A friend of mine and I were talking about ordained ministry recently. All of Christ's followers are called to bless, to teach, to care for one another and to build up the Body of believers. But some are put aside for a special focus in these areas. He listed three areas that we Episcopalians probably all recognize. Priests focus much of their work on blessing and on teaching. Bishops are called to work for unity. And deacons are called to serve.
In today's reading from Acts we have the story of why the order of deacons was created and how it was started. In the very first chapters of the Acts we hear about the decision to order the ministry of the apostles, of how they chose Matthias and what they focused their attention on. Today, in response to a need in the common life of the community that was taking the Apostles away from their primary tasks, the apostles called for the creation of deacons (a word that literally means "one who waits at tables") and asked the community to chose seven of them. The apostles prayed and then laid hands upon the seven.
If you've ever been to an ordination you will probably recognize that language. The climactic moment of an ordination happens when the bishop (who is understood to be the heir of the apostles in his or her local community) lays hands on the person being ordained. I remember my own ordination when I was made a deacon. I remember the weight of my bishop's hands and the sense that something in me was changing. That sense was a surprise. It wasn't something I anticipated at all. But it didn't mark a striking change in who I was. I stood up pretty much the same person I had been before I knelt down that day.
What I did notice was that parts of me that had already been there were brought into a new focus. I was commissioned to a task and now under the formal discipline of the Church to carry that out. And my primary way of carrying out that task was to try to stir up that part of the people around me who, together with all in the Church, shared the work of serving the needs of the poor and the marginalized. Together, as a body, in our own day, we carried out the work of the seven deacons. As a deacon I was now expected to find that "heart of a deacon" in others so that we could be deacon for the world.
You have within you a calling to serve others. It's part of what happens to all of us when we are baptized into the Body of Christ. How are you responding to that calling? How are you being deacon to the people in your life? You don't need to be ordained to serve others - that's our common birthright as Christians. But it's also our common spiritual discipline. There's nothing to stop you. And you're supposed to get started.
So what are you going to do about that today?
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