Ministry in Daily Life
Sermon preached at the October Diocesan Ministry Fairs
by the Right Reverend Thomas Clark Ely, Bishop of Vermont

Mountain Echo
November 2004

Two of my favorite stories about ministry in daily life come from an Episcopal Church publication by the same name, Ministry in Daily Life: A Guide to Living the Baptismal Covenant, compiled and edited by Linda Grenz and Fletcher Lowe, Jr. The first is called “Don the Bus Driver” and the second is called “Margaret the Librarian.” Perhaps you have heard them before.

The story of Don the Bus Driver is told through the eyes of a new passenger.
“Don drives a city bus route. I boarded his empty bus one evening, and since I didn’t have a schedule I asked when he would be leaving and if he would be stopping near my home. He told me he was scheduled to leave five minutes ago, but the train I was on was late and there usually was a woman on that train who took his bus home. ‘This is the last run of the day,’ he said, ‘so I try to wait for her if I can.’

“He went on to explain that he’d be glad to wait for me if I planned to take this bus regularly. And once underway, he volunteered that I could get my tickets more cheaply if I bought a book of them in advance. Along the way he greeted each passenger with enthusiasm and wished him or her a ‘good night’ as they left. For the benefit of his newcomer, he pointed out where I could buy tickets and how I could best travel by bus to downtown. I was the last person off the bus, so he graciously stopped right in front of my house instead of dropping me off at the bus stop a block away. Simple acts of ministry at the end of a long day.”

The story of Margaret the Librarian goes like this:
“Margaret was a school librarian and active in her local congregation. As she began to think about how she might fulfill her baptismal promises, she discovered her ministry developing out of a growing crisis at the school where she worked. It all began when one of the teachers developed breast cancer and Margaret went to visit her at the hospital and then at home. Other teachers, some of whom were afraid to visit, would come by the library to ask Margaret how their fellow teacher was doing. Then a second teacher developed cancer. Then an administrator had a heart attack. And a third teacher developed cancer! Margaret soon found herself visiting and coaching others in how to support those who were ill. When she decided that the level of illness was depressing her and other teachers, she started a small prayer group that met to pray for those who were ill, for themselves, and for the children. Margaret’s library became the center for a quiet ministry that nourished and supported many through a very difficult time.”

In our pre-convention Regional Ministry Fair gatherings this year, the propers for our celebration of the Eucharist are those for the Ministry of the Baptized. As we head into Diocesan Convention, with our theme of “Stewards of God’s Mission,” I want to emphasize the point that our baptismal identity and our participation in the Missio Dei, the Mission of God, is primarily centered in our daily life.

Like Don and Margaret, faithful disciples of Jesus Christ live out and carry on God’s reconciling mission in the midst of their daily life and work and play. Dying and rising with Christ, as Paul reminds us, is about being alive to God in Christ Jesus here and now, as well as in the life to come. For Paul, to “walk in newness of life” is all about living as the crucified and risen body of Christ day after day.

Here those familiar words of Saint Theresa of Avila (October 15th) come to mind:
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet, on earth but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which He looks compassion on the world.
Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good.
Yours are the hands with which He blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are His body.

Don and Margaret were living out the promises of their baptismal identity not in order to be recognized, not in some attempt for greatness and fame, but simply because faith was alive in them and they were alive to God in Christ Jesus. They had appropriated for themselves the understanding of servant ministry that Jesus attempts to teach the disciples in today’s Gospel narrative: “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant…”

Perhaps listening to their stories will bring to awareness the significance of your story of ministry in daily life. Perhaps reflecting on their stories will help us value the many stories of ministry in daily life that are there for the telling—and the celebration.