Do Not Be Afraid

Do Not Be Afraid
Genesis 15: 1-6a

When my mother died, I rode to her funeral with our rector. I say “our rector” though he had arrived at the church only after I was myself ordained, and he reminded me that one of the first services he conducted had been my father’s funeral. While we were riding to my mother’s funeral and telling stories about her, with a smile he recounted a particular conversation when she had asked whether he ever felt he had given up too much in going into the ministry. Whereas some candidates for the ministry go straight to seminary from university (I was one) and in this sense have given up nothing, other candidates have had another career and have surrendered this to follow God’s call. Our rector was like that. He would say he had sacrificed nothing in taking up the vocation he loved, but he had given up a lucrative job with prospects for a job in which he had no prospects beyond those of serving in a suburban parish like ours...