Scripture
Lesson Philippians
3:8-12
8 More than that, I regard everything as loss because of
the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have
suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I
may gain Christ 9 and be found in
him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that
comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. 10 I want to know Christ
and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by
becoming like him in his death, 11 if
somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained this
or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ
Jesus has made me his own.
This
is my next to the last sermon that I will preach before I retire. I was struggling with what to preach this
week. I’ve already written my last
sermon, but that is for next week.
Which
left me wondering for the past few days, what do I preach today?
So
I decided to do something a little different today. I thought I might share my personal
testimony.
I
grew up in the faith. I was baptized as
a child and never knew a time when Christ was not part of my life. Some of my earliest memories involve my Dad
reading Bible stories to me and my sisters.
Going to church was always part of my life.
Which
I guess makes my testimony a bit on the dull side. There was no near death experience for
me. I was not an alcoholic or drug
addict who turned his life around to sobriety by finding Christ. I have always been a Christian.
There
was, however, a time in my life when I became more passionate about my
faith.
My
high school chemistry teacher and I were meeting after school one day – it was
probably related to the time I almost blew up the chemistry lab. Which by the way, was not my
fault. She was the one who gave me the
chemicals and she should have known better.
Besides, the fire was not
that big.
But
I digress.
For
whatever reason, I was meeting with her after school and she handed me a modern
translation of the New Testament and asked me if I wanted it. I did, and took it home and began to read
it.
I
read the Book of Matthew in one sitting.
I was amazed by it. It was the
first time I had a glimpse of the whole Gospel in its entirety. Up until then, I had read a verse here and
there, or a small passage here and there.
But having read the entire book of Matthew was the difference between
looking at a single piece of a jigsaw puzzle, and looking at the whole picture
on the box. Everything Jesus said began
to make sense in a way that it never had before.
And
that was when I became passionate about my faith.
Not
long after that, while I was still in high school, I decided to drop by the church
and see our pastor and let him know that I felt that God was calling me to
enter the ministry. I knew what he would
say. He would look at me and say,
“Praise the Lord, my son.”
And
then he would give me some wonderful advice on what college to go to, what to
major in, and how to prepare myself for the ministry.
So
I arrived at the church, walked into his office and told him I wanted to be a
minister, and waited for him to say, “Praise the Lord, my son.”
Reverend
Keith looked at me and said, “What the hell do you want to do something stupid
like that for?”
It
was not the response I expected. He then
went on to say, “All day long, people come into your office and complain,
complain, complain.” Actually, the word
he used was a bit more profane than “complain.”
I
left his office stunned that day. After
all, ministers weren’t supposed to use language like that. I was totally confused by his response.
Obviously
I ignored the advice of my high school pastor and, in his words, did a stupid
thing by entering the ministry. Why did
I do that?
Because I felt called to.
It
is a spiritual mystery – this business of discerning God’s call. And it is a dangerous thing. I have often heard people say, “God is
telling me to do this, or that.” And as
their pastor I sometimes feel that what they are saying is, “This is what I
want to do, but I’m going to put God’s name on it so you won’t argue with me.”
Years
ago I lived in Miami. John was an elder
in the church and he operated a very successful business. Mary was a church member and was unemployed. She made an appointment to see John and told
him, “God has told me to come here and that you would give me a job.”
John
looked at Mary and said, “That’s strange.
God told me to tell you to go somewhere else and get a job.”
Both
John and Mary told me that story from different perspectives.
It
is hard to discern God’s will, and to separate it from what we want.
Looking
back, I had no great gift for ministry when I was in high school.
In
fact, I hated the thought of speaking in public.
Last
week we had Youth Sunday and I have to tell you the kids did great. They stood up and led worship with great
confidence.
That
was not me at their age. In fact, I was
afraid of speaking in public. And by
speaking in public, I defined that as speaking to any group that included more
than 3 people. I decided I needed to
overcome it, so I auditioned for a school play.
Much to my dismay, I got the lead part.
I
remember very clearly standing on the stage and I had the first lines. The whole school was in the audience, my
parents my friends! My heart was
pounding. My legs felt as weak as
jelly. I knew I was about to die. My heart couldn’t take it, and I would
collapse at any moment. Teachers would
gather around me and try to restart my heart, but they would fail. For generations, high school seniors would
greet incoming high school freshmen by saying, “See that corner of the stage,
that’s where that kid died. Dropped dead
right there.”
I
mean, how embarrassing would that be?
But
I got through the play, and somehow I still felt God was calling me to enter
the ministry and to speak in front of people.
God’s will – it is a
tough thing to discern.
I
finished high school and moved onto college.
Throughout college I felt open to the possibility of being a minister,
but I was not totally committed to the idea – I just open to it. My wife and I met in college and we were
married at about the time we were graduating.
Not knowing what to do with my future, I got a job as a counselor with
the state prison system in South Carolina.
