“Fan into
flame’ or ‘Ordination to Proxy’
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| Thanks to Pastor Neal for the use of his cool slide and the sermon |
“6For this reason I remind you to fan into
flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7For
the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and
self-discipline. 8So do not be ashamed of the testimony about
our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the
gospel, by the power of God. 9He has saved us and called us
to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own
purpose and grace.” 2 Timothy 1:6-9a (NIV)
My young friend Tim Gray was ordained this weekend to the ministry
of the word and sacrament and I am now free to call him the Reverend Tim Gray
or any other derivative that seems to fit at the time. I am honored to have been
asked to participate in his service of ordination. Honored and humbled. Honored,
humbled, and challenged. Challenged that I need to continue on the path God has
before me and to stay firmly ensconced in His story. I believe that there is a
conspiracy afloat in that regard what with Tim honoring me as he did and others
patting me on the back for things that I’ve done simply because I’m too stubborn
stop.
Tim’s service was an amazing time of worship, prayer, the consuming
of God’s word, blessing one another, laying on of hands in his commission, and a
reaffirmation of the baptismal covenant to name a few. The elements of the
service built one upon the other until we saw Tim well ordained. He then served his first communion after which
he charged us with a genuine authority from a shepherd’s heart. I was glad that
I got to call our gathering to worship and offer the opening prayer, it allowed
me to participate in the other service elements with prayer and blessing without
performance anxiety hanging over my head.
Tim’s former pastor, the Reverend Neal Neuenschwander, has been a mentor
to Tim as he accepted the call while at The First Presbyterian Church San Pedro.
Pastor Neal gave a powerful sermon based on 2 Timothy 1: 1-7. I’m still
working it through and coming to terms with it while hoping for far reaching
effects. He took such joy in God’s word that it was/is contagious and I for one
felt emboldened to the point that when we were laying hands on Tim, much like
Paul did for his young protégé, I sensed the power and authority being processed
through each of us to Tim. I pray that it will be a wellspring for Tim to draw
upon again and again throughout his ministry.
While talking with Pastor Neal after the service I remembered a
former pastor that I served under who used to say that at weddings, everybody
got a little more married. I feel like that was the case during this service,
we were a little more ordained to our callings whether it be singing in a
choir, serving cookies at fellowship, being an elder, teaching, preaching, or praying, whatever – we all are ordained for the purpose of His calling on us and the more
so with this powerful sermon and service.
As I worked through what ‘ordination’ means I tried to find a way
to extend Tim’s ordination to any and all who have had anything to do with his development
and was going to say that y’all have been a little more ordained to your calling
by proxy even if you were unable to be present. When I really looked at those
two words, ordination and proxy, I saw that I was wrong in how I intended to present
them. Nevertheless, rest assured that if you impacted Tim’s growth to the ministry,
one way or t’other, you have been further ordained to carry out your calling. Go
to it.
That being said, I have not been deterred from pairing the two
words and find that as I have dug in about this I have a deeper understanding
of them and how they relate to each other. In short, to ordain is to “invest
officially with ministerial authority. And, a proxy is a person who is given
the power and authority to do something on behalf of someone else. So, we are
therefore ordained by Christ to act on His behalf on earth as Jesus stands at
the right hand of God. (Acts 7:56) We are Jesus’ proxies and ordained to His
truth and grace and to have them operate in us and through us to all we
encounter.
“Fan into flame the gift of God…”
In His grip, jerry
