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“Two Men Remained in the Camp, One Named Eldad, and the Other Named Medad.”

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“Two Men Remained in the Camp, One Named Eldad, and the Other Named Medad.” Ordination of Darcy Williams The Rev. Joan M. Testin @ Trinity Elkton, MD 08 June, 2013 Readings: Numbers 11:16-17, 24-29 Ps 139 Phillip 4:4-9 Matthew 9:35-38 “Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad.” We gather today to celebrate the ordination of Darcy Williams to the priesthood. Well it is About. Freakin’. Time! This has been one very, very long process. It was 1991 when Bishop Elliot Sorge recognized Darcy’s gifts for ordained ministry and asked her to consider studying for the priesthood. When she had to say no, Darcy thought of ordination as “the road not taken.” Little did she know that the road was just “under construction” as she taught, ran a school, raised her children, and served as a lay leader at St MaryAnn’s. So now, after more than 25 years of preparation, Darcy is ready and able to serve God as a priest in the church. She has a strong theological education and innate pastoral skills. She has experience as a leader and a teacher. She has honed her abilities as a celebrant and preacher. Like Aaron, who is the model of the priesthood given in the Scriptures, she is ready to be a priest. She is confident that she is ready to serve God in the ministry of Word and Sacrament. Except … she’s not. Not confident, that is … she is ready. Or at least, she is as ready as any of us are when we are ordained. Here’s the secret – the secret that all of us with these collars on know. Darcy, the priesthood is an impossible vocation. The priesthood will stretch your mind, and your heart, and your patience. Most of your days will be very long, and most of the time, your plans for those days will not survive 2 beyond your first sip of coffee in the morning. When you were an educator, your work day was often broken up by interruptions. When you work as a priest, if you are very lucky, your interruptions may occasionally be broken up with a work day. But most of the important work of your priesthood will happen within those interruptions. Do you remember how tired you were when your children were infants? You will be that tired again. There will be days when you think you have no more to give; then you will get the call that sends you off to someone’s bedside. You will have to find the strength. Do you remember long nights of study at seminary when you tried to cram a new idea into a head that already felt full to bursting? You will continue to study that way for the rest of your priesthood. Your people will be counting on you to help them understand theology and scripture. You will have to work constantly to find new ways to preach and teach … to help them know the joy of God’s unfolding story. Do you remember when others noticed that you had a call to the priesthood, and then supported you in that call? You will now help others discern their gifts for ministry, and you will support and cheer them on when they falter. You will call people on their bad behavior. You will notice and honor those quiet workers who do most of the work in the parish. You will also know where the fuse box is, how to turn on the sound system, and how to turn off the water main. You will sit through far too many meetings. You will try new things – and many of those will fail. So you will pick yourself up, & try something else. Everywhere you go, people will look to you --- to see just what Christianity looks like when it … ‘puts skin on’ and walks around. What they see in you may draw them back to church, 3 or, God forbid, turn them off of “church people” forever. So I take it back. You are not ready for the priesthood. But here’s the really good news. Nobody is. And we don’t have to be. Because this is God’s priesthood, and not ours. “Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad.” Eldad and Medad were not ready for the Spirit. They weren’t ready to be a prophet like Moses, or a High Priest like Aaron. They weren’t even ready to get up and go to the tent of meeting. They were on the list of Elders. They should have been there. But when the time came, they were still back in the camp. They may not have thought they were ready. However God did not particularly care whether they were ready. The Spirit came to the camp, and rested upon them anyway. Even more, the text tells us that the spirit rested upon the 70 who were at the tent, and they prophesied. The text also tells us that they never did so again. The spirit rested on Eldad and Medad and they prophesied. And the text does not tell us they never did so again. I like to think that the Spirit continued to rest with them; that unlike the 70, they continued to prophesy. I like to think that God used them precisely because they were not ready. God seems to work that way. We see that over and over in scriptures. God used Moses – who was a murderer with a speech impediment. God used Joseph – and arrogant and spoiled brat. God used King David – an adulterer. God used Judith – a woman living in a culture where women had no power. God used Peter who denied him, and Paul who killed early Christians. God used Mary Magdalene who had been possessed by demons. 4 Over and over, God uses the least likely, the least prepared, and the least ready. Perhaps it is because they are the ones who know that they cannot do the work alone. Perhaps it is precisely because they feel afraid, unworthy, unready – that God can fill them with the Spirit and work through them. “Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad.” I told you at the beginning of this sermon that you will sometimes be tired, and frustrated, and unprepared, and nervous, and fragile. What I didn’t tell you is that you will go through all of this with a sense of deep purpose and incredible joy. There is no way to describe the wonder of living life as a priest of God. You will get to spend your days and nights working with and for God’s people in the most intimate and holy ways. You get to spend your workdays delving ever more deeply into Scripture and into prayer. You get to spread the Gospel message of hope in a world that has forgotten what hope looks like. And you will get to bless God’s people, to assure them of God’s forgiveness, and stand behind the altar and call God’s presence into the midst of a group of worshippers; and God will show up. Every. Single. Time. You will do all of this well, because our God will be working through you at every moment of every day. When you are tempted to forget that, I want you to think about Eldad and Medad. Stuck back in the camp, feeling unworthy and unready, they received the power of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit never, ever left them. Darcy, I promise. The Holy Spirit will come to you today, and will never, ever leave you. I would like to end with a poem written by George Herbert. Each day when I put on my collar, I say the last line of this poem to myself. It has become my prayer, my mantra. Perhaps it will be the same for you. 5 Aaron – by George Herbert HOLINESS on the head, Light and perfection on the breast, Harmonious bells below raising the dead To lead them unto life and rest. Thus are true Aarons drest. Profaneness in my head, Defects and darkness in my breast, A noise of passions ringing me for dead Unto a place where is no rest : Poor priest ! thus am I drest. Only another head I have another heart and breast, Another music, making live, not dead, Without whom I could have no rest : In Him I am well drest. Christ is my only head, My alone only heart and breast, My only music, striking me e'en dead ; That to the old man I may rest, And be in Him new drest. So holy in my Head, Perfect and light in my dear Breast, My doctrine tuned by Christ (who is not dead, But lives in me while I do rest), Come, people ; Aaron's drest. .
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