Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost September 25-26, 2022
“A Call; A Burden; A Joy” I Timothy 3:1-13
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
A pastor needs to be reminded every so often about what they are supposed to do. It was over 12 years ago that I was reminded about pastoral ministry as I watched a retiring pastor relinquishing, one by one, elements of his calling as a pastor.
This is what happened: Pastor Don Hinchey, the founding pastor of Our Father Lutheran Church in Centennial, was retiring in June of 2010. He had been the pastor at Our Father since 1974, the year that congregation was simply known as the “Arapahoe Road Mission”. 36 years after Pastor Hinchey began, he was ready to retire. The service that afternoon was titled, “Remembrance, Relinquishment and Recommitment.”
It was the relinquishment that really caught my attention. When a pastor is called, they are called to teach the Word of God, to lead Christian worship, to baptize and to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. They preach and counsel and console.
One by one Pastor Hinchey returned to the congregation what was given him by them. As he returned a Bible to them, he said, “I now return to you the Scriptures, which you allowed me to proclaim.” He returