Ordination of the Rev. Barbara Harrison Seward to the Priesthood
December 14, 2013
Trinity Episcopal Church, Excelsior MN
The Rev. Daniel D. Robayo
Good morning!
I bring you warmest greetings from Bishop Shannon Johnston, from the Diocese of Virginia, and
from Emmanuel Church in Harrisonburg, VA (the Ordinand's home parish before Barbara was
made Deacon). This is a proud and happy day for all of us. The people and vestry of Emmanuel
Harrisonburg are so proud of this day that they had nothing but good wishes and encouragement
for me when I told them I was coming to be with you. It's not everyday that the rector can take
off a weekend in the middle of Advent. I am deeply moved and honored that Barbara invited me
to be the preacher this morning.
Back in the day, many moons ago at Virginia Theological Seminary, I was having lunch in the
Refectory with my classmate and friend John McDuffy. I always enjoyed my conversations with
John--he was smart as a whip, witty, insightful--and we shared a delight in coming up with snide
analyses of our formation for the priesthood. I should also mention that in a previous life John
was a therapist. Anyway, on this particular occasion, John asked me if I knew the ReactionFormation Theory of Vocations. Sigmund Freud had come up with the term Reaction-Formation.
Basically, it says that people in their conscious life compensate for their less than angelic
unconscious by doing the exact opposite of what they'd really like to do. So, for example, a
woman who absolutely did not want any children becomes a doting mother.
What on God's snowy earth is the Reaction-Formation Theory of Vocation, you may ask?
“It's pretty simple,” John said to me. “You know, a cop is a criminal turned inside out; a
firefighter is really a pyromaniac; a surgeon would like to dismember people.” “What about a
priest,” said I, unable to wait any longer. “Well,” John said with that smirk that told me to get
ready, “clergy just want to damn people to hell.”
The news and social media are full of reports and stories that show How Christians Are Ignorant
Idiots and Bigots. Try and play a game of free association with people you know and who do not
profess to be religious (though some may be quick to tell you that they're spiritual). Ask them to
respond with the first word that comes to mind when you say Christian. What do we get? Words
like “narrow-minded, intolerant, judgmental, fanatical, anti-science, anti-gay, anti-this and that....”
It's actually been documented that this is what people respond with when they hear the word
“Christian.”
No wonder Episcopalians tend to shy away from making too much noise about who we are and
what we're about.
1
When he was a boy, my son Raul spent a week every summer attending the Bible Camp that his
grandfather had founded in eastern Pennsylvania. So when he was about 10 years old, he took
with him his friend Wesley, a kid from the parish in Virginia of which I was then the rector. It
was a wonderful place where kids had a lot of fun, learnt a lot of skills, and were taught a lot of
Bible. Camp Haycock's concern for the spiritual life of their campers included making sure that
they heard the Gospel message and that they had the opportunity to make a commitment to Jesus
Christ, if they had not done so already. No hard sell, no manipulations, I'm happy to say.
Anyway, on the last night of camp, the counselors made a last heart check with their campers
before lights out. When it was Wesley's turn, his counselor asked him, “Wesley, are you a
Christian?” And somewhat alarmed, he responded, “No! I'm an Episcopalian!”
When I heard this story I realized I had so much more work to do on Christian formation in my
church.
But I digress. The point of these perambulations so far is that being a Christian does not invoke
much of a warm fuzzy feeling in those around us.
Now Why on God's frozen earth are we in such disastrous and deplorable situation?
Well, I have heard--and (full disclosure) I have given--many a sermon that lay the problem at the
feet of… Are you ready for this? The laity. After all, the research says that the world out there
has turned off Christianity because of the people who call themselves Christians--even those who
only admit under duress that they are Episcopalians.
But how did we get to this? The truth is that if we look for the ones primarily responsible for the
sullying of the name of Christ that each baptized child of God bears, we have to admit that this
problem belongs with … the Clergy. The world is crawling with clergy types who spend their
time damning people to hell and teaching their people to do so. And I don't just mean all those “Ists” out there: You know, the extremists, the fundamentalists who in every religion spew their
poisonous prejudices; the televangelists, etc., etc.
