Pastor Jon's Farewell Sermon, Preached Sunday, February 12, 2012

A Service of Dedication, Thanksgiving and Blessing
Philippians 1:1-11
Psalm 30
Luke 21:5-19

When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, ⁶“As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” ⁷They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” ⁸And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them. ⁹“When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” ¹⁰Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; ¹¹there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. ¹²“But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. ¹³This will give you an opportunity to testify. ¹⁴So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; ¹⁵for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. ¹⁶You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. ¹⁷You will be hated by all because of my name. ¹⁸But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹By your endurance you will gain your souls

You may be wondering why we are hearing this Gospel text on a Sunday when a tower is being dedicated. What could such a Scripture have to say to us, when Jesus’ words about the stones of the Jerusalem Temple foretell nothing but destruction. Let me paint the scene for you of when this Scripture was last heard in this sanctuary.

The day was Sunday, November 14, 2010, the 25th Sunday after Pentecost. The Scriptures for this day were for the thirty-third week of “ordinary time” in the church year, the Sunday before the last Sunday of the church year, Christ the King Sunday. The day previously, Council President Zan Lofgren had sent an email to myself and other leaders of the church leaders that gave an update on the work that had already begun on tuckpointing the tower. It read in part, “Not looking good. Some of it (the tower) or most of it will have to come down.” Then, the next day in worship, came these words of Jesus that came from the appointed lectionary readings of the day: “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” (Luke 21:6)

The congregation would not find out about these changes until a week later, but for the leaders who knew the tower was so structurally weak it would need to be rebuilt or lowered, this text could not have been more poignant. It’s moments like this that make us say to God, “are you kidding me?” It’s moments like this that are not just mere coincidence…more than pure happenstance. It’s a moment in time that we could call a kairos moment. Kairos is one of the two Greek words for time. While chronos time means quantitative, sequential time; kairos signifies a time “in between”, an intermediate time in which the sacred breaks in…and speaks. (“Kronos”, www.wikipedia.org) It’s this kairos time that I hope becomes the central story that is remembered about these tower repairs…not that it was not a trial to go through, but indeed it was a time when God interrupted what was happening chronologically, to say something qualitatively about what was going on.

What was it that we heard God saying through this kairos time, when, amidst the dismantling of a literal pillar of the congregation, we tried to make sense of this challenge? What did we hear God saying that we had heard before but now with fresh ears, or perhaps heard anew? Did we hear God say…the church is more than a building? Did we hear God say…temporary times of trial will not keep God’s eternal merciful embrace from is? Did we hear God say through Jesus' words: “By your endurance, you will gain your souls”? (Luke 21:19) Did we hear God call us...to a renewed stewardship of our whole lives around God's most priceless gift of Jesus' grace? Did we hear God say…we can trust God’s promises that mean we will not live by sight but by faith in God alone? Did we hear God still speaking to us?

Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes and Yes is the answer to each of those questions! No matter what dimension of it was that you heard, God indeed spoke into this “chronos” time with a “kairos” message that testified to the sufficiency of God’s grace, the power of God’s Word, and the possibility of faith turning God’s vision into a reality. God did not just speak that November 2010 Sunday when a few people knew the hilarious way that God was trying to say something through that appointed Gospel reading. But God has been expanding our hearts and minds in faith to see this crisis not only as a time of struggle but also of opportunity.

It’s that same God that also God spoke to me when you extended the call to serve you. God spoke to me when I began here of the commitment you have to this church and its people. God spoke to me of your blessed desire to listen for and follow God’s will in loving your neighbors with all your mind, body and soul. God spoke to me of the blessing you are to the world by the countless ways in which you give of your time, energy and resources for others despite all the other demands on your lives.

God’s holy embrace spoke to me even through the challenges of learning the ropes of what being a pastor is all about, through the process of admitting mistakes and through growing in getting to know you better. I know I may not have met all the expectations you had when you called me here…I think we all hungered and desired to see the church grow and become renewed in its mission and vision. We did grow, maybe not in all the ways we hoped, but we did…by learning to welcome new young adult members, by trying new ministries and by working together to adopt a vision for the future. Perhaps the need to grow numerically was more urgent than I had first thought…and there were chronos times when I felt I did not have the experience with church renewal to give the kind of leadership this church needed to move even further towards growth. But through it all I heard God's kairos message speaking, asking me to be authentic, and to give my all. Despite my fear of being judged that can seem to put up a wall to others…God still was able to find ways to break through and hold us together...through the Word of life, and through the holy food of abundant life at our Lord's table. God spoke to us in the promise of the gospel that is bigger than any one pastor or any one person.

And now…the God who has spoken to us before we met—who did so during our partnership, and who will continue to hold us together in Christ's body—that God will continue to speak. Several years ago the United Church of Christ began a denominational marketing campaign for its church that prominently featured the slogan: “God is still speaking.” The logo for that campaign was a big, black, large comma. That is what God is saying to us as we transition from this day forward. God will continue to speak to you. We can have the courage to listen to God, to follow where God sends us, and tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love.

As this pitcher is leaving your starting rotation, God is speaking to another pastoral candidate who, whether coming up from the minors or as a seasoned veteran from another team, when the kairos moment is right...God will break in and speak once again to them of the rich blessings that await serving your needs, and you will once again be blessed by God's guiding hands. I pray that God is preparing a pastor for you with the experience and skills to equip you for the ministry of renewal and evangelical witness to the gospel that this church now has envisioned so clearly for its future.

Let our word to God this day be a word of thanksgiving, a word of thanks for kairos moments, a word of thanks for God's faithfulness, a word of thanks that we share today with the apostle Paul, who wrote to his beloved in Philippi: “I thank my God every time I remember you... I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” (1:3,6) Thanks be to God, who is indeed...still speaking,

Amen.