Sermon for January 12, 2020 - First Sunday after Epiphany - Baptism of our Lord - Year A - Rev'd Jeffrey W. Mello

On Monday evening of this past week, on the Feast of the Epiphany, this sanctuary was filled with Isaac’s friends, family and members of this community.  We were here to witness and celebrate Isaac’s ordination to the Sacred Order of Priests.  What a joyful and poignant evening it was.

This coming Saturday, I leave, with 25 others, for a 10 day pilgrimage to the Holy Land.  11 days from today, I will gather with them on the banks of the Jordan River to renew our Baptismal Vows.

And today, between Isaac’s ordination and stepping into the Jordan River, I delight, with you all, to celebrate the Holy Baptism of Hugo.

And if that weren’t enough stars in alignment, today I celebrate the twelfth anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood.

And so I have been thinking alot lately about priest-making.

12 years ago, a bishop laid his hands on me and made me a priest.

6 days ago, a bishop did the same to Isaac, and made him one.

And this morning, Isaac will pour water over Hugo’s infant head and make him one, too.

Of course, it is God who does this.  We bishops and priests, through the sacraments, make visible what God in the Holy Spirit is already doing.

But you heard me correctly; this morning, Hugo is made a priest, too.  For in our baptism, we are, all of us, made priests.

Elise, and I and Isaac belong to the Order of Priests.  Pat belongs to the Order of Deacons.  And those who are not bishop, priest or deacon belong to the Order of the Laity.

But you are, through your baptism, also a member of what is called “the priesthood of all believers.”  And that is a real thing.  With real obligations.  And real authority. And real sacrifice.

The etymological origins of the word priest are fascinating.  Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation made clear differences between “priest” as an ordained Order in the Roman Church, “presbyter” as an elder in the church, and “priest” as in the “priesthood of all believers.”

The term “priest” comes to us most directly from the Hebrew Scripture, recalling the role of the temple priests in offering sacrifices at the altar.  As a priest in the church, one role I serve is to preside at the Eucharist, our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, at this altar.

But my role is also elder.  Not older -- elder.  I’m someone who has had training and intentional formation.  I commit to studying scripture and maintaining a prayer life.  The church has given me, through my ordination, authority to bless and forgive in the name of the church, to preside at this table, to baptize, marry and bury through the sacraments of the church.

And you have been made a priest.  Inasmuch as you strive to live into your baptismal covenant, you are making your whole life a living sacrifice to God, offered at the altar of the world. 

I have been an ordained priest for twelve years.  I have been a member of the priesthood of all believers for fifty-one.  And let me tell you, being a priest as in presbyter is a heck of a lot easier than being a priest as in baptized member of the body of Christ.

My work as your priest and presbyter is hard;  it is often unclear and far reaching.  But our jobs as the Baptized are so much more vast, so much more demanding, so much less clear. 

I have been thinking and praying for Isaac a lot this week. 

I have been praying for him because it was the week after I was ordained to the Priesthood that I felt the furthest from God.  I was the least hopeful.  I was the most full of despair. 

I remember riding the red line to work at Christ Church Cambridge, staring at the front page of the Metro and feeling completely inadequate to the work I thought I had just been ordained to do.

And what I have learned in the twelve years since the bishop laid his hands on me is that the work I was ordained to do in the church is hard, but it is nothing compared to the work I was ordained to do in the world at my baptism.

And my ordination didn’t give me anything more to do that work than I was given at my baptism.  I was no more equipped for the work God needed me to do as a follower of Christ than I had been the day water was poured over my head.

My ordination gave me what I needed to be a sacramental priest and presbyter in the church.  My baptism gave me what I needed to be God’s hands and feet and voice in the world.

And this morning, Hugo will get everything he needs to do the same.

On Monday night, listening to the promises Isaac made and the questions the bishop asked him, I felt my ordination vows confirmed and renewed. I watched as the church laid 2,000 years of authority on this young man. 

This morning, gathered at the font, this new priest Isaac will welcome another new priest Hugo and pour over him 2,000 years of experience as the Body of Christ.

And I hope, as Isaac asks questions and Hugo’s parents and godparents make promises, you will feel your own baptism confirmed, and your own priesthood renewed. 

Isaac, Elise, Pat, the bishop and I, we have been set aside for particular work in the church for which we have been prepared and formed and called.

But you have been called, you have been set aside, and you have been prepared and formed to do the work where the rubber meets the road, as they say.

Jesus was never ordained.  But he was baptized.  His baptism marked the beginning of his public ministry as he walked down the bank into the river with the rest of humanity.  God got in the river with us.  And walking back out, assured of his belovedness, he began to forgive, and to heal and to bless; to make his whole life a sacrifice to God.

But now it is you who are to forgive where there is brokenness, it is you who is to heal where there is pain, and it is you who are to bless where grace is woefully absent.  It is you who is to make your life a living sacrifice to God. 

Hugo is already who God needs him to be.  This morning, we witness him joining Jesus in the River Jordan.  This morning we watch for the clouds to open, for the spirit to descend on him and we listen in as God whispers into his ear, “you are my beloved child.”

And then we promise to stand with him and support him as we send him out into a world that needs to be reminded of its belovedness and to be called back to its core identity as God’s own creation.

And that is your job.  Isaac, and Elise, Pat and I are here to assist you in whatever way we can. 

But it is your job, it is our job to do together as the priests we are meant to be. 

With God’s help.

Amen.[1]

© 2020 The Reverend Jeffrey W. Mello

[1] While all direct and indirect quotes are always cited, there are sources I read regularly in preparation for sermon writing.  Chances are thoughts have been spurred by these sources and so I list the usual suspects here:  David Lose, In the Meantime, The New Interpreters Bible, Sacra Pagina .