Let me tell you that even we well-meaning and dedicated mainstream clergy have been part of
the problem. We too spew poison--when we act like we are so much better than everybody else.
Like the Pharisee praying in the temple we are thankful that we are not like those other people-for example: when we proudly proclaim that one of the great things about the Episcopal Church
is that “we don't have to check our brains at the door.” Not to mention when we clergy model to
our people that the most important thing in the church is to prop up programs and institutions.
Now, I'll be the first to tell you that I love the intellectual strengths of the Episcopal Church. And
I have spent much of my ordained life tending to the inner workings of the church's institutions
and programs--which has been a great honor for me. However: Programs and institutions exist
for the sake of People--not the other way around. I know. Sometimes the needs of the
institution are so strong that we inadvertently act as if the whole point of being in the parish
family is to care about ourselves and for ourselves only. The Holy Father has made a big splash
2
reminding us that the church that only cares about its own becomes self-referential and selfabsorbed.
My colleague at Emmanuel, the Rev. Sara Ardrey-Graves, has taught me a new word. Pretty
much the biggest problem Episcopalians have, she says, is our capacity to be self-astounded.
It's high time we got over ourselves.
And it begins with the clergy. In many and varied ways the clergy shape, teach, and lead an
Episcopal culture that tells the world that they are not good enough to be part of us. Like the
Rolling Stones song “Beast of Burden,” how often do we leave people wondering if they are
good enough, smart enough, pretty enough (sophisticated enough). I wonder how many of us
here gathered, are deeply anxious in our heart of hearts, wondering am I good enough to be loved
by God?
Wait a minute: here is a priest, preaching about clergy, at an ordination, saying that being selfreferential is not a good thing. Is that also self-referential? Let me try to correct that. Barbara:
this day is not about you. And with all due respect to Bishop Prior and all the clergy here present:
Ordination is not about us. And to the laity: please do not mistake all the fuss of today for the
elevation of the clergy. Nor is an Ordination saying that today is vicariously all about you--the
people in the pew, the laity in the world--although you are very much part of the meaning and
purpose of this liturgy. [More about that in a moment].
And despite all you've heard me say so far, this day is not about wringing our hands about the
sorry state of the Church either.
Today is about lifting our hearts in praise and thanksgiving for the irrepressible, exuberant, and
boundless grace of our loving God.
Today is about re-membering that we are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as
Christ's own forever.
Today is about celebrating that in Christ we are empowered to become beautiful and glorious
human beings, which is what God intended from the beginning.
To me, the most beautiful thing about being a Christian is the realization that in Christ God has
reconciled all things to God-self. At God's initiative, by God's own doing in the power of the
Spirit, and through Jesus the Christ, we are in communion with God.
And that is the word I’ve been looking for: Communion. Communion with God is the result of
God's own longing to be in Communion with us. So let us be clear: there is nothing in the world
that you or I can do to make God be in communion with us. That's magical and presumptuous
thinking--the notion that by doing thus and so in the correct order with the correct words and
with the correct actions, we make God present. Yes, we are profoundly grateful for the long
labor of God's people through the centuries--their prayerful and painstaking work has bestowed
on Anglicans worldwide the gift of the Book of Common Prayer. It is a good and rightful thing
3
to care very much about the words we say and about the order we use in worship. (Here's a
takeaway, Barbara: Follow the rubrics! As my seminary chaplain Churchill Gibson, of blessed
memory, used to say, “The Prayer Book exists to protect the laity from the clergy.”)
The Holy Communion happens because the Holy Spirit makes it happen. Bishops, Priests, and
Deacons are not purveyors of the sacraments. Clergy are called to nourish God's people with the
riches of Christ's grace. The clergy are not a cartel that controls the production and distribution
of God's grace and love. Rather we are like the prodigal sower who spreads seeds by the handful
all over the place with reckless abandon. And those seeds grow we know not When, much less
How. Yes, the Holy Spirit orders the Church, setting people apart for this ministry. And this is
the key: Not in order to restrict access to the sacraments but to sow the love of God in the most
open and widest circle possible. So today, the ordination of the Rev. Barbara Harrison Seward to
the priesthood in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church is an outward and visible sign of
the inward and spiritual grace of God's steadfast, faithful, and unconditional love for the whole
world.
