Raygan Baker Ordination Charge
April 26, 2015
Dorothy Day reminds us that, “A custom once existed among the first generations of Christians, when faith was a bright fire that warmed more than those who kept it burning. In every house then a room was kept ready for any stranger who might ask for shelter; it was even called “the stranger’s room.” Not because these people thought they could trace something of someone they loved in the stranger who used it, not because the man or woman to whom they gave shelter reminded them of Christ, but because—plain and simple and stupendous fact—he or she was Christ.”
Raygan, today is one of those days that will mark for you, for the rest of your life in ministry, the call to the fire warming hospitality that Dorothy Day described, but rather than reflecting upon an empty room that remains ready by firelight it will be marked by the open spaces in your heart that have been made ready, that have been set apart for the work to which you have been called, that have gracefully been there all along, widening your capacity to love, to embrace, to receive, and welcome the stranger-as he or she is Christ.
Christine Pohl writes in Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition that Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:35, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me,” do not refer to any particular physical location for hospitality. Instead, the verse challenges us to examine our practices of welcome to strangers in every setting. Jesus’ words are more closely associated with relationship than with location. A first step in making a place for hospitality may be to make room in our hearts. Whether or not we can always find room in our houses, welcome begins with dispositions characterized by love and generosity.
Raygan, you are not a foreigner on this shelter-seeking road, fighting yourself for a place at the table, for refuge, and welcome, for acceptance and equality. And as a stranger in a world that has all but abandoned her call “to let her hospitality and good works abound,” as Augustine proclaimed, you have chosen to remain faithful to Gods’ call upon your life, to enter into the most fragile of places where human life is at it’s most vulnerable and transformative states. The church has always and will continue to struggle to embody this call of welcoming the stranger, of embracing the other, of opening wide the doors of grace that have been opened for each of us.
Raygan, yours is a heart like the strangers’ fire lit room, yours is a spirit made ready to guide the church into places where her fire can burn bright, where her doors can fling open with the truth of God’s love, and where her invitation can be made easily accessible to those outside who find themselves on the other side of faith’s legacy.
And, yes, even with a spirit made ready, prepared for the journey, set apart for this Holy work there will be times when you feel like your own light is not bright enough, not bold enough, simply not enough to perform the tasks before you. In those moments, I urge you to look to your left, look to your right, look at your feet beneath you, and look up and all around you. This sacred call is not one of isolation, and is not to be placed upon your shoulders alone. Today, Raygan, my Brother, you are called as a teacher, a co-laborer, a sojourner, a fellow-traveler, a companion on the Way, a covenant partner… and with you on the journey, always, are the saints who have gone before you, those who surround you even now, on this day, in this very room, and those who await your arrival in Evansville, Indiana to walk alongside you as fellow travelers in the next chapter of your life.
Never let fear or intimidation crowd your spirit, never relent in your unfailing love and generosity for others, but instead embrace the kindness and compassion that is within you, and go forth as Christ with the power and authority to bind-up the brokenhearted, to set free the captives, to prepare the way of the Lord.
This is the day that God has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it! Amen.
