Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our
Father, from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
and from the Holy Spirit. Amen. I've got to say,
I've never had a chance to do this, to share
what I know to be my last message in a church.
On my first call, I was an associate pastor.
I didn't preach that often. And then leaving
Florida, it was in the middle of the pandemic,
so we'd already pre -recorded most of our online
services. So this is unique. And over the past
week, I have spent a lot of time thinking about
what to say, thinking about the pastors that
have been influences in my life and how they
have impacted me. And I think back, I've shared
before that I didn't really start regularly attending
church until I was basically early in high school.
And I started going to a fairly large traditional
style church with an organ and liturgy in the
whole nine yards. They had a pretty sizable pastoral
staff. And it's interesting because each of their
pastors were kind of unique and had a unique
impact and legacy on me. There was Pastor Arp,
who was the head pastor, the lead pastor, the
senior pastor, and he embodied everything about
being a senior pastor. He had that gravitas of
leadership, you know, where you kind of talk
to him when you quaked a little bit. There was
Pastor Rosso, who was the pastor emeritus. He
was eclectic. I don't know that he ever brushed
his hair. He was really cool, very like a genius
guy, right? A Pastor Roberts who was the family
man. He had a bunch of little kids. He was the
academic. He would teach a Bible study and you'd
leave thinking, I need a Bible study on the Bible
study. Like that was the deepest stuff I've ever
heard. There was Pastor Schusky who was the young
guy who he was obsessed with stand -up comedy.
His sermons would always involve some like elaborate
dramatic story that really stuck with you. Then
there were vicars. They were pastoral interns
as well. One that I remember in particular. His
name was Vicker Tige Culberson. He actually taught
my confirmation classes. He stands out because,
as I said, traditional church, typically, not
typically, always, they all wore clerical colors.
So, you know, the black shirt, white tab, right?
I mean, no matter what time of day you saw them,
that's what they're wearing. except my family
one Sunday went to Chili's right by the church,
and we're sitting there, and who walks by our
table but Vicar Tige Culberson, and he's wearing
the loudest, most garish tie -dye t -shirt you've
ever, he looked like a roadie for the Grateful
Dead, and I was like, oh, I like that, okay,
okay. And then lastly was Vicar Scott Abel, who
became Pastor Scott Abel, was actually... called
to that church for a period of time to do a church
plant. And he really helped to form. He actually
ended up presiding over my wedding as well. So
I look back at all these pastors and vicars and
pastoral figures, and I realize how each of them
impacted me and built me. And it wasn't any one
of them. It wasn't their personality or anything.
It was them together. And I realized the significance
of the pastoral office. and how it's not about
the person who stands here, but instead how God
is speaking through that person. So then I got
to thinking, okay, what's my legacy? You know,
what is the one little sentence quip that somebody
will say about me as they're reflecting back?
And as I was looking in our readings today, I
realized there was an epiphany, if you will,
and I realized kind of at least what I have been
going for, and I'll share that in just a minute.
But first, let's go to God and pray. Lord God,
have me, Father. Lord, thank you for today, for
bringing us together here now. Lord, I thank
you for this church, for the people here in this
room that were able to worship together for what
they have meant to me and my life. Lord, I thank
you for the chance to share this message. It
is your message. I pray that every single week
move me out of the way. It's not about me. Lord,
but it is about you. And I submit myself to you
and your Holy Spirit, and I pray that we would
all be bold enough and courageous enough to do
that as well. We would submit ourselves to your
Holy Spirit that would speak now. In your name
we pray, amen. To illustrate this epiphany, I'm
gonna share a story. I recall being at a seminary.
and St. Louis, Missouri. It was January, just
coming back from Christmas break. It was that
lovely gray slush that the Midwest gets in the
middle of January, right? And I was all bundled
up. I don't mind the cold. The issue is St. Louis
Seminary, Concordia Seminary is pretty old. The
buildings are pretty old. And frequently when
it was cold outside, boy, they would get that
furnace cranked up. and those radiators would
just be screaming. You'd go in that room. I remember
this particular day, I walked in, I was all bundled
up and like instantly started sweating, you know,
and you get like a headache, you're like, this
is not good. So I actually, for class that day,
sat over by the window and I opened the window.
Everybody thought I was crazy. I opened the window
and kind of laying some cool air in it. And that
was the only way to kind of make it through the
class. It was a systematics class, which means
it was really like the heady deep theology stuff.