We cannot say it enough: Being in orders as Deacons, Priests, and Bishops, is about each order
in its particular vocation being Icons of God's love for us human merely beings. Clergy are called
to be Icons of God's love to the Baptized. But that's not the end of the story. Remember: it's not
about any of us. Icons to the Baptized bless, strengthen, and empower the whole Church to
spread the love of God to the whole world, that all may know and feel that no one is beyond the
reach of Christ's loving embrace.
William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury during WWII, said it so well: “The Church is the
only association that exists for the sake of those who are not its members.” It's not about us,
whether lay or ordained. It's about the world.
You see, while sadly so many waste their lives casting out other people who do not conform to
their message and their worldview, the reality is that all Christians are called to spend our lives
showing others by word and deed that God unconditionally loves them, that before anyone was
born, and even before all worlds were created, God loved, God loves, and God will love
everything that God has made.
God loves everyone. No exceptions.
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the God of Miriam, Deborah, and Ruth; the God of
Elijah, Amos, and Isaiah; the God of Mary, Joseph, and the Holy Child; the God of Simeon and
Anna; the God of Mary Magdalene, Peter and Paul; the God of Lydia, Priscilla and Aquilla; the
God of Brian [Prior, Bp of MN], Devon [Anderson, Rector of Trinity, Excelsior], and Barbara;
the God you all worship and seek to obey: That GOD LOVES EVERYONE. No exceptions.
This is the Good News. And what that means is that we have the ineffable joy of Jesus, the deep
peace of Jesus, the abiding love of Jesus.
4
Not to hoard but to share. Not to bank it but to give it away. Living into our baptismal covenant,
with God's help (and this is going to sound crazy!), we can change the world.
Consider the promises we make at every Baptism (page 304f, BCP):
1. Continuing in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the
prayers: we promise to be a worshiping community.
2. Persevering in resisting evil, and, whenever (not if) we fall into sin, repenting and returning to
the Lord: we promise to be a holy, forgiven, and forgiving community.
3. Proclaiming by word and example the Good News of God in Christ: we promise to be an
inclusive, inviting, and open-circle community.
4. Seeking and serving Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves: we promise to be
a servant, other-oriented, and loving community.
5. Striving for justice and peace among all people, and respecting the dignity of every human
being: we promise to be a justice-seeking and peacemaking community.
Wow. Easy for me to say. It does sound crazy: We are here to change the world.
But it is not a job. It is a vocation. A vocation has at least three components.
1. - A vocation is a life-long calling: it takes our whole life to follow it, and like the hokey-pokey,
it is much more fun if you put your whole self in, if we allow ourselves to be shaken and shaped
by the Spirit, and if we are willing to turn ourselves around and keep on dancing.
2. - A vocation is life-giving: in God's economy the more we give ourselves away, the more we
become our true selves. The more we love, the more we are loved. The more we forgive, the
more we are forgiven.
3. - A vocation is about giving God all the glory and honor. Imagine that, impossible as it seems
to us, we change the whole world with God's love. Imagine that we also manage to preserve and
enhance the beauty of God's creation. And imagine that we even find our true selves--at the end
of the day, what we come to discover is that we are enjoying God and glorifying God. The old
catechism is so on point when it says that the end and purpose of human life is to enjoy God and
to glorify God forever.
So you see, it's not about Barbara. It's not about the clergy. It's not about the laity. It's not even
about the world out there, the environment, the people, and all living things.
It's about God.
Once we are clear that it's all about God, we are free to live, to delight in and love each other and
ourselves. It’s about God.
5
It's all about God.
Poets are so much better than preachers at showing us this vision. Listen to e.e. cummings:
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginably You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
---------For yours is the kingdom, O God,
and the power,
and the glory,
now and forever, por los siglos de los siglos, persecula secula seculorum, world without end.
Amen.
6