Final sermon

Below is the text of First Congregational Pastor Pamela Jensen’s Final Sermon delivered on Sunday, May 26, 2024.

 

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful; and kindle in us the fire of your love.  Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created; and you shall renew the face of the earth. O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that, by that same Spirit, we may be truly wise and ever enjoy your consolations; through Christ our Lord.  Amen. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

 

My brothers and sisters, for the last few weeks I have been pondering and praying over what I would say to you in my last message. I wanted it to be important. I wanted it to make an impact. I wanted it to be something that you all would remember for the rest of your lives.  But then, I stopped wishing for all those things. I started to realize that intellectual wisdom or theological significance or even memorable stories weren’t what I wanted to leave with you.  There were, instead, just three things I wanted to say to you.

 

First, I need you to know that God loves each and every one of you.  Whether you know Him or not, whether you accept it or not, no matter how you feel about it, really, God loves you.  He knows you and He loves you.  He knew you before the foundations of the world. He called you by name and declared that you belong to Him.  He saw you as you were being knit together in your mother’s womb.  You are, as the psalmist wrote, “fearfully and wonderfully made.”  God was there when you were born to rejoice over you along with your families. God has been with you as you grew up in wisdom and in stature.  And, no matter what age or stage in life you may be now, God is with you and He loves you with an everlasting love. He is, as I love to say, in the habit of loving you.

 

Throughout Scripture, the prophets and teachers of Israel and the apostles of Christ remind us of God’s love.  The prophet Jeremiah proclaimed, “The Lord appeared to me long ago, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.”  And throughout the psalms we hear the words repeat, “How precious is your steadfast love, O God!  All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.”  And, then, in the fullness of time, God sent his son, Jesus, into the world to be the living embodiment of his love.  As the writer of the Gospel of John said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

 

Whatever we have done, whatever we have left undone, God loves us. As one writer puts it, “God loves us because of who God is, not because of who we are.”

 

Second, I need you to know how very much I love you. Many of you know that I grew up in the Chicago area and attended a very large, suburban church. I enjoyed many wonderful Sunday school teachers there, was confirmed under the guidance of the Senior Pastor, never missed the Wednesday night Youth Group spaghetti suppers, and sang in the choir. Then, when I moved up to the Twin Cities as a young adult, I gravitated toward a similar church, eventually joining the Colonial Church of Edina – also a large, suburban church. There I sang with the Choir and the contemporary worship band. I attended Adult Bible studies and joined an intergenerational small group.  My children went to Sunday school and were confirmed there.  I served on committees in which I was interested.  In both of these wonderful churches, I was fully immersed in the community – except. Even after twenty years as a member of my home church, I could walk out of worship, join the coffee hour fellowship, and not be greeted by a single person.  To be fair, there were a lot of people in that church – nearly 2,000 members, in fact. But, it was far too easy to be anonymous in my own church.

 

And then, I came to you. And you all welcomed me so kindly. I was meant to be an Interim Pastor here, but after about three years of searching, the Trustees decided that they would ask me to stay on – and I accepted gladly! I still remember the first time I understood what it meant to be part of a family church like First Congregational Church. I was sitting in my office following worship when Earl and Kathryn Parriott stopped in to chat. They wanted me to know that they wouldn’t be in church the following Sunday because they would be up in the Cities, visiting their children and grandchildren. I was so touched that they would want me to know why we would miss them the following week. Please believe me when I tell you that nothing like that ever happened in my previous churches. In fact, my minister friends told me that it seemed the only time they ever heard from a parishioner was when they wanted to complain about something they had said during the sermon!

 

But you all were different. You really cared about each other. You really knew one another.  You are a family – a true family of God. And you welcomed me in to your family with open arms and open hearts. You treated me as one of your own. And not only that, but you encouraged me and blessed me in so many ways I can’t even count. You are now my brothers and sisters in Christ and I know that we are forever a family. I love you.

