No Words for this
No words for this. humbling.
I'm going to record it here on the blog so I can refer to it in the future. Such a great sermon and call to live by.
From Ted Ferris' sermon preached at an ordination service on May 9, 1971.
Because the church is where it is today—at the cross-roads—the younger he is the better able he will be to lead in into another chapter. People of my age and generation are too emotionally attached to the past to even see, let alone dare to make the changes that will almost inevitably be a necessity of survival. We may like to think that we are broad-minded and flexible, but when we get down to brass tacks, to the sticks and stones of the buildings we love, to the words and phrases of hymns and prayers that we know by heart, to the organizations we’ve given our time and energy to create, to the budgets and cash balances that we are accustomed to—then we know that we’re not quite so fluid as we thought we were. Perhaps we’re not yet frozen, but we’re pretty well fixed...
Whom did our Lord ask to start a new movement of the Spirit at a time when the spiritual temperature of the civilized world was far below normal—a group of elderly men who had been through the gaff, knew all the pitfalls, and could spot the crackpots a mile off? Not at all. None of them was much more than thirty—not even Jesus; or Paul, or Peter, or John. They were young, inexperienced, open to new ideas, sensitive to new visions, willing to try anything, ready to pay any price.
Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not yet ready to turn the whole church over to the teen-agers, or even to those in their twenties. What I am saying is that when it comes to the kind of rebirth which the church now calls for, the lead will come from young men like the one before us now—intelligent, serious, flexible, imaginative, gentle but firm, and fearless; ready to break new ground, not tied body and soul to any particular organization or way of worship; with preferences, obviously, but not prejudices and preconceptions.
All I ask of him is that he go about his work remembering Jesus: he was outspoken, he made no peace with legalism or narrowness of any kind; but he carried no battle-axe, and he made his greatest gains when showed people something they had never seen before—the royalty of service.
I'm going to record it here on the blog so I can refer to it in the future. Such a great sermon and call to live by.
From Ted Ferris' sermon preached at an ordination service on May 9, 1971.
Because the church is where it is today—at the cross-roads—the younger he is the better able he will be to lead in into another chapter. People of my age and generation are too emotionally attached to the past to even see, let alone dare to make the changes that will almost inevitably be a necessity of survival. We may like to think that we are broad-minded and flexible, but when we get down to brass tacks, to the sticks and stones of the buildings we love, to the words and phrases of hymns and prayers that we know by heart, to the organizations we’ve given our time and energy to create, to the budgets and cash balances that we are accustomed to—then we know that we’re not quite so fluid as we thought we were. Perhaps we’re not yet frozen, but we’re pretty well fixed...
Whom did our Lord ask to start a new movement of the Spirit at a time when the spiritual temperature of the civilized world was far below normal—a group of elderly men who had been through the gaff, knew all the pitfalls, and could spot the crackpots a mile off? Not at all. None of them was much more than thirty—not even Jesus; or Paul, or Peter, or John. They were young, inexperienced, open to new ideas, sensitive to new visions, willing to try anything, ready to pay any price.
Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not yet ready to turn the whole church over to the teen-agers, or even to those in their twenties. What I am saying is that when it comes to the kind of rebirth which the church now calls for, the lead will come from young men like the one before us now—intelligent, serious, flexible, imaginative, gentle but firm, and fearless; ready to break new ground, not tied body and soul to any particular organization or way of worship; with preferences, obviously, but not prejudices and preconceptions.
All I ask of him is that he go about his work remembering Jesus: he was outspoken, he made no peace with legalism or narrowness of any kind; but he carried no battle-axe, and he made his greatest gains when showed people something they had never seen before—the royalty of service.
posted by mark at
10:41 AM
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