jodygreenwood

Bishop Rob Wright’s sermon during The Ordination of Priests at the Cathedral of St. Philip. 

The Feast of St. Alban the Martyr 

Matthew 10: 32-42

Good afternoon!

From the gospel lesson Jesus says, “Those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” The great preacher and teacher of preachers Fred Craddock said a sermon must be “clear, compelling and urgent.” Jesus hits all three of those marks today: “I bring a sword not peace. I must be to you more than family. Take up the cross and follow me.”

Jesus said these words to his disciples in the first days of the church. Call it the ordination sermon of the twelve. He said these things, I think, because He wanted to be clear: When you boil down church, boil down discipleship, boil down even faith to their bare essentials, church, discipleship and faith are about one thing: the worthiness of God! Without God being worth it all, without Jesus showing us He is more than death, without the Spirit ever with us, neither baptism nor ordination nor any of the suffering that comes with them makes any sense!

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