Tomorrow (August 31, 2016) is my last day as pastor of the Floradale Mennonite Church. I have served the church in Floradale for 25 years. In my time there, I have felt deeply loved and cared for by the congregation. They gave me three sabbaticals, so that I might improve myself as a pastor, and as a person. Over these 25 years, we have walked through some difficult times, and some very celebratory events as well.
How have I changed as a person and a pastor? This is a question I am asking myself, and it is hard to see in what ways I am different. You live with yourself everyday, and so change takes place over time, and since you wake up with yourself every morning, change is difficult to perceive.
I am a pastor, at least until tomorrow. So, one of things that I have had the honour of doing is to study the Bible. And I have gotten paid for it. I read the Bible, and then have time to reflect on it, and by Sunday, I am to preach to a congregation of 350, if they would all come to church on the same day. I love to preach, and have been affirmed in my style and content. I hope I have improved, but I do not know. I do not have any of my sermon notes, nor do I have a manuscript. All the paper goes into the recycling box after my sermon is delivered, and I do not save them on my computer. I have no completed sermons to keep anyway. A sermon is not a sermon until is delivered. You will have to ask people who have heard me preach, to tell me how I have changed.
I know I have a different understanding of the Bible than when I arrived here in Floradale. I did not think of the historical setting of the Bible before I started preaching almost 36 years ago. I now believe that the Bible was written by real people, to real communities about real-life situations. The Bible is about the raw soil of life. I do not think any of the Bible writers intended to write Scripture. Scripture, both Old and New Testaments, was developed over hundreds of years, and it was the communities of faith that decided what was Scripture. From the time, the writers wrote after Jesus’ death (around 33 C.E), it took the Church nearly 400 years to decide which letters, gospels would be in the Bible.
So, therefore, I carry Scripture more lightly. I do not want to use it as weapon against any one, ever. The Bible was written long ago, how can I think that I might know what it means, and how to know how to follow it today? I take it more seriously because I know my understanding is limited. Since I have read the Bible almost all my life, I tend to be boxed in. I “know” what it should mean. The thing that I try to do is actually read the text, and not to try find meaning in it from what I remember of it. I read it, so that I might know how to act.
I have traveled to Turkey and Greece in the last 12 years to explore the ancient world of the Apostle Paul (he is the guy who wrote the first letters to the church). It is on these trips that I discovered the Bible in new ways. The Bible has become more real to me, but I am less dogmatic about it.
One of the other things that I have learned is that all of us struggle with something in our life and faith. None of us are perfect. We all have disappointments, sadness’ and hard times to deal with in our lives. We are all in this life together.
Thank you to the Floradale Mennonite Church. You have been a wonderful place for us explore our faith together. God is not done with me, nor is God done with you. Enjoy the ride of faith. Thank you.
Fred
August 31, 2016