Times Change - Life moves On

The countdown is almost at an end.  My final Sunday as a pastor under appointment by a Bishop is this weekend.  We've already moved into the home we purchased for retirement.

We are remaining in (what a good friend calls) The Peoples Democratic Republic of Bloomington.  The southside...near the Country Club...and a large Middle School...on the edge of an old limestone quarry.  

Whatever comes next is just around the corner for us.

I get a chance to personally welcome the pastor who is appointed to serve at St. Mark's beginning on July 1st.  He will serve with Mary Beth Morgan...with whom I have served these past six years.  He happens to be the husband of Mary Beth Morgan...so that is nice...very nice.  For them and for the church.

Here is some of what I will say on my final day in the pulpit...as Times Change and Life Moves On:

Four Theological statements I believe are true…
-God Creates.
-God Loves.
-God Redeems.
-God Continues.

Four Real-Life statements I believe are true…
-We ought to take into account who others are, and what others do, and think, and believe. 
-Anyone not willing to risk is not really willing to live.
-We either get better or get worse…and its always the right thing to choose getting better.  
-Its important to find ourselves in harmony with God’s activity in the world.
 

I think my four Theological Beliefs

and my four Real-Life Beliefs
help make it possible for me to actually experience
whatever Most Excellent Harmonies God wants to send my way.

In my years here in Bloomington…at St. Mark’s Church…
I have more than once found myself wondering:

So…what-and-where…are those Most Excellent Harmonies that God deals in?
And my answers, today, are these:

I believe…We find God’s Most Excellent Harmonies in the unexpected Places where we least expect to find God.
And in those Places we just may find
the undeniable sense of the Holy that will catch our attention.

I believe…We find God’s Most Excellent Harmonies in the unexpected Times
when we would rather wallow around in the muddle and muck
and rehash old, unresolved issues.
And in those Times we just may find
God offering a new insight, a new direction, a new purpose.
I believe…We find God’s Most Excellent Harmonies in the unexpected
Situations that might seem trivial:
things like a passing comment,
a line from a movie, a face in a photograph, a shared cup of coffee…or bottle of beer.

And, I believe…We find God’s Most Excellent Harmonies even as
Times Change and Life Goes On.
We will find them in the Ministries of Jimmy Moore,
and Mary Beth Morgan,
and in the Congregation of St. Mark’s United Methodist Church.

What Tomorrow Holds...

Today I was invited by a group of teenage girls who are part of a pastry cooking class that has been meeting at St. Mark's over the past three days to join them in a Tea and Pastry Party in Garton Hall.  Real china to eat on and drink from...linen napkins...fancy presentations of all the many pastries they had made...and good conversation about what the girls would do with the rest of the summer.

One of the girls was going to spend time in a Swahili language class; another was going to San Francisco with grandparents to celebrate her 12th birthday; another would involved in softball and cheer-leading camps; another was traveling to take part in an ice-skating camp...what a wonderful lunch-time it was.  The chocolate eclairs were great!

And then there is Tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Thursday. The 11th of June, 2015.

If all goes well, I will wake up about 6:45 or 7:00 am, grab a Grande Non-Fat Latte at the Starbuck's drive-thru, and tee-off with my usual foursome at 8:15; I am scheduled to get daughter to summer school class at 1:00 pm, and then check-in at the office.

That's the plan.  It may or may not work out as listed above. 

Then again, Tomorrow could go completely off script and be filled with unexpected events and happenings.

Tomorrow could turn out like this:

Or, Tomorrow could wind up being like this:

Based on some Yesterdays, Tomorrow could be like this:

Its never easy to know what Tomorrow will hold in store...maybe something like this:

Or maybe...Tomorrow there will be another Tea Party!