The Ordination and Installation of Kevin Vollema

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 100
• Hymn — How Great Thou Art
• Prayer of Invocation
• Introduction of Commission Members
• Scripture Reading — John 13:1-9
• Prayer before Sermon
• Sermon
• Hymn — The Church's One Foundation
• Constitutional Questions to the Candidate
• Constitutional Questions to the Session
• Prayer of Ordination
• Laying on of Hands and Declaration of Ordination
• Charge to the Ordinand — 2 Timothy 1:6-7
• Charge to the Session — 2 Timothy 1:3, 2 Timothy 3:10
• Pastoral Prayer
• Hymn — A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
• Benediction — Numbers 6:24-26

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Sermon Title: The Beauty of Humility and the Difficulty of Empty Hands

Scripture: John 13:1-9

I. The Shocking Humility of Jesus at the Last Supper

A. The setting: a dinner scene in which a host's servant would normally wash guests' feet B. Jesus, a rabbi, takes on the role of the lowest servant — removing his outer garments, tying a towel around his waist, and washing the disciples' feet C. The act points forward to the cross

1. John 13:7 — "What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand" — Jesus means after his death and resurrection
2. The water washing dirt from feet is a parable of his blood washing away sin

II. The Subtle Pride of Peter — and of Us All

A. Peter's emphatic refusal: John 13:8 — a double negative in the Greek, "You will never wash my feet" B. Peter's resistance is not humility — it is the inability to receive grace with empty hands

1. Illustrated by Andy Catlett in Wendell Berry's Remembering: a farmer who loses his hand and cannot receive his wife Flora's inexhaustible care, because he does not see himself as lovable
2. Illustrated by Jean Valjean in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables: the bishop's grace toward Valjean is described as "the trauma of grace" — Valjean dimly felt the pardon, and that was the hardest assault he had ever sustained
3. As Flannery O'Connor said: grace must wound before it can heal C. The thread running through Andy Catlett, Valjean, and Peter runs through all of us — we all pull our feet back D. Peter's transformation: John 13:9 — "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head" — he surrenders and goes on surrendering

III. The Call to Pastoral Humility — A Charge to the Ordinand

A. Ministry brings enormous volume, variety, and intensity; the temptation is to carry burdens never meant to be carried B. A pastor has limited time, wisdom, focus, vision, strength, and health — his limits will disappoint people, and his sin will produce failure C. The deliberate, ongoing choice: pastor not with strength but with weakness and need of God's love

1. Learn to live as God sees you — his son, not merely his servant
2. Believe that he delights in you and not just your efforts for him D. Humility is the greatest friend of a pastor — more than relevance, numbers, popularity, or praise
3. The posture of John the Baptist: "He must increase, I must decrease"
4. Pride — wanting to bring something to the table, to make a name — is the most besetting sin of ministry E. The pastor's soul finds gravitas by embracing the hurts of his parishioners
5. North Point brings nothing to the table but need; Christ brings all that he is
6. These people are cherished, forgiven, engraved on Christ's heart, unsnatchable from his hand
7. Lead them into green pastures and beside still waters; teach them about the inexhaustible heart of Jesus Christ — John 13:9: "Not my feet only but also my hands and my head"