We are travelers on a journey
Fellow pilgrims on the road
We are here to help each other
Walk a mile and bear the load
When someone is baptized, we often say, “this person steps into the water on their own, but they do not come here alone.” We acknowledge that community is essential to the formation and sustaining of a Christian life. As I reflect on the meaning of ordination this week after my own, I, too, feel a similar individual/communal paradox. I feel the love and support of the community surrounding me as I step into the waters of ministry on my own, with my own freely given ‘yes’ to the call, but not alone. Like the song above that is so often sung at ordination services, we affirm that we travel this journey together. Thanks be to God.
In our Baptist tradition, we are all ministers in our own way, called to this priesthood of all believers that gives us the gift and the responsibility to wrestle with the gospel throughout our lives. Though our vocations may be different– whether a doctor, a teacher, a truck driver or a parent – we share the light that illuminates our living. In this reciprocity of responsibility, the give-and-take of community, I find comfort that it is not all about me. It is the spirit of God working in and through each of us that leads us in the way of Jesus. We each collaborate with God, holding space to work towards the flourishing of our lives together.
Together with God, it is the community that forms disciples, not simply one minister. Together with God, it is the community that speaks truth to power, not simply one minister. Together with God, it is the community that steadies in times of instability, that holds space for love, for grief, for challenge, for justice. Together with God, the community becomes a church that blesses and ordains new ministers because they have encouraged and helped clarify the call. It is a church community that allows seminarians to try things out, to risk, to fail, to learn. Together with God, church communities bless and ordain ministers because they love their people; therefore, they are able to see their people with love beyond what is, into the possibility of what might be.
As I reflect on the meaning of my ordination, I am grateful to have been seen through the lens of love by you, into something far bigger than myself. Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, I will go forth through the enveloping grace of God, working to see all with such a love and trusting the mystery of divine love to hold us all.
With love and hope for the road ahead,
Olena