Ordination

What is ordination as it's practiced in this world,
Down beneath the fluff and hoopla, down beneath the swirl?
To me it is like our baptism – a big yet little thing;
To this action, much of meaning's in that part we bring.

Like baptism, there's encrusted layers of thought piled up;
Much of meaning in such action's fuzzy in our thought –
Hid from view in mists of time, for we have all moved on,
Even as from heritage of bagpipe, kilt, and scone.

Ordination speaks to us of linking then and now
To a future still unknown to us (not God, somehow);
So it's like a still-life picture when it's proper made
Tension seen within the frame is with the absent laid.

Still-life shows us ‘now’ – a slice in time which flows right by,
Raising questions of a story not seen by the eye;
Take an apple with a slice of cheese on table laid –
What's the story? How’d it get there? Who this lunch has made?

No one bothers thinking of this, common is the scene,
Till you notice it's at table which on ships are seen –
Ship is heaving, no one present, where are all the crew?
Symbols of a ship abandoned raise this other view.

“What transpires outside this picture?” – that's what makes it good;
Tension twixt the seen and unseen, what's not understood;
Like baptism, it's an action seen and yet unseen,
Tension coming from its context makes it what it means.

Each one coming to the water has a story told
By their actions, and their journey, timidly or bold.
Much of action for that person takes place in their heart
Yet around the person stands some others, taking part.

Simple at its base, baptism stands for burial –
Having died, come unresponsive to all worldly swirl,
We get buried in the water, symbol of an end,
Rising up to live forever now as God intends.

Up till then we sought the fame and favour of the folks
Who surround us in our journey, taking on their yolks;
Letting go of deathly-life so precious in our past,
We move on to deeper meaning, freed from it at last.

So we come into the water, just like Jesus’ walk
Down one staircase, or embankment, very little talk;
Laid beneath the water like the dead within the tomb,
Raised again, the symbol over, from that ending-room.

Walking to the other staircase, bank across the pond,
We go up to live with Spirit as our life goes on.
Sometimes in our new forever we find things of old,
Toss them back across the water, now on new life sold.

So, as still-life of baptism’s past and future banks
Speak of what's outside the frame, now giving rise to thanks;
For the people with the knowledge of what was before,
There's awareness of a tension (and there will be more).

Celebration of this moment's symboled life and faith,
Fills the content of the picture, rendered now in paint;
Seen and unseen is the package, not by all picked up,
But it's not without its graces in each journey rough.

Just like this is ordination though its purpose is
Not for all, it speaks of function in God's earthly biz.
But the still-life view of action helps us understand
What's transpiring as we watch a person and a hand.

It's not magic, but symbolic (like baptism’s days),
“Set apart to build up body-life” midst songs of praise
To the One who saw a need to give such gifts of folks
To the world to help us grow mature in Jesus’ yoke.

Like in still-life there's a tension just outside the frame;
With all people there's the past from which each person came;
And the future, unaware, just hints and hunches now –
Seen and unseen, we move forward, Grace fills in the how.

Here in public, call’s confirmed, by people of His church
Of a person set aside to help those in the lurch
Move beyond their deathly-life, and knit them in the group,
Till mature, they do their part, help others in the soup.

Like the ground-crew in the Air Force, maintenance the job;
Or in shop like car mechanic with the label, ‘Bob’,
Folks like this are gifts from Jesus to the world, Paul writes;
Five the types of work encompassed, “focus” if you like.

“Pastors” are the local leaders, front-line in the task;
Building up, and guiding so folks get more than they ask;
Many types of people fill this vital role in life;
Broad the context of the work, in mix of calm and strife.

“Teachers” fill our need for knowledge, growing up to be
More mature with understanding of the world we see –
What the depth, the breadth, the height, of God's love in our world;
Helping us by grace to grow, despite confusing swirl.

Though “evangelists” take flak for getting in our face,
They're the folks who ask us in to life empowered by grace;
Selling us on better life than we could ask or think;
Speaking to the hopes and dreams of those out on the brink.

“Prophets” have a way of speaking in our troubled days;
Pointing out some other options than our twisted ways;
Helping us to rise to standards of high quality;
Reaching out to raise us folks, beyond a life of “me”.

“Apostolic” is the term for border-crossers now;
Taking salt, and light, and leaven, to enhance somehow
Cultures different from their own with richness from the Word,
Till all people mixed together have such good news heard.

Ministers do all five tasks at some point in their lives;
Gradually they find a focus as that time arrives
When they find God works through them much better in some ways,
Then they soar on eagle’s wings and finish out their days.

God it is who authorizes any work in life;
People give (or not) permission in the calm or strife;
Jesus had authority to do his earthly task;
People did not always want it, so he let them ask.

Walking out his earthly mission (spoke as Father spoke),
Said that we could all disciple, share the easy yoke;
Life would not be always easy, some prefer the dark
To a world lit by such son-light, started with a spark.

For this reason He gave gifts of people to the task –
Building, teaching, calling, guiding, crossing borders vast;
Now we pause to mark a moment in this person's walk
Laying on with hands, permission – action, not just talk.

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