yes, you guessed it; I dropped it right down in there, like a quarter in a slot-machine, and I had to fight my high-churchman’s instinct to go in after it to rescue it from being defiled. Actually, there’s a funny You-tube clip on the internet right now of a priest doing that very thing… with the bride at her wedding of all things!

Funny things do happen at church! So Alan, we’re just waiting for your moment. It will come. And I guarantee we’ll be laughing at you as much as with you.

It was a real privilege to be in Katy, Texas, last month not only to witness Deacon Alan’s ordination, but to present him to the bishop for that ancient rite of the laying on of hands. What actually happened in that ceremony? Obviously Alan was given the office of a Deacon, but there was more to it than that. When the bishop laid his hands upon Alan’s head a spiritual miracle took place. He wasn’t just given the responsibility to serve as a deacon. He was given the power to do it. The Holy Spirit was conferred through the sacramental means of the laying on of the bishop’s hands for that particular work of ministry – the work of a deacon.

When the bishop laid his hands upon me at my ordination to the priesthood, a spiritual miracle occurred. I was given the Holy Spirit for the work of my ministry – the work of a priest.

It’s the same thing that we see when Jesus ordained his disciples to be apostles – His sent ones. In the evening of the first Easter, Jesus met the disciples in that upper room, and he said, “Peace be to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And then he breathed upon them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” And then He told them what their ministry would consist of: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (Jn. 20:21-22). You see, Jesus didn’t just lay upon them the heavy burden and responsibility of being apostles; he empowered them to do it by conferring to them the Holy Spirit for that particular work of ministry.

Now part of the apostles’ equipping for ministry came before they were ordained. They walked with the Lord for three years being taught by Him and witnessing all His miraculous signs and works. And part of Alan’s and my equipping for our ministries came before we were ordained. For me it was three years of seminary training. For Alan it was several years of postulancy, in which he studied the Word of God and the Faith, and received instruction by me to maybe study again certain passages and doctrines. But in every case – in the case of the apostles, in my case, and in Deacon Alan’s case – all that studying and learning isn’t what made us ministers; it was the gifting of the Holy Spirit that did that. But all that studying and learning, and being advised and corrected and sometimes called on the carpet by our superiors, is what makes us effective ministers of the Gospel. It’s not what makes us ministers; it’s what makes us effective ministers. You see, that’s why it’s essential that that kind of equipping continues even after our ordinations – so that we may continue to be useful, effective ministers in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is a truth the apostle Paul took great care to communicate to his protégé Timothy, who would soon, in a very real sense, be taking over for him as the bishop of the city of Ephesus. In his first letter to his beloved son in the faith Paul writes,

“Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you” (1 Tim. 4:13-16).

You see, Timothy’s ministry as a bishop was nothing less than to save the souls of those who heard him, to save those under his care. The gifting for that ministry, Paul says, was given to him by the laying on of hands. But to not give attention to reading, and study, and meditation, to not give himself entirely to those things, would be tantamount to neglecting that gift and to weaken his ministry. So in his second letter to Timothy, Paul actually challenges him to stir up the gift that was in him through the laying on of hands. Stir it up. Stoke the flames. Brush away the cobwebs. Use the gift that’s in you, and strengthen it by continually submitting yourself to the teaching of the Word of God. “Be diligent,” he says, “ to present yourself approved of God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15).

So this duty, to continue our instruction in the Faith so as to remain effective ministers of Christ, really only applies to Deacon Alan and me, right? Because we’re the ministers of this congregation. Isn’t that right? No. The New Testament couldn’t be clearer on this point: that we are all of us ministers in the house of God. Again it’s St. Paul who says, “There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences in ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given each one for the profit of all” (I Cor. 12:4-7).

We’ve heard what happened at Deacon Alan’s ordination. But what happened at your confirmation? It wasn’t that you learned a bunch of stuff and then were just sort of confirmed in the fact that learned it – whether you did or not. No. You learned all that stuff, but then the bishop laid his hands upon you, and you too experienced a spiritual miracle, just as Alan and I did when the bishop laid his hands on us. You were ordained to be ministers in this church. Why else would the bishop lay his hands upon you? It wasn’t just to pat you on the head and say, “Nice job.” It was to confer upon you the gift of the Holy Spirit for the work of ministry. That’s what we see all through the book of Acts, when the apostles, the first bishops of the Church, laid their hands upon people – even lay-people; they received the Holy Spirit and started speaking and doing the words and works of God. They were ordained for ministry. And you were ordained for ministry, when the bishop laid hands on you.

And again, it’s not that the Church simply lays that responsibility upon you. You’re also given the power to perform it. What does the Prayerbook says. It asks the question, in the Second Office of Instruction: “What is your bounden duty as a member of the Church?” In other words, what is your ministry? And the answer is: “My bounden duty is to follow Christ, to worship God every Sunday in his Church; and to work and pray and give for the spread of his kingdom.” That’s your ministry. But how can you do it? “What special means does the Church provide to help you to do all these things? Answer: The Church provides the Laying on of Hands, or Confirmation, wherein, after renewing the promises and vows of my Baptism, and declaring my loyalty and devotion to Christ as my Master, I receive the strengthening gifts of the Holy Spirit.”

You see, I’m not making this stuff up. It’s right there in the Prayerbook, because it’s in the Word of God. Your Confirmation was an ordination. Just like Alan and me, you’ve been ordained to be a minister in this church,

So it stands to reason, doesn’t? That if you have received the gift of the Holy Spirit for ministry through the laying on of hands, that you too need to stir up that gift that is within you. You too need to stoke that fire, and fan those flames. And the way you do that is the same way Paul exhorted Timothy: “give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine… Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them… Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.”

There’s a great tragedy in traditional churches in our day, as there has been for a long time, and that is that Confirmation become for many the rite of passage out of the Church. You know, “’Well, I got my grace. I got my mojo. Now I don’t have to be in church anymore.” That’s the complete opposite of what Confirmation is supposed to be about. It’s supposed to a graduation to a new level of ministry and service in the Church, not a graduation out of the Church. Or if it’s not quite as bad as that, still for many it’s: “Well, you know, I went through all that Confirmation training way back when. But I couldn’t tell you a thing I leaned, except maybe how you fold your hands the right way to receive Communion.” And that’s a tragedy too, because it means that so precious a gift that was given through the laying on of hands is being neglected. So maybe going through the adult Confirmation class wouldn’t be a bad thing, even if you’ve already been confirmed – or getting back into Sunday school, or getting plugged into a Bible study.

We all need to find ways to continue our instruction in the Faith that we may continue as effective ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ. For all of us have been ordained to a ministry. All of us have been given a stewardship of the gifts and graces of God. It’s a matter now of being faithful in our stewardship. +