Sunderland Sermons: Third Sunday of Lent 2018

Exodus 20:1-17 and 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 and John 2:13-22

Today, across Durham Diocese, the clergy have been asked to preach on the theme of vocation. I’ll come back to what ‘the clergy’ means; but first, what do we mean by ‘vocation’? Vocation refers to the call of God on someone’s life. It implies that we are neither the masters of our own destiny, nor slaves to fate. We might even learn to hear Jesus calling “follow me!” at many different times and in many different places over the course of our lives, but if we do, it is as commentary on our primary vocation, which we receive at our baptism. That vocation is to be a royal priesthood.

If you have been baptised, whether you were brought to baptism by your parents or came under your own volition, then, male or female, young or old, you have been ordained a priest by Jesus.

Peter puts it like this: ‘let yourselves be built into a spiritual house [household], to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ…But you [in contrast to those who do not believe] are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.’ (1 Peter 2:5, 9).

If you have been baptised, you are a member of a holy and royal priesthood. If you are preparing for baptism, that is what you are being prepared for. That is your primary vocation: to offer spiritual sacrifices to God on behalf of the world, and to proclaim God’s mighty acts to the world.

Other than Jesus’ own priesthood, that is the only priesthood [Greek: hierateuma] the New Testament letters to and for the Church speaks of. So why do we refer to certain people as priests, and not others? Well, that has to do with the story of the church and the story of language. The Church is the people of God: in Greek, the laos, from which we get the word ‘laity’. For a long time, whenever the local church gathered around the Lord’s table, they drew lots to determine which one of them would preside. The Greek word for casting lots is kleros, from which we get the word ‘clergy’ for the one chosen by the casting of lots. In time, the pattern of practice became simplified and codified, and ‘the clergy’ became those members of ‘the laity’ set apart by the Church for a specific role, to facilitate the whole church in their offering of spiritual sacrifices and proclaiming of God’s mighty acts. Although this hadn’t yet happened when the New Testament was written, the trajectory is already there, where we find servants [Greek: diakonos], elders [Greek: presbuteros, of the council of elders, and pertaining to being a representative] and overseers or guardians [Greek: episkopos]. In time, these roles formalised as those of deacons, elders, and bishops; and in even longer time, through what can happen to words as they pass through different languages and cultures, elders became known as priests.

The simplest way that I can describe it is to say that Jesus ordains every member of his household to a priestly role; and that the household, the Church, ordains certain members to a very particular expression of that priestly role. That might sound complicated at first; but our lives are lived in a dynamic relationship with history, and language, and culture, and in partnership with God.

Let’s turn to our readings, and ask how they might help us think about vocation?

Our first reading today is familiar to us as the Ten Commandments. But what might be less familiar is that, from first to last—from not comparing our God against other gods, to not envying our neighbour’s lot—they frame the vocation to be a priestly people. [i] Proclaim the mighty acts of Yahweh, who delivered his people from slavery to the gods of Egypt. [ii] Acknowledge his authority, over gods and humans. [iii] Represent the Lord your God faithfully in the world. [iv] Rest from your work, as those who are no longer slaves; take time to recognise creation as holy. [v] Honour the elderly, and your heritage. [vi] Do not be like Cain, who of envy murdered his brother. [vii] Do not hold fidelity in contempt. [viii] Do not steal. [ix] Do not bear false witness in court. [x] Do not covet the blessings your neighbour has received from God’s hand. For you were called out of darkness, and the deeds of darkness do not befit you. They are not acceptable sacrifices, nor are they true proclamation.

Our second reading reminds us that this vocation does not depend on our wisdom or study or eloquence, for God has chosen foolishness and weakness to demonstrate his wisdom and power, in Christ, crucified.

Our Gospel reading reminds us that it is Jesus who is foundational, his actions that are foundational; and that human action, however glorious, however well-intended*, is always provisional, must remain open to his challenge and his invitation. (The Jewish elders set themselves against Jesus, which should serve as a salutary warning to all those called by the Church to be an elder, or presbyter, or, priest.)

So, on this Vocations Sunday, the question is not, ‘Are you called to be a priest?’ but, ‘What kind of a priest are you called to be?’ Are you called by Jesus (yes!) or are you called by Jesus and by the Church (perhaps)?

As a priestly people, we proclaim the story which is both God’s and ours. When we gather, different people take turns reading from the Bible; and then one of us—acting under the authority of the bishop—offers some thoughts on what the story we have heard might mean for us today. And then, we go out into the world, carrying that story with us to our homes and workplaces and leisure activities and social media pages; reflecting on it; reflecting it; seeking to live-into it. We make connections between our lives, and the lives of our neighbours, and the story that speaks to us of all the hopes and dreams and joys and sorrows and longings and frustrations and failings and miracle of human life.

As a priestly people, we gather around the Lord’s table. And one sets out bread and wine; and another brings the bread forward, and yet another brings forward the wine. And then one—acting under the authority of the bishop—asks God to bless what we have brought with thankful hearts; and distributes the bread; and others carry the wine to the people. And then, we go out to the world, taking-up other ordinary things like a farmer’s seed and a fisherman’s net and a merchant’s pearl and a baker’s dough—or a nurse’s blood pressure cuff and a teacher’s white board pen—asking God to bless them, for the blessing of others. We go, lifting to God our families, our neighbours, our colleagues and customers in prayer; seeking, somehow, to be part of the answer.

This is what we are called to. This is our vocation. All of us. And it may be that today the Holy Spirit is stirring your heart to see what you do and how you do it—and, indeed, who you are—in a new light. If so, I’d love to speak with you, because my time is set aside to walk with you in that commonplace wonder.

But it is just possible that your spirit is stirring at the possibility that the Church may be calling your priestly vocation to be expressed through a specific role or office: as a Reader (an authorised preaching and teaching ministry), or to ordination by the Church, or to the Religious life as a monk or nun (a communal life set apart for prayer: whether for a season of a year, or for life). If so, I’d love to speak with you, too.

You’d be surprised how often I have such conversations here, at the Minster. With women and men; younger than me, and older than me, and of a similar age to me. Some of those conversations get put on hold, to be returned to at a later time; some reach the conclusion that being ordained by Jesus at their baptism is call enough in the world; some go on to further conversations with representatives of the wider Church. All of them are conversations that involve other people one way or another, because it is through one another that the Church tests the call.

At the present, we are looking to encourage these calls among those aged 18-30; but we are actively open to those who are older, even those already of retirement age; and actively open to calling women and men from a variety of backgrounds. Some will be stipendiary, like me; some, self-supporting, like Jacqui; some in chaplaincy, like Chris.

Perhaps, in the future, it should be you stood here, or somewhere like here; preaching, or presiding. Perhaps wherever it is you live out your royal and holy priesthood right now is not the most appropriate location, after all.

May God build up his household in this place. And as we respond, may we, the Church, identify those we will call to reader training, ordained ministry, and the religious life. Amen.

*The selling of animals for sacrifice in the temple was motivated by the need to address the problem of how to help people, who were no longer nomadic farmers, bring the necessary offering before God. However, the marketplace was set up in the outer-most court of the temple complex, the Court of the Gentiles, or, the only part of the temple that non-Jews were permitted to enter. This action therefore robbed the ‘god-fearing’ (those Gentiles who recognised Yahweh as the supreme god) of the provision made for them to take part in public worship, or, prayer.

Appendix:

These words, taken from the Commission and Sending Out in the Baptism service (Common Worship), give shape to the priesthood of all believers.

Those who are baptised are called to worship and serve God.

Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?