A turtle and a snail were involved in a head on collision. The police were called. One of the police asked the turtle, “What happened?” Replied the turtle, “I don’t know. It all happened so fast.”  

That is the way that I feel about 26 years and 9 months since I arrived here. Where did all those years go? 

I often said that I would never retire. I quipped that retirement is not a word found in the Bible. I did find a passage in the books of acts where it says, “David served God and then he died.”  

Retirement is a fairly unnatural act. Most people worked their entire lives until they were disabled or died. Compare that with the pictures of happy, graying couples doing Tai Chi on the beach in the morning sun. Retirement is a very new idea. It actually began in German in 1889. The leader of Germany wanted to provide some help to aging seniors, so they decided that the government would provide financial help for anyone over the age of 65. However, the average age to live at that time was 47. 

I suppose that I am not really retiring. What I am doing is stepping away from the appointive process. I am stepping into something of less responsibility with more focused forms of ministry. 

There is a long standing tradition among retiring clergy. The tradition says that the last sermon you preach in the church is the same as the first sermon you preached. Harry Peelor did that in 1975. Bill Grove did it in 1980. I read my first sermon from October 5, 1980 this week. Trust me; you don’t want to hear that sermon. I am going to break with tradition! 

A friend tells of the bulletin board in front of his large church in San Diego on his first Sunday there. His sermon title was “Who Cares.” The bulletin board said, “Welcome Dr. Mark Trotter.” Sermon: “Who Cares?” He did not preach that sermon on his final Sunday. He was afraid of what the outside board might say. “Farewell, Dr. Trotter. We still don’t care!” 

So today is Part 4 of “The Final Four.” Some words of wisdom from me through Paul. Someone once said, “Age does not always bring wisdom. Sometimes age comes alone.” But let me try to bring some final wisdom here. 

Paul is absolutely jubilant. He is unapologetically effusive. He exclaims at least two times in this letter. “Rejoice in the Lord.” Understand now that Paul is in Prison. Certainly that is an unlikely place for rejoicing. Yet he is insistent. “Finally, brothers and sisters…rejoice in the Lord. Again I say rejoice.” 

My final word to you this day is just that. “Rejoice in the Lord.” The literal meaning of the phrase is “Rejoice in union with the Lord.” The question is why? Let me use some other words of Paul to characterize that rejoicing.  

GOD IS WORKING FOR GOOD 

First of all rejoice that God is working for good. Paul says that God works for good with those who love the Lord. God is always working for good with those who love Him. 

I believe that God is at work in this transition. Transitions are hard, I know that. I have my own moments with this one. I go to bed and fall asleep easily at night, but I wake up at 4 am and I ask myself the questions, “What am I doing? Am I ready? Do I really want to do this?” 

Some of you have or have had doubts about the appointment process. Some of you are skeptical. It is a human process, yes. It is a United Methodist process, yes. But I want to tell you my deepest belief, my deepest conviction this morning. God is working for good here. 

FREEDOM FROM ANXIETY 

Second, rejoice in your freedom from anxiety. Paul makes this clear in his Philippians letter. “Have no anxiety about anything.” 

Someone has said that for a Christian, anxiety is atheistic. That may be a bit harsh, but it is descriptive. Because to be anxious means we don’t quite trust. In union with God there is no reason for anxiety. 

This decision and this church have been bathed in prayer for months from many directions.  

A woman went to a rummage sale and found a plaque that said, “Prayer changes things.” She brought it home and hung it above the fireplace in their home. The next day when she came home the plaque was missing. She said to her husband, “What happen to that plaque that I hung up on the fireplace?” He said, “I took it down.” “Why?” she replied, “Don’t you believe in prayer?” “Of course I believe in prayer”, he said. “I just don’t like change.” 

I saw a jar at a tip counter in the local diner. On the jar was pasted this note, “If you fear change, leave it here.” 

Let there be no fear and anxiety about change. Let the power of this church rejoicing overwhelm any anxiety about change. 

NOTHING CAN SEPARATE 

Thirdly, Paul says that nothing can separate us from God’s love. I have lived through many storms with some of you. I have spoken of the constancy of God’s love with you. I have affirmed the words of Paul many times. “Nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God.” 

