Some goodbyes feel bigger. - 2 Corinthians 13:14
Some goodbyes feel bigger.
Two weeks ago, Ms. Kara was excited to tell me that her daughter Elena had been assigned to teach in a preschool in Alaska. Kara was excited for Elena; she encouraged her daughter to see this call as an exciting adventure. But at the same time, Kara was worried because Alaska is so very far away. It probably didn’t help when I pointed out that Alaska was actually closer to Russia, Siberia, and the polar ice cap than any other state in the union. With the gentleness and tenderness for which I am well known I told Kara she was crazy. What on earth was there to be worried about! Her daughter was going to Alaska, a land of epic beauty and adventure! I told Kara I would love it if my son got assigned to Alaska. I’d be up there hunting and fishing every chance I got.
That was two weeks ago. Last week I sat in the gymnasium at Wisconsin Lutheran seminary waiting to hear where my sons would be sent. On the drive up, Michelle and I tried to figure out where they might go, but since the Holy Spirit seldom consults us on His plans, we were left guessing. We thought one might stay in Yankee land but were hoping one of them might make it south of the Mason Dixon line. The first to be called was our middle son Aidan. His was receiving, as he described it only a “baby call” since he would only be assigned for one year. Still when we heard “Aidan Lewis, St. Peter Evangelical Lutheran Church Fort Collins CO” it was exciting. Colorado is adventurously far away but not so far away that we can’t easily visit. The next to be called was our oldest son, Jacob. His was not a “baby call”; his was a “big boy” call; a call that would last somewhere between 4 and 40 years. Over the years I have attended my fair share of call services. I have noticed there always seems to be one or two calls that causes the assembling of 2,000 Lutherans to gasp. It never occurred to me that one day on of my sons would be the cause of such a gasp, but when the president announced “Jacob Lewis, Shepherd of the Hills, Anchorage Alaska”, they gasped, Jacob’s jaw dropped, and I stated laughing and crying at the same time. I was excited because Alaska is an adventure, but I was also worried because it is also so very far away. Did you know Alaska is closer to Russia, Siberia, and the polar ice caps than any other state in the union?!? So far Kara and Chris have been gracious enough not to throw my own words back in my face, but more than once in the past week I have found myself chocking on the words “I would love it if my son got assigned to Alaska”.
Now that I know the Holy Spirit’s plan is to send my sons thousands of miles away, I have been thinking a great deal about how to say goodbye. If you know you are going to see a person again in a day or two a simple “see you later” might suffice. But if you are not going to see someone for a considerable amount of time, “see you later” doesn’t feel big enough. A big move deserves a big goodbye; something insightful, memorable, and full of meaning. Something poetic like the old Irish blessing, “May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face” or something big and beautiful like that. With the thoughts of an impending big goodbye lurking in the back of my mind, I sat down at my desk to prepare this Sunday’s sermon. I opened my bible to the scheduled text and, as God would have it, there in 2 Corinthians 13:14, I found the big goodbye I was looking for.
What we call Paul’s 2nd letter to the Corinthians is actually Paul’s 3rd letter to the Corinthians. In his previous two letters Paul had been addressing some problems and abuses that plagued the Christian congregation in Corinth (turns out the church in Corinth was a bit of a hot mess, spiritually speaking.). But Paul loved the Christians in Corinth. Paul founded the church in Corinth on his first missionary journey and considered himself their spiritual father. Though his letters to them are firm they are also very loving. This second letter is especially warm and affectionate. By the time we get to the end of 2 Corinthians it is clear Paul cares a great deal about these people. So, it comes as no surprise to us that his final words to them are not “see you later.” Paul wants his goodbye to be bigger than that. Thankfully by inspiration of the Holy Spirit Paul gets the big goodbye he was hoping for. Paul says goodbye to the Corinthians by writing, “14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
This is no small “see you later”. This is a big goodbye; big enough to cover any distance of miles or duration of time that might separate God’s people. For in this goodbye, we receive the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
If a goodbye only mentioned “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” that would be big enough all on its own. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is how our sins have been forgiven, and our salvation has been secured. If it were not for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we and our loved ones would be crushed under the burden of guilt and shame; we and they would spend our days in hopeless despair as we anticipated the punishment that awaited us. But because our Lord Jesus Christ already carried our burden to the cross and suffered our punishment, we are neither crushed nor hopeless. Far from it, we are free of sin’s burden and free to live each day in joyful gratitude for the grace that has been shown to us. Even when we struggle with sin around us or sin within us, we still live inside the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we stumble and fall, when we fall short of His glory and fail our fellow man, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ still calls, gathers, and sanctifies us. His grace does not abandon us in our weakness, but continues shaping us into the Christians He has called us to be. And then, when it is all over, when it is finally time for us to say our last goodbye to this world, we will still live in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Only then we will be dressed in robes of His righteousness, seated at His banquet table, and surrounded by our fellow saints. A goodbye that reminds a loved one that they live in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is a big goodbye.
