Garrett's thoughts on Ordination

Ordination!

“What do you do?” “Oh, I’m going to be a priest in the church. I mean, probably not the kind of priest you’re thinking of (as I indiscreetly flash my wedding band), but yeah, a priest.” From this point on, it's as if a seat belt is put on the conversation, and no matter what the topic at hand is – from things as menial as the weather, to those things of eternal significance such as the Steelers’ secondary – it can never be forgotten that one is conversing with a priest. I have a friend whose an embalmist: he probably gets the same “ohhh” when he shares the nature of his work.

So why would someone take up such a calling? Well, calling is the right word, and it also gives some shape to why I… wear a backwards collar, wake up super early on Sundays and will for the foreseeable future, and, most distressingly, do not currently live in Malibu. But it is a calling, in other words, it is something I am responding to. So I guess one answer to the question of calling is to point to a God who calls people to do such things.

One of the things that I love most about ministry is getting to be with people. Now I know that there are lots of jobs where you can be with people – the gentlemen who just dropped off my cappuccino has one of them. So maybe I could state it a little more directly: I love being with people with God. Even more, I love being with people with God as people think about how they too are with people and with God. With, as it’s become clear, is a big word to me. Because ultimately, I believe in Jesus, who to me is both God-with-us and God-with-others. I guess I want to be a priest because I sense that it is God’s way of asking me, calling me, to be like Jesus. There is definitely more that could be said, but this is it in a nutshell.

So I have been answering the question, why would you want to be ordained. I guess the other interesting question here is why would you want to be ordained? I can just see the guy’s look on his face this morning as he looked over at me and saw me putting on my clerical collar while we were both stopped at a red-light. His look was something of a respectful bewilderment: his prayer, at least according to his facial expression, was something like “Lord, have mercy.” Anyways, ordination, at this point in time, why? “Don’t I know that the institutional church is struggling? Don’t I want a more respectful career? What do my parents think?” The answers are: yes, no, and I haven’t asked them in a while.

In short, I believe that Jesus loves his church, and I believe that Jesus has great things in store for the Episcopal church. I know this to be true because I have seen God do amazing things in my last year at St. Paul’s. I have seen a church who loves being with people and with God. I see a vibrant vestry, a church that cares about both the young and the old, and lay leaders who give of themselves to ministries in the South Hills and beyond. In other words, I have seen a church that has a working knowledge of what it means that it isn’t just some of us who are ordained; it’s every last one of us. Whether we wear the collar or not, we are all ministers in God's church. And so, I'll join in the gentleman’s prayer (minus the facial expression) who I saw this morning, and say for all of us baptized Christians, “Yes, Lord, have mercy on us all.”

Garrett Yates