Ordination Sermon

Sermon preached at the ordination of Michael Patrick Dickey to the priesthood of the Episcopal Church, at St. Matthew's, Chipley, Florida. Eleven o'clock in the morning, Saturday, March 24, 2018. The Rev. Tom Weller.

Good morning, my name is Tom: I shall speak as Saint Paul baptized: in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You may be seated.

When Lyndon Johnson was president of the United States, one of his advisors was former Baptist pastor Bill Moyers, later a television personality. They’d known each other as friends and confidants for years, and when the White House had an occasion calling for prayer, President Johnson would call on Bill Moyers. On this occasion he did that, “Bill would you return thanks?” Far down the table, at a distance from the president, the Rev. Moyers began to pray softly. A couple sentences into his prayer, the President interrupted in a loud voice, “I can’t hear you, Bill.”

Moyers right back: “I wasn’t talking to you, Mr. President.”

So, folks, if you want to do your usual sermon thing and doze off, that’s fine, because “I’m not talking to you,” I’m talking to Mike Dickey, and it’s personal.

Mike, it’s all to you, nothing to them. You may still and always be Captain Dickey, U.S. Air Force, Old Fighter Pilot, but I am still and always Commander Weller, U.S. Navy, and I still and always outrank you, so listen up. An ordination sermon often has a “charge” at the end, a “charge” that the preacher lays on ordinand, at which point the preacher motions, and his victim stands to be charged. This morning it’s all a charge, and I have a lot to say to you; so stand up now, and if I ask a question, your answer is, “SIR, YES SIR.” Do you understand?

Stand at ease, Dickey. 

I’ll tell one personal story, and then get back to you. I guess my moral, my point, is that wherever you go and whatever you do in ministry, seize every opportunity to right a wrong. Planning my service for my own ordination as priest years ago, one of the people I listed to be a lector was president of the ECW, the women of our parish. When I handed the rector my draft for the service, he blew up at me, accused me of trying to undercut him,“You know damn well I don’t allow women up front as acolytes, or lectors, or serving a chalice in my church, change this.” I said, “Father, I know that, but she’s not listed as a woman, she’s included as head of a parish organization, along with every other parish officer, and I’ve asked her and she’s accepted.” He swallowed it hook, line and sinker, and it was the icebreaker: by the time I left that parish five months later, women were crucifers and reading the lessons and serving the chalice like anyone else. Look for opportunities to make things right, Mike, even if you have to be sneaky sometimes. But always do it lovingly and with kindness.

In all three parishes I headed, I personally trained young people, children and teens, as lectors and chalice bearers. Children are not the future of the church, children ARE the church. You’ll have to push, Mike, don’t let anything stand still. Jesus moves and challenges, even confronts. Your mission in ministry is to show people how to BECOME Christ: turn over the tables in the temple. But do it lovingly, with kindness.

I’m still telling my own stories, so here’s another. Best advice I’ve ever had was at seminary. The final class session of the semester, my theology professor told us that most pastors go off mentally lazy when they settle into a parish. He told us be different: never put down the books, keep on studying and learning and broadening. He said, “You think you’re so smart now, but you know nothing and there’s a universe of knowledge waiting: keep on learning.” Make study a priority, Mike.

Maybe the main thing I want to say to you is this. We’ve been friends and spiritual colleagues twenty years, ever since I retired from parish ministry in 1998 and came home to Holy Nativity the first time. You and Judy were in my first Alpha group. We worked EfM together. Years ago you came to me discussing a nudging sense of call that you’d had since a teenager, of being ordained in the Episcopal Church. So, I’m not surprised you’re here, and neither is Jesus who early laid claim on your life, and who has now got you cornered. But it’s not too late, you can bolt for the side door while I’m still speaking, and I’ll talk long enough to cover your escape. But I pray you’ll stick with it. 

We’ve worked hard together. You’ve done well, and I’ve tried to be a competent mentor, maven, and friend. We spent hours on Greek until your Greek was better than mine. Ed Richards and I worked up a CPE program for you, and roughed you up for several hours every week for months, with hospital calls, and verbatims and criticism, and you suffered most every experience a pastor knows except being thrown out of a hospital room by an angry loved one. Years ago, when Ed Richards and I did the same CPE program with Ray Wishart, Ray, always loving and kind, actually was thrown out of a hospital room one evening by a dying man’s enraged wife, who then chased him down the hall shrieking at him. Ray was humiliated. Ed and I were hoping such a humbling for you, because humiliation is the best experience life offers a servant of God who is “living toward becoming the Man on the Cross.” I’ve been thrown out more than once: it’s embarrassing; but don’t worry, it’ll come, and when it happens the only thing that will matter is NOT your dignity, but how you deal with it as you Show and Tell Jesus. Priest and pastor is not about standing at the door after church every Sunday, shaking hands as people stroke your fur murmuring polite compliments, “Enjoyed your sermon, Father.” Or, “Nice try, Father.” It’s just beginning, Mike, you have a lot to experience, dear friend, and I’ll always be available to share a glass of red if you need to bemoan your life as a priest. It does not matter if people “say nice things,” it only matters that they see Jesus in you.

I’m sorry to say, Mike, but once the bishop finishes you off this morning, your law practice goes to second fiddle. We priests are no longer ours but (as the Burial Office says), “We are the Lord’s possession,” we belong to the Jesus people we love and serve as their shepherd, priest and pastor. 

We are about being the Love of Jesus to sometimes trying parishioners, who often have no one else to turn to, or count on, or cry with; when you get an emergency call while in court one day, and I promise you, it will happen, you better damn well have told the judge ahead of time what you now do in real life, and when that emergency call comes, run out the door, jump on your horse and go. I’ve told you this before, it’s no exaggeration. Whether in the courtroom or in Jesus’ parable, judges think they are important (I see you, Chris Patterson, and you ARE important, to me, and you always will be, and I love you as I adored your Dad before I ever met you!) but, Mike, no one in life is as important as God’s ordinary people. Is that clear?

Mike, as a lawyer, you are accustomed to laws and precedent, and we have canons & rubrics, customs, rules and tradition in the Episcopal Church, but always remember, this is not our church, this is not General Convention’s church, we are OF the Gospel: this is God’s church, the church of Jesus Christ, it’s Jesus’ Altar, “Alleluia, Alleluia, Jesus is our King,” never once in all his ministry did Jesus ask a hungry person, “Are you baptized?” He Took and Blessed, and Broke and Gave, invited, welcomed, and fed every person, no rules. No rules, Mike. 

The quirky line WWJD, What Would Jesus Do? is not a quirky thing at all, it’s the only thing. God sent his Son to show and tell us how to return to the divine image in which we are created, and a priest’s call is to show and tell Jesus in every aspect of life, and you can do it - - with God’s help. 

Michael Patrick Dickey, God has you cornered this morning and if you say YES, it’s forever. So now, answer me: 

Do you accept God’s call on your life? 
Will you love and serve Jesus with all your heart and soul and mind and strength?

Bishop, here’s Mike. I love him and recommend him with all my heart.

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Ongoing, keeping my promise to a longstanding friend, to post all my sermons on my blog and with a FB link to this site. TW+