Generous Acts
Sunday, September 24th, 2006
Ordination to the Deacon Ministry of Soozin Mullin
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
James 1:17-22
That is NOT to say that we should NOT study and meditate and internalize and “think on these things”, but it DOES mean that our activity surrounding our faith should not stop THERE. Christ tells us in Mark 12:30 “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” He goes on to say “love your neighbor as yourself.” And we’ll come back to that in a minute.
The very first Student Mission Conference I attended as a college student in Kentucky was at Southern Seminary. I remember it was wintertime, either late January or early February. I drove up to Louisville in my car with fellow students from the Baptist Student Union from Western Kentucky University. In some ways I felt like I had an inside track with the whole ‘missions’ thing. After all, I WAS the son of missionaries, I had LIVED overseas, had spent my life around missions, I was on a first-name basis with Keith Parks, the then-president of the then Foreign Mission Board (he was “Uncle Keith” to any MK), so … of COURSE I knew what missions was about, right?
What I found was that, while I might have been familiar with the terminology and had the right words to talk about missions, it still boiled down to this. And it was the theme of the conference: “Be Doers of the Word”. And that was something that I needed to figure out all for myself, along with everyone else that was at that meeting. I remember sleeping on the floor in one of the seminary student’s dorm rooms. If memory serves, it was in the same dorm that I ended up living in while I was in seminary, just on the lower of the two floors.
Over the intervening nearly twenty-five years, there have been people who have shown me what being “doers of the word” looks like. Dr. and Mrs. Paul Parks showed me what it meant to be pillars of the church in the fullest sense – they both gave not only of their finances, but of their time and their insight. Dr. Parks taught one of the college and career classes for years – both before and after I attended First Baptist Church of Bowling Green Kentucky. He was the man who introduced me to Richard Foster’s “Celebration of Discipline.”
Phyllis Parks, Dr. Parks’ wife, taught me how important and meaningful even the most menial tasks performed in love, can be.
Herbert and Jackie Shadowen took me in and made me a part of their family, even letting me live in their home while they spent the summer on sabbatical. They fleshed out for me what the gift of hospitality looks like.
Truman Smith taught me about trusting God to work in and through someone, even when, in man’s eyes, there might seem to be something lacking.
Kelly Spears taught me about standing up for someone when you think they have been treated wrong, about being an advocate for someone with no voice.
Phil Brown taught me about perseverance.
Claude Drouet taught me about generosity and graciousness of spirit.
I hope that as I’ve gone through that short and incomplete list of people who have walked with me in MY pilgrimage as a Christian, that you had a chance, or that you will TAKE the time, to go over in your mind who has been pivotal in your life and growth as a Christian
Looking back over those experiences with those people, I CAN really say, as James did at the beginning of the passage, that “Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” These were all people who not only believed their faith, but lived it.
When James digs in and says ‘Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves’ he is addressing a situation with which I’m afraid we are all familiar. He’s talking to people who had figured out how to hear Christian teaching without really listening to it. It basically went in one ear and out the other. He’s addressing the mindset that says “I go to church on Sundays, I sit through the sermon, and I’m done. That’s as far as it goes for me – that’s all I NEED to be a Christian.” The thought that what is learned, or heard, in Church might have some effect on the actions one takes in daily life is foreign to them. That is the deception James is talking about; people who have deceived themselves into thinking that the Gospel ends at the walls of the building.
What we see over and over again in the Gospels, in Christ’s ministry, in his preaching, and in the history of the early church, is that it is what is done THE REST OF THE TIME – away from church, away from worship, away from fellowship with fellow believers, that defines whether or not we are truly followers of Christ.
So we come to this point in our life as a church, where we recognize and affirm a person’s living out that discipleship, that following of Jesus, that calling, that carrying out the ministry of service, so what we do here as a church is rejoice in that, affirm it, bless it, and name it. We call it the diaconate. The Servants. Those who are set aside originally were set aside based on their “good standing”, on their being “full of the Spirit and wisdom.”
We engage in the laying on of hands – it is a ritual of consecration and appointment. By asking any who are present to join in this act, we recognize that it is this body of Christ, as a local congregation, that we bear witness to those who are called out among us to that service of the church, and while it is in a concrete sense a calling to serve this church, Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton, it is in a broader sense a consecration to serve the church universal, because we are a part of that as well.
It is with profound joy that I ask Soozin to join me here at the front. I mentioned what Jesus went on to say a few minutes ago – that part about ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ – the water and the bowl and the towel remind us of one of the last acts Jesus performed for his disciples --- washing their feet. I want you to dip your hands in this water, and be reminded of that act, and understand that it was setting the tone and setting the precedent for what we do as servant leaders of the church.
Soozin’s witness not only since we’ve been here (Leslie and the kids and I), but over at LEAST the last two decades … you all can tell me more accurately how long it’s been the case – Bobbie and Doc and the rest of the family, yes? – has been consistently living out that ‘loving’ part, the caring that her life has reflected is more than enough to show that her heart is truly one that is after God’s own.
I would first ask that all ordained ministers and deacons present please form a line along the side of the sanctuary, and as you come by to say a blessing over or a prayer for Soozin, and after them, the line is open for any and all who would join us in consecrating and appointing Soozin to be a Deacon of Jerusalem.
