ON SETTING OUT NOT KNOWING – GETTING
TO KNOW ME!
1ST Sermon at Jamesville
Community Church
8/4/19
Hi, Jamesville congregation!
I’m pleased that God saw fit to have your search committee and I find
each other. This is the first time in my
pastoring life that a search committee approached my instead of me approaching
them first! I’d been asking God why this
happened to other clergy and not me - usually I have to read forms and inquire,
and read more forms and inquire - the way your search committee contacted me
felt real nice. We seemed to click right away, which also felt good. They’ve been real helpful in telling me about
this congregation, how you do things, and some of your history.
I know that you are grieving (as well as celebrating) the
retirement of your previous pastor, who ministered here for 22 years. The length of his service here points out how
well you got along, and I’ve heard many good things about his ministry here. This kind of stability is good for a
congregation.
It also means that a new pastor is a big change... There
might be some anxiety about what’s going to happen next and who the next pastor
will be and what she or he will be like.
It looks to me like your leadership folks have stepped up and begun
taking care of things, searching for an Interim pastor (me); keeping VBS going
and such. That’s good! And the
Presbyterians have specialized training for Interim pastors, and steps to move
forward that have been helpful for other congregations. It was insightful of your leadership to
choose this Interim process after a long pastorate. It takes a while to say goodbye; and like any
grieving, it takes a while to look again to the future.
My overall goal is to begin by learning how you are used to
doing things, so your comfort level doesn’t get totally messed up. For a while, just me being up here and not
Rev Mark is enough of a visual change! I
might be around his same age group, but I’m not his gender! Another goal is to be sharing parts of my
story so I’m not such a stranger, and sharing something about this journey that
we’ll be on for the next year or so.
.
Let me tell a story – I like stories. Some years back, I was the Hunger Action Coordinator
for the Presbytery of Eastern VA, and I
shared an office with a man from Congo, who coordinated mission between our
presbytery and our partner churches in Congo.
Billy, a 17 yr old young man who was actually born in the US and therefore
a citizen, was repatriated to the U.S. during some bad times when we closed our
embassy in the Congo; and his parents sent him to my office partner, Mr. Bota-Tshiek. I had a new house with an extra room, and Mr
Tschik didn’t, so Billy came home with me for a few nights until a permanent
place could be found for him. A couple
weeks later I had to become his guardian in order to put him in school. He lived with us for his junior and senior
year and then we helped him get into college; and now we’ve watched him get
working, get married, and become a dad.
ANYWAY – Billy found comfort that first year with the exchange students
- they shared the changes of being in America, speaking English & being
away from the familiar. However, come
spring, they all went back home – and Billy didn’t. That’s when the reality of
his new life set in for Billy, and he went through a rough time. I read that somewhere around the end of the 1st
year a person is in a new country, they bottom out; they realize the changes
they’ve struggled to make are just the beginning, and that there’s still more
subtle differences out there. Depression
and even suicide rise at that point for those who have changed country,
especially if they are alone.
This process is common to all kinds of transitions.
There’s the initial change, then there’s dealing with it long term. Feelings of disquiet, maybe even anger rise
up – where are they from? Often it’s the
growing sense of how much is actually different now. So don ‘t be surprised at
the feelings that might rise up as we go on – we will handle things together.
.
When I was buying my first house, my realtor told me in
advance that there would be at least 3 times when I called him up in a panic,
maybe crying; and I should remember that he forewarned me. So one day I got agitating about all the
extra papers I was being asked for re the mortgage, and I freaked out and
called him up anxious and crying about if this was ever going to work. Ah, yes….And how did he comfort me???? “Remember
I told you about the 3 times? Well, this is #1.” Believe it or not, that actually helped…I
laughed, and then we proceeded to do what was needed.
I guess that’s my foretelling of our next era here – while
we are working on plans and self-studies, there’s more going on under the
surface, emotions that will bubble up out of us now and then in unexpected
feelings and reactions. Its part of the
process. Part of my task is to recognize
it and remind us.
