When I was looking ahead to see what the appointed scripture readings would be for my last Sunday with you as your pastor, they didn’t disappoint. Both the Old Testament and our Gospel readings are about moving. How appropriate!
In the Old Testament, we have the story of God calling Abram to leave his beloved home to begin a new nation. In our Gospel reading, Jesus calls a tax collector to leave what he was doing to follow him.
It’s always nice when the appointed scripture readings line up with the occasion. This doesn’t always happen, by the way. Around this time eight years ago for my first Sunday as your new pastor, the appointed scripture readings did no favors for me. When I read over those scriptures, I knew that God had a sense of humor.
Here were my choices. It was either going to be a sermon about the death of Saul and Jonathan. Or the other reading was about the importance of giving more money to the church.
Those were so tempting to use for my first Sunday with you. But Instead, I chose my own scripture reading which I thought was pretty ingenious. It was from Acts chapter 17 when the Apostle Paul went to Athens to share the good news of Jesus with the people in that city. The title of my sermon? I’m sure you remember it because it wasn’t a bad sermon, definitely above average. The title of that first sermon was, “A Place Called Athens.”
See what I did there? Athens, Greece/Athens, Ohio!
I thought that was pretty clever until I discovered that your founding pastor in 1800 had done the same thing! This little discovery reminded me that we preachers stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us.
Today’s appointed scripture readings actually do match the occasion because they offer us these stories about how God calls us to new places of serving. By the way, do you know where they send pastors when they retire? Out to pastor. That might be the last “dad joke” you’re going to get from me!
When I was reading over the Old Testament reading where God calls Abram and his family to move from their home, did you notice that God never tells them where he wants them to go? Don’t you find that kind of odd? The Lord just says to them,
“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” - Genesis 12:1
That omission seems kind of important to me. If we are going to be moving somewhere aren’t we supposed to know where we are heading? And after the Lord tells Abram and his family to pack up, verse 4 says, “So Abram went as the Lord told him.”
And we get something similar in our Gospel reading when Jesus is walking by a tax booth and says to one of their agents, “follow me.” And he does! No mention of where they will be going. He just goes!
What do you pack when God calls you to move to a new place? We’re told in verse 4 that Abram was 75 years old at the time when he was asked to begin this new adventure. When I first announced that I would be retiring, someone said to me, “you’re too young to retire.”
And I said, “but I’ve been serving as pastor for over 35 years.”
“You’re still too young,” was the response. So then I said to Penny… “You know, I think you’re right. Even though I’ll be retiring from pastoral ministry in the West Ohio Conference, maybe God is calling me to continue to be a pastor in South Carolina.”
We actually had a continued back and forth on this for a while when I finally realized that God was calling me to continue to serve as pastor. So, I submitted my name to the South Carolina Annual Conference. And just this past month, I received a phone call from their conference office, “Hey, would you be interested in serving as a Pastor of two small rural churches near your new home?” They went on to tell me that they have been without a pastor for the past several weeks and haven’t celebrated Holy Communion in a long time. They would really appreciate having you serve as their pastor.
This is why I’m so impressed with Abram and Matthew from our scripture readings this morning, because age doesn’t factor into their decisions to respond to God’s calling in their lives. Abram who is advanced in years and Matthew who was a lot younger but who was probably leaving behind a very profitable business of collecting people’s taxes; they both said, “yes” to God’s calling in their lives!
And just think of what it would have been like for Abram who was getting up in years to pack up all of his belongings and move his family to an unknown land. Our scripture reading even gives us a little description of what he packed.
In verse 5, it says,
“He took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered.” - Genesis 12:5
And since there were no moving companies back then, imagine this family having to haul all of their belongings during that long journey. But here’s the really important part of this story that I’d like us to give some thought.
The most important thing that Abram and his family took with them, the most important thing by far was that they took with them God’s blessing. And the blessing from God was,
“I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you, and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” - Genesis 12:2
During these past few months, Penny and I have been deciding what we truly need to take with us and what we should just leave behind, especially since we need to do a lot of downsizing. So for example, I made the decision that I would leave behind all of my seminary files that I have hauled with me to every church I have served these past 36 years. I was thinking that if I ever became famous, these ancient seminary papers might get used in a documentary about me on Netflix. But since that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen, I’m just going to leave them behind.
As many of you know, I also have a lot of Penn State items that I’ve collected over the years and we really don’t have a place to keep all of those. I know, hard to believe, right?!