For two years I continued to pray, and sometimes agonize, over whether
to enter the ministry or not.
Moses
heard his call when he saw the burning bush.
He literally heard the voice of God.
My call to ministry was like very much like that.
Except
without the fire.
And
without the bush.
And
without actually hearing the voice of God.
Actually,
my call was nothing like that of Moses.
I
walking in the neighborhood at night, praying the same prayer I had prayed for
years – that God would guide me and give me an answer. And suddenly ---- I just felt sure. I just felt a certainty.
So
I told my pastor, Rev. Beckham, that I felt called to enter the ministry. I knew what he would say, because I had heard
Rev. Keith say it to me when I was in high school. “Why do you want to do something stupid like
that for?” Instead, Rev. Beckham said,
“Praise the Lord. The first step is to
meet with the Session and they happen to be meeting tomorrow night.”
So
the next night I met with the Session.
The voted to sponsor me as a candidate for ministry. When I asked what the second step might be,
one of the elders spoke up and said, “The next step is to meet with a committee
of the Presbytery, and I happen to be a member of that committee and they meet tomorrow night.”
So
the next night I met with the presbytery committee and they voted approval of
me. They asked me when I might go to
seminary and I said that because it was late August, I probably missed the
admission deadline and would wait a year.
One of the members of the presbytery committee said that he happened to
be on the admissions board of the seminary and that they were having their
final meeting tomorrow night. He thought if I got my application in by the
next morning, I might be able to get the last spot.
So
I did, and within two weeks, my wife and I were moving to the seminary.
There
is a Presbyterian saying that we discern God’s will with the help of the
community, and for me the community helped me to feel a certainty about
entering the ministry.
I
loved my time in the seminary. I had
great professors and great classes.
Every Sunday I had the opportunity to preach in a different church. Some of them were huge churches with hundreds
of people in attendance. Most were
small, country churches. Some of you
know my wife is a musician, and she learned early on to carry sheet music with
her for the prelude, postlude and offering.
Many times we would arrive at the church and the person greeting us
would ask me, “Does your wife play the piano,” and I would say she did, and he
would say, “Good, we can having signing this Sunday.” I also learned that when he said “singing,”
that often meant I would be signing a solo in front of a tiny congregation.
One
of the churches I where I was a guest preacher in my last semester of seminary
was in Sumter, South Carolina. Faith
Presbyterian Church. I knew from the
first moment that I walked into that church, God was calling me to be their
pastor.
Unfortunately,
God did not tell that to the pastor search committee. They called someone else.
But
-- That person turned them down. And I
knew that it was because he wasn’t called to that church, I was.
And
then the pastor search committee called someone
else! And again, that person turned
them down.
And
so it went until one day, the Dean of the Seminary called me into his office
and told me that Faith Presbyterian Church was calling Bryant. The dean said, “Look Maynard, I know you have
your heart set on Faith Presbyterian Church but you need to apply
elsewhere. They are inviting Bryant to
be their pastor and he is in trouble in his ministry and he has to take
anything that comes along.”
I
know the Dean of the Seminary thought I was arrogant when I told him that I was
still confident that I was to be the pastor of Faith Presbyterian Church.
A
few days later, Bryant turned down the call to serve Faith Presbyterian. Finally, after scrapping the bottom of the
barrel and coming up empty, the pastor search committee agreed to call me - an
inexperienced seminary graduate -- to be their pastor.
I
have to tell you, it was not an easy pastorate.
There were many times I thought lovingly and fondly of my high school
pastor, Reverend Keith, who, when I told him I wanted to be a minister,
responded by telling me that was a stupid thing to do.
My
Dad thought it was funny that the name of my clerk of session was Joe Hatfield,
and that my church treasurer was named Alice McCoy. Hatfield and McCoys – like the infamous
feuding families from West Virginia and Kentucky in the late 1800s. I didn’t think it was that funny later, when
I found out that even in the church people have feuds and fights. Sometimes, in the church, people fight dirty.
The
first time I was held at gun point was in that first pastorate.
There
have been a few times in my ministry when I have been held at gun point. I’m not sure I ever expected that when I was
ordained, but the first time was there at Faith Presbyterian Church. Bob came to my office one day. I knew he was a bit off and I felt a bit
uneasy with him. I was the only one on
staff of that little church and we were alone in the office, just me and Bob. He told me about how his wife had left
him. He then explained that he had tried
to kill his wife the week before. His
plan was to take her out for dinner and dancing, and he insisted that she where
her best jewelry. He drove from Sumter
to Columbia, a larger city about an hour or so away. But instead of taking her dancing, he drove
to the sleaziest, most crime ridden part of Columbia, opened her car door and
pushed her out of the car and drove off.
He left her there, thinking that surely someone would rob and kill her.
They didn’t. People rushed around her,
took care of her, and drove her to her parent’s house.
