Ordination Day by Elina (Reflection)

Ordination Day (by Elina)

“Here I am, Lord,” the words spoken by God’s people in response to His call, from Abraham to the prophets, kings, disciples, and the great cloud of witnesses united in Christ. These words were on my mind on my on my ordination day alongside the famous words of Martin Luther, “Here I stand, I can do no other, God help me!”

Before the service started, my mind was a filled with Bible verses in the form of a prayer. But the most important reminder was Psalm 46:10: “Be still and know I am God.” One thing was certain: I did not arrive here by my own initiative or achievement, only by the Grace of God. Pastor Rebecca, prayed for me and reminded me that “the one who calls you, is faithful (I Thess.5:24).”

Psalm 139 resonated with my long journey to this day: how my whole life has been led to fulfil this purpose and now my soul was filled with gratitude and praise: “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!”

“You you knit me together in my mother’s womb”. I had been baptised as a baby and grown up with Finnish Lutheranism, always knowing that I was a child of God and under God’s grace: called to love my neighbour humbly in everything that I do to the glory of God alone. But somewhere along the way I found myself lost in darkness. Rather than praising God for being “fearfully and wonderfully made.” I had spent a lifetime of running away from God’s call, searching for myself by turning away from God. But God had brought me home to the cross of Christ and to follow him. In the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the call is so “irresistible” that “when Christ calls, the disciple follows.”

“And you lay your hand upon me.” Standing before God by the altar, together with Simon, waiting for my ordination into the Ministry of the Word and Sacrament, I was at peace. I had finally arrived at this blessed moment with by my family and friends surrounded by God’s love and united in Christ, no longer restless or struck to the ground by fear but guided by the Holy Spirit to pray: “Lead me in the way everlasting.”