WHO ARE THE MINISTERS OF THE CHURCH?
A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Sometimes a preacher begins with a joke. Today, I’ll start with a song. Those of you who don’t like to sing can relax: it’s short! Actually, it’s what musicians call a refrain. Sometimes, when we sing a Psalm in worship, we use one of the verses as a refrain. A musician chooses that verse to represent a theme, and the refrain reminds us of the theme. Then we say or sing that refrain, over and over again, gently interrupting the Psalm’s flow. Even though we don’t sing our Sunday Psalms in the summertime, I have a Psalm refrain for you today.

As I prayed with and reflected on the Gospel account of those two healing stories, the girl and the woman who were both healed by Jesus, as I thought about what the healing touch of Jesus means to us today, I kept coming back to the second verse of today’s Psalm. O Lord my God, I cried out to you, and you restored me to health. Can you hear the rhythm in those words? I’ll sing the refrain for you, and then, I want you to sing it back with me, those of you who dare! O Lord my God, I cried out to you, and you restored me to health.

We’re going to interrupt the sermon a few more times with that refrain. If you leave today remembering nothing else from this sermon, and someone asks, What did the preacher have to say today? You won’t have a great joke to tell them…but you’ll have something to sing – a verse from Psalm 30, verse 2.

O Lord my God, I cried out to you, and you restored me to health.

O Lord my God, I cried out to you, and you restored me to health.

Psalms, of course, were the prayer book of Jesus. Surely he sang and prayed those Psalms, those prayers, all through his life. Speaking of prayer books, I’m going to ask you to take a Book of Common Prayer and turn to page 855. Look with me at the section called “The Church.” I’m going to read the first question to you. Then I want you to answer it with me. Ready?

Q. Who are the ministers of the Church?

A. The ministers of the Church are lay persons, bishops, priests and deacons.

Here are the kinds of things I hear people say all the time: “Oh, are you the new minister at All Saints’?” “Yes, we have a new minister at our church!” But that’s theologically INcorrect. I am not the only minister of All Saints’. I am the rector, the chief pastor here, and I am a minister. And so are you! YOU and I, together, are the ministers of this parish. But don’t take my word for it. Look at the Prayer Book! WE are the ministers.

In light of our lessons today, I want to suggest to you that one of the stars in our crown of ministry here at All Saints’ is that group of ministers we have come to call our CareTeams. In your new Saints Alive! you will see a photo and a brief story about our CareTeams. You’ve probably heard some things about them, and you will hear a great deal more in the months to come. CareTeams are those women and men who generously offer their time and talent by reaching out to those who might need a healing touch at some moment in their lives. These fabulous folks consist of five great teams led by five wonderful leaders, organized and inspired by two amazing coordinators. CareTeams are made up of dozens of caring, healing ministers, ready to offer us prayer and care:

O Lord my God, I cried out to you, and you restored me to health.

O Lord my God, I cried out to you, and you restored me to health.

When we remember that the word “minister” comes from the Latin word “minus,” we see that ministers are “less thans.” Ministers are not God. But we ministers belong to God. We are God’s beloveds, those who have lived a bit of life, who have suffered some of life’s slings and arrows, who have also experienced some healing in our own lives and want to share that with others.

Whether we want to admit it or not, all of us, from time to time, ALL of us need healing. For years now, when praying for healing, I ask for God’s healing in mind, body and spirit, because we never really, fully know where healing needs to happen for someone, even for ourselves. It could be healing of one’s body, a physical healing, perhaps from a broken bone. It could be healing of one’s mind, an emotional healing, perhaps from the trauma of losing someone or something we dearly love. It could be healing of one’s spirit. We can get so discouraged with our need for healing! That’s when music can help. A wise nun once told me, “Tom, music releases the feelings and feelings release the healing.”

O Lord my God, I cried out to you, and you restored me to health.

O Lord my God, I cried out to you, and you restored me to health.

Who are the ministers of healing in the Gospel story today? Jesus? Yes. His disciples? Yes. But what about Jairus? And what about Jairus’ friends and family members? Jairus interrupted Jesus with a special need. His daughter lay near death, and he knew Jesus could help. This man of power and privilege got down on his knees, begged Jesus and became a “less than.” Can you see Jairus as a minister alongside Jesus? Can you see his family and friends as ministers?

The woman who suffered from hemorrhages for twelve years – hers is a different story. She had no father or family or friends to plead for her. She was an outcast, ritually unclean in the eyes of her society. Jesus would also be outcast if he dared to touch her. But she touches him. What is Jesus’ response to this impure woman, this “less than”? Jesus calls her “daughter,” so she will know that she is respected and not unclean. Jesus says, “your faith has made you well,” so she will know that her health has something to do with her ability to ask for help. And Jesus says, “Go in peace, and be healed of your disease,” so she will know that the peace of God is the fruit of healing, so she will know that going forth into the world to share the Good News of her healing will help bring health and healing to everyone she meets. All this happened because…

O Lord my God, she yelled to you, and you restored her to health.

O Lord my God, we yelled to you, and you restored us to health.

Sometimes, when we need healing, we DO need to yell to God, even AT God. (It’s OK when we do yell. God can handle it.) Do you know what I mean? Sometimes it seems God is just not listening or has been practicing the divine language of silence just a little too long. Sometimes it feels like Jesus is giving everyone else the attention they need, but, for reasons we can’t fathom, Jesus is ignoring us. How long are we supposed to call for help, anyway? That’s assuming, of course, that we are willing to ask for help in the first place.

I don’t know about you, but as a man and as a priest, I sometimes have a hard time asking God for help. Then there’s the part about waiting. The woman in this story waited for twelve years and got no help at all from the medical establishment of her day – or from anyone else. She finally had to pull out all the stops and put some hands and feet on what we might call her “stealth” prayer. She learned to pray differently. I just read about a man who said that he had stopped praying for healing from his Parkinson’s disease. He stopped because, as he explained it, he realized that, through the prayers of the faithful, he had been healed from his fear of Parkinson’s, and that was enough for him. Prayer changes things, even people. We may fear prayer, because we may fear acting or even living differently. If we prayed, we might have to admit God was really in charge. If we prayed, we might have to become real ministers.

Who are the healing ministers of this family of God we call All Saints’? Who are the people who help us to “fear not,” whose love helps cast out our fears? Are they the women who lay their hands on yarn and knit shawls for those of us who really, truly need to be wrapped up in prayer? The men who gather up any pastors who come to the monthly Men’s Breakfast, then lay hands on us and pray for us? The women called Daughters who pray daily for all those who dare to ask? The men and women of this parish who write cards or make phone calls or cook meals or deliver flowers or bring communion or visit hospitals? What about all those other “less thans,” known perhaps only to God, who offer rides, take temperatures, change bedpans, give medications, bathe bodies, hold hands, manage finances, oversee healthcare – who listen patiently?

Who are the ministers of the church? WE are. WE ARE. From time to time, we are all “less thans.” Sooner or later, all of us, ALL of us will need help. With God’s help, we can, out of our less-than-ness, become more of a minister than we ever imagined. Like Jesus, we can become real ministers, even healing ministers of Christ, offering a healing, helping hand in return for all God’s help and healing we ourselves have received.

Let us thank God today for the ministry of healing in this place. And let us ask God for the wisdom and grace to reach out and touch others, so we might both offer and receive the healing touch of Jesus.

O Lord my God, I cried out to you, and you restored me to health.

O Lord my God, I cried out to you, and you restored me to health.

The Rev. Thomas A. Momberg
All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Frederick , MD
June 28. 2009