And then I decided that I don’t really need to take all of the clothes that I have accumulated. So I went through the closet and my dresser drawers, and that’s when I came across these 14 year old boxer shorts! Yeah, you heard me right. Here, let me show you why they are so special to me.
These are my United Methodist boxer shorts with NBA great, Jerry Lucas’s autograph on them!
These are definitely going with me! You probably want to know the story behind this but I don’t have time to get into that.
So anyway, Penny and I have been downsizing as we’ve been preparing for this move. We made a commitment to take only the things we really, really, really and absolutely can’t leave behind.
And as I’ve been reflecting on this and thinking about this story of Abram and his family who responded to God’s calling to move to a new land, that’s what they were doing as well. Taking only those things that they absolutely couldn’t leave behind.
And the most important thing that they could not leave behind was God’s blessing upon them. Without God’s blessing, they wouldn’t have left their home to go to some unnamed place and into an uncertain future. They left because they had been blessed by God.
And that’s what we are taking with us in our move to South Carolina. All the blessings of serving you these past eight years and all of the blessings of serving churches in the West Ohio Conference for the past 36 years. This is the one thing that we must absolutely take with us and not leave behind. So many blessings!
The blessing of celebrating baptisms and hearing you sing that beautiful lullaby song to a baby that is being carried up and down the aisles as part of our baptism service.
The blessing of celebrating weddings and knowing that the church is an important part of that couple’s faith journey.
The blessing of joining together in a circle prayer during a Sunday morning worship service to pray for God’s comforting healing presence to be with a member of the church.
The blessing of watching your smiles as you come forward to one of the stations to receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion.
The blessing of lifting our candles and singing “Silent Night” together during our Christmas Eve services.
The blessing of seeing our Scout Troop on a Scout Sunday carry a wooden cross that they had made to the front entrance of our church building where we dedicated it as a prayer cross for people who walk by to let us know their prayer needs.
The blessing of Growing Tree children giggling as I tried to pronounce dinosaur names during reading time.
The blessing of enjoying the most awesome covered dish meals together and hearing you share your testimonies of how God has guided you and what a difference the church has made in your life.
The blessing of seeing this church come together for a major building campaign that included our new front entrance, the remodeling of our sanctuary, and adding an elevator.
The blessing of our bell and Chancel Choirs, soloists, and instrumentalists offering their gift of music that lift our spirits in such a way that not even an above average sermon can come close to doing.
The blessing of hearing you all sing the hymn, “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today” on Easter Sunday and the triumphant hymn, “For All the Saints” on All Saints’ Sunday.
The blessing of walking into this church building early one Sunday morning with a heavy heart not knowing if I would even be able to make it through the morning… the only time this has ever happened to me in over 35 years of ministry…
… And one of you happened to see me and you knew I wasn’t OK… And you took me aside and just let me cry and cry and cry until I couldn’t cry anymore. And you told me, “It’s OK.” And that’s all that I needed in that moment. I can’t even begin to tell you what a blessing you were to me. You helped me to lay down my burdens at the foot of the cross. That was the beginning of some much needed emotional healing.
So blessed!
The blessing of hearing you share your thin place moments with me and how God was present to you in a very real way.
The blessing of seeing all of our prayer requests every week and being reminded that this is what it means to be family.
The blessing of the aroma of hazelnut coffee when you enter these doors on a Sunday morning and knowing that there are caring hearts who are offering their gift of hospitality.
The blessing of being a pastor of a church that reminds each other every single Sunday morning that we are each a blessed, beloved, and beautiful child of God and that there are no exceptions, asterisks, or loopholes to that foundational truth.
So many blessings that Penny and I are going to take with us in our move to South Carolina.
I’ve been thinking about this sermon for a long time since I’m not only saying goodbye to the wonderful people of Athens First, but we’re also saying goodbye to the several churches that we have had the privilege of serving in the West Ohio Conference that includes churches in Quincy, Findlay, Toledo, Xenia, Lancaster, and for the past eight years here in Athens. God has blessed us in so many wonderful ways through the churches we have served and through the people we have met.
Since today is my last sermon with you, I really do want this to be above average. I want you to remember me! This reminds me of some advice I’ve heard in preparing a sermon; “Don’t try to be witty, charming, creative, or intellectual. Just be yourself.”
You know, I’ve never really liked that advice, so I’m still going to try to do a little of both.
Penny and I just want to say thank you for blessing us, and in the words of Nobel Peace prize recipient, Dag Hammarskjold, “For all that has been, thanks! To all that shall be, yes!”
All that You Can’t Leave Behind
No comments:
Post a Comment