Firsts and Lasts

This Sunday is All Saints Sunday.  It is a time to read the names of those who, during the last year, have entered the Church Triumphant.  Our time of reading is always bittersweet.  On one hand we rejoice with those who have "mounted on wings like eagles, run and not grow weary and walk and not get faint (Isaiah 40:31)," for they have their "hope in the Lord."  On the other hand, they are not with us to laugh, cry, and do life.  Added to this tone, we will celebrate Holy Communion as a United Methodist congregation for the last time as Abbeville United Methodist Church.  This brings a natural feeling of loss and a little anxiety for the future.  But, as Isaiah proclaims in Isaiah 40, God has this, and all the transitions of life, fully in His hand and in His mighty grasp.

I remember the first Sunday I preached here in Abbeville.  It was full of those moments preachers never forget.  That Sunday was communion Sunday and I will admit not fully having my feet on solid ground.  Someone (I think Lucky Armstrong) snuck out during the message and filled the communion cups that were not on the table of remembrance (thanks Lucky!).  When I walked into the Sanctuary before the 2nd service, I heard knocking on the front door of the Sanctuary.  I thought the door was locked, but Abbeville had experienced a lot of rain, and the wood on the Sanctuary door had expanded to the point it was stuck.  I used my shoulder and old football experience on the blocking sled to open the door.  Lots of good memories on what was an anxious day for me.  You all made me feel at home, and you loved me in spite of the obvious issues of that first day.  Thank you!!!!!

As I remembered these stories, I thought about how they relate to "Firsts and Lasts."  The names we will read aren't names of perfect people.  But they are names of people who a loving God has welcomed in spite of being "fragile treasure in clay pots (2 Corinthians 4:7)."  They are people who are remembered for their uniqueness, and they are all people God sees with complete honesty and loves them anyway.  God loves us in our imperfection, and that is great news for I am an imperfect child of God.

As we reflect on the death that brought the names before us today, I hope we won't dwell there.  I think God would call us to view this time as a beginning of a journey.  As we begin life in the context of the Global Methodist Church, we are expectant, excited and empowered by the same God we have worshipped over the last 100+ years.  Our congregation (with many changes in name) has persisted and served the "awesome God" that created the heavens and the earth.  Our congregation has moved forward through life, loss, good times and hard times ... a depression ... two world wars ... births, deaths and setbacks ... all under that God who we confess as "maker of heaven and earth."  Our journey with that God begins under one of many "new names."  But, as Isaiah reminds us, "the grass withers and the flowers fail, but the word of the Lord endures forever! (Isaiah 40:8)."

It is so appropriate that on this day we remember all these things in the context of Holy Communion.  The word eucharist means the thanksgiving of remembrance.  As we enter the familiar and holy sacrament, we remember the God that has called and kept us.  We remember that God's goodness and grace have washed over our congregation and all of the names we will read, loving them and with grace that pursued them, reconciling them to God, and sanctifying them by growing them toward the God who is salvation, resurrection and eternal life!  And we give thanks to the God who will send us off to new things.

As we celebrate these firsts and lasts, let's place God first in all we say and do.  The single thing, that is our strong and solid foundation, is Jesus Christ our Lord.  We are His new creation, in water and the word.  From heaven He came and sought Her to be His holy bride.  With His own life He bought her, and for her life He died!  Randy