Confessions of an Unemployed Minister - Part 12 :
Closing A Church
My time as a part time United Church minister came
to a close at the end of December 2015. My final sermon was from Luke 2, when
Jesus was presented at the Temple. I asked these people, on the last day of
services at their church, “What if the story ended there?” What if the
Christmas story ended there? It would only be an interesting, sentimental story
about a cute baby then, not what it is, the greatest story ever told.
In the 19th Century, writers like
Dostoyevsky, Dickens, Bronte, and Austin invented the modern novel. Its unique
characteristics were an omnipotent third person voice; a storyteller who knows
everything, and who reveals things even the characters themselves don’t know,
like feelings, motives, histories, and futures. It’s fun to enter into story
with this omniscient view.
None of us know
our own whole stories. Imagine if we only knew the first chapter of some great
stories: We would think: Harry Potter lived his whole life in the little room
under the stairs; Luke Skywalker lived the rest of his days as an obscure
moisture farmer on Tatooine; Pip never saw his ‘Great Expectations’ fulfilled,
but his story peeked in that dismal graveyard. What if we only had the opening
three chapters of the bible? We would have a story about creation, fall,
expulsion - but no redemption! No Christmas! No new heaven & earth!
Imagine
the Hebrews who lived in Egypt - 200 years after Joseph, and 200 years before
Moses. They might have thought, “Well, I guess it’s all over. That’s
the end of the story”. Or what about those who saw the destruction of
Solomon’s Temple? They’d have thought, “Well, I guess that's the end of
it all”. Or, surely those who saw the destruction of Herod’s Temple
500 years later thought, “Well, I guess this is the end of the story”. What
about Anna and Simeon seeing the baby Jesus at the Temple that day? Did they
think, “Well, I guess this wraps up the whole story”?
No! The rest of
the story, the best of the story, was still coming. There was always more to
come with God. What happens next is always even better. Simeon and Anna never
saw the rest of the story. But they believed it. They could never conceive of
how God was going to fulfill his great promises of a wonderful, redemptive,
expansive story. But they believed it.
I told that
grieving flock, on their last Sunday, that we had only seen the opening chapter
of the story of their church. If someone were reading their story, she would
only have gotten through the introductions of the characters, the setting, this
building, and the story so far. But then she would turn the page, and the story
would continue, but only in that way a story can when you are not in it. We
only get to see the opening chapter. The omniscient storyteller only reveals
part of the story. The whole story is beyond our knowledge. The rest of this
great story is beyond our imagination.
For over 50
years, the Word of God has been proclaimed in that church. In Isaiah 55, God
proclaims:
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways
higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the
snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and
making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the
eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me
empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I
sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and
hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap
their hands. Instead of the thorn bush will grow the juniper, and instead of
briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the LORD’s renown, for an
everlasting sign, that will endure forever.” (Is. 55:9-13)
The Word of God
was read, sung, prayed & preached in that church. The Living God was praised
and glorified there. God, our Heavenly Father was adored, confessed to, thanked
and petitioned there. And, invisibly, that living, all-powerful God acted in
the history of that place. God acted in the hearts of her members. God did
miracles and inspired three generations of families and friends there. The
people of that place have gone out around the world. And the work of God in us
and through us has been multiplying through out the earth. And even that is
only the opening chapters of her story. What God did there (in us and thru us)
will continue to reverberate and multiply in the lives of people and the
ongoing histories and the families of that church forever. I believe this!
I personally
only saw a little glimpse of the bigger story of that church. But I did see a
glimpse. I saw evidence of generations of families of faith multiplying and
spreading around the world. There were stacks of photo albums of the 50-year
history of that church. Every photo is a world of continuing stories. And it’s
all just the first chapter. Can you believe that? Can you believe that for your
own life? In spite of all the unfulfilled dreams, in the face of
disappointments and shattered expectations, can you trust God in that? Can you
rest in that? Can you go on in hope and peace and joy and love in that?
There’s a little
word that starts most of the historical books in Old Testament. The word is “And”. Exodus, Joshua, Judges, Ruth,
First and Second Samuel, First and Second Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther
each begin with “And...” The story
didn’t end after chapter three of Genesis. It didn’t end at the end of Genesis.
It didn’t end with the death of Abraham. It didn’t end with the death of Moses,
It didn’t end at the death of David, or Isaiah, or Jesus. It doesn’t end at the
closing of a church. This is not the final chapter in the story of that church.
We have only seen the opening chapter of the great story that is God’s
omnipotent story in the lives of her people. And...
