Text: Mark 6:30-44
The
wall of champions back in the Fellowship Hall has more than a few faces on
it. Actually, other ministers see the
wall and note that there have been a lot of ministers here; twenty-six since
1843 with the average length of stay being about six and a half years. One of the faces back there and I have
something in common, the Rev. Mr. David Coutts the very first minister. Is it coincidence…something else that the
Census of 1863 has him living with the Smith family on what is now the farm of
John and Helen Mason where I lived for my first year here? Whether he actually lived there or just happened
to be there for the counting is something we’ll never know. Still, it’s just a little of hinky.
Was
it coincidence…or something else? For
me, of course my delusional mind was/is wondering if God was trying to tell me
something. Since the Reverend Mr. Coutts
and I lived on the same farm and he was the first minister here, would I be the
last? And to add a little more hinky to
the pot, as I wrote this paragraph someone from the Presbyterian Record called
to ask about the picture they received of our annual picnic this year of us
sitting on the steps of John and Helen Mason’s barn which is about as old as
this congregation. I got to tell him all
about David Coutts and myself living on that farm. Coincidence?
Enquiring minds want to know. Am
I to be the last minister here?
Well,
deluded optimist that I am I didn’t want to go with that delusion because I
rather felt, believed, sensed, discerned that the Trinity had better things in
store for us. So, I chose rather to go
with another possible delusional meaning to the coincidence. Maybe it meant I was to be the first minister
in something new here at Claude. After
all, the congregation that I came to nine and a half years ago was for the most
part only fifteen or so years old. There
were only three or four people attending that had any association with this
church for any longer than that. So, I
had a relatively new congregation to serve as opposed to one that was for
decades set in its ways and so we did a lot and I mean a lot of new things.
In
my first six years here something really new and really refreshing seemed to be
coming about. We were one of those small
churches that were doing great things.
We had a great youth ministry going and younger children coming
along. The concerts we had included some
of the biggest names in Canadian folk music outside of the Maritimes and even
had the CBC taking note of this little church on Highway 10 just north of Brampton. The monthly
fiddle jam had people coming from the bowels of Toronto and from points further than Schomberg to
play. We even got the Jammers to do a
benefit concert for Caledon Community Services for whom this church became the
west end location for Jobs Caledon.
Twice a year we provided the Sunday dinner at Evangel Hall and were the
highlight providers if I must say. We
gave the disadvantaged in Toronto
a real meal and live music to boot. We
got Arno up on a reserve planting potatoes. We carolled in Inglewood and along with the Forget-Me-Nots’ we did a CBC
Dickens’ Christmas Carol. I played
fiddle and banjo for a few of the nursing homes in the area and with a couple
of friends have freely provided music for the Inglewood Farmer's Market helping
to make that market more of a community gathering than just a market
place. We made our mark in doing things
that foster community in an area that really needs community.
Inside
the house, we've done Christian Education and Worship very well. The Gospel of the lordship of Jesus Christ
and his defeat of sin and death which has resulted in the Trinity's reconciling
us to himself by grace through faith (not by faith through grace) and making us
to be and to know we are his beloved children who graciously have God the
Father's steadfast love and faithfulness given to us just as he gives it to God
the Son, Jesus because we are united to him and together in him by the Holy
Spirit. The image of God, the loving
communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has been renewed in us and is
visible. As a minister, a teaching elder
I've done what I was called to do in holding before you in truth the vision of
who God the Trinity is and what he has done for his entire Creation in, through,
and as Jesus the Christ. Overall, you
folks have been quite energetic and creative in your faithful response to the
Trinity and the Gospel.
Let
me wax hinky again concerning the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 which I
think describes this congregation very well.
For the last nine and a half years on at least a weekly basis our Lord
has brought this passage before me. This
has been a coincidence or something else that has helped to keep me going. Indeed, Jesus has shown himself to be Lord
and has literally and metaphorically fed the multitudes with the limited
resource of people we have in this wee small congregation and it has been
miraculous. Yet with outreach and with
doing things new comes change and with change comes in-house tension, behind
the scenes tension among the leadership and tension between the leadership and
the people, as well as tension between the people. We have lost a few along the way who simply
chose to stop coming rather than to settle the differences. That hurts.
In a small church when people stop coming it hurts us all emotionally. It challenges our faith. And for ministers, we tend to take all this
quite personally. It is indeed a cross
to bear and the reason why small church ministry can be particularly
brutal. Yet, during those first six
years it seemed that when we lost somebody, the Lord would send somebody new. But, the last two-three years that hasn’t
happened. We have become financially
strained, people poor, and wanting for additional leadership. I could have stuck with the wall of champions’
law of averages and gone elsewhere at the six and a half year mark, but the word
was always to stay. In a way, I feel
like Moses on Mt. Nebo. We’ve seen the promise land, but I’m not the
one who will see you into it.
So,
was it coincidence…or something else?
Will I be the last minister here at Claude or was I the first in
something new? I stand here concerned because
the delusional question that coincidence or something else raises is actually a
valid one. You have the choice to
continue on or call it a day. It will be
a tough go and there will be those who chose to stop coming. The only thing I can really say to you is
that this congregation belongs to Jesus Christ.
It is his church and no one else’s.
His will has been and always will be done. As Paul said to the Ephesian elders, “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”. And so also, I commend you. You know the Trinity and you know the Gospel
which is able to build you up. The Greek
word for able there, dynamai is the same word from which we get our word
dynamite. Please do not underestimate
the living and dynamic power of the grace of the loving communion of the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit among you, the power that creates this universe
anew and raises the dead. It often is
the case that the moment you think you are dead is the moment in which you
actually begin to live. Elders, as St.
Ignatius said to Bishop Polycarp on his way to Rome to die in the Coliseum, “Have a regard to preserve
unity, than which nothing is better.”
Amen.
