Ministry of All the Baptized

Notes from an opening workshop Ministry of all the Baptized at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Portland, OR, June 6, 2009 by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.
During a brief opening liturgy, we are all sprinkled with water by the two Bishops present.
Jesus was baptized in the River Jordan, and as he came up out of the water God said to him, You are my beloved. With you I am well pleased. Then he went to the wilderness for forty days to become clear about his vocation. Then he went to Nazareth and preached about the coming of God’s justice. Those three movements can speak to us.
BAPTISM
First God says to us, you are my beloved and with you I am well pleased.
(5 min meditation on hearing that said to each of us individually. What does it mean that we are God’s beloved, that God is well pleased with us? Followed by sharing)
And in Romans, Paul claims that nothing can separate us from that love. (Romans 8: 38,39).
Baptism is about identity—who we are. “Katharine” came from a Swedish princess who with her mother Bridget, traveled to Rome at the time the papacy was split, and they shook their fingers at these men urging them to take the moral high road.
What do we know about our Baptismal name? What piece of identity comes from it? Share with someone sitting next to. Saw a t-shirt lately which read, Jesus loves you, but I’m his favorite. We are all Jesus’ favorite.
Baptismal liturgy has a number of steps.
1. Renounce things
2. Affirm things
3. Community promises support – the rest of the community is called to participate.
Baptismal liturgy is formative. For the past 20 to 30 years, the Episcopal church in the USA, Brazil, in the Philippines, Liberia, Canada, New Zealand have all had something like the Baptismal covenant. The rest of the Anglican Communion has been shaped by the 1662 prayer book Baptismal liturgy. We become what we pray, we have become what we are by what we have prayed for the past 30 years.
So Baptism Is about identity, in what we renounce and what we affirm and in getting the support of the community, in what we give our heart to
4. (that’s what a Creed means—who we give our hearts to ) and
5. the values by which we live. We make 5 promises about how we’re going to live.

The next step for Jesus (and for us) is/was to discern our/his vocation.
Reflect on the first creation story. How something was created says something about its vocation. It is created and then it is proclaimed good. General convention this year is going to reflect on the Zulu term Umbuntu. It talks about identity. I am because we are. I can never be whole in isolation. The individual is known most fully in community. We are interdependent. One body, many parts and Christ is the head.

The creation story also has rhythm. There was evening and morning, the third day. And there was work and there was rest. We don’t do just one thing. We work, we study, pray, play, recreate, rest, celebrate, reflect evaluate. We live in rhythm. We do not do the same thing all the time. The Benedictines have shown us this way of life.

The creation story is fundamentally non-violent. It’s vegetarian. Nothing is killed to eat, until Noah. It is exceedingly good.

We are created for goodness, with different gifts, and each of us needs to be fruitful in our own way.
Ministry is the service of the friends of God for God’s ends. Buechner tells us it happens where our deep joys meet the deep wounds of the world.

All faithful ministry involves getting out of the way so someone else’s voice can be heard. Give scriptures and sacraments and get out of the way so the Spirit can work. Ministry is individual and shared. Each part of the body has a role.

Sabbath is part of the rhythm of ministry, the Great Holy Celebration of the Sabbath, is something Christians can take from Jews.

Baptism is both foundational and ordered. When I was preparing to be Ordained, Bishop Ladehoff told me Every Ordination closes opportunities. With baptism, one is free to go wherever the Spirit calls. How do we live as God’s beloved? We follow the 5 promises we make
1. To be faithful in prayer and worship[1]
2. To do self examination[2]
3. To look for opportunities for service and Shalom building[3]
The wilderness is where we discover where our vocation lies.
Beginning the Ministry
Jesus first act of ministry was the proclamation of Shalom Building. Today these scriptures have been fulfilled in your hearing. Luke 4:21.
This means everybody has enough to eat and enough for feasting; not that some are feasting all the time and others are hungry. This means that no children are abused. (And a list of other things likethe Millennium Development Goals[4] that went by too fast to get notes.)
Ministry is about transformation and leadership—we are change agents. God needs each one of us. Each of us can be a leader somewhere in our lives. What gifts has God given that are right there ready to be put to work.
Jesus learned something new about himself at is Baptism, at the Transfiguration, from the Syro-Phoenician woman.





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

[2] Celebrant Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?

[3] Celebrant Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?
Celebrant Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
Celebrant Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?


[4] The eight MDGs break down into 21 quantifiable targets that are measured by 60 indicators.
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development
http://www.undp.org/mdg/basics.shtml

Hospitality

Hospitality is something which happens in the small moments of our lives, but it is not accidental. We're all strangers in many places and being a stranger, an outsider, someone who doesn't belong can be an agony. One of the things Jesus reminds us is a blessing is to welcome the stranger. This is doing more than asking them in and offering food and water. It is being vulnerable and being genuinely interested in how the other is faring. Are they well, are their needs being met. How are they? How is their life journey going? Can I answer this question about myself. Have I slowed down enough to hear my inner self that is to shy or patient or frightened to express my heart's longing?

To be able to be available to the Christ in the stranger, we need to be in touch with Christ through our own prayers and sense of having our own hungers nourished and our thirsts quenched. We need to know a sense of being a grateful grafted or adopted member of this rather amazing body of Christ. It is not our birthright to belong, but a gift, and a gift we share with others who like us may feel like misfits, or strangers or pilgrims traveling through a strange land.

Who might I meet or encounter on the phone or at work, or in a social situation. Will I be able to be attuned to them, or be so distracted by my own multi-tasking agenda that I need to meet deadlines and get tasks done, and go whizzing by.

I'm a lot like the White Rabbit, late, late for a very important date. But maybe the date I'm really missing is the one to be mindful of here, right now. To listen for the unspoken desire of the person who helps with our housecleaning; to sense the loneliness of a shut in, or of the friend who just found she has cancer. Will we be Christ to each other this day? this week?