Sunday, September 24th, 2006
Ordination to the Deacon Ministry of Soozin Mullin
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
James 1:17-22
17Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures. 19You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls. 22But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.In going through the Epistle of James over the last couple of weeks we’ve been seeing that the idea of faith being a concept – an idea ALONE is about as far from the point of the gospel as one can get. James’ point, throughout his message to the church at Jerusalem, is that Christian faith is NOT ONLY about thinking and dwelling and meditating and pondering and internalizing the message of Christ, it is about putting the message of Christ into ACTION.
That is NOT to say that we should NOT study and meditate and internalize and “think on these things”, but it DOES mean that our activity surrounding our faith should not stop THERE. Christ tells us in Mark 12:30 “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” He goes on to say “love your neighbor as yourself.” And we’ll come back to that in a minute.
The very first Student Mission Conference I attended as a college student in Kentucky was at Southern Seminary. I remember it was wintertime, either late January or early February. I drove up to Louisville in my car with fellow students from the Baptist Student Union from Western Kentucky University. In some ways I felt like I had an inside track with the whole ‘missions’ thing. After all, I WAS the son of missionaries, I had LIVED overseas, had spent my life around missions, I was on a first-name basis with Keith Parks, the then-president of the then Foreign Mission Board (he was “Uncle Keith” to any MK), so … of COURSE I knew what missions was about, right?
What I found was that, while I might have been familiar with the terminology and had the right words to talk about missions, it still boiled down to this. And it was the theme of the conference: “Be Doers of the Word”. And that was something that I needed to figure out all for myself, along with everyone else that was at that meeting. I remember sleeping on the floor in one of the seminary student’s dorm rooms. If memory serves, it was in the same dorm that I ended up living in while I was in seminary, just on the lower of the two floors.
Over the intervening nearly twenty-five years, there have been people who have shown me what being “doers of the word” looks like. Dr. and Mrs. Paul Parks showed me what it meant to be pillars of the church in the fullest sense – they both gave not only of their finances, but of their time and their insight. Dr. Parks taught one of the college and career classes for years – both before and after I attended First Baptist Church of Bowling Green Kentucky. He was the man who introduced me to Richard Foster’s “Celebration of Discipline.”
Phyllis Parks, Dr. Parks’ wife, taught me how important and meaningful even the most menial tasks performed in love, can be.
Herbert and Jackie Shadowen took me in and made me a part of their family, even letting me live in their home while they spent the summer on sabbatical. They fleshed out for me what the gift of hospitality looks like.
Truman Smith taught me about trusting God to work in and through someone, even when, in man’s eyes, there might seem to be something lacking.
Kelly Spears taught me about standing up for someone when you think they have been treated wrong, about being an advocate for someone with no voice.
Phil Brown taught me about perseverance.
Claude Drouet taught me about generosity and graciousness of spirit.
I hope that as I’ve gone through that short and incomplete list of people who have walked with me in MY pilgrimage as a Christian, that you had a chance, or that you will TAKE the time, to go over in your mind who has been pivotal in your life and growth as a Christian
Looking back over those experiences with those people, I CAN really say, as James did at the beginning of the passage, that “Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” These were all people who not only believed their faith, but lived it.
When James digs in and says ‘Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves’ he is addressing a situation with which I’m afraid we are all familiar. He’s talking to people who had figured out how to hear Christian teaching without really listening to it. It basically went in one ear and out the other. He’s addressing the mindset that says “I go to church on Sundays, I sit through the sermon, and I’m done. That’s as far as it goes for me – that’s all I NEED to be a Christian.” The thought that what is learned, or heard, in Church might have some effect on the actions one takes in daily life is foreign to them. That is the deception James is talking about; people who have deceived themselves into thinking that the Gospel ends at the walls of the building.
What we see over and over again in the Gospels, in Christ’s ministry, in his preaching, and in the history of the early church, is that it is what is done THE REST OF THE TIME – away from church, away from worship, away from fellowship with fellow believers, that defines whether or not we are truly followers of Christ.
So we come to this point in our life as a church, where we recognize and affirm a person’s living out that discipleship, that following of Jesus, that calling, that carrying out the ministry of service, so what we do here as a church is rejoice in that, affirm it, bless it, and name it. We call it the diaconate. The Servants. Those who are set aside originally were set aside based on their “good standing”, on their being “full of the Spirit and wisdom.”
We engage in the laying on of hands – it is a ritual of consecration and appointment. By asking any who are present to join in this act, we recognize that it is this body of Christ, as a local congregation, that we bear witness to those who are called out among us to that service of the church, and while it is in a concrete sense a calling to serve this church, Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton, it is in a broader sense a consecration to serve the church universal, because we are a part of that as well.
It is with profound joy that I ask Soozin to join me here at the front. I mentioned what Jesus went on to say a few minutes ago – that part about ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ – the water and the bowl and the towel remind us of one of the last acts Jesus performed for his disciples --- washing their feet. I want you to dip your hands in this water, and be reminded of that act, and understand that it was setting the tone and setting the precedent for what we do as servant leaders of the church.
Soozin’s witness not only since we’ve been here (Leslie and the kids and I), but over at LEAST the last two decades … you all can tell me more accurately how long it’s been the case – Bobbie and Doc and the rest of the family, yes? – has been consistently living out that ‘loving’ part, the caring that her life has reflected is more than enough to show that her heart is truly one that is after God’s own.
I would first ask that all ordained ministers and deacons present please form a line along the side of the sanctuary, and as you come by to say a blessing over or a prayer for Soozin, and after them, the line is open for any and all who would join us in consecrating and appointing Soozin to be a Deacon of Jerusalem.
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