After the Order of Melchizedek

It has been a long journey and a lot of work, but we all rejoice that Son In Law Matthew (center- aka "the preaching bear" by children in Malawi) was ordained to the Sacred Order of Priests by Bishop Mathes of San Diego on behalf of Bishop Lawrence of South Carolina on December third. Matthew asked me to preach for his ordination, and here is my sermon, along with some pictures of the day.

Concelebrating with Bishop Mathes

Presenting Fr. Canter and His Family

Putting up with Marines (little brother is on the right!)

Greeting Friends at the Reception

A Goodly Heritage

Ordination Sermon- Matthew Canter
Preached at St Michael’s by the Sea, Carlsbad California
On the eve of the feast of Nicholas Ferrar

Exodus 3:1-6
Psalm 121
II Timothy 4:1-8
Saint John 10:1-18

May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts, be alway acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer. Amen.

There are times in our lives when we, like Moses, stand in the very presence of God. It may be at a burning bush, or in the vicinity of a bolt of lightening, or when we hear a voice in the dark, but we know instinctively that we have been in the presence of the living God. His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are indeed the children of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. In July of 2000, Matthew’s mother Kathy received a letter from Scotland which I have been given permission to share with you today. Her son wrote, “I feel and felt within me on the late night of first July that my life be used to spread and minister the Word of God. I believe that God tells all of us different matters in our lives. It just so happens I was listening when he told me I should be in the ministry.” What a blessed letter for any mother to receive. It is no wonder that it has been so lovingly preserved. I don’t know the exact details of what happened in Scotland in July of 2000, but it made a young man aware of God’s presence in his life, and he was listening, and here we are today. I presume, in fact I know that over the last decade or so, that young man had times when he doubted what he experienced on that first of July, but over the years an ever growing circle of friends and family, mentors, congregations, bishops, seminary faculty, and the members of the commission on ministry have come to the same conclusion that he reached that night, that his “life be used to spread and minister the Word of God.”
Matthew, thank God that by his grace, you were listening. Thank God that the good people of Fairview Church had lived before you the Word of God in such a way that you had some idea of how to recognize the voice of God in your life. Thank God that Mike Morgan sent you to us at St. John’s, and that you met a godly professor at Presbyterian, and that there were men in your unit in Korea and Iraq who served God faithfully- until the very end of their lives. Thank God that you met my Daughter and fell in love with an Anglo-Catholic pietist and went to Nashotah House and met Bishop Salmon and went to Malawi and came here. As I imagine you can attest, there are no accidents in our lives. God has prepared you for this day that he anticipated before the foundations of the earth were laid. He knew you in your mother’s womb, and knew that your “life would be used to spread and minister the Word of God.” He has positioned us all, the members of his one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church, along the way as witnesses to discern, and affirm, and acclaim the reality of your call. And now, under the leadership and direction of the bishops of his church, we gather today to affirm that you are called to be “alter Christus,” in the place of Christ, as a Presbyter of the church catholic. As president of the Eucharist, you will stand in the place of and along side of your bishop to model for your people the life and example of Jesus Christ. Like him, you will represent to the Father that holy sacrifice of ourselves in love and humility on behalf of the whole world and teach us that “no man hath greater love than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” By word and example, you will teach us to “love one another,” and to “prefer one another before ourselves.” You will make mistakes, and from time to time fall into sin, but you will return and repent, trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ to shower you with his grace and to give you strength; because you are “sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.” You will discipline your life according to the precepts of the Bible, because it is in your behaviour and character that men and women will know Jesus. But now I have gone to preaching at my son-in -law, something I’ve looked forward to for a long time, but enough is enough, so let me regroup and restrain myself.
Son in law, as you are commissioned and ordained this day to spread and minister the Word of God, you are ordained by Bishop Mathes on behalf of the Holy Church of God to stand in the very place of Christ. At the Altar, in your preaching, and by your example, you are set apart in a very special way to proclaim to everyone, because God loves everyone, that the way to enter the sheepfold of God’s mercy is through the wicket gate, the door of Jesus, who died for us and was resurrected to glory that we might live forever with peace, and purpose, and hope, and the knowledge that God loves us. Love all those made in God’s image, and honour their decisions and their outlooks, and their beliefs, but never under any circumstances waver from your commitment that Jesus is the door, and that he is the way to the Father’s forgiveness and love.
Be faithful to your people, “wallow with them in the midst of their daily affairs”, and so order your life that they will see in you the Good Shepherd who giveth his life for the sheep. So order your life and your family that they will see in you the holiness and the humility of Jesus. When times are difficult and discouragement sets in, do not flee, thereby allowing the wolves of this world to scatter the flock of Christ, but stand firm in the Gospel you have received. Give your life for the people of God, that they may know firsthand the character and love of God in Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd, in whose place you stand.
As you strive to do this thing by his grace, remember your covenant with my daughter and grandchildren. It is so easy to become so busy in good works that we neglect those whom God has given us first. And yet it is in your marriage that you most perfectly model the image of God in the world. It is there that you show the respect and consideration that characterizes all true leadership and models the headship of Christ. It is there in your wife and children that people see the true role of the Church, submitting to godly headship not out of fear or mere duty, but because your character and fidelity to the Word of God produces for them an ark of safety and the knowledge that you would never demand or coerce anything that would be hurtful, or humiliating, or unloving. It is in your marriage, and in the begetting of children that God has allowed you to participate with him in the very act of creation. Cultivate and love your family with all humility and tenderness, that all people might see in your home the true nature of that love which exists betwixt Christ and his Church.

