This evening we’ve come together to worship God and to celebrate with Helen her ordination to the Priesthood. Throughout the last few years she has received huge encouragement to move forward in ministry – indeed throughout her life things and events and people have shaped her into something like the person God wants her to be and into a person ready to fulfil his calling for her.
But today as we celebrate with Helen we also celebrate a God who calls – a God who calls every one of us to be SOMEONE for him… And in our journeys of faith and discovery we need support, just as Helen has needed support, and what any new ministry should remind us is that we never minister alone.
In all that we do we have God alongside us, and we also rely on relationships – people to encourage us, people to push us, people to calm our fears and doubts, people to irritate us, people to annoy us, people to frustrate us – all are part of our journey of life and faith.
And whatever role we are called to fulfil in God’s kingdom whether as a lay or ordained person we are ultimately called to do the same thing and that is to witness to God’s glory and to share his love and to seek to build his kingdom…
Today in our readings we celebrate the ministries of Peter and Paul, the Apostles – and both of these characters offer us some great examples. The first example is of the frailty of humanity – it’s often said that bad news or scandal sells far more newspapers than good news, and as we reflect on the lives of these two apostles, it’s often the bad bits of their lives that we think about.
For Paul we often think back to the persecutor. To the man filled with hatred for Christians, determined to crush the religion. We think of a man consumed with thoughts of power, and the wealth that came with it… For Peter, we so often think of his denial of Jesus – the denial that Jesus predicted… For all of the good things both men may have done, the headlines often come from the failures…
But that leads us to the second example we can learn from both, and that is of wonderful redemption – of salvation – of God’s grace and mercy and his power to transform…
God took 2 ordinary people and transformed them into wonderful workers for him… Who could ever have believed that Paul, or Saul as he was then, would have completely renounced his previous life and become one of the greatest advocates for Christ that the world has ever known… And who would have believed that Peter, the fisherman from Galilee who denied even knowing Jesus would soon after be preaching for him in front of some of the people who had taken Jesus to the cross.
Only with God can such transformation come about – only by surrendering our lives to him can such power be fired up…
And our readings this evening (Ezekiel 34:11-16, 2 Timothy 4:1-5, John 21:15-19), emphasise these things. In the reading from Ezekiel, we are reminded that God is concerned for us all – God is searching out his sheep… The imagery of the great shepherd is developed – a great shepherd that would lay down his life for his sheep… God will seek the lost, bring back the strayed, bind up the injured, strengthen the weak….
God searches for his people – he longs for them all to come to him with their failings and with doubts and with fears… because he loves them as they are…
And then in the 2nd letter to Timothy we have St Paul writing about some of our duties as Christians – proclaim the message, be persistent, convince, rebuke, encourage… he goes on ‘do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully…’
It’s a powerful message to us all – because he is writing to us all… certainly the pressure may be on those who are ordained in the Church to be a little more visible in doing these things, but these things are the work of us all as God’s people, chosen to do his work…
And then in our gospel reading we have the account of Jesus being just a little bit irritating ! He asks Peter 3 times if he loves him, and each time when Peter says yes, Jesus tells him to do something – feed my lambs, tend my sheep and feed my sheep…
Peter was hurt because Jesus kept asking him the same question, but Jesus was well aware that Peter would face much tougher questioning and far greater trials in his ministry than this, and each time he had to remember to do the things Jesus taught him to do… Peter was to be a shepherd, he was to care for the sheep – and as Jesus entrusted Peter to do his work, so he entrusts every one of us to do his work…
Today represents for Helen the start of a new ministry – a ministry in which she will need, and will receive great encouragements – but today, and every day represents a new start for us all… every day is a gift of God – a chance to do his work, a chance to be a little bit more like him, and the fact is that most days we may do some good things, but we’ll probably get one or two things wrong as well – but with God, these don’t become headlines, because he is there reminding us constantly to turn back to him and start again…
Many people believe they are not worthy of God’s love, many believe that they have to do something to earn it, but the reality is that God’s love is there, whether we recognise it or accept it, or not… he doesn’t stop loving us when we fail, he doesn’t stop loving us when we turn our backs on him – the wonderful truth is that there is nothing we can do to make God love us more, and nothing we can do to make God love us less…
But our lives will only really become fulfilled when we live as he wants us to live – when we try to become the people that he wants us to be… the great shepherd of the sheep is a shepherd who constantly cares for those sheep, who smiles on them filled with pride and love… And that is God… and that is how he looks at us whether we choose to recognise it or not…
Helen has been called to a wonderful ministry in the Church, one in which she has already received many blessings, and one where she will I’m sure receive many more, but she and every other clergy man or woman can never minister alone – we minister as part of a family, here and throughout the world – a family that share a common ministry - to share god’s love with each other, and with everyone…
All of us are invited to be part of that family – all of us are united by God’s love and care for us – and all of us are invited to go forward with confidence - knowing that in all we do, God is right there with us. AMEN
But today as we celebrate with Helen we also celebrate a God who calls – a God who calls every one of us to be SOMEONE for him… And in our journeys of faith and discovery we need support, just as Helen has needed support, and what any new ministry should remind us is that we never minister alone.