I chose to begin in our first worship together with the very
basic story of our faith tradition, way back there with our ancestors Abraham
and Sarah, who heard God say, “Get up and move to this place I’ll show
you.” And surprisingly, they did. No Allied Van Lines, no U-Haul, no move
coordinators – they packed up their tents, took their cattle and goats and
whatever else they had in terms of critters, their herders and such, and in the
end took a nephew’s group, too. And they all set out for a new land. That journey starts in our first Scripture
book, Genesis, which means “Beginnings.” Or, “How it all got started.” Our
whole faith tradition starts with a big transition! A leaving, a setting out
for a new place. They left the familiar,
the known, the usual, and took off - because God said to. Its counted as faith, the letter to the
Hebrews says – because they believed God, trusted God, and did what God
directed.
Can you imagine the changes they must have encountered? The way the Scriptures were recorded and
remembered, not much is said about how people felt - just a bare recital of
what happened. We can tell the emotional
toll, however, by some of the things that happen, the stories of grumbling and
complained that Moses deals with, with God’s help. Hundreds of years later, their progeny moved
to Egypt and found refuge there in order to avoid a terrible famine. Then more hundreds of years later, their
progeny left Egypt led by Moses, still looking for that land of promise. That’s the story called the Exodus, a major
story of salvation for our Jewish sisters and brothers. All kinds of changes fill our Scriptures! Change happens.
I like the way its put, that they “set out not knowing” - not knowing what would happen, not
knowing where this land of promise was, not knowing how God’s promises would
ever be fulfilled, not knowing if they could handle everything… When I ponder
that phrase, “to set out not knowing,” it seems to me that this is actually
true of most anything we begin - we are always “setting out not knowing.”
Its a kind of archetypal experience of many things in our living. I mean, how many of us went to college
knowing what we’d be like at graduation?
Knowing how classes would change us, challenge us, broaden us? And when we found that special someone and
committed to them, how many of us knew or even anticipated everything
that marriage was going to call for from us?
What we would learn? What kind of
situations we would encounter and weather?
And when we delighted over our babies, – did we even have a clue how
that would change us? When my daughter
became pregnant with her first, I really didn’t know how to find the words to
express the inner changes, the self-awareness, the challenges…. So many places in our lives we “set out not
knowing.”
Again, when we first profess our love for God and take those
early steps in faith, it’s the same thing - we don’t know what God has in store
for us, or where the Holy Spirit will actually take us. We have to take the journey as it comes,
listening to the Holy Spirit regularly, and continuing to trust that God is
with us and upholds us. I sometimes
wonder what my 18-year-old self would make of who I am at 65, and what life and
God have worked in me. I never foresaw what
my life would hold.
Its the same with our transitions like this, when a pastor
retires and we set out not knowing what or who or how - yet we know and trust
God, who is with us. We’ve had a nice
settled time for quite a while. What’s going to happen? Will attendance stay
good during the transition, or will people pull away until they see who
comes? Will giving stay good? Will VBS
continue? Will our council meetings be
the same? Will we know the hymns and
songs she chooses?
We do have some choices in the matters – we can let the
anxiety rule us, or we can trust in the process and in the good people around
us. We can decide to be faithful in our
attendance and giving, and participate in the upcoming processes of
discernment. We can pitch in, in a good
spirit, to keep things going, and communicate clearly with one another. We can encourage and pray for our leadership.
We are now on a journey together, seeking out where God will
lead us. That’s actually true all the
time, although its more overt at transitional times. We’re actually adapting and tweaking changes
all the time; although again its more overt at pastoral transitions. Unlike
Abraham and Sarah, we do have a path of sorts, some signposts and steps;
although our journey will be our own.
The covenant we made in my call to Jamesville Community Church named
some of those signposts – they have names like Coming to Terms with History,
Discovering a New Identity, Allowing New Leadership, and Renewing
Denominational linkages. There are known
helpful ways of addressing each of these, and our colleagues in faith will be with
us all the way. Other congregations have
been down this path, have been there and done that. We will be okay. And no matter what, God is always with us,
guiding us, speaking to us, leading us to where we are supposed to go. I was glad when Fred mentioned that my first
Sunday with you would be communion - what better promise of love and fellowship
and belonging is there as we set out?
AMEN.
No comments:
Post a Comment