Matthew, would you please stand.

“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” In this his second letter to Timothy, from which our second lesson was drawn today, St. Paul proclaims those same characteristics of effective life and ministry that St. John gives us in his first Epistle General, namely that our lives should be characterized by love, sound doctrine, and personal holiness, which is obedience to the clear teachings of Holy Scripture. Matthew, love everyone. Love everyone. Love everyone. for God has sent you to represent him as a priest of his church. Believe and teach the Faith received from apostles and martyrs, and from Christ himself; grounded in the Bible, contained in the creeds, and proclaiming to all the beauty of the Holy and Blessed Trinity- one God, and of the unique, historic person and work of Christ. Conform your life to the clear teaching and example of the Word of God written, which is the authentic eye witness Holy Spirit inspired record of the Word which was made flesh and dwelt among us. And with St. Paul I say “Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me.” And I, along with Rebecca and your parents would add, bring the girls with you. Now, would you please face the people to whom God has called you.

Ashley, would you and the girls please come and stand beside Matthew.

Would the congregation please stand.

Behold one soon to be ordained a priest of the living Christ. Behold him whom you have acclaimed as one called and set apart to this holy office. Bear with him and remember that he is human. Love him and his family. In honesty and with kindness share with him in those tasks and sacrifices and risks to which God has called you. Share your burdens with him, and help him to bear his own. Remember that you are called together to be the people of God. None is above and none below, but all labour together in humility in the Name of him who called us all to believe in Jesus and to love one another. Remember that in God’s economy, the most experienced may learn much from the youngest and most naive, and the simplest man or woman might be the teacher of the most highly educated. Give thanks for each other, and go forth to show the people of this community that God loves them, and that he has a wonderful plan for each of their lives.

And now Father, continue with us in this place. Make this day to be not only a landmark for your servant Matthew, but for all the people of this parish and this church. Make it to be for us all a time of commitment and beginning as we do the work you have given us to do.. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. AMEN.

St John's Rector's Rambling: Lent 2010

Rector’s Rambling March 2010

A good snow storm is a great time for dreaming. Surrounded by the warm glow of finished pine and hickory, I sit at the study end of the chapel with a size 16 Mustad fine wire hook in the vise, trying to decide whether to reach for the hare’s mask, the turkey bots, or the back feathers of a ring necked pheasant. I don’t know that it will make much difference to the fish I hope to catch this spring, but right now, here in the grips of winter, it seems an interesting, if unimportant question. I daresay that most of the things we think about fall into the same category as my dilemma over which dressing to use for the body of a trout fly. They are interests of the moment which may have some utility, but hardly classify as significant in the grand scheme of things. And yet how often do we imagine them to be of supreme importance? How often have we all been so attached to our own ideas or opinions on any given question that our defense of them has led to interrupted friendships, regularized bickering, or generalized dissatisfaction with life? Lent calls me to think about such things, because it is a time when I am called by our Holy Mother the Church to examine my own motives and to confess my own sins. It is a time for honesty with God and with myself. It is a time for transformation from what I have been into what God calls me to be.
At its best, a parish is like a family. We live together well much of the time, but our necessary vocations demand so much of our time that we fail to know each other as well as we should. We make assumptions about each other, and about each other’s motives on a regular basis. We do care for each other after a fashion, but often take one another for granted. Our interests and concerns develop and wander with predictable irregularity. As a result, we often neglect those opportunities afforded us to know one another more completely, to understand one another, and to truly appreciate the pressures and issues that so often dominate our lives. We are committed to each other and to this place, but often we are strangers- strangers who assume so very much about each other without adequate data- strangers who attempt to protect ourselves from each other by erecting walls of control or by blaming others for our own attitudes and negative responses. Since we fail to take the time to know each other, we miss out on the opportunity God gives us to bear one another’s burdens, and to create a place where any one of us can feel safe and secure in the worst of times. Every parish, and every family, struggles with these issues to a greater or lesser degree because we are so very, very human.
As we continue through this holy season, we have a wonderful opportunity to address those patterns of human behaviour which are outlined above. Our Evangelism and Renewal Committee has worked very hard to afford us all several opportunities to eat and fellowship together, to worship together, and to consider the implications of that worship as it relates to us being the family of God. I hope you will be sure to attend the Lenten programs if you are in town. Be sure to sit at table with someone you don’t know, and even better, if there is someone that you don’t particularly like, strike up a conversation with them about something that is important to them, their children, their work, or their hobbies. We have been blessed with a wonderful parish family here at St. John’s, but like every family, there is always work to be done as we learn to love and respect each other to the glory of God, and to the edification of our souls.
At the beginning of this ramble, I wrote that days like this are good for dreaming, and so I think I’ll tie three flies instead of one, but I promise before God that I will never let these gentle reveries of rushing water and flashing fish obscure my true calling to love those around me more perfectly. I hope you will join me in this determination.

Pax Vobiscum,
Bill+