I met Rick and
Jeanne Smallwood one Sunday morning in 2009 at coffee hour. Two people I had never seen before asked me
if I were the aspirant at the parish. I
was a bit surprised, but realized that it wasn’t too hard to figure it out
since I had been serving at the altar that morning. The guy then said to me (still wearing his
Stetson cowboy hat), my name is Rick and I want to be a priest too. And then
the story started to come out.
Rick had
felt his calling from God many years ago in the late 1960s, but like many who
are on another path, he felt that it was not quite real. That God couldn’t be
calling him, that he was somehow not worthy.
And life, as is does, tended to get in the way. So he hit the snooze button. And then he hit it again. And again and again. Each time he felt the stirring of the call,
he hit the button and focused on other things.
Make no
mistake, despite an active Navy career that involved postings all over the
country and the world, Rick was always involved in the church in one fashion or
another. He was living out his Christian
ministry, but there was always that quiet call in the background. Sometimes it was very loud, other times only
a whisper. But it was always there. And it was always put on hold.
Jesus tells
us that the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. So when the Bishop in his diocese sent out
word that they were short on priests, the alarm clock started ringing very
loudly. And this time, the snooze button just
wouldn’t work. For at last, Rick’s time
and God’s time had come together and there was no longer any way to deny the
reality of God’s call. 40 years after
the first stirrings of his calling, Rick entered the discernment process and
started on a path toward this day.
Having been
in the process for a while, an unexpected roadblock materialized. A roadblock that would likely have stopped
him in the past, but not this time. For by now Rick was absolutely convinced of
his call, and he would not let it go.
That determination led him to a conversation with Bishop Dan in the
unknown wilds of Nevada. The bishop had
not told him he would be ordained, merely that he would be allowed to pursue
the process. With no more assurance than
that, off they went.
I was
fascinated by this story and asked when they had arrived in Nevada. Last night, they said. Where are you living? Don’t know yet. Where are your things? In the car outside. You mean you just packed up everything, left
your life behind and drove to Nevada with no planning and only a promise that
you could at least attempt the discernment process? Yes, was the answer. I have to tell you that I was deeply moved by
this. To do this was a significant leap
of faith, one that I am not certain that I could have made. I was impressed by Rick, but I have to tell
you, I was even more impressed by Jeanne.
Picture for a minute this conversation over the dinner table. “Honey, I
want to pull up stakes and move to Nevada because that is what God is calling me
to do.” And her answer was not, “have
you lost your mind”, it was, “OK, when do we leave?” Wow.
Think about that for a moment. Each of them demonstrated a great deal of
faith, in God and in each other.
The path
Rick embarked upon is not an easy one. The
discernment process is a bit like the yellow brick road. Lest you think you heard me wrong, yes, I am
going to preach on the Wizard of Oz. Sometimes
the path runs through a beautiful happy place like munchkin land full of
sunshine and smiling people. Other times
it runs through a dark forbidding forest and the path is hard to follow and
seems to go in circles where you wander aimlessly making no progress whatsoever. When you are on the path, it can be difficult
to understand why it is so complex and always changing. When you are in the middle of something it
can be hard to have a sense of perspective and appreciate it for what it
is. But when you look back over the
journey, you can see that every part of it, the good and the bad, the easy and
the difficult was put there for a reason.
It is very
tempting in the good times to think that you are doing it all on your own, that
you are completely equipped for the journey and are ready to go. But it is the dark times, the times when you
are lost or feel overwhelmed or totally inadequate; those are the times that
you are reminded that the journey is not about you, but about God. Only by falling back into the arms of God can
you find your way through the hard times, and that also helps you to see that
it was God, not you, who was acting in the good times as well. For this call to the priesthood is not about
you, but about God and we are called to be servants of all in His name.
It has been
my privilege to walk alongside Rick for some of his journey on this path. I
have seen him in the good times and in the bad and I know that he has learned
well the lessons of the path. Rick, hold
fast to those lessons. Always remember
that it is God who equips you to face the journey, for today you begin on a new
path. I am sorry to be the one to tell
you this, but everything you have done so far is merely prologue to the journey
you undertake right now. When I was
ordained, a couple of wise priests told me that I would find serving as a
priest in a congregation very different from what I had experienced
before. There would be a new level of
expectation from people and I would be called upon to serve in ways that I had
not yet imagined. I listened politely and
was sure they were wrong. They were not.
Starting
today you are on a new path, a lifelong journey as a priest in God’s
church. You will never be the same
again. You will be called upon in new
and different ways and you will most certainly be stretched outside your
comfort zone. Yes, there will be munchkin
land time, but you have some time in the dark forest ahead as well. When that happens, remember the lessons you
leaned on this path, for they will serve you well. Trust in God to be with you and equip you in
the good times and the bad and He will always lead you through.
Now, it
would be easy for everyone here to think that I am speaking only to Rick. And you would be wrong, for each of us is
called by God to ministry. Each of us is
given special skills and talents from God and we are all called to use them to
serve God’s purpose and build the kingdom. Rick may be called to ordained
ministry but that is no more or less valid than the ministry to which all of us
are called. Matthew tells us that the
harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few, and that is a challenge to each
of us. For each of us is called to labor
for the Lord and each of us is given the skills necessary to carry out that ministry, And like Rick, each of us will spend time in
munchkin land, and each of us will spend time in the dark forest. And like Rick, if each of us can put our
trust in God rather than ourselves, God will most certainly lead us through.
Now, Rick,
you are about to complete a journey that is more than 45 years in the
making. I know that there were times
that it seemed to you that this day would never arrive; that your time in the
dark forest would never end. Today, you
complete the first phase of the journey and commence the more daunting journey
as a priest in Gods holy church. You
will be challenged in ways you have never been before, but you have been prepared
for this in ways you have never been as well.
The work you undertake today is both sacred and necessary. For the world we live in is in desperate need
of the gospel and people are in greater need of God than ever before. Your brothers and sisters in the priesthood
have been waiting patiently for you, for we have need of your skills and
abilities in the work that we share. The
harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.
Today you recommit yourself to our shared labor and there is much labor
to be done. We celebrate your
accomplishment, rejoice with you in the successful completion of your journey,
and welcome you to the sacred work you now begin.
