Ambiguity is an undercurrent of situations in which one is expected to perform duties without the publicly recognized authority to do so. In a very real sense, this ambiguity pervades the relationship of a ministry student to his or her teaching parish. The student is engaging in pastoral practices without any ecclesiastically granted authority to do so. We need to articulate the authority of those who have come under the influence of the gospel, the authority of those who have been swept up by its work of love, the authority of those who long to live in this world, first and foremost, as servants of the word, the authority of those who are compelled to tell stories of grace. And the word, it came to me, its movement a mystery and a surprise, and I was never to be the same.
Any human speaking with authority is in the first instance a matter of letting oneself be told.
And the word, it came to me, joined with its sister, Spirit, and I was clothed with power from on high.