Pentecost 28 year A Sermon
By the end of our time together last week…
we’d been sitting with Jesus and his disciples as they gazed with wonder… across the valley at the grandeur of the Jewish Temple…
As Jesus prepares to enter Jerusalem for the last time… we heard how he warns his followers…
of the day that’s coming… when no stone would be left standing… in Israel’s holiest place.
And Jesus asks them… no matter how bad things get …
to keep their eyes on him and their hearts on his teaching…to watch for him…. in the unclean of this world…to look for him… in the prisoner the sick and the hungry.
The age of the old Mosaic covenant… is coming to an end. And in the days that follow…as Jesus celebrates the Passover with his friends…
he will constitute a people… of a new covenant.
Forty years later… when Jerusalem and the Temple finally fall to the Romans … Jesus apostles…
inspired by the coming of the Holy Spirit…
will already have been at work … right across the Empire…
planting new cells of Jesus’ followers
…trying to carry out God’s purposes of love…
proclaiming the good news of God’s desire…
to reconcile all humanity…all creation…to himself.
Read from Acts 11 and 13
Elders slide
The movement was steeped in Jewish history and tradition from the start… their founder Jesus…
their chief rabbi and master …whose interpretation of the Hebrew scriptures would be their yoke.
As their ancestors had done from the time of Moses…
‘with prayer and fasting they appointed elders in each church and committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.’And so from the earliest days… the Elders exercised a collective authority among God’s people. They formed councils of equals… to discern the will of God…
to oversee the spiritual health of the faith community… and ensure its future well being.
From the time of the Babylonian exile every synagogue elected acouncil of Elders… a gerusia in Hebrew
presbuteron in Greek… appointed by the people to be their leaders.
From time to time a great assembly of Elders would be called… to meet in the Temple in Jerusalem. The Greek word for this was Sanhedrin. And the Roman’s did their best… to dismantle its authority…by breaking up Palestine into five provinces each with it’s own Sanhedrin.
And while the Bible portrays various forms of church government… among the earliest Christians… it’s easy to see our own Presbyterian form of government in the Jewish roots of the movement. Even the name Presbyterian is rooted in the ancient Greek word presbuterion the New Testament word for the collective [never individual] authority of the Council of Elders.
But by the end of the second century a common pattern developed where a bishop presided over a group of churches…with personal authority over their leaders.
A threefold ministry was emerging of priest…elder and deacon…
And by the end of the third century…when the Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity…
he declared the whole Empire to be Christian…by decree…and slowly the church took on…the character of an imperial hierarchy.
For one thousand five hundred years…this imperial pattern held… until finally its weaknesses and abuse of power… would lead a priest called Martin Luther…to nail his protest to the Cathedral door…
Beginning the protestant…the protestant reformation… of which we are a part …
So when we look around our town at the six churches who work so wonderfully together …we see we’re all trying… to be faithful followers of Jesus… working in our own way to make disciples… and express God’s purposes of love in our community…
What sets us apart from one another… isn’t what we believe… but how we chose to govern ourselves.
In the Presbyterian Church there is no higher office than Elder. Authority is collectively vested… in the Council of Elders… we call Session…. Some Elders like myself are called by God and by the church to be teaching elders…others are called by God and the church…
to the office of ruling elder…to exercise along with me … spiritual and missional vision and provide discipline when it’s needed.
Our Council of Elders is subordinate to regional council’s of elders… called Presbytery at which our Elders are represented… Presbytery is in turn subordinate to our national council of elders…the General Assembly.
Our form of church government provides a way of living together where the concerns and initiatives of all members are taken seriously. And any member of this church… can appeal our decisions… all the way to the General Assembly.
We’re accountable to the whole church… and to you…to ensure our mission and resources are used strategically and responsibly…in faithfulness to God’s purposes of love.Having seen my brothers and sisters in other churches… flounder under different systems…
I believe our form of government…is one of our denomination’s greatest strengths.
Throughout the church there’s a desire for passionately committed and faithful leadership. People are crying out for servant leaders willing to lead by example.
All those who accept God’s call to Eldership are ordained to the office. And so today… as our ancestors have for thousands of years…we will ordain David Baird with the laying on of hands.
Let us sing about the call of God…
I the Lord of sea and sky
