Note: I retired from full-time ministry on June 30. Here are the beginning and the end of my farewell sermon. In the middle of the sermon I delivered my remembrances and reflections on my twenty years here as vicar and pastor.
July 2024
Farewell from the pastor…
The Book of Acts is the best history we have of the early decades of the Christian Church. As its title suggests, it’s a book with an active storyline. It begins with the ascension of Jesus into heaven; then it follows, ten days later, with the arrival of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem on the festival of Pentecost. It briefly describes the ministry of St. Peter around Jerusalem, before we come to the conversion of Saul, the persecutor – who becomes St. Paul, the great missionary to the Gentiles.
That means that most all of us owe a debt of gratitude to God for inspiring St. Paul to bring the Gospel of Jesus across the Roman Empire, so that our pagan ancestors could one day hear and believe on the name of Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Those early believers suffered great persecution, but their faith compelled them to do nothing less than confess Christ as Lord and Savior – even in a hostile world.
St. Paul carried the Gospel to the far reaches of the Roman world, on at least three mission trips that are documented in the Book of Acts. The New Testament has thirteen of the letters he wrote to Christian communities and individuals. They testify to the relationships he had built on those journeys. The bridge building that St. Paul did through the Good News of Jesus is something we should both admire and emulate today.
But St. Paul’s ministry was never easy. He could list all the times that he was beaten, whipped, stoned, imprisoned, and shipwrecked in his pursuit of preaching the Gospel. The two places that he served the longest were the cities of Corinth and Ephesus. There he ministered in cultures that were devoted to an array of pagan gods and practices.
St. Paul had a premonition that his days of freedom would soon be coming to an end. So, on the homestretch of his third journey, he made the effort to stop close enough to the city of Ephesus that the elders of the church could come out to meet him. And Paul made a farewell speech to them, in which he looked back on his ministry with them and forward to their future without him.
In Acts 20:32, Paul leaves them with this benediction: “And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”
So, what does it mean to commend someone to God? Commend is a word with a couple of meanings. He wasn’t saying he’d put in a good word for them or deliver a good report about them to the Lord. That’s not a pastor’s job – though many people kind of think it is. What it means to commend people to God is to entrust them to His grace. The job of a pastor is to introduce people to God through the Good News of Jesus and by the power of faith given by the Holy Spirit. We’re called to nurture that relationship through the gifts of Word and Sacrament; to bring the comfort of God’s love to people in good times and in bad times. And, in the end, to entrust the precious lambs of God’s flock to His tender care.
We do it armed only, as Rev. Walther, the founding father of our Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod said, “with the Word of God and the power of persuasion.” So, as pastors, we preach against sin – specifically, the sin within you – that you may be convicted of your need for forgiveness, and then realize that the answer to your need – the grace by which you are saved – is freely given you in Jesus, the Good Shepherd who knows every one of His sheep by name.
In commending you to God, I trust that God will provide now, as He always does – working faith in your hearts, bringing lost sheep back into the fold, bringing exciting opportunities for new ministries to your door.
And I pray that “your door” always remains “our door,” in the hope that Laurie and I will be able to remain within the family of this congregation – transitioning from the chancel to the pews – because that was a place we were very comfortable being in as we raised our young children in places like Plainfield, NJ, Syracuse, NY, Easton, PA and Sanborn, NY.
It has been my joy to be an under-shepherd of Christ among you. I pray that soon the Lord will send a new shepherd to lead us in the Way, the Truth and the Life that is Jesus Christ, crucified, died and risen for our salvation. Now, please welcome us to sit beside you – to rejoice at your family’s weddings and baptisms, to sit by you in times of trouble, and to grieve at your family’s funerals – like a loving family does.
St. Paul had another thing to say to his Ephesian brothers and sisters. And so I quote his benediction to you:
“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” [Eph 3:20-21]
In Christ and loving you,
Pastor Alan Bauch