In 2002 I published the most unread book in modern publishing history. It is a memoir of my six years as pastor of Third Baptist Church. Sometime later I received a royalty check; it totaled $4.53. A letter arrived from the International Council of Unread Books, stating that my volume was listed in the top ten for the year of publication. However, on page 299 of that book there appears a name
That has helped redeem the book from obscurity and irrelevance: Zachery Bailes. An asterisk appears with the name indicating Zac was baptized during my tenure as pastor. Later, I was blessed to have him as a student in my classes at Georgetown College and as a member of the Chapel Leadership Team. Beginning here at Third, then at Georgetown, now again at Third, I am happy, hopeful, and thankful to be a part of his life and ministry.
The text for this ordination sermon is taken from the first and last verses of the very text from which Zachery preached this morning: 1 Corinthians 1:1 and 13:13. “Paul, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ by the will of God….and now there abides faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love.” As we ordain Mr. Bailes to the gospel ministry, let us think of his calling as that of an apostle and let us use these three words—faith, hope, and love—to define what we mean by the apostolic ministry.
Mr. Bailes, we commission you today as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. You will live out your ministry amidst other apostles, men and women who are advocates and organizers for other things: political visions, economic agendas, denominational networks, national interests, and ideological missions. But you are commissioned today to be an apostle of Jesus Christ.
You are an apostle, first, of the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. This faith is summarized by the phrase, “death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.” The four gospel writers focus their accounts on these important events. Paul, in chapter two of his letter to Corinth, puts it this way: “We proclaim Christ on the cross.” A few moments ago we sang an old gospel hymn: “He took our sins and our sorrows and made them his very own; he bore the burden to Calvary and suffered and died alone. How marvelous! How wonderful!”
The faith of Christians is centered in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Christian baptism is a drama that reminds us of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Holy Communion also takes our thoughts back to the death of Christ and we are called upon to remember his death until he returns. In these ways we reach back into history and latch hold of that mighty event; we pull it into the present so that it transforms our living today. This is the meaning of faith. God did a mighty work when he raised Jesus from the dead. This is our faith. You are commissioned today to be an apostle of this story. Every person in the world has a right to hear this story.
You are an apostle, second, of the hope that is in Jesus Christ. Many movers and shakers in public life will appeal to hope as a motivation to people. “Keep hope alive” is one familiar phrase. Our hope is centered in the coming rule of God. Recall the dying words of Stephen, as recorded in the book of Acts. He was being stoned to death by an angry mob; he had offended their religious sensibilities. As he lay dying, he said, “I see heaven open and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” This confidence in the victory of Jesus over death and sin and the vindication of Jesus by the power of God is the foundation of our hope. It is God’s triumph over violence, prejudice, racism, tribalism, nationalism, militarism, and all manner of human inventions to secure power and suppress people.
Jesus came preaching the coming rule of God. Jesus was an agent of that rule, of that coming kingdom. It will be a day of peace, justice, freedom, truth and beauty. God raised Jesus from the dead to certify the promise of this kingdom. We reach into the future, God’s future, and latch hold of this coming kingdom; we pull it into the present so that it transforms our living today. We live today in light of the coming rule of God. We live today as if God’s rule has already begun. Indeed, we declare that God already rules in us, and around us, and through us. This is the transformational power of Christian hope, and we commission you today to be an apostle, in word and deed, of this hope.
A few minutes ago your brother, Joshua, older and already ordained to the gospel, led in prayer. I appreciated the wide scope of his petitions. His is a universal hope that touches and includes all people in all places in all times. That spirit is made possible by the hope for universal redemption that we have in Christ.
Not everything Joshua says or writes carries that much weight with me. For instance, this week I received a Facebook invitation from Josh. He invited me to join the Mafia Wars on Facebook. Mafia Wars, his message explained, is “a mob-style game of combat and criminal empire played on Facebook. You can begin as a small-time hood and fight your way up to ruling your own crime family.” This invitation came as I was preparing this sermon and I did not know what to make of it. It illustrates, first, what happens when you enter law school. But it also indicates that Josh has forgotten that I have been, already and for a long time, the head of a crime family!
We ordain you today, Zachary Bailes, as an apostle of the love of Jesus Christ. The first great apostle wrote that love is the greatest of God’s gifts, the most important grace, the one power most needed in the world today. God loved the world and sent his son Jesus Christ. God wants to love the world through you, through your ministry, through your apostolic mission. You are to live and speak like Jesus because he embodied the love of God. It was his life in the streets, with the people, among the needs and hopes of the world that serves today as your example.
This afternoon at your ordaining council you were asked about the role of Jesus in your call to ministry. You gave principle attention to Jesus as your example. I challenge you to always keep the life and words of Jesus at the center of your imagination. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, visit the prisoner, and offer the cup of water in the name and spirit of Jesus.
This past week I watched the CBS program featuring Neil Diamond in concert in New York. It was called “Neil Diamond: Hot August Night.” The title is a reference to a song which was not included in the televised program but which I am sure he sang that night. He wrote the words, he writes somewhere, in a plane high over Memphis, Tennessee. It is the story of a traveling evangelist who sets up a tent on the edge of town and announces a revival meeting. “Pack up the babies, grab the old ladies, everyone goes, ‘cause everyone knows Brother Love’s traveling salvation show.” The salvation that he preaches is summarized in the song by reference to our two hands. With one hand, reach up to the Lord when we are troubled; with the other hand reach out to your neighbor when he or she is in need.
Nowhere on the social scene today is this love more needed that in the current debate on health care. Providing decent care to all people is not just a plank in a political platform; it is a fundamental element of our Christian mission. It is a practical way we love people. To use the language of Neil Diamond, it is reaching out to those in need with the healing, helping power of God. I do not know the answer to the government’s role in health care reform; but I do know that if Christian people and Christian congregations around this nation were to take seriously the medical needs of their neighbors, there would be no need of government spending billions of tax dollars to rehabilitate the system.
This is the meaning of Christian love: reaching up to the transformational power of God and letting it flow through you into the lives of people all around you. This is your apostolic ministry, here and around the world. Roman Catholics have a wonderful tradition of announcing important documents and blessings with the Latin words, urbi et orbi. This means, “to the city and to the world.” I find this a compelling breadth of gospel vision. Your ministry is to the city where you are, wherever you are, and to the world, to the far side of the world.
It is good that you and I have preached from the words of the great lion of God, Paul the apostle. He was a preacher, a poet, a theologian, a church planter, a community organizer, an evangelist, an innovator whose original ideas and practices still shape the way you and I think today. He was a multi-talented minister of the Lord Jesus Christ. So are you, Zachery Bailes. Who knows what form your ministry will take; God will lead you. But our role today is to commission you as an apostle of the faith of Jesus Christ: crucified, buried and raised on the third day. We commission you as an apostle of the hope that is in Jesus Christ, the blessed hope, Paul called it once, of his appearing in glory and power. We commission you today as an apostle of the love of God; may it take you into the streets to touch the lives of people with the mercy and grace of God.
The ordination sermon for J. Zachery Bailes, preached at the Third Baptist Church of Owensboro by Dr. Dwight A. Moody, August 16, 2009