I received a note from Bishop William Grove this week. It was warm and affirming. I told him I was familiar with his first and last sermon here at Christ Church. The title, “As with Moses, so with you.” It was God’s word to Joshua in the Old Testament after Moses had died. It is still God’s steadfast promise.  Nothing can separate us from God’s love. 

We belong to each other no matter what. Someone has said, “Everyone who belongs to Christ belongs to everyone who belongs to Christ.” 

We may not be tied as pastor and congregation from this day forward. But we are tied to God. A father took his son kite flying on a windy day. The wind was strong, the kite grew smaller and smaller as it tugged at the string. The harder the wind blew, the higher the kite flew. Then all of a sudden with a sickening snap, the string broke. The boy thought the kite would just vanish into the upper atmosphere. Instead the kite turned and fell, crashing to the ground. What kept the kite airborne was the restraint of the string. 

We are never faithful and free until we are restrained by something that pulls us higher and higher. There is no freedom in life until we belong to God. 

Rejoice that nothing can separate us from the love God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

REJOICE IN YOUR HOPE 

Finally, rejoice in your hope. Paul says in his letter to the Romans, “Let your hope keep you joyful.” Paul uses the word hope more than 3 dozen times in his letters. 

I remember seeing a sign outside a church in Wilkinsburg that read this way, “This church lives in the world, hopes in Jesus Christ, and meets in this building.” We are a people who rejoice in hope. 

Six months after the murder of five Amish girls in Eastern Pennsylvania, there was lead editorial in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. I thought the writing was instructive.   

       How do we put such an event into perspective?

       What are we to make of the Amish stubborn

       insistence on believing that everything happens

       for a reason? Finally, how do we account

       for their abiding hope? 

This church is a place of balanced, abiding hope. I have preached in a lot of churches over these years. A few of them seemed to be very much asleep. Some seemed to be in a congregational coma. A few seem to be on life support. Not this church. 

Here is where Kingdom issues thrive. Here is where congregational care and world outreach stand tall. Here is where both progressive thinking and God’s possibility thinking flourish. Here is where we have moved from major victory to major celebration over and over again. 

Do you remember the first Sunday of this new Pipe Organ in 1987? The opening voluntaries were played on the piano. The choir sang the call to worship. Then the organ burst into worship music for the first time. What a thrill it was.  

Do you remember the 50^th anniversary day in 1999 when we raised almost 1 million dollars to pay off the remaining debt on this church? Do you remember the high energy and high risk trip by 100 youth and adults to Jamaica a few years ago? Do you remember the unexpected joy of having full time chef with our Round Table Ministry? And a Parish Nurse? Do you remember the unexpected adventure of a contemporary service on “Sunday Night”  that began 11 years ago?  

Crowns and thrones may perish. Kingdoms rise

and wane; but the church of Jesus constant will

remain.               

(UMH #575, v.4) 

I am grateful for this church. I saw a sign somewhere that said, “It is good to be a church with a successful past, but it is far better to become a church with an unlimited future.” 

J. Wallace Hamilton put another way:           

Where there is no faith in the future, there is no

power in the present. 

This is a church with depth, scope and potential. This is a church with an unlimited future. “Let your hope keep you joyful.” 

Remember once again the plaque that appears on a church in a town in England from the 17^th century. It may be my favorite church sign of all times: 

“In the year 1653 when all things through the land were either demolished or profaned, Sir Robert Shirley built this church. Whose singular praise it was to the best things in the worst of times and to have hoped them in the most calamitous of times.”

This is a place of great hope, even in the most difficult times. Let your hope keep you joyful. Paul says, "Hope does not disappoint us."

Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! 

Thank you Christ Church, for being a place of awe and wonder.

Thank you for being a place of ever more substantive ministry.

Thank you for the challenges you have placed before me.

Thank you for the recent expressions of love and prayer. 

The Psalmist says so appropriately, “The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.” (16:6) They surely have - for Elaine and for me. Thank you and Thanks be to God.