In all that we do we have God alongside us, and we also rely on relationships – people to encourage us, people to push us, people to calm our fears and doubts, people to irritate us, people to annoy us, people to frustrate us – all are part of our journey of life and faith.
And whatever role we are called to fulfil in God’s kingdom whether as a lay or ordained person we are ultimately called to do the same thing and that is to witness to God’s glory and to share his love and to seek to build his kingdom…
Today in our readings we celebrate the ministries of Peter and Paul, the Apostles – and both of these characters offer us some great examples. The first example is of the frailty of humanity – it’s often said that bad news or scandal sells far more newspapers than good news, and as we reflect on the lives of these two apostles, it’s often the bad bits of their lives that we think about.
For Paul we often think back to the persecutor. To the man filled with hatred for Christians, determined to crush the religion. We think of a man consumed with thoughts of power, and the wealth that came with it… For Peter, we so often think of his denial of Jesus – the denial that Jesus predicted… For all of the good things both men may have done, the headlines often come from the failures…
But that leads us to the second example we can learn from both, and that is of wonderful redemption – of salvation – of God’s grace and mercy and his power to transform…
God took 2 ordinary people and transformed them into wonderful workers for him… Who could ever have believed that Paul, or Saul as he was then, would have completely renounced his previous life and become one of the greatest advocates for Christ that the world has ever known… And who would have believed that Peter, the fisherman from Galilee who denied even knowing Jesus would soon after be preaching for him in front of some of the people who had taken Jesus to the cross.
Only with God can such transformation come about – only by surrendering our lives to him can such power be fired up…
And our readings this evening (Ezekiel 34:11-16, 2 Timothy 4:1-5, John 21:15-19), emphasise these things. In the reading from Ezekiel, we are reminded that God is concerned for us all – God is searching out his sheep… The imagery of the great shepherd is developed – a great shepherd that would lay down his life for his sheep… God will seek the lost, bring back the strayed, bind up the injured, strengthen the weak….
God searches for his people – he longs for them all to come to him with their failings and with doubts and with fears… because he loves them as they are…
And then in the 2nd letter to Timothy we have St Paul writing about some of our duties as Christians – proclaim the message, be persistent, convince, rebuke, encourage… he goes on ‘do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully…’
It’s a powerful message to us all – because he is writing to us all… certainly the pressure may be on those who are ordained in the Church to be a little more visible in doing these things, but these things are the work of us all as God’s people, chosen to do his work…
And then in our gospel reading we have the account of Jesus being just a little bit irritating ! He asks Peter 3 times if he loves him, and each time when Peter says yes, Jesus tells him to do something – feed my lambs, tend my sheep and feed my sheep…
Peter was hurt because Jesus kept asking him the same question, but Jesus was well aware that Peter would face much tougher questioning and far greater trials in his ministry than this, and each time he had to remember to do the things Jesus taught him to do… Peter was to be a shepherd, he was to care for the sheep – and as Jesus entrusted Peter to do his work, so he entrusts every one of us to do his work…
Today represents for Helen the start of a new ministry – a ministry in which she will need, and will receive great encouragements – but today, and every day represents a new start for us all… every day is a gift of God – a chance to do his work, a chance to be a little bit more like him, and the fact is that most days we may do some good things, but we’ll probably get one or two things wrong as well – but with God, these don’t become headlines, because he is there reminding us constantly to turn back to him and start again…
Many people believe they are not worthy of God’s love, many believe that they have to do something to earn it, but the reality is that God’s love is there, whether we recognise it or accept it, or not… he doesn’t stop loving us when we fail, he doesn’t stop loving us when we turn our backs on him – the wonderful truth is that there is nothing we can do to make God love us more, and nothing we can do to make God love us less…
But our lives will only really become fulfilled when we live as he wants us to live – when we try to become the people that he wants us to be… the great shepherd of the sheep is a shepherd who constantly cares for those sheep, who smiles on them filled with pride and love… And that is God… and that is how he looks at us whether we choose to recognise it or not…
Helen has been called to a wonderful ministry in the Church, one in which she has already received many blessings, and one where she will I’m sure receive many more, but she and every other clergy man or woman can never minister alone – we minister as part of a family, here and throughout the world – a family that share a common ministry - to share god’s love with each other, and with everyone…
All of us are invited to be part of that family – all of us are united by God’s love and care for us – and all of us are invited to go forward with confidence - knowing that in all we do, God is right there with us. AMEN
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