I AM WRITING this in a land where claims and counterclaims of validities of ordination are being made. I see priests claiming they received the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands of the bishop at ordination, but showing little or no signs of the presence and activity of the Spirit in their lives and ministry. “The proof of the pudding is in the eating,” and the eating is insipid.
Paul laid down the only realistic and Christian test of being an apostle or of being in line with the apostles. “You are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord” (1 Cor. 9:2)—you, changed people, are the seal of my apostleship! There is no other seal! Any other seal is a stamp of man and an empty envelope. “You will know them by their fruits” (Matt. 7:16) is the only test—the outcome is the criterion!
In the time of Elijah, on the mount of test with the priests of Baal, the test was: “The God that answereth by fire, let him be God” (1 Kings 18:24 KJV ). Today that is obsolete. There is one test: the God that answers by healed men, let Him be God. The individual or the group that answers by changed people are in line with apostolic Christianity—“you are the seal of my apostleship.” There is no other seal.
Bishop Pakhenham-Walsh was a saint—a real one. He lived in simplicity, pouring out his love and money to the healing of a division in an ancient church in South India. He built the ashram from his own resources. A group from this ancient church wanted to celebrate holy communion in his chapel. They regretted they could not give communion to the bishop, for the Anglican Church was not recognized as being in apostolic succession by the body they represented. “All right,” he replied, “just let me sit at the back without communion.” Christ, I am sure, sat with him and was not in the communion.
O Jesus, Master, we can be in line of succession with Thee only when we show Thy Spirit and manifest Thy love. For in no other way can that succession be manifested. Let me this day show that spirit. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: My credentials must be written in the people, not in the past—in flesh and blood and not in claims.
