Farewell Sunday Reflections
Spirit of Peace UCC Rev. Marcia Sietstra
Text: Philippians 4:4-9
Thank you all
for being here, and being part of this special day. The past several months there have been many
times when I looked out at your faces and thought to myself, “Soon I will be
leaving all these dear people…I must be crazy!
Why would I leave when I have exactly the kind of congregation I always
wanted!” But at other moments, I look
across this sanctuary and think, “This will be hard but it is time to leave.” I crave
new learning, and the only way to make space for it in my life is to let this
go. It’s a little like the trees having
to let go of autumn leaves to make room for new buds on their branches in the
future. For weeks now, I have been
practicing letting go.
I have been
jotting down notes about people to thank all week, but in the end I decided to
print them in the bulletin rather than say them to you. That’s because I knew I would not get very
far in my thank you’s without
tears. So please read my thank you’s and know that I am deeply
grateful to you for so many reasons.
Last week I was invited to give a “Last Lecture” during the education hour, in
the tradition of university professors who are invited to give a last lecture
on anything they choose when they leave.
Lucky for you, I used that 30-minute lecture to highlight the main
points of my theology, thus leaving far less to cover in today’s sermon! Today, I
simply want to remind you of what you have accomplished, and share some
thoughts about the future!
In the past
10 ˝ years since I arrived, first as your Interim Pastor in 1998, and then as
your long-term, called pastor in 1999, this congregation has changed a lot! Here’s a little review of some of the changes
from the Crestwood of 1998 to the Spirit of Peace of 2008.
Members no
longer take turns hauling home bags of garbage!
We no longer keep all the member records on lined paper in a 40-year-old
record called the Pilgrim’s Journal. Volunteers
no longer manage the finances and pay the bills. We no longer prepare meals in what was
described to me as a 3-butt kitchen! (They
demonstrated for me: the kitchen actually was 3-people wide, wall-to-wall.) We no longer eat in shifts for meals, and the
choir no longer robes and disrobes in the narthex. Best of all, we no longer have bats in the
belfry, or in the women’s restroom!
Some things
have stayed the same: You are still the
friendliest, most sincerely welcoming congregation I have ever known. It’s hard to stay a stranger here for long. We are still known for our hospitality, in
spite of how much we’ve grown. I was
curious, so I checked: we’ve taken in nearly 300 new members in the past 10 ˝
years. The exact count, I believe,
including last week’s class, is 279. Our
hospitality reflects our slogan: wherever
you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.
Another thing
that stayed the same: you are still the
most independent-thinking, open-minded congregation I have ever known. You are comfortable with diverse ideas, and
receptive to new thinking. The best part
of my job has been teaching, through sermons and adult forum and the
Progressive Theology Study Group. To
share a quest for new knowledge with thoughtful people who are open to a “still
speaking God” has been a privilege and delight.
As a congregation and pastor, we were well-matched!
You’ve also
changed in very significant ways over
the years. Remember when the conference
came to us and asked us to consider closing our doors and reinventing ourselves
as a new church? You could have said “Why would we do all that extra work? We’re quite happy the way things are.” Instead, you asked each other, “What is the
highest good here—not just for us but
for others, including our children’s
children?” I didn’t tell you at the time
how challenging it was to lead a congregation full of leaders with strong ideas,
to come to a group consensus. You did it
well: everyone was heard, no one got to tell anybody else what to do, everyone
had an equal voice in the decision. Start to finish, it took seven years to complete
the phases of that project: the
decision-making, the fund-raising, the design and construction, but we stuck with
it, and now we have this fine building.
But you
didn’t just build a building. You
reinvented yourselves. When I arrived, you
were a tightly-knit, little church, full of wonderful people doing good things,
but I felt like you were the best kept
secret in
And what does your future hold? I see an amazing future ahead for you.
Last Sunday,
after my lecture, someone asked me a question.
He said something like, “Marcia, I’ve always had a little trouble with
organized religion. Would you tell me…
why do you think the church is important?”
I told him the
church is important for 3 reasons: First, it’s where we come to connect with
God. Some of us do it through prayer or
ritual, others through music or a sermon, and some people simply find here a
feeling they can’t explain—but at its best, worship helps us connect with that
mystery we call God.
Second,
church gives people a chance to be smarter together than they would be alone. Here we explore the big questions of life together, questions like How do you know there is a God? What’s God like? What are we here on earth for?
Many
minds learning together discover better answers than one mind thinking by
itself.
Third, the church
gives us a place to do service in an organized way. The church gives us opportunities to reach
out to the world to alleviate suffering and to advocate for justice. We often have a far greater impact together than
individually.
That’s how I
answered his question about what good is the
church? But later, I thought of one
more very important reason the church is important: The
church gives us an alternative view of reality, one that inspires hope and
courage.
It is so easy
to get discouraged in life …by personal problems, by the state of the world, by
economic worries, worries about the sustainability of the planet, and more. It is an insecure time for our country right
now. It has been this way before and it
will be this way again. But when we constantly
bump up against all that is wrong with the world, and we are tempted to be
discouraged, the church offers us an
alternative view.
At church, we
see folks trying their darnedest to make the world a better place. Here
we recognize others who share our values, the values Jesus taught: to help those
who need a hand, and to work for justice and peace. Here we see the generosity of people who get
by with less so others might have enough.
Here we see ordinary people practice forgiveness and grace even when
it’s hard.
The church’s
alternative view of reality encourages us not to give in to fear, or selfishness,
or violence, but to dare to believe that another world is possible—a world in
which people try to live as they think a God of infinite goodness would have us
live. And trusting in that God of
infinite goodness, we find courage and reason to hope.
I am confident,
like Paul was when he said goodbye to the Philippians church—confident that you
will inspire great hope and courage in the lives of each other and countless others
who have yet to find Spirit of Peace.
Because of you, the world will be brighter and better.
I love you, I
have great confidence in you, and I wish you God’s blessing. Amen.