Walking on the Water
|
Deborah P. Brunt
Very few
people can say they were ordained one day and baptized the next. Even fewer can
say they did so without getting things out of order. I'm among
the few. Yet,
primarily, my story isn't an ordination and baptism story. It's a walking-on-the-water
story. It's a God-makes-a-way-where-there-is-none story.
|
Intriguing surprises
|
In 2007, a
pastor surprised me one day by asking, "Would you like to be ordained?" I've devoted
my life to serving the Lord Jesus. For 30-plus years, I've served in leadership
roles. But no one had ever asked me that question before. Some teach
that I cannot be ordained because I'm a woman. In fact, that's the prevailing
view in the denominational setting where I served most of my life. About a
decade ago, I checked that teaching scripturally - and found some
surprising things. In the Old
Testament, priests were ordained. Exodus 29 and Leviticus 8 describe the
ordination process. Now, Jesus has made all
who know him as Lord to be priests! (See Rev. 1:6; 5:9-10.) Further, the
New Testament does not prescribe a procedure by which "ministers" are "ordained."
In fact, most modern English translations do not once use the word ordained
in reference to ministry leaders. The King
James Version does use the term - twice of elders (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5),
twice in reference to apostles (Mark 3:14; Acts 1:22) and once of Paul being
"ordained a preacher, and an apostle" (1 Tim. 2:7). Each time, the word ordain in the KJV translates a different
Greek word. Yet none of those five
Greek words means "to admit to the ministry." Rather, elders, apostles and indeed
all who serve Christ are "put" where God chooses to put them. They're "appointed"
- selected, designated, assigned certain tasks. Jesus uses one of the five words, tithemi, in John 15:16, when he says to
all his followers, "You did not choose me, but I chose you
and appointed
[KJV: ordained] you so that you might go and bear fruit - fruit that will last -
and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you." Paul uses
the same term twice in 1 Corinthians 12: "But now God has placed the members, each
one of them, in the body, just as He desired." "And God has appointed
in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles,
then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues" (vv. 18,28 NASU). Interesting,
isn't it, that the translators rendered the same Greek word as two different
English words: God has "placed" church members - and "appointed" church
leaders. The original language makes no such distinction. Thus, if we
use the term ordain in reference to
leaders, we must also use it in reference to the body of Christ. For in Christ,
all of us are ordained as priests and
as fruit-bearers. In Christ, each of
us is set into a certain place in the body - a place God himself selects. Some
are set into leadership roles. (To explore whether those appointed as leaders
can include women, see my article, "Submit to Such as These.")
|
Dynamic process
|
Here's the
"procedure": God gifts each of his people for certain works. God chooses who
serves where and when. He tells his people - those he's chosen for a particular
work and those surrounding them - and together they cooperate with what he has
said. Acts 13:1-3
shows how this played out in one New Testament setting. As you read the
account, try to imagine, not repeating the same pattern, but experiencing the
same dynamic in your church: "Now in the
church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called
Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the
tetrarch) and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy
Spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have
called them.' So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on
them and sent them off." To get in on
God's process for launching someone into a certain work, we simply enter God's presence,
without any agenda except to worship him. Then, when the Holy Spirit speaks, we
hear his voice. We recognize whom he has chosen to do what. Without rushing or
balking, we echo what the Spirit has already done: we "set apart" each person
for the work God has designated. When we hear
and obey God's voice, we experience God's order, which is infinitely creative
and delightfully unpredictable. So why do we settle for our order - uniform, staid and hopelessly tied to preconceived
ideas? We think a
certain person could never do a certain task. God knows he created that person
to do that very thing. We think certain qualifications necessary for ministry. God
thinks differently: he tosses out some of the qualifications we cherish most
and insists on others we've never considered. We think "the
work to which God calls" people always takes the form of traditional church
leadership roles. Yet God calls his people to serve him in a multitude of ways.
