Dear Friends,
As I continue to reflect on my upcoming departure from JPC and from congregational ministry, one biblical story keeps coming to mind. In Deuteronomy 32-34, Moses sings the swansong of his leadership of the Hebrews. He blesses the people. Then he dies on Mt. Nebo. From that mountain peak, in the land of Moab, Moses could see Canaan—the Promised Land—but he would never enter it.
Now, in no way am I claiming Moses-caliber leadership. Over the last 28 years, I did the best I could. Mostly. But I’m no Moses. And, no, I don’t plan to die. Yet. I expect to keep moving just like you. Though in what capacity I don’t yet know.
What I am saying is that, like Moses, most pastors experience Mt. Nebo moments—revelatory moments at which they can see, on the horizon, a future they know will forever remain beyond their reach. They recognize that new territory as one charged with unmet challenges and unrealized possibility. And while it’s a land toward which they have been leading God’s people, it’s also a land into which others will be called and equipped to lead those same people. Through Moses’ story and my own experience, I’ve also learned that leaders of all kinds may achieve specific goals, but they never really complete the work. They simply hand it off to new generations—like Moses handing off the leadership of the Hebrews to Joshua.
My prayer is that, during my time with you, I have cooperated with the Holy Spirit faithfully enough to have helped you—a vibrant, blessed-to-be-a-blessing faith community—to recognize your new threshold.
I have tried to preach and teach Jesus and a Jesus-following faith.
I have tried to emphasize God’s incarnate love and reconciling grace not as soft words on which to rest, but as compelling and empowering antidotes to the world’s thunderous din of selfishness, fear, and violence.
I have tried to guide you to a sustained and sustaining sense God’s presence with you and purposes for you in this particular place and time.
And I pray that you sense the future as a realm of possibility and hope.
While Mt. Nebo is an actual location in the Kingdom of Jordan, it’s place in Moses’ story makes it a metaphor, as well. From any mountain summit, we can only travel downhill, with the force of gravity fueling our steps. And on that journey, we can move toward the new horizon, or we can fall backward toward some familiar and comfortable default. That is to say, toward the past. And gravity can pull us back toward the past as surely as it can urge us forward into the future. The past is a rich storehouse of memories that can define and guide us. So, while it deserves to be remembered with gratitude and piercing honesty, we can never return to the past. In the grand scheme, there is no “again” that can hold us.
In love, God can and does hold us. And in that love, God calls us forward, creating the future as an eternal realm of ever-expanding, ever-demanding, ever-welcoming, ever-redeeming grace.
As I say my goodbyes to you over this coming month, and as our relationship shifts from pastor/parishioner to neighbor/neighbor, I pray that your memories of the last 13+ years help you to focus your gaze on the future. And while the specific twists and turns of the path toward that territory lie beyond my sight, I fully trust the Spirit to provide leaders to move you forward. I also trust that all of us—you on your path, and Marianne and me on ours—will be accompanied by Jesus.
I am now, and will forever be, grateful to each of you and to Jonesborough Presbyterian.
Peace,
Pastor Allen
No comments:
Post a Comment