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What should you say in your
final sermon? Well, I have come up with four items:
1) Pay attention to that day’s Scripture
readings, 2) Reflect on
the story of the congregation and the ministry shared by pastor and
congregation, 3) Notice
what has changed and what hasn’t and 4)
Offer a word for the future, say farewell and don’t go on too long!
1. Pay attention to today’s Scripture readings.
A man once gave a great banquet and invited many people...
this is how Jesus begins another parable offered for the benefit of his host
and the other lawyers and Pharisees who were in the room “at table” with
him. Since they were eating together, this was a “teachable moment”,
especially for a story about a Great Feast.
Everything seemed in order for the Feast, until the guests, who had been
previously informed that they had a place at the table, began to offer their
flimsy excuses. Undeterred, the host urges his servants to go out quickly to
the streets and lanes and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and
lame…….. The poor, maimed, blind, lame -
this is the core of this parable.
Jesus wants the Pharisees to know that full-blown sinners will be God’s
guests at God’s banquet.
The Host’s instructions to his servants that they should “compel” anyone,
especially the “poor, maimed, blind and lame” to come to God’s banquet feast
may seem overly strong. I suggest we hear the word “compel” to mean to “beg
them”, to plead with them be part of God’s banquet. It means to assure them
fully that they really belong, that they have a seat at the banquet.
The flimsy excuses offered by the original guests are just that, flimsy
excuses! Sadly, God
knows all about the flimsy excuses we offer in response to God’s gracious
invitation. God knows we find it possible to reject the One whom we know to
be our Savior! God has endured all the brush-offs we have given. It is not
that God puts us outside;
we do this to ourselves!
Tables spread with mouth-watering morsels, guests gathered in the perfect
ambiance, lots of noise, laughter and fun. We know a party when we see one.
But we also know that not all parties are the same. Some parties focus more
on display than on real interactions between people, other parties are known
more for who is not invited than who is. Some parties are held to celebrate,
others to commiserate. As diverse as parties can be, they all have one thing
in common: their purpose and tone are set by the host.
The host of the Great Feast is God, and God sets the tone by inviting the
poor and the maimed and the blind and the lame and you and me and all of us.
Life in the kingdom is a party where God is the host and where there is
space for all. There is a royal welcome for all to share the life of the
kingdom of God, which is for a genuine and joyous celebration, for all,
because all are invited, welcomed, expected, included. I am invited to this
celebration. You are invited to this celebration. Let’s not give God the
brush-off! Let’s not tell God we are too busy to attend! Let’s make sure
our plans for our lives include God and indeed stem from God.
2. Reflect on the story of the congregation and the ministry shared by
pastor and congregation.
The passage in
Deuteronomy
was a reminder to the Hebrew people of all the provision that God had made
for them as they moved into a new future. God had prepared for them a fine
and beautiful land in which they would settle. There they would dwell in
fine, large cities that they did not build; they would live in houses filled
with all sorts of goods that they did not fill, that they would benefit from
hewn cisterns that they did not hew, and vineyards and olive groves that
they did not plant.
This is the case for Northminster Presbyterian Church as well, as it moves
into a new future. In that future, as you continue to journey with and to
God you will continue to benefit from the contributions and faithfulness of
many people, some present here today, some scattered around God’s world,
some gathered in the Church Triumphant.
I have some markers that remind us of what we have today and what will
continue to bless you in the days to come.
Sermon in a sack: a reminder of the faith and
commitment of Dwight Bayley and his family to this congregation as our
organizing pastor and first installed pastor.
Ben’s Plaque: a reminder of how it was that God
called together the Northminster family and the Simpson family for a season
of ministry and service.
I have the manuscript for my first sermon as installed pastor:
Citius, Altius, Fortius – Swifter, Higher, Stronger. Preached on the
day the Atlanta Olympic Games ended, this sermon
could have been re-preached today as it called this congregation forward and
onward in its intention to serve God, to extend God’s welcome to all.
That day, August 4, 1996,
I urged this congregation to reject two little words that hold within them
the scent of defeat. The words I urged you to reject then were,
“if only”;
my friends, on this day, I urge you to reject them as you embrace a new
season in the life of this church. “If only” will
not get you to where God is!
That day I invited all those who listened to see themselves as members of
the Northminster relay team; that we all have a
place and a part and a role in extending God’s welcome.
And this also is still true for the next lap of
this church’s race.
I have the Northminster News that carried the news that the congregation was
being called to vote to approve the funding for this phase of our building
and the Shovel that was used by the Confirmation Class of 1998 for the
ground breaking, and photographs of the various phases of the church
facility being built.
These buildings and all the other resources we have and enjoy:
staff, space, stuff – insights, imagination, inspiration – people, prayer,
passion – mission, ministry, management, all these
resources are to be dedicated to extending God’s welcome. They are never to
be used to get us puffed up with pride, nor for the glory of this church or
its pastor or any of its members. The gifts with which we have been blessed
are to be deployed for God’s work in our community and world.
As you move forward, your generosity to the aims
of the Capital Campaign that concludes at the end of this year means
that we have a new organ, we have continued our contributions to the
Presbytery’s capital campaign, there is a Mission Fund invested with the
Presbyterian Foundation and there are funds to stretch and expand the
Fellowship Hall to create additional space, enhancing the Fellowship Hall
and the Kitchen so that NPC can be a place of ministry with and for people
of all ages. This is something about which you can and should be excited.
Talking about the Capital Campaign, I have here this banner “Care and
Connection”. You will see in this logo the Cross,
a Heart, you will see People, and specifically you will see People gathered
in unity, in a circle. This is who this church is when we are at our best -
a congregation gathered by and in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, with a
heart to extend God’s welcome to others, with a focus on people and a
realization that it takes all of us actively and faithfully and fully
serving God together.
3. Notice what has changed and what hasn’t.
I think it is already sorta kinda obvious that yes, some things have changed
over the past 11 years. But
in so many ways we do and will always face the same challenges if we are to
be extending God’s welcome.
In a few weeks you will join together in this year’s Stewardship Campaign
with the focus of: The G.I.F.T. of Giving. G.I.F.T. - Growing, Inspiring,
Faith Together this is what Giving means. The G.I.F.T. of Giving is not
about Jim Simpson. This
church is not all about any one person now nor should it ever be all about
any one person. It is about growing inspiring faith together:
sharing God’s life in God’s world, extending God’s welcome.
4. Offer a word for the future, say farewell and don’t go on too long!
It is hard to believe that 11 years have passed. I am grateful to God for
all of you and for all who have shared in the life of the congregation over
that period of time.
I thank you for working with me, for putting up with my shortcomings, for
overlooking my failures.
As I leave I ask forgiveness; forgiveness for
those times when I hurt any of you, for those occasions when I did not
measure up to what you believed I should be or was best capable of, for
those times when I let you down or short-changed you.
As you face the future, I urge you to trust in the God we know and who
encounters us in Jesus Christ, the God who has made sure that there is space
for all in the party that is the Kingdom of God.
I urge you to look after each other, to encourage one another, to support
your staff and all called to be leaders within the congregation, to pray for
God’s guidance for the future, and in time to respect and embrace your next
pastor.
I urge you to love God, to love one another, to love God’s world, to love
sinners, to love truth and mercy. I urge you to
make and share God’s peace,
which is beyond human understanding and which will guard your hearts and
minds in Christ Jesus. Amen. |
