Matthew 28:16-20
One of the traditions that Jews, Muslims and Christians share is that all three faith traditions love to tell stories about stories in the Bible. These stories about the stories are written, not so much to explain Scripture but as a way to help explore the richness, depth and multiple layers of meaning found in the Biblical canon. Our Jewish brothers and sisters call these stories midrash, and I want to share one with you now.
“Before there was anything, there was God, a few angels and a huge swirling glob of rocks and water with no place to go. The angels asked God, “Why don’t you clean up this mess?”
So God collected rocks from the huge swirling glob and put them together in clumps and said, “Some of these clumps will be planets, and some will be stars and some of these rocks will just be… rocks.”
Then God collected water from the huge swirling glob and put it together in pools of water and said, “Some of these pools of water will be oceans, and some will be clouds, and some of this water will just be… water.”
Then the angels said, “Well God, it’s neater now, but is it finished? And God answered, “Nope!”
On some of the rocks God placed growing things and creeping things and things only God knows what they are, and when God had done all this, the angels asked, “Is the world finished now?” And God answered, “Nope!”
God then decided to make a man and a woman from some of the water and dust and then said to them: “I’m tired now. Please finish up the world for me… really it’s almost done.” But the man and the woman said: “We can’t finish the world alone! You have the plans and besides, we are too little.”
“You are big enough,” God answered them. “But I’ll agree to this. If you keep trying to finish the world, I will be your partner.”
“What’s a partner?” the man and woman asked and God answered: “A partner is someone you work with on a big thing that neither of you can do alone. If you have a partner, it means that you can never give up, because your partner is depending on you. On the days you think I am not doing enough and on the days I think you are not doing enough, even on those days we are still partners and we must not stop trying to finish the world. That’s the deal, OK?” And the man and woman agreed to the deal.
The next day when the angels asked God again: “Is the world finished yet?” God answered: “I don’t know. Go ask my partners.”1
Go ask my partners. Over and over again in Scripture, we hear so many stories of God inviting you and me to be partners – from the desire for companionship in Adam and Eve, to Noah building the ark and Abraham and Sara setting out at God’s command on an unknown journey with only the promise of great blessing, to a poor widow rescuing Elijah with her last meal, to Rahab, a ‘woman of the night,’ saving the Israelite army, on and on to the story we heard in our morning’s lesson of the disciples being instructed by Jesus to invite followers and share the good news. This amazing partnership with God is at the heart of our identity and the core of our faith! We are invited to work with God ‘on a really big thing that neither of us can do alone.’ And we need to keep the partnership going because ‘the world still isn’t finished yet’ in terms of there being peace and justice for all, in terms of there still being people who go to bed hungry each night or without shelter, or without being treated fairly and with dignity. There is still a great deal of work to do; and it’s not that God is tired. God needs us! God doesn’t want to do it alone. There is truly something unique about divine-human power working together that brings transformation in ways nothing else can.
Now many of you have heard me say that one of this congregation’s greatest strengths is this sense of partnership. Given John McCall’s style of leadership and your commitment to and ownership of the ministry and mission of this church, as well as your openness to the Spirit’s leading, you embody partnership in all the best ways. You take responsibility to make worship, outreach, programming and caring happen; you’ve developed a governance structure to facilitate ministry and you live out your faith in daily life. As they say in Australia where I lived for a year, “Good on ya!”
Yet you and I know only too well, partnership is hard work! It takes time. It can be messy and frustrating to come to consensus with a group of people who have diverse opinions. Partnership usually means lots of extra meetings, and certainly lots of prayer and patience and remembering, “that you can never give up, because your partner is depending on you.”
And, as John reminded us last Sunday, it took a number of years for his partnership with you to develop into the deep treasure it was at the end. It took time and prayer and courage on both your parts to risk and love, and to begin again and again.
So, let me remind and encourage you to remember that as you prepare to call your new senior minister. As you adjust to no longer being partners in ministry with John, as you give thanks for those almost 24 years, the second longest pastorate in this church’s history, as you start letting go; remember that when the new senior minister comes you will need to give yourselves and that person time and space for your relationship to deepen and grow. Don’t expect right away to be at the same point now with this new minister as you were with John after two decades! If you want to have a long and fruitful ministry with a new partner, it can only happen with patience, with an appreciation for that person’s unique gifts, with no comparisons to what was, and with a reluctance to form immediate judgment.
In his always thoughtful and wise way, Phil Whitney expressed this insight at a search committee meeting: “I came on the committee with the fear that we would never find someone as good as John. Reading these profiles, however, makes me realize again how far John has brought us – but now I am excited about the gifts out there. There are incredible people to take us the next step.”
The next senior minister won’t be like John, or like Elsa, or like Dick Nordgren, or Jill Saxby or Steve Carnahan or Nate Guptill; yet the good news is, that because God is part of this partnership, I hope you can trust that the new person will be exactly the right minister for the next part of your journey.
And that’s the last thing I want to remind you of this morning. “That even on those days you think God is not doing enough; God is still your partner and will never give up.” As Jesus reminded the disciples, “And remember, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Our divine partner never gives up on the partnership even when we do, and God’s wisdom, guidance and peace are always greater than our need. So too, is God’s sense of adventure and risk greater than ours, and I believe that is a good thing.
Dear friends, celebrate your partnership with God! Open yourselves to God’s presence as you grieve John’s leaving. Open yourselves to God’s peace whenever you get anxious about who the new minister will be, and when he or she will come. And trust the Spirit’s guidance that the person who does come will be the one to help you draw closer to ‘finishing the world.”
Amen.
1. Does God Have a Big Toe? , Mark Gellman pg. 1