The Rev. Dr. Roger Douglas
St. Margaret's Episcopal Church & School
"The words of my mouth, the
meditation of our hearts, be only acceptable in my sight Oh Lord our strength and our Redeemer"
In speaking the first words a little child learns are "hi and bye, bye." And it’s good that we begin right at the start. Learning to cope with those experiences is the most basic task that we can undertake. From earliest times to the end of life, we are constantly faced with the challenge of saying "hello" to the new and "goodbye" to the old. A life story is one of the unending processes of letting go to the already experience and taking hold of the not-yet experienced. One of my favorite authors, William Faulkner in one of his novels, puts it this way, "You’ve got to learn to say good bye to some things in order to say "hello" to others." And this is what our Gospel reading is all about. It is taken from the last supper address, Jesus and His disciples are at a local restaurant, in a special room for private parties. In these pleasant surrounding, Jesus drops a bomb. He tells His fellow dinner companions that He will soon be leaving and that He is going to die.
These sections of the Gospel are place together under the general heading of the farewell discourses. Jesus is saying good bye but is also teaching His disciples to say hello. As His life is about to end, but at the same time He is telling them, you’ve got to learn to say hello to the new! It’s not that He will cease being a presence, but in order to grow, and in order to mature, in order to be prepared to say good bye to some things, so that you might be able to say hello to others. And, Jesus is telling them, you’ve got to say good bye to dependence in order to say hello to independence. You’ve got to say good bye to your comfort zone in order to say to say hello to a new phase in your life. You’ve got to let go to some of your old ways, and reach out to the future. Life has a way of doing this to us, doesn’t it? Suddenly, out of the blue, a new situation occurs, someone new steps into your life, a new challenge is faced and if we’re to respond, we’ll have to put aside some of our old ways. I can’t speak for you but this is exactly where I find myself today. I’m feeling a little strange a little anxious, having just moved from Tucson, I’m suddenly faced with meeting new people, entering into new relationships and I know that my life will not be the same as it was several months ago. I know that I’m faced with the new challenge of saying good bye to some things in order to be with you in this very magnificent church of yours. I know I have to say good bye to some old ways, some ways of doing things in order to say hello to this new family of mine.
As a friend said to me the other day before I left Tucson when I told him I would be coming out here, he said well Douglas, you know you’ve flunked retirement!. I had to say good bye to the leisurely life of writing and playing tennis in order to say hello to St. Margaret’s. I’m not going to minimize the difficulty involved in this process - there is risk, there is the possibility of loss, there is the possibility of rejection, there is the possibility in ending up in worship in worse shape, than you were. And all of this is the down-side of saying, hello and good bye and I don’t want to gloss over these dangers. But I also want to understand the promise that Jesus makes to us. The promise of new life, the promise of something greater than we can imagine. The promise of becoming Easter people. The followers of Jesus were about to have their lives turned upside down, He’d just announced His coming into their lives, they were wondering what should we do, how do we cope, whose going to tell us how to act? I don’t believe that Jesus gave them a 3-step prescription to fill; I don’t believe He said, "take one of these pills after each meal." But I do believe He revealed the secret of saying hello and good bye. Love one another ! How uncomplicated, how basic, you don’t have to have a seminary degree to understand it. You just have to do it! I think Jesus was saying "forget all you know about getting along in the world, revise all your hunches about what to do after I am gone. If you think you know how it all turns out, be prepared to be wrong. All you can do is to love and be loved in return."
The world often advises us after saying good bye, to batten down the hatches to run for the hills, to go back to the way life was to protect yourself from any other loss, but Jesus says, "No, if you wish to face an unknown future, love one another, live as Easter people." I wonder if we are like the disciples? This congregation is faced with so many challenges, choosing a new rector is only a small part of the task. We wonder about the future. How can we grow in this interim period? How can we launch out and tackle some of the present problems? How can we hold on to some of the wonderful good of the past and still prepare for a bright new future? Let me suggest a starting point. One of the things that we can make together is very simple. It’s to be thankful. Being thankful for the past for all the moments of ministry with clergy and lay leaders who may or may not be here, being thankful for Fr. Dan’s steady pastoral presence as I have the opportunity to share with him in this ministry. Being thankful for the privilege of working with your wardens and vestry who care so much for this hallowed place, being thankful for those persons who have led us into a deeper relationship with God and touched our lives.
One of my personal heroes is Dag Hammershold, near the end of his career as Secretary General of the United Nations, he wrote in his diary these words, words that I would propose to be our theme for the coming year. Here they are; "For everything that has been, thanks. For everything shall be, yes." That will be my mantra for the coming interim period.
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