06/27/2021
The author of Ecclesiastes wrote that there is a time and a season for everything. This has certainly been a most interesting time to live in. A time to refrain from embracing; a time to heal; a time to mourn; a time to plant; and a time that has seemed more like a whole season of distancing rather than several handfuls of months. There are times when it seems like I just started my ministry with you and then there are moments when it seems like I’ve always been here.
I have striven to be a faithful minister of God’s Word among you for over 12 years. Now, you and I come to the end of that pastoral relationship as I retire. Like a flying trapeze artist who lets go of one trapeze but hasn’t quite grabbed a hold of the next one, the transition from pastoral ministry to retirement can be at the same time full of new opportunities and frightening. And that analogy holds true for you as a congregation as you say goodbye to me as Pastor and wonder about the future under new leadership.
This is the beginning of our living in what William Bridges calls “The Neutral Zone.” That bridge time between the ending of one phase of ministry and the beginning of another. It might be profitable for us to pause for a few moments to reflect on what Christian ministry is all about.
What is a minister, a pastor? A minister/pastor is, quite simply, one who acts on behalf of another. Their authority derives from those they represent and vow to walk with in Christ’s ways known and to be made known to them.
It should never be based on their own authority or agenda. It is in this same way that our ministry belongs to God as we represent God as God’s ministers, God’s ambassadors. Christian ministry isn’t a possession that belongs to you or me, but a call we obey, a service we carry out for another. This can be easy to forget when one has been around for as long as I have, and I find myself referring to St. John’s as “my church” in a possessive way!
It was Christ’s church when I got here in January 2009, and it will continue to be Christ’s church when I’m gone. Which is a good way to remember that pastoral ministry always builds on the work of others!
In our reading from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he addresses the disunity caused by their false misunderstanding of what the church is and what the ministry is. He describes the work of being united with a Greek word that translates “knit together”, as in the mending of fishing nets. Thus, we can imagine the church as place where the torn fabric of human lives are stitched and mended into the whole tapestry that God envisions for creation.
It has been my honor and privilege to stand under the Word of God and humbly preach to you as one forgiven sinner to another. I pray that God has guided me to be able to minister to each and all of you without favor or preferential treatment. Because I know that as a minister, I’m one who represents another a messenger; I’m one who brings good news, and I’m a witness, who is always pointing to the One beyond myself.
This pointing to God doesn’t usually manifest in immediate results. It’s more like being a gardener, planting, and watering, and letting God use what has been done for God’s purposes, which remain a mystery. For I’ll never know what the helpful seeds were that I’ve sown, or who was ready to hear whatever word was spoken that would change their life. As Paul wrote, “I planted, Apollos watered, but it is God who gives the growth.”
We Americans are not good at waiting for God to give the growth. We want dominion and power and control! We want to force our will on things! The wisdom of this age demands results, and even pastors give up and give in and are reduced to talking about attendance, budgets, new building additions, new members, or burgeoning problems. And don’t get me wrong, I was always grateful for any visible signs of vitality at St. John’s.
But the truth about the church is that we can have the most beautiful building, the biggest endowment, and the most charismatic preacher, but if the message that God loves and forgives us “no matter who we are, or where we are on life’s journey” isn’t preached and heard and lived; it all counts for nothing.
In each coming generation, God will raise up witnesses, messengers, ministers; and some will plant, some will water, but it will be God who gives the growth. Thank you for the privilege of being able to sojourn in ministry with you these past many years. May God continue to bless you all as you strive to be TRUE to the gospel.