 

Third, I can’t leave you without reminding you that it is all grace that we have been blessed to be a part of this particular body of Christ in New Richland. It is by grace alone through faith alone that we are saved. It is by grace alone through faith alone that we are blessed to be blessings in the world. A life in grace, the ideal of a Christian, is freely offered to us by God through the church, the body of Christ. And, it's not a one-time only, limited offer. God is lovingly, faithfully, persistently, amazingly, always offering us the opportunity to share in the great joy of the life in grace.  So, what is grace?  In his book, "What's So Amazing About Grace?," Phillip Yancey calls grace "the one grand theological word that has not spoiled." The word, grace, in all of its varied uses, still reminds us that good things come not from our own efforts, but by the gift of God.  For example, there is a grace period on a mortgage or a credit card, during which time the debt can remain unpaid without incurring any interest.  Magazine publishers send out grace issues of their publication free of charge in order to inspire us to subscribe again.  We are grateful for another's unexpected and, perhaps, undeserved, kindness when we are in need.  We offer a gratuity to someone who has provided pleasing service.  We call someone a gracious host who has made us feel honored and special in their home.  We call a dancer or skater graceful because of the beauty and elegance they communicate with their entire bodies.  There are grace notes in musical scores. They are not part of the melody and the score can be played without them.  But they provide the flourish that spices up the music and thrills our souls. And, we say grace before meals, acknowledging that our daily bread is a gift from God.

 

Grace is the spiritual aid and blessing by which God enlightens our hearts and minds and strengthens our will to act in a particular situation. Just like the grace period on our credit cards and the grace issues of a magazine, grace is a gift, a free gift, no strings attached. Like the delightful honor we receive from a gracious host, grace is undeserved. Grace is not earned.  And it cannot be bought.  Grace is not a thing to be worked for or chased after.  Grace is undeserved – God’s riches at Christ's expense. Like the graceful dancer or the grace notes of a symphony, actual grace brings a deep sense of joy. It is the perfecter of our faith.  Grace brings us a sense of completeness, of oneness with Christ. And, like the grace we say before meals, actual grace is a blessing from God that causes us to be a blessing and to lift up our hearts and our voices in thanksgiving to God.

 

Grace makes it possible for us to reach out to others, to act as Christ's hands and feet in a particular situation. Grace is the spark that lights the fire of our love for our brothers and sisters – the fire that illumines the Word of God that is a light unto our paths; the fire that warms our hearts toward one another; the fire that burns all the brighter the more it is given away.

 

This is the Word that we confess. Jesus is Lord. Being justified freely by his grace, this is how we are saved – this is how we know that we are His beloved children. And, it is for all. All are justified on the same grounds, the same way – through faith.  Salvation is not a matter of our seeking after and drawing near to Christ, but rather that Christ has drawn near to us.  Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

 

Now my time with you is at an end, but not really. We are and will always be brothers and sisters in Christ. We are family. So, I send you out with these reminders – God loves you and so do I. And all that we have had together, all that we are, and all that we will ever be is by the grace of God.  You are a blessed and gifted people. Let us go out rejoicing to discover what God has in mind for each of us. Let us go out with confidence to be blessings to a new family of God. Let us go out boldly to be channels of God’s love and grace to a world dying to hear the Good News.  

 

Let us pray: How can we thank you, O God, for the ministry of this church over these many years? For every person who has shown the love of Christ to another, for every quiet act of service which helped another, for every song of praise offered to you from the depths of a grateful heart, for every prayer uttered here which gave you honor and glory, for all the ways in which you have guided and directed these your people, for all your faithful people who have served your church in both public and private ways – teaching Sunday school, serving on committees, offering gifts of music, caring for the grounds and facilities, welcoming new friends and serving Communion as deacons, opening their hearts and this place to the community at special luncheons and festivals, giving of their time and resources in myriad ways, for all these gifts of ministry, we give you thanks and praise!

 

Go with us now, we pray, that we might continue to live our lives as channels of God’s love and grace; through Christ our Lord. Amen.