Sermon: 24th Sunday after Pentecost
St Thomas, Rondebosch | Licensing of Layministers
7 November 2021 –
Archdeacon Mark Long
Hebrews 9:24-28, Psalm
127, and Mark 12:38-44; NRSV
I am here today on behalf of the Bishop of Table Bay, Bishop Joshua Louw, to license the Layministers of this Parish, and as Archdeacon to admit them to their Office. For all it is a renewal as the Acts of our Diocese require that Layministers participate in ongoing training and their ministries are reviewed every three years by the Rector. Licensed lay ministry is specific to the liturgical and pastoral needs of the Parish, and those called into this service are nominated by the Rector and Parish Council who attest to their faithfulness, integrity and knowledge. Your Layministers are, therefore, women and men whom you can trust. We are all called through Baptism to share in the ministry of Christ and in Christ’s mission to the world; and it is within this broader call that your Layministers are licensed with the Church’s authority to engage with specific responsibilities in the areas of worship and care.
There are a number of key words that I have used: faithfulness, integrity, knowledge; service, authority, responsibility. These are all words that speak into the nature of leadership, specific today in the context of your faith community, but relevant, too, to our broader social context. The challenge for those of you whose licenses are being renewed today is to hold these words, to give them content and context for the ministry and mission of Christ here at St Thomas, remembering always that our mission as God’s people lies beyond the walls of this building: it is resident in our families, our social networks, our work spaces, and the broader world in which we live.
As God’s people seeking to live out the ministry and mission of Christ we are called to live differently, specifically we are called to live in opposition to generally accepted social norms particularly when it comes to the use of power. The reality of this call is initially formed in us through our worship and pastoral care, which makes the role you as Layministers will play alongside your Rector in these areas of responsibility so crucial. But what is power? In essence it is the ability to act, a human ability we all have. The important question is are we using this ability creatively or destructively? Are our actions life-giving or life-threatening? And how is power being used both in our community of faith and also in the political and economic structures we participate in daily? How are we learning to use power justly in our times of worship together and in our pastoral care of one another? How is this learning translating into our mission to the world, in ensuring power is used justly in our social, political, and economic environment? And where power is misused or abused, what is our responsibility as God’s people? The answers to these questions are what we grapple with as we engage in liturgy, with Scripture, as we immerse ourselves in the Sacraments, and as we gather for fellowship. We live out these answers as we reach out to one another and the world with caring and love. And this is why it is so important that those who are licensed to serve with the Church’s authority in these areas of responsibility are people of faithfulness, integrity, and knowledge.
If power is to be used justly, what is justice? Today’s reading from Mark’s Gospel perhaps offers us a few clues. Jesus touches on what unjust use of power looks like when he says of the Scribes, “They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”[1] Due to the fact that women had few rights in Jewish society in the 1st century, it is likely that one of the roles of the Scribes was to hold the property of widows – without male heirs – in trust and run their affairs for them. The implication of Jesus’ comment is that certain of these Scribes lack integrity and abuse their powers and profit to the point of leaving these widows destitute[2]. It is not difficult to see the injustice of this practice, nor is it difficult to see similar injustices in our own context. It is not difficult to imagine that the widow Jesus calls the disciples attention to outside the Treasury is one such widow who has been left destitute by a Scribe’s misuse of power over her. What is intriguing here is that while the widow has had everything taken from her, she chooses to give what is left, “… all she had to live on”[3] or – a more direct translation from the Greek – she chooses to give “her whole life.”[4] What this highlights is that, “There is a difference between giving everything and having everything taken away.”[5] Importantly, although the systemic injustice that allows some Scribes to misuse their power has lost the widow almost everything, it has not removed her agency; she still has power – the ability to act – and does so by giving “her whole life.” Injustice seeks to remove agency, justice restores it.
My challenge to those of you being licensed today is to explore, together with your Rector, what agency looks like in the context of Worship and Pastoral Care, and to be courageous in creating spaces that allow people to discover their power, to use that power justly; to care for people in such a way that their agency and humanity is not diminished, but increased. Begin by exploring what this means for you as individuals and as the liturgical and pastoral team here at St Thomas’, what it is to wash one another’s feet. Be cautious of exercising your authority in any manner that may diminish people’s humanity or limit God’s power to act in and through you and in and through others, but also avoid false modesty. Embrace your fear or anxiety, and be the example to others that God is calling you to be, and which the Church affirms through the licenses you receive today.
Hold close the following words by Marianne Williamson (incorrectly attributed to Nelson Mandela),
In closing, a prayer by Irish Theologian and Poet, Pádraig Ó Tuama:
Let us pray,
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