‘CHARGE’ TO THE ORDINAND
AT THE ORDINATION OF RHONDA DAVIS MYERS
JUNE 21, 2009
THE REV ANTHONY E ACHESON, M.DIV
Rhonda, this ‘Charge to the Ordinand’ is, by tradition, a time when advice and counsel from an older, more experienced minister are offered to one who is freshly ordained. My thoughts about what might fit this occasion spring, first, from memories of my own ordination. When the anniversaries of that date circle back, and memories of it are rekindled, I frequently feel deep wells of emotion, which often bring me to tears. Those emotions come up because being a minister matters to me. And being a minister matters, in turn, because the many experiences of these thirty one years since my ordination have soaked an awareness down into my cells that ministry is a place where we can play a real role for the good for a significant number of people.
Yes, of course, each living person is a potential minister, and that should not be forgotten. But there is a uniqueness, nonetheless, to the form of ministry that is ordained. It is unique because both the preparation for ordination, and the act of conferring it, are outward and designated signs that reverence for something high and transcendent is worth pursuing not just inwardly, but also publicly and visibly in a world that often forgets to seek it. It is not for nothing that from now to the end of your life, and indeed beyond, you will be referred to as, ‘Reverend.’ The meaning of that word is not that you as a person should be offered any special reverence. The deeper meaning is that you now hold a position from which to be a visible agent of reverence. By virtue of what took place today, how you carry yourself will be carefully watched and noticed by many people. That will be a frequent burden. But it will also be a daily opportunity to witness to the real presence of The Spirit in this universe, and explain Its real power to grow and heal real people. This world offers no higher work. The first piece of my charge to you, then, is to never forget what a privilege has just been laid upon you by that cluster of warm hands that love you and wish you well, and have now ordained you into formal ministry.
The second piece to this charge is this: as you make your way through the life of ministry, I encourage you to channel your time and energies heavily into doing the things that you yourself most deeply love. Love, to be sure, takes many forms. One aspect of loving your church, for example, will be your need to tend to many tasks you may not love greatly that you will just have to go ahead and fulfill, without having much choice about them in a given moment. There will be many people, too, who will approach you for help with their own agendas and timetables. I am certain you will endeavor to do the work of love in each such case as best you can, as you should and must.
But as you move through the longer arc of your ministry, it is essential that you keep your main focus on doing what you yourself love and enjoy. For even though there will indeed by tasks that will impinge on you without much freedom of choice, the one thing you always do have choice about is the shape of your long-term priorities. The truth is that the more you are doing what you authentically love, the more that what people are going to actually see in you is your love. The more you are doing what lights you up, what delights you, what you are enthusiastic and passionate about, the more people will receive love from you, because they will be able to see love alive in you. Someone once said, ‘I’d rather SEE a good sermon than hear one.’ How we go about our business week to week is every bit as much our sermon as the words we assemble for Sunday speaking. When you are doing what you love, your choice to do so is one of the major access points by which Love Itself can shine through you, and make its way out from you. External requirements are real, and some cannot be avoided. But within them and around them: do what you yourself love.
Finally, do your own inner work of growth and transformation. If I could leave just one thing with you today, Rhonda, that might actually be remembered in this hour’s river of words and sounds, it would be this. Please remember that being a minister has one clear, unambiguous priority: to do your own spiritual work; to do your own consciousness work; to do your own version of whatever must be undertaken to deal with your own personal limitations and weaknesses, your fears and baggage from the past, your wounds and resistances and blocks. We all have them. But only a few make significant progress to move beyond them. Be one of those few.
In ‘A Course in Miracles,’ it says, ‘This course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence.’ That is as good an articulation as I have heard of what it means to do your own spiritual work and consciousness work. Spiritual work is a kind of inner excavation. The excavation has two sides to it. The first half of the excavation is to descend deeply into our beings to identify those blocks, wounds and fears; to become conscious of their components; and to learn how to disassemble and remove those blocks piece by piece. That’s the first half of the excavation.
The second half of the excavation is that as we increasingly hoist up those ‘blocks against the awareness of love’s presence’ to break up and remove them, so also are we empowered to hoist up to conscious awareness the many forms of love’s presence, in order to express and unleash them. That is a simple statement of what ministry most essentially is. Ministry is a designated and sacred way of being a bearer of love. At its best, it is an empowerment of your own being to be a clear and edifying window into both the love of God, and the Realness which is the Divine Presence.
And so, Rev. Rhonda Davis Myers, I encourage and charge you this day to these three things: to stay mindful of the great privilege of ministry that has been conferred on you this hour; to bring the joy of what you most love to the doing of it; and to keep courage to stick with the hard work which the spiritual life most assuredly is.
May you go forth in all these thing with many smiles, with much laughter, and with the heartfelt hopes and support of the many people who love you.
Godspeed. And Amen.