He defines "ministry" far differently from us. When setting leaders into place,
God rarely consults our organizational charts. Rather, he expects us to step
into the upside-down, inside-out order of his kingdom.
|
Unorthodox choices
|
"Remember, dear brothers and sisters,
that few of you were wise in the world's eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God
chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they
are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are
powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to
nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast
in the presence of God" (1 Cor. 1:26-29 NLT). That passage
comes even more dramatically into focus if we rethink our definition of "the
world." We imagine "the world" to consist of all the peoples who show no
deference to the one true God. But Jesus said in John 15:18: "If the world
hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first." So consider: Who hated Jesus? Answer: religious leaders who thought they
worshiped the one true God but really served a system connected with God, a
system that offered them status and power. To the extent that we give our
allegiance to things connected with Christ, rather than to Christ himself, we the
Christian church culture also take on the characteristics of the world. With
that in mind, reread 1 Corinthians 1:26-29.
|
Ordination contemplation |
Asked if I
wanted to be ordained, I didn't know how to answer. I deeply appreciated the
pastor's saying, in effect, "We who have watched your life for several years recognize
God has set you apart to serve him as a ministry leader." I didn't see anything wrong with using the
word ordain to publicly acknowledge
that. At the same time, I didn't feel I had
to have that particular word pronounced over me in order to validate my call
from God. Moreover,
deep down, I was afraid. I wondered how many people would count my being
ordained a positive thing - a wonderful affirmation that God had set me apart
for a certain work - and how many, seeing a woman "ordained," would run
screaming in the other direction. After
praying and hearing neither "yes" nor "no" from the Lord, I asked the pastor if
we could put the matter on hold. He graciously agreed. Several
months later, my husband and I moved to another state. I assumed the opportunity for ordination had
passed. Then, in May
2009, I visited the city and church of that pastor. As I sat, listening to the
sermon, God interrupted: "It's time," the Lord told me. "Ask him if the door's
still open to be ordained." After the
service, I did just that. Enthusiastically, he answered, "Yes!" That morning,
he handed me forms to complete, saying as he did, "There's no question, you
know. You are ordained." Two days later, when I handed in the completed forms,
he took out a yellow pad, wrote, "You are now ordained and commissioned," and signed
his name.
|
Scenic route
|
He said I
would receive an official certificate in a few weeks. Months passed. No
certificate arrived. That pastor knew
and affirmed me. The people with whom I'd been serving knew and affirmed me.
But that denomination didn't know me - and they had their procedures. Again, I let
the matter drop. In
mid-September, I learned of a prayer team traveling to Israel October 1-12. Two
days after hearing of the trip for the first time, I signed up. Two weeks
later, I sat in a New York airport, meeting my teammates and preparing for our
overseas flight. As we
exchanged introductions, a man named Kevin said, "I was ordained in Israel last
year." Something deep inside me leaped. We spent most
of the trip in southern Israel. During the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles, we
walked the streets of Old Jerusalem, visited bustling Tel Aviv, picked up
smooth stones in the valley where David fought Goliath, stood atop the sobering
fortress of Masada, floated in the Dead Sea - and gathered nightly with
Christians from around the world to celebrate the feast. Everywhere we went, we
prayed. Then, Friday
morning, October 9, our tour bus left Jerusalem and headed north on a highway
that parallels the Jordan River. As we rode, Judy, one of our team leaders, stepped
out of her front-row seat, took the microphone and began telling a story.
Fifteen years earlier, Judy had almost died from a brain tumor. After the
surgery that saved her life - and still not fully recovered - Judy boarded an
airplane, flew to Nigeria and asked a pastor there whom she highly respected to
ordain her. He did, during a church gathering that very night. I hadn't
thought of ordination since Kevin mentioned it the first day of our trip. Now I
clearly heard the Spirit telling me to act. As Judy finished her story and took
her seat, I decided, "If she can fly to Nigeria to ask to be ordained, I can
walk to the front of the bus."
|
Divinely orchestrated
|
That evening
at dusk, our team boarded a flat-bottom boat named Faith. With motor purring
and Christian music playing from the boat's loudspeakers, we headed out to the
middle of the Sea of Galilee. Once there,
the boat's crew cut the engines. Jerry and Judy - husband and wife, team
leaders, ministers - called me to the bow. The sun hung just above the horizon.
