Servants Who Are Serving

I was ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament on November 30, 2003, in Bloomfield, NJ. The process of becoming ordained involved interviews by a presbytery committee who discerned the call of God in my life and examined my fit for ordination. One of the questions I was asked in the interview was profound and challenging: "Why do you need to be ordained? You can serve God without being ordained." There is a big, beautiful truth assumed in that question. Christians are called to serve God and be in service for God's purpose. In the movie Beauty and the Beast, when Belle walked into the kitchen, all the silverware and kitchenware were thrilled to finally be in use again after years of cursed dormancy. A line in that song "Be Our Guest" reads, "Life is so unnerving for a servant who's not serving. He's not whole without a soul to wait upon." That lyric captures a profound truth about discipleship. Their existence was to serve. For Christians, the way we love, the manner of obedience, and the purpose for living is to serve. Listening to sermons and attending worship realign us to God, but serving is how we live out our relationship with God in this world. So, to answer their question, why does one need to be ordained? I do not know if I had the perfect answer, but the answer I gave was, "I do not need to be ordained to serve God. But the particular road that God is calling me to requires ordination in order to fulfill it in a Presbyterian church. As a full-time clergy member who will shepherd a congregation and administer sacraments, I am required to be ordained. I will always serve God, but I want to be proper and faithful to this particular call." They accepted my answer. The call to be a full-time pastor in the Presbyterian church was not a career move. It most certainly was not to impress (my girlfriend at the time), Cathy. Interestingly, Cathy prayed when I shared about this ordination track, and she returned to me a few weeks later saying, "If God is calling you, I'm willing to go with you as well." Thanks be to God, she said that! The call to full-time ministry was just the call of God in the manner of how I would serve God. You have a call to serve as well. As I look forward to my installation in Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church, I am deeply grateful to God who brought all of us together in this season to serve as one body. These past seven weeks have been confirmation after confirmation that God has something in store for us all, and you and I get to have a front-row seat. Thank you for this invitation and for heeding God's call to me and my family. May we serve with even greater joy than that enchanted kitchen, for the One we serve is worthy of it. Your Brother in Christ, Pastor Jason