PJ’s final Candlelight Service Sermon at BSU LCM 12/10/2014 --Last time to reminisce about students, retreats, weddings, --First group of students I worked with in the fall of 2000 are now in their early 30’s. Many are married with kids. Many professions. --Times with students over the years: grilling on top of the garage, kite stuck in the tree in Bangsberg parking lot, all the punch holes that got poured into my air vents for April Fools Day, sharing hundreds of hilarious jokes and puns over the years and getting many thousands of hands raised as a result, nights out after worship to Perkins and getting my i-phone back with a hundred or more photos on it, going on retreats to SD, ND, and LutherCrest and getting lost as well as having people drive too fast for me to keep up with them in my car, getting to know THREE BSU Presidents in my 14+ years here, the RPMs that did the indoor Olympic events at the LCC which included sliding down the stairs on a mattress while holding a tray of glasses upright w/o spilling any water in them, watching students mature from being shy insecure freshmen to confident seniors, walking with these students as they examined their spirituality and ways they wanted to grow in their faith now that they were in college, all the Listening Posts at BSU and NTC where I got to visit with administration and faculty and staff and students who walked by in front of my table (Heidi and Mike story), --I have said “goodbye” to so many students over the years whom I have come to love and value. And said “goodbye” to people on campus who have retired or left. And said “goodbye” to several people who had Mary’s job as my boss before she did. And to lots of colleagues and other LCM pastors around the area who are still close friends of mine who have now moved on. Now it’s time for us to experience this. --Change = grief and sadness but also excitement and energy. I have my moments of grief when I look at you folks and my other friends and realize I won’t be here this spring. But I am also really at peace with retiring six months earlier than I’d planned. I was going to leave anyway this summer so when you came back this fall I would be gone; I’m just leaving now. --This service is usually a basic Christmas Eve candlelight service with me preaching about the shepherds and the wise men and the baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph. Pastors love preaching about the baby Jesus at Christmas and people love hearing the familiar stories of his birth. --Which brings me to the awesome dinner prayer said by Ricky Bobby in “Talladega Nights”. How many of you know what I’m talking about? He says grace to an 8lb 6 oz baby Jesus in a golden fleece diaper and he clearly says he prefers the baby Jesus to the teenage Jesus or the bearded Jesus. Even though his wife reminds him that “Jesus grew up”, Ricky still insists on praying to the baby Jesus. --the first member of Jesus’ family to pass away was his stepfather Joseph. We never hear anything more of Joseph after the story of Jesus at age 12 coming to the Temple in Jerusalem. Joseph died and the family had to go on w/o him, but they continued with the presence of Jesus. --I may not be quite as old as Joseph, but it’s time for me to leave too, and you students are a community that will absolutely go on without me, but with the continued presence of Jesus. It has been a privilege for me to serve this community and you folks as Lutheran Campus Pastor for 14 years.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 22:34:48 +0000
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