On Sunday 13 March, St Peter and Emmaus Church was packed as Rev Dr Sonny Rajamoney was inducted into service as minister of the Word. The service of induction began with songs of praise, sung with gusto by the congregation and guests. Rev Jeni Goring, the Anglican priest in service at St Peter and Emmaus, gave a call to worship followed by the acknowledgement of country by Bishop Jeremy James. Uniting Church WA moderator, Rev Steve Francis, gave a welcome and greeting in which he acknowledged the special guests present, including the chair of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Congress WA, Rev Sealin Garlett.
Steve then gave his sermon, entitled ‘Something beautiful for God’, he took inspiration from a statement from Mother Teresa, “Each one of us has something beautiful to do for God.” Steve went on to express that God is calling all of us to do something beautiful.
The main points of the sermon were that God is the one who calls us. That we are called to follow Christ and within that call there is often another call to service in our lives. That the call to serve Christ often happens in ordinary circumstances, he expounded that in the groans of the world around us (referring to Romans 8) we can see the needs that we are called to serve. And even in our own internally groaning we can feel the call of God on our lives. Finally, Steve encouraged the congregation that God doesn’t just call us, but he equips us too, that we are given the tools to live out the call on our lives, and the support we need.
Steve finished the sermon with an anecdote about legendary basketball player, Michael Jordan. In 1990 Michael’s Chicago Bulls played the Cleveland Cavaliers in a game where Michael scored a career high 69 points. In the same game Stacey King, a reserve player, came off the bench and scored one point from a free point shot off a foul.
In an interview after the game a reporter asked Stacey King what he would remember of the extraordinary game (referring to Michael’s points haul), Stacey replied “I’ll always remember this as the night that Michael Jordan and I combined for 70 points”.
Steve expressed that like Stacey’s confidence in scoring one point backed up by Michael’s incredible 69 points, we as Christian’s can have confidence that our little combined with God’s incredible, is still incredible because God is on our team.
After the sermon, Dorothy Horton, representing Sonny’s former congregation of Trinity North Uniting Church, presented Sonny for induction, thanking God for his ministry at Trinity North. In his response Sonny acknowledged his wife, expressing the blessing that she is in his life, along with their three children, who were all present. Sonny also thanked the St Peter and Emmaus congregation for their warm welcome since his arrival at the beginning of March, particularly Jeni for her support since his arrival. Finally, Sonny thanked God for the call to ministry in his life and stated that the ministry of the Word is foremost a ministry of reconciliation, the reconciliation of humanity to God and also of humans, one to another.
