DIFFERENT LABORS,
A COMMON PURPOSE
Service of Ordination and/or Installation
of Ruling Elders and Deacons
Following this morning’s message
we will ordain and install our newly elected
Deacons and Ruling Elders. During such
services our tradition asks us to focus on the
responsibilities and joys of the ministry of
Jesus. To provide a scriptural foundation for
that, we will turn again to a portion of Paul’s
first letter to Christians in Corinth. Paul
helped to establish the Christian community
in Corinth and held them in high regard. He
even declared that they lacked no spiritual
gift (1 Corinthians 1:7). Yet, his initial letter
to them sought primarily not to praise them
but to address the quarrels they were having.
Christians in Corinth were claiming
prominence based on the leader to whom
they felt most attached. Those quarrels had
grown so intense that they threatened to
break the community apart. Paul wrote not
to take sides in the argument, but to remind
them of their true nature and identity. Please
listen for God speaking as Paul describes the
unity shared by all followers of Jesus.
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:1-9
They may lack no spiritual gift, but
Paul describes the believers in Corinth as
“people of the flesh” instead of “spiritual
people” (1 Corinthians 3:1). He chides them
not for having different opinions, but for
their jealousy and quarreling. Paul, Apollos,
and other Christian leaders were all merely
servants called to specific tasks. The
Christian community in Corinth existed not
primarily because of their efforts, but
because “God gave the growth” (1
Corinthians 3:6). We will return to that
image at the end of March. This morning, as
we prepare for ordination and installation, it
seems more helpful to consider the mixture
of metaphors Paul used to describe the
Corinthian community at the end of our
reading. Translated literally, verse nine
reads, “We are God’s co-workers; you are
God’s cultivated field, God’s building.”
We are God’s co-workers. The
Greek noun is sunergos, from which we
derive our word “synergy.” We, all the
baptized, work in collaboration, cooperation,
and interaction with God. We have different
tasks to perform, but we share a common
purpose.
The “you are” in the next two
metaphors is plural. A Kentucky translator
would say, “Y’all are God’s cultivated
field.” God has taken the time to till you and
plant something in y’all. “Y’all are God’s
building.” The true architect and builder of
the community is God.
Paul does not ask believers in
Corinth to set aside what makes them
distinct. Rather, he implores them to allow
what they have in common to define the life
and faith they share. Regardless who did the
baptizing, they all received the same
baptism. No matter what gifts they have,
they all received them from the same Spirit.
Regardless who first showed them the way,
they all follow Jesus. As they work with
God, they are collectively God’s cultivated
field, God’s building.
Following the guidance of these and
similar passages, Reformed Christians have
insisted that there is no hierarchy among the
baptized, ruling elders, deacons, and
teaching elders. In the words of our
constitution, “The basic form of ministry is
the ministry of the whole people of God,
from whose midst some are called … to
fulfill particular functions” (G-2.0101). The
first prayer we will offer during our
ordination and installation service is a prayer
of thanksgiving for baptism. That reminds
us that we do not ordain and install deacons
and ruling elders so they can do ministry in
our place. We all have the same call to
follow Jesus. Nor are our ruling elders and
deacons super Christians. They are no more
and no less Christian than the rest of the
baptized. All the baptized have the
responsibility to obey Jesus’ word and show
his love. Our joy is the way he cultivates us
and builds us together. That cultivation and
building are not competitions to win. They
are gifts to receive with gratitude.
From the baptized God calls some to
serve as ruling elders. When we use that
title, think not of kings and queens but of
yard sticks and other rulers used to measure
things. The function or responsibility of
ruling elders is to help us to measure our
faithfulness to God’s call, to discern where
the Spirit is leading us and to point us in that
direction. The joy of ruling elders deepens
as God binds them together in service and as
they help God’s call to shape our
congregational life and ministry.
From the baptized God calls some to
serve as deacons. The primary function of
deacons is to lead us in ministries of
compassion and service. A few years ago,
our session asked our deacons to focus on
helping us to take better care of each other.
That is why we call our Board of Deacons
our Care Ministry Team. Deacons do not do
all of the caring in our congregation. They
help us to connect with each other more
completely and they inspire us to care for
each other. The joy of serving as deacons
deepens as we recognize and nurture the ties
that bind us.
When Paul address the quarrels in
Corinth, he did not take sides. When he
refers to followers of Jesus as “God’s
cultivated field,” he does not declare some
fit for growing vegetables and others fit only
for kudzu. When he refers to us as “God’s
building,” he does not declare some shacks
and others mansions. We all have value and
we
all
need
constant
cultivation,
maintenance, formation and reformation.
God remains the gardener, the builder,
tending to the ongoing cultivation,
construction, and renewal. Along the way,
we remain God’s “synergists,” who
constantly discover that there is more to us
in ministry than there was when we began.
If Paul is right, the music and forms
of worship we prefer, the theological
convictions we hold dear, and the
ecclesiological pedigrees that we lack or of
which we boast describe us but do not define
us. What defines us is God’s call, what God
does in and through us, and our common
ministries in Jesus’ name. May that which
makes us distinct always yield to the life and
ministry we share by the grace of God and
to the glory of God, Father/Mother, Jesus
Christ, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
1
For more about the specific function and ministry of
ruling elders, see G-2.0301.
2
For more about the specific function and ministry of
deacons, see G-2.0201 and G-2.0202.
DIFFERENT LABORS,
A COMMON PURPOSE
Sermon by
Rev. Dr. L.P. Jones
February 16, 2014
Mt. Washington Presbyterian Church
6474 Beechmont Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45230
513.231.2650 Fax 624.2300
[email protected]
www.mwpc-church.org