A gentle breeze blew. I stood surrounded by 27 people I hadn't even known 10
days earlier. Now I knew and loved each one deeply. We had done far more than
tour Israel together. Each day of our trip, we had served the Lord together.
Looking into their faces, I knew each one concurred fully with this simple act
of setting apart. Holding up
his Bible, Jerry began, "God has already ordained you. We're just affirming
it." The whole
trip, we had marveled that our small team included three Deborahs. We'd laughed
because the three of us had continually gravitated together. That particular
day, we had dressed almost alike - solid black (or navy) and white. Jerry called
the other two Deborahs to stand beside me. He asked each to lift one of my arms.
He told me, "In the ministry to which God is calling you, you will need others
standing with you, holding up your arms, as Aaron and Hur held up Moses' arms." Jerry, then
Judy, spoke briefly. Six others followed, their remarks simple, yet each hitting
the mark like a well-aimed arrow. To close, I requested that we do a prophetic
act based on the story of Deborah and Barak in Judges 4 and their song in
Judges 5. We three Deborahs turned so as
form a triangle, facing outward. Then, the men in the group all cried three times in
unison, "Awake, awake, Deborah!" In response,
the three Deborahs shouted: "Arise, Barak! Arise, Barak! Arise, Barak!" (see
Judges 5:12). Our voices rang out across the Sea of Galilee and then died into
silence just as the sun set. |
Beautifully transposed
|
The next
day, Jerry baptized all three Deborahs and several other team members in the
Jordan River. It wasn't the initial baptism for any of us. But for me it signified
rising to "walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:4 NASU) in a specific way. At my
previous baptism, I had identified particularly with one segment of the body of
Christ. The day I was baptized in the Jordan, I identified fully and equally
with all Christ's body. Coming up out of the water, I felt his pleasure. Similarly,
God so orchestrated my ordination as to commission me to serve all the body of
Christ. Jerry and Judy lead a nondenominational ministry. Those who joined with
them to affirm God's call on my life were Jews and Gentiles who live in a
variety of places and worship in a variety of churches. How stunning!
How moving! Jesus Christ took me to the place where he himself walked on
water, to set me into a new season of ministry. He took me to the place where he
himself was immersed, to declare over me that I am chosen and marked by his love. Today, he
wants me to pose a question you may never have been asked: "Do you want to be
ordained?"
If so - if you
want to be set into the works for which God created you: "Consider your calling."
Literally: "See your calling" (1 Cor.
1:26 NASU, with margin). Your calling doesn't hinge on how powerful or
influential, smart or strong you are. It doesn't hinge on accepting particular
roles in particular structures. Rather, your
calling hinges on him who calls. HE chooses "what the world looks down on as
common or regards as nothing in order to bring to nothing what the world
considers important" (1 Cor 1:28 CJB). See HIM. Keep looking to him. Live a
life that worships him. Then, when you least expect it, he'll call you by name
and tell everyone within earshot what he's ordained for you to do next. As you hear
and obey his voice, he'll delight you with his unpredictable order, his illogical
wisdom and his exuberance in making a way where there is none.
|
Postscript
|
The day I
arrived home from my Israel trip, I found lots of emails in my inbox - among
them, a note my friend Amy sent the day the trip began. It said,
"The Father
has a sweet surprise for you on this assignment; rest and when he
calls you to walk on the water to meet him - GO!"
. . . . . . .
Photo album of pictures from my "walking on the water" experience.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, Today's New International Version™ TNIV �. Copyright � 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society �. All rights reserved worldwide. Also quoted:
The Complete
Jewish Bible [CJB]. New American Standard Bible Updated [NASU]. Holy Bible, New Living Translation �
[NLT], copyright � 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of
Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
|
Related info
| Other articles by Deborah Submit to Such as These: The
greetings in Paul's New Testament letters - the ones translators have
altered and we often bypass - reveal some surprising things about who is
to submit to whom.
Preach It, Sister!: Today,
many would say that everyone has a responsibility to evangelize - but
only a few select males can preach. Yet, scripturally we cannot have it
both ways.
Photo album Walking on the water: Very few people can say they were ordained one day and baptized the next.
|
|