I
am listening to this story wondering if Bob is confessing his sin to his
pastor, or if he is looking for advice from his pastor about how he could come
up with a more effective plan on how to kill his wife.
Now
as it happened the church was right next door to a country store where all
sorts of criminal activity took place.
The police would raid the place from time to time and they chose that moment
for their latest raid. Several police
cars rushed to the store next door, and my office window gave us a great view
of the police lights and the armed police officers rushing the building.
Bob
stood up and pulled a gun on me and said, “I can’t believe it, you called the
police on me.”
Knowing
that Bob was more than a little unstable, I didn’t try to reason with him. Instead I said, “I didn’t call the cops. Hey, I bet your wife did. Quick, you go out the back door and I’ll hold
off the cops at the front door.”
Bob
went out the back door, I went out the front door, and I went home for the
day.
That
first church was a challenging church. I
lacked experience. There were always new
challenges. The church never had enough
money – and believe me, no church ever does.
Many times, the church treasurer had to call me and tell me that the
church couldn’t pay my full salary for the month, and I had to settle with what
they could come up with.
Paul,
in his second letter to the Corinthians, reviewed his ministry. He rattled off a list of intense experiences.
Five times I
have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three
times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was
shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on
frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my
own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness,
danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters”… and on and on.
Now
obviously, I’ve not had those experiences.
But every pastor has experienced challenges that have been
difficult and demanding.
We
do funerals, and they are sometimes very difficult. I remember years ago a husband killed his
wife, and then committed suicide. I had
to do both funerals. But they were not the
most difficult. I recall doing the
funeral for a 3 year old child. At the
time, my own son was only 3 years old.
The sight of that tiny casket will stay with me forever.
All
pastors have experiences in which a church suffers a crisis – whether it is a
hurricane devasting the community or a terrible crime in the neighborhood such
as a mass killing.
The
greatest challenge facing the pastor is always Alexander, the Metal
Worker.
When
Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy, he wrote, “Alexander the metal worker did me great
harm; the Lord will pay him back for his deeds. 15 You
also must beware of him, for he strongly opposed our message.”
Every
church has an Alexander the Metal worker.
These are people who stir up trouble in the congregation. They undermine the pastor and slander him or
her with untrue gossip.
The
Apostle Paul had them. So did the
Apostle John. In John’s third letter in
the New Testament, he wrote, “I have written something to the church; but Diotrephes, who
likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. 10 So
if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing in spreading false charges
against us.”
In
another letter in the New Testament, Paul wrote about two particular
contentious people. “their talk will spread like gangrene. Among
them are Hymenaeus and Philetus... They are upsetting the faith of some.”
And
such people do upset the faith of some.
Every
church has these people. Even here at
Grace Covenant. It only takes one, or
two. Such people are the greatest
impairment to the church’s growth. A few
months ago, I visited one of the members of our church who no longer attends,
and she said she was tired of one person always bad mouthing the pastor, the
session and the youth programs.
My
approach has always been to treat such folks with love and respect, and when
necessary to share the struggle with the elders.
But
there is always something in the ministry – just like any walk in life that God
calls each of you to.
What
sustained me in that church and throughout my ministry was the awareness that I
was doing what God called me to do.
And that is what sustains
all Christians no matter what their walk in life may be.
I
have enjoyed being a pastor. In spite of
the warnings that my high school pastor gave me, and in spite of the ever
present Alexander the Metal Workers, I
think it is the best job in the world.
As
pastor, I get to stand in front of couples and pronounce that they are married,
declaring that they are now husband and wife.
Later, when they have difficulties, they come to me and share their most
private struggles. I take their children
and hold them and pour water on their head baptizing them in the name of God
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And
sometimes I have the honor of being with them and holding a person’s had as he
or she takes one last breath. And after death has come, I get to do the funeral
and remind everyone of the hope we have in the resurrection, and to be with
their loved ones as they grieve for days, months, and years.
Being
a pastor is a marvelous life. And I feel blessed that God called me to this
life.
I
often feel I have the most meaningful, worthwhile life. But all of us who follow God’s call – no
matter what that call may be – are blessed to live worthwhile lives. What better life is there than to
live a life in God’s will?
(pause)
I
admitted at the onset of my testimony today that my testimony lacks the drama
of someone who had a vision of Christ during a wartime battle, or who overcame alcoholism,
or who saw a burning bush. But the
common thread in all good testimonies is that we seek God’s call for our lives,
and we live out God’s will.
I
would hope that is your own testimony as well.
Whatever your call has been in life, that you have sought to know and to
do God’s will.
What
better life is there than to live a life in God’s will?
And now unto God the Father,
God the Son,
And God the Holy Spirit be ascribed all might, power, dominion and glory,
today and forever, Amen.
Copyright 2019.
Dr. W. Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights reserved