And the professor was teaching on the different
natures of Christ, of Jesus, right? We believe
that Jesus is fully God and fully man. And because
of those kind of opposing views, fully God and
fully man coexisting, there have been a number
of heresies that have popped up as a pendulum
swings one way or the other. He was talking about
the Eutychian heresy. which is the idea that
Jesus is fully God and fully man and those things
become so combined that they essentially make
a third new nature, right? It's almost like if
you took Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper and mixed
them together, right? You're gonna make a new
thing. You can't be like, you know, I taste notes
of Dr. Pepper. Now it's just gross, right? It's
no longer Dr. Pepper or Mountain Dew. It's something
combined. And that's the Eutychian heresy. And
then he talked about the Nestorian heresy, which
is the idea that he is fully God and fully man
and the two don't intermingle at all, they just
kind of coexist. Imagine that you took the woods
from two different trees and you just kind of
glued them together, like you had redwood and
you had pine and you glued them together and
those two things are both there, but they're
totally separate, right? And he's teaching this
stuff. I'm doing my best to stay awake and pay
attention and all this. As one with ADHD tends
to do, I started looking out the window. And
as I'm looking out there, and he's teaching on
the Uticans and the Nestorians and all of this,
I see this young mother walking by in the snow,
in the slush, really. And she probably was one
of the wives of one of my classmates. I didn't
know her though. She had three kids with her.
One, she was pushing the stroller, kind of struggling
along through this slush. She had another kid
that was just... just bawling, just crying, walking
along, holding onto her jacket, kind of tugging.
And then the third one was like 15 feet ahead
and like bounding along, trying to make snowballs.
And you could just tell she was at her wit's
end. Mothers, you've never been there, right?
That's no completely foreign to you in terms
of concept. But as I'm watching her and I'm hearing
this class, I'm thinking, this doesn't help her.
Like, this is good to know. This topic is, okay,
sure, this is interesting, but it's not gonna
help her deal with her day. It doesn't matter
to her. We're so caught up in the weeds and these
details. And so from that point on, I told myself
that no matter what I taught on, no matter what
I preached, I would make it as simple as possible.
It needs to be approachable. It needs to be relatable.
It needs to be able to hit people where they
are, right? And as I was looking at our readings,
that's what really came out, that this is what
I have been striving for my entire career. See,
in our Romans reading, which we heard just a
moment ago. Paul, the apostle Paul, who is the
guy who wrote the letters that serves as the
foundation for all of these minute little theological
differences, right? Like as a seminarian, I had
to sit there and look at Paul writings and dissect
and parse and figure out what he was trying to
say because it's so complex. And yet, in our
reading today, We see Paul, who has a background
as this really religious, educated person, this
Israelite who is so proud of his knowledge, we
see him say, all of the commandments boil down
to love your neighbor as yourself. The Ten Commandments,
the 613 Mitzvot commandments that he probably
held to, all these different rules that the scribes
had built up. He says it all boils down to love.
Jesus said the same thing. That's such a simple
message. In our gospel reading, Matthew 18, that
actually isn't the entire assigned reading. I
cut it down for brevity, because the opening,
I wanna share though, the beginning of Matthew
18, we see Jesus, right? They had just had this
big discussion about taxes and who gets what
tax and how do they get and all that stuff. And
it says that the disciples asked Jesus, who is
the greatest in heaven? Right? They're getting
into the week. They're going, okay, who's the
greatest? Who's the most important here? And
they're probably expecting, maybe they're expecting
an answer like the St. Hedron. These are the
respected religious leaders. These are the guys
that are in charge that society says they're
important. Maybe because they're the disciples,
they're hoping that Jesus says one of them, right?
Because that's how the disciples are, right?
Maybe that's what they're hoping for. Instead,
what Jesus does is he reaches into the crowd
and pulls out a child. And he said, these. These
are the greatest in heaven. Now you could interpret
that as he's talking about the next generation,
the continuation of the church. And there's probably
something to that, you know, recognizing that
by pouring into the young ones that the church
has sustained the belief. But then he goes on
to say, if you don't have faith like a child,
you will not be able to enter heaven. And like
that's a bold statement. We heard that during
the baptism. That's something that would have
caught their attention. What does he mean by
that? Well, I think it means... Just simple faith,
right? The simple faith of a child. I want to
make something clear though. When I say simple
faith, I don't mean stupid faith, right? Because
if you've ever been like around a five -year
-old or so, you know that the worst question
that they can ask is three letters, why? Yeah,
some of you know what I'm talking about. Mom,
why is there wind? Ah, because the, and then
that, I don't know, ask your dad, right? Like
that's, mom, why do magnets work, right? If anybody
can tell me how magnets work, that would be...
