Readings:
Sermon:
I am Tracey Skidmore, and I am in my first year of training for priesthood at The Queen’s Foundation in Edgbaston, I am also a Licensed Lay Minister in the Brierley Hill Team.
I still find it incredible that I am an ordinand, a priest in training. If someone had told me fifteen years ago that I would be training to be a priest, I would have laughed in their face; I only became a Christian about eleven years ago, and what a roller coaster it has been since then! So many times, I get asked “Why? what made you want to be a priest?’ It’s almost always by people who don’t go to church, it must seem like a very strange vocation to someone with little or no faith. All I can say is, I was called by God, and I tried to ignore that call, but God wouldn’t leave me alone, so here I am. And when those days come when I wonder what I’m doing, today’s readings from the letter to the Hebrews and the Gospel of Mark will be a good place to turn for the answer.
Positioned either side of Jesus’ crucifixion and ascension these readings both tell us something about Jesus’ Holy Priesthood.
In the Gospel reading, when James and John ask to be put in a place of power next to Jesus, Jesus asks if they are able to stand next to him for all that has to happen, of course, they could not possibly understand the implications of what Jesus was saying. Needless to say, when the other disciples found out what the brothers had been up to, they were furious, Jesus uses the incident as a teaching moment, explaining to them all that his priesthood isn’t about power and privilege, there is no hierarchy in his ministry. Jesus is a Jew; his ministry and kingship is not one of power over his people; unlike the Gentile rulers his is a ministry of service and sacrifice, in fact the ultimate sacrifice.
At the other side of that sacrifice, we find the letter to the Hebrews. Unlike the disciples in Mark’s Gospel, the writer of the letter to the Hebrews is fully aware of who Jesus is and what that sacrifice had been. The role of priest is explained to the reader thus: a human priest is chosen only by God, and sent out to serve, nurture and love all people, they are required to make sacrifices as they heed God’s call. This priestly ministry is one that reaches back through time to the priests of the Jewish scriptures of the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament, this is a priesthood like that demonstrated by Aaron as he walked alongside Moses in the days of the Exodus from Egypt. This is the priestly ministry that Jesus inhabited, carrying on the tradition of the Jewish priest, called by God to serve and to sacrifice, but, that sacrifice was so much more than what was expected of those mortals who were called by God into God’s service. Jesus the man wept and prayed to his Father, as he obediently faced what he knew was to come, it had been spoken of by the prophets, written in scripture; the ultimate sacrifice made by a blameless man so that we can be saved over and over again from our human weakness.
The priestly tradition continues to be handed down through the ages, through the generations to those that are called by God to serve God’s people, but priesthood is not the only calling God makes. Every one of us is given gifts from God, gifts that we can use to embody Christ’s love in the world today. Weather it is ordained ministry or you just have that face that draws people to tell you their troubles at the bus stop, whether you are a Bishop or you make fantastic cakes for every social event and church fayre, whether you are a Deacon or you have a knack for minor repairs in church and the community, whether you are a Lay Minister or you are really persuasive when you are getting local businesses to donate time and goods to fund raisers. We are all called by God to serve God’s people, and we can trust that God will give us the skills we need.
Questions:
- What does the Bible say about using God’s gifts?
- Are you aware of the gifts God has given you?
- What does your ministry look like?