Pastor Phil's Retirement Sunday
Ephesians 3:14-4:6
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I love the church.
I love this church in particular—
its people, its history, its culture, its way of being.
But more broadly, I love the church.
I consider it a blessing beyond measure
that I got to spend 41 years of my adult life
doing work I love,
contributing to a cause I love,
and walking alongside people I love.
How did I come to love the church?
Well, it was in my family DNA.
There were more ministers and missionaries in my family line
than you could shake a stick at.
And sometimes you probably wanted to do exactly that.
Both sides of my family somehow instilled in me the idea
that the church was something worth pouring your life into.
I also saw first-hand
the personal toll that church work took on some of my family.
There are wounds some church workers carry through life.
So I don’t see the church through rose-colored glasses.
The three churches I was privileged to serve as pastor,
have all been profoundly beautiful and flawed human communities.
All three are still thriving today, by God’s grace,
but all have gone through some deep waters.
So today is bittersweet.
I realize for the first time since spring of 1983,
I will NOT be investing
a big chunk of my time and energy every day,
thinking about the daily ups and downs
of a particular congregation and its people.
It’s not that I will care any less
about the local church and its flourishing.
It’s not that I have no more gifts to give the church.
It’s just that the positions and power I’ve held
were never mine to hold onto.
My job was to faithfully steward this power,
so I could hand it over to the next steward.
Church leadership is not a sprint, or a marathon.
It’s a long-distance relay.
The church always needs to be led by those
who can help take it to the next place God is leading,
not keep doing what has already been done.
So I am entirely at peace handing off the baton to the next runner,
believing I’ve made a contribution to my leg of the race.
Or to use a vehicle analogy,
I’m ready to take my hands off the steering wheel.
Because you know, the vehicle we need
to carry the church into the next generation,
may not even be invented yet.
So I wouldn’t have a license to drive it anyway.
I trust the church to find its way down the road, God helping it.
_____________________
So today, for my parting words to you, my beloved church family,
I will not leave you with a summary of my best sermons.
Those are all in the past.
They are archived and searchable.
Instead, I want to offer some words of encouragement and blessing,
for the road ahead,
with maybe a hint of challenge.
What I want you to know, church,
is that you already have everything you need, right here,
to become everything God wants you to be
in this next phase of your life together and life in the world.
You are a blessed and beloved community,
with all the God-given gifts and resources and vision,
to be who God created you to be.
All that’s needed is willingness, receptivity, courage, and faith.
What PVMC needs
is for everyone to stay engaged,
be willing to take the next step,
and to keep showing up, with love, and with hope.
Recently, at an Elders’ meeting,
I was asked to provide the opening devotional
by sharing whatever was on my mind for the church,
as I prepare to step aside.
So, without a lot of long deliberation,
I came up with a list that I’ll share with you now.
_____________________
First, keep showing up.
This is maybe the best thing we can ever do for each other.
To show up. To be present and attentive.
To each other, and to what’s going on around us.
Our culture encourages us to be ambitious,
but not so much just to be present.
Yet, sometimes presence is enough.
It tells others they are not alone.
It reminds us that we belong to others in community.
Some churches are too focused
on numbers and dollars and other things we can use
to measure and count and compare.
Some congregations are focused on public performance,
by what goes on up front during a service.
These are temptations for us as well.
Live-streaming, even with all its benefits,
has the downside of making it seem like
it’s enough to be an observer, an audience member.
In the life of a church, that is never enough.
So, y’all, keep finding a way,
even in our fragmented, polarized,
politicized, and competitive world—
to show up for each other,
to invest in the life of our community,
and to contribute to the lives of members of our community.
With any church, it’s tempting to decide our level of engagement,
by asking ourselves, what is it doing for us?
Actually, a more authentic question is,
what does the community need from us,
that we are withholding by not showing up?
And please, I’m not just talking about Sunday attendance.
That’s part of it. But only a part.
There are many ways we can choose
to show up for each other.
And . . . there are many ways we can choose
to hide ourselves in our own world.
Always lean into the first option.
And, secondly, and closely related,
move toward each other
when things get hard, or complicated, or awkward, or conflicted.
When you realize the easiest and most tempting choice
is to withdraw,
that might just be a sign it’s time to move closer.
To listen more deeply.
To wait in patient, prayerful, consideration.
We may not have any words of wisdom or clarity
to bridge the gap.
But if there is any wisdom to be found anywhere,
to heal what separates us from each other,
it will only be found in the space that we share together.
Withdrawal only makes our differences permanent.
And I’m going to combine 3, 4, 5, and 6:
express joy…pursue justice…proclaim hope…love the world
We don’t need reminders of how broken our world is,
and of the human ugliness that shows its face everywhere,
from our own neighborhoods,
to intractable war zones.
It is so tempting to simply echo the despair that swirls around us,
to amplify the fear and anxiety and hopelessness
that news media and social media love to amplify,
because it sells, it gets more clicks.
The church has an alternate world view,
that needs to be given voice.
God is all about joy.
God is all about justice.
God is all about hope.
And of course, God is love.
Now, over the long history of the church,
we have often made a mess of things in doing mission,
when we tried to give the world
what we thought the world needed, on our terms.
We repent of those collective sins.
And we remain humble.
But now is not the time
to relinquish our calling toward the world.
Now is not the time to silence the good news
with which we have been entrusted.
I repeat, God is about joy, about justice, about hope.
And God is love.
And God, for some reason
always entrusts the word and work of good news
to flawed communities of people like us.
Let’s embrace that.
The world out there has a lot more respect and receptivity
for people of faith, acting on their faith,
when they do so with humility, with joy,
with hope, and with love.
There is no room for colonialism
or protectionism or defensiveness in God’s kingdom.
Let’s turn away from any so-called Christian movement
built on antagonism or enmity toward the world.
Because that movement does not resemble Jesus.
Which brings me to my last word.
Keep Jesus at the center.
There are some movements in the church
that seem to quietly downplay Jesus.
And I get why some are hesitant to put Jesus front and center,
when Jesus has been so colonized, and coopted
by American Christians,
so misunderstood and abused,
and frankly, made to be grotesque.
Jesus has been twisted for generations to support slavery,
and war,
and white supremacy,
and rank materialism,
and now far-right Christian Nationalism.
But let’s not allow that to deter us
from proclaiming the Good News of a Gospel
where Jesus remains at the center of our lives and witness,
and is more than an exemplary human being,
but one who, in union with God,
sits enthroned, with love and power,
in a kingdom of peace and hope and joy and justice,
a kingdom that is both here and not yet fulfilled.
_____________________
In these upcoming several years of transition at Park View,
you won’t be seeing much of me.
But please know, without a doubt,
that I am with you in love and in spirit,
that I am praying for you all,
that I am cheering on your team of pastors and other leaders,
and I truly believe that the best years in the life of Park View
are still to come.
The challenges are great. But God is greater.
The uncertainties are real. But God’s future is sure.
Keep showing up, with love and with hope,
and in the words of apostle Paul,
“walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
bearing with one another in love,
making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace . . .
To God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
I love you all.
—Phil Kniss, August 25, 2024
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