Fr Bert Rivett

 

The current church of St Mark, Red Cliffs.
This building was erected after Fr Bert’s time.

SERMON PREACHED at HOLY TRINITY,
RINGWOOD EAST

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

 (December 17^th) 1989

 

READINGS

Isaiah 35:1-10
Psalm 146:5-10
James 5:7-10
Matthew 11:2-11
 

(SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY of the ORDINATION to PRIESTHOOD
of Fr BERT RIVETT)

 

When I arrived in this parish I flicked through the Register of Services and saw there, for the week before Christmas in 1979, the signature of Fr Bert Rivett at the celebration of his fiftieth anniversary of priesting. So we are together today celebrating with Bert Rivett a rare but significant occasion, the likes of which that we see far too few.  

I have, after seeing that Register entry, mused how quickly the years must have flown by for Bert since that priesting on St. Thomas’ Day, 1929. 

To give some indication of the years of Bert’s priesthood, I will celebrate my 60^th anniversary – if God wills – late in the year 2047. We could do worse than to ask the question, “what is a priest?” 

There is a sense in which, by virtue of our baptism, we are all priests. But what is this ordained priesthood into which Bert entered in 1929?

It is many things. But I wish briefly to dwell on three.

The priest is a shepherd or pastor.

The priest is shepherd or deacon.

But, primarily, the priest is an icon, a reminder, an image.

The priest is a shepherd. In fact, as those of you who attended the recent ordination service will be aware, it is primarily the bishop who is the shepherd, who carries the crook, the crozier. But early in the Church’s history it became clear that the bishop could not care for and pastor all his people individually, and so the Church appointed presbyters to care for God’s people in extension of the bishop’s pastoral ministry.

In the charge to candidates at an ordination service the bishop commands the candidates to, in Book of Common Prayer language,

feed and provide for the Lord’s family; to seek for Christ’s sheep who are scattered abroad, and for his children who are surrounded by temptation in this world, that they may be saved through Christ for ever.

It is a task of caring – caring for the people of Red Cliffs or Qumabatook 0r Natimuk or Gisborne or Spotswood – wherever God sends his servants to feed his people.

Secondly, the priest is a deacon. Bert was made a deacon in 1928, and that calling to be a servant was then taken into andbthrough all his years as a priest. Bert is still both priest and deacon, a reminder to us all of Christ the Servant, and of our responsibility to serve one another.

 At his deaconing Bert was charged,

to assist the Priest in the divine service, and especially when he ministereth the Holy Communion, and to help in the distribution thereof; and to read Holy Scripture and Homilies in the church; and to instruct the youth in the Catechism.

We may yet employ him to train our confirmees!

Finally, and I believe primarily, the priest’s task is one of imaging, of being the image of Christ in the world. For this reason, the priest presides at the Eucharist, reminding us of Christ’s presiding at his own last supper, and to make present again and again the Last Supper and the Crucifixion of Christ in our midst.

For that reason it is the priest who takes on the Old Testament priest’s role of offering the prayers of the people, to remind us of Christ’s role as both priest and victim at the ultimate sacrifice.

The priest stands in the Church as a reminder to us of Christ – Christ the Shepherd, Christ the Servant, Christ the Priest. He or she stands to remind us of our own vocation to be priests in the New Testament relationship to God, of our own responsibility to offer prayers and thanksgiving to God for God’s people and God’s world.

It was to this task and privilege that Bert – Father Bert – was ordained in 1929, and in which, despite being retired, he is still able to stand among us today.

The time for congratulatory speeches is not during a sermon. But this is the time to give thanks to God tor the priesthood, and to celebrate with Bert 60 years signifying to the world something of Christ’s love for it.