15 July 2012

Put

Today Dean Zachary Herberts, my beloved son-in-law, was PUT into the Office of the Holy Ministry with prayer and the laying on of hands.  The instrument through whom he was put was Southern Illinois District President, Timothy Scharr.  But the one who did the putting was the Lord of the Church - the ordination liturgy makes that abundantly clear.

And the council of presbyters gathered around President Scharr and surrounded Dean with their own laying on of hands and then all together laying on hands at the Our Father.

The congregation added, if not exactly their axios, still an affirmation to the same intent.  They dared to speak for the whole Church in receiving Dean as one God has put into the office.

It was a service of great joy - and we were very blessed indeed to have in the congregation Paul, Ashley and Margaret from the calling congregation, St. Paul's, in Norlina/Ridegway, NC.  Dr. Meyer offered, instead of an outright sermon, a prayer to God for Dean that we got to overhear.  It was a clever way to approach the preaching and best of all reminded us constantly of Him in whose presence we were gathered and who was the true Ordinator today. "God makes pastors" - as Luther said so well.

So blessings to you, Pastor Herberts!  May the Lord of the Church have great use of you in delivering His gifts to His people and bringing to them His own everlasting joy and eternal life.
at

7 comments:

  1. Jeremy Loesch5:38 AM

    Will, your summary of the day reminded me of what Dr. Nagel would tell my class about ordination and the office. Thanks for the reminder.

    It is nice to see the Church do what the Church does. Blessings to Dean!

    Jeremy (at the extreme northern edge of the SED)

    ReplyDelete
  2. William Weedon5:44 AM

    Jeremy,

    Glad you heard the echo - it was indeed the great Dr.'s words that were floating around in my head for much of yesterday and certainly as I wrote the post. Dr. Nagel - the gift that keeps on giving!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mark7:33 AM

    Wonderful! Beautiful! Congratulations to Pr Herberts and prayers for him and the people in North Carolina.

    One question....the emphasis on "put" is unique language to describe an ordination. Why the use of this word over against other language options? Just curious.

    ReplyDelete
  4. William Weedon7:51 AM

    Mark,

    Tithemi. Often translated "ordained" but also "put" or "placed." See the Greek of 1 Tim. 2:7 for example: "For this I was put/appointed/placed/ordained to be a proclaimer and an apostle."

    ReplyDelete
  5. Rev. Dustin Beck8:29 AM

    PUT also indicates that it's not so much that he has earned the office or seized it for lordship, but that the office (even as the stole itself) is put upon the man.

    ReplyDelete
  6. William Weedon9:18 AM

    This is most certainly true. And it gives the joyous freedom to say: "Well, I only work here. Talk to the boss." :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mark11:03 AM

    Thanks William. I had the Greek but was curious about why you'd chosen (with emphasis!) one word over a variety of English options with a variety of connotations.

    Thanks also to Dustin.

    (I trust that there will be more pics of the joyous event either here or on Facebook)

    ReplyDelete