Pastor Wendy’s Retirement Sermon

This is a Sunday all about family:

My family is here for this special service as are many who make up my friendship family, my family of choice. We had a baptism today and Maxine’s family is gathered here to celebrate that joy filled occasion.

We will come to the table and embody the reality that we are all one Body, One Family in our One Lord. This is clearly a service infused with the importance of family: both biological and chosen.

What are some attributes that all forms of family share:

Love, Forgiveness, support . . .

I Cor. 13 (corny but real):

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

There is a reason this is a favorite wedding passage. It speaks of a love that can see us through all the seasons and all the feelings of our lives.

And so it has been with us: There have been times when I angered you,

There have been times when you have frustrated me.

Many times we have had to focus on that which binds us together, look beyond the things that divide us, and extend love and forgiveness to one another, just as all families have to do.

A delegate to this year’s GC after the vote expanding the church’s ministry to and with our LGBTQIA+ siblings said, “Unity of the Body of Christ does not require uniformity, but it does require love.” John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, said it this way: Although we may not all think alike, can we not all love alike?

I chose Scripture passages that were read today because they are among the ones that have guided my life and shaped my ministry. As Ross said, the Micah passage has been my heart text since I was 13 when I was chosen by my confirmation class to preach the confirmation sermon and this was the text we agreed upon. That was my first sermon and this passage has taken up residence in my heart ever since.

I have consistently sought to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God. I think the three are intimately connected. If you love kindness and want all people to be treated with kindness, that will inevitably lead you to work for conditions that improve their lives ~ and that is the work of doing justice. And if you walk humbly with God that of course means being willing to walk where God is walking, which will take us to places and put us in situations where I would never dream of going on our own, and it will bring us into relationship with people that if left to our own preferences would try hard to avoid. Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly with God. You can’t do one without doing the other two.

The text from John is one on which I have sought to build my life and is the bedrock of my relationships. I have consistently sought to love my family, my friends, my colleagues, and my congregants. And I have worked hard to create communities of love, care, and connection where everyone who comes into our midst will know and feel on a deep and personal level that they are a beloved child of God and that they are loved, accepted, welcomed, affirmed and SAFE in this place.

No one should ever come to church, or worse stay away from church, because they fear that they are going to hear words of judgment or be treated as anything less than the precious creation that they are. We are all sacred children of God, Jesus commanded us to love one another with an unconditional and never failing love, and Church ~ we need to reflect that love. That is our highest and most sacred calling. Sadly, the church has not always lived up to that ideal and harm has been done.

I am proud of the work that I have done with many of you to create a church, both as congregations and as a denomination, that is truly open and welcoming of all, to reshape the world around us so that it is more in alignment with God’s will for the world ~ a world that is just, equitable, and fair FOR ALL. And in good UMC speak ALL truly does MEAN ALL.

A world where all persons have access to the resources that make the abundant life that Jesus came to bring a real possibility. Where all children go to well funded, resourced, and safe schools. Where their teachers are paid a salary that is reflective of the important, life shaping work that they do. Where all have access to quality health care without risking going into bankruptcy and are able to get the care they need when they need it without having to drive hundreds of miles to access that care.

Working on issues such as these is for me what it means to live a life of love as Jesus commanded and to honor God’s requirement that we do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God.

Now, that I am on the cusp of retirement, one thing is clear: That work is not going to end. It cannot end. There is still so much that needs to be done to bring the world, our communities, and the church into alignment with God’s will, and I am committed to doing that work. Part of it will be done with the two churches I will be serving and part of it will be done by working with other organizations and in other arenas.

But, as you have all heard me say over and over again, that work is not mine alone to do. It is not work that belongs exclusively to the clergy. It is the work that belongs to the people of God, which means that it is work that belongs to all of us. Some of you will do that work through the church.

Others will do that work in different arenas and in different ways. But wherever and however we choose to do the work to create a just world is work that belongs to each and every one of us.

So, as I leave, my parting words you can be no better that reciting again the passages that are at the very core of my being:

And what is it that God requires of us? But that we do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God.

And what is that Jesus commanded us to do? To love one another as he has loved, and that we are to put love into transformative action, action that reshapes the world around us ~ they really will know that we are Christians by our love.

May it always be so with you. I love you all!

Amen.

Pr. Wendy