I'm 37 years old with a master's degree. I genuinely
don't know how magnets work. It's a mystery to
me. I think that it's God at work. But they ask
these questions. Why? Because kids are curious,
right? So the faith isn't just based on being
blindly accepting. There's still some curiosity.
There's still room for questions and even doubts.
No, the simple faith of a child is saying, you
know, I don't really understand it. but I trust
that it's true. I don't really understand why
the sky is blue, but I trust that it's true.
I don't really understand why wind is the way
that it is, but I trust that it's true. We see
this when Jesus appears to Thomas, right? Thomas
who said, until I see the nail marks, I won't
believe. And so he has evidence, he has scientific
proof of the crucifixion, of the resurrection.
And Jesus says, blessed are you because you believe
and have seen, but even more blessed are those
who have not seen and yet still believe. It's
a very simple faith. It is trust. I also want
to make it clear, simple doesn't mean easy. Because
to have that level of faith, to trust in something
that you don't believe is not easy. To say, God,
I know that you are calling me to do this thing
and now I'm going to go and do it is not easy.
God, I see that you are putting me into this
situation to have this conversation, to share
my faith with this person. I see that you are
putting me in this spot. To have that faith is
not easy. And yet, It can be so simple. See,
so often we get into the minutia to try and find
a loophole, to try and find an excuse, to try
and find a reason that, well, I don't need to
do that. Somebody else will take care of it.
Is that really what God said? Oh, that's the
line of Satan in Genesis chapter 3, right? Is
that really what God said when you start to parse
these things out? But instead, we find that we
have simplicity. So what is it to have simple
faith in this simple God? It's trusting that
God is with us. It's trusting that God cares
for us. It's recognizing that our God Himself
knows what it means to be simple. See, in our
actual reading, it talked about how the 99 sheep
and the 1. Right? If a shepherd has a hundred
sheep and one leaves, it says that he leaves
the what? The mountains to go and pursue that
one sheep. That seems okay, leaves the mountains.
This is Matthew 18. Matthew 17 is the transfiguration.
Matthew 17 is when Jesus goes up a mountain and
reveals himself in all glory and is in this moment
where he is free of the bonds of this world.
The mountaintop represents God's paradise. The
mountaintop represents being in the divine space.
And yet, it says that He will leave that mountaintop
to pursue the One. We have a God who is willing
to enter into our simple world and become simple
Himself. Rely upon a young, first -time, newlywed
mother to take care of Him, the God of all grace
and mercy. Because He loves you. even his love
for you is simple. It's not conditional. It's
not okay. Here's the contract. If you uphold
all of these terms, then I will love you. If
you do this and abide by that, and you keep this
mindset, and you dress this way, and you talk
this way, and you act this way, and you vote
this way, and you be this way, then I will love
you. No, his love for you is simple. He loves
you because he loves you. No matter what you
have done, no matter what you have been, no matter
what is part of your story, God loves you. Let
that be part of your story. See, we have a God
who knows simple. Yes, there's opportunity and
space for curiosity and to learn more and to
experience more and encounter more. But at the
end of the day, what saves us is our faith, not
our knowledge. not how good we are in Bible study,
not how good of a prayer we are, or how good
of a pastor we are, or how bad of a pastor we
are, or anything like that. What saves us is
our faith and our faith alone. I have been blessed
by that simplicity in my life to be able to recognize
the sacraments that God uses the simple. God
uses simple bread and wine to do something amazing.
God uses just ordinary, simple water to do something
incredible. God uses simple people, simple conditions,
simple stories. You don't need to be an ancestor
of this or derived from that or whatever. God
can use you. My friends, my brothers and sisters
in Christ, you, this church, has been such a
tremendous blessing. to me and my family. And
I know that you will be an incredible blessing
to so many others in this community. You may
look at yourself and say, I don't know, we're
not the big fancy church, we're not Second Baptist,
we're not Joel Osteen's church, we're not all
these things. God blesses through you. You have
blessed me. And I know that God will continue
to work in you. There are incredible, exciting,
momentous things happening in this place. Listen
for God. Trust in His simple faith. It may not
always make sense. It may be frustrating at times,
but we simply believe. May you, the individual,
know that you are loved. so much. It's not conditional,
it's not contractual, it is God's simple love
because He knows you and you are His beloved
child. My prayer is that we can cling on to that
simplicity, that we can let that faith drive
us, that we can trust in our God as we take bold
steps forward for the church. God loves you.
He is with you no matter what. Amen.