That we and our loved ones live under the grace of Jesus is already a great comfort, but this goodbye grows even bigger by reminding us that we also receive the Father’s love. This “love of God” is agape love. It is the love that is often described as godly love because it is so pure and absolute. God demonstrated His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, He sent His one and only Son to die so that we might live[1]. That is a rather dramatic demonstration of the Father’s love. But it is not the only demonstration of His love. You see, God knows how easily we get distracted by the minutia of life. Anything from car trouble to cancer can cause us to lose sight of the grace in which we live. So, God surrounds us with even more demonstrations of His love. There is of course the gravity that keeps us from being hurled into space, the oxygen that staves off suffocation, and the sun that prevents earth from turning into a lifeless sphere of ice. But every day and all around us there are also simple demonstrations of the Father’s love. Take for example the food on your table, the clothes on your back, the roof over your head. These things might be the result of hard work on your part, but you were able to do that hard work because in His love your Heavenly Father gave you the brains to understand what needed to be done and the body that has the ability to do it. And these are just some of the visible demonstrations of God’s love. There is an entire spiritual realm full of demons that seek to do you harm, but your loving Heavenly Father sends His angels to guard you in all your ways. Demonstrations of the heavenly Father’s love are all around us. The older you get the easier it is to see the love of God working in your life. If some of you young whipper snappers are having trouble seeing the love of God today, don’t worry, some day you will have the advantage of hindsight and you will be able to look back over your life and see the loving hand of God guiding and directing, providing and protecting every step of the way. A goodbye that reminds a loved one that they are recipients of God’s love is a big goodbye.
Living in the grace of Jesus and being a recipient of the Father’s love would be more than enough, but this goodbye grows bigger still by assuring us that we and our loved ones remain in the “fellowship of the Holy Spirit”. Goodbyes, by their very nature, imply separation; someone is going somewhere and someone else is not. But in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit no separation is absolute. First, there is nowhere the child of God can go where the Holy Spirit will not follow, not because He has to but because He wants to. Whether you are a prophet being exiled on an island, or a student heading off to college, a young couple getting married, or an older couple with an empty nest, there is no situation in which the child of God will be placed, no danger they will face, no challenge they will have to overcome that can keep the Holy Spirit from standing beside them. Second, this fellowship with the Holy Spirit is a fellowship that is enjoyed by all of God’s people. We are all in fellowship with the Holy Spirit which means we are all in fellowship with each other. Because of our fellowship with the Holy Spirit wherever there is a body of believers there is community and connection; there are fellow believers to support and encourage the ones we send away and there are fellow believers who come to us needing the support and encouragement we have to offer. Even when Christians are separated by thousands of miles, they are never separated from the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. A goodbye that reminds a loved one that they will remain in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is a big goodbye.
This goodbye, which contains the grace of Jesus, love of the Father, and fellowship of the Spirit, is big enough to cover occasions when Christians are separated by expansive distances and extended periods of time, which means it is also certainly big enough to carry you through this coming week. It is no accident that we end our worship services with a goodbye such as this. In a few minutes we are going to say goodbye to each other. It might only be for a few days and some of us are only separated by a few miles, but still I think our parting is worthy of a big goodbye. This week, no matter where you go, no matter what you do, no matter how alone or isolated you might feel, “14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Amen.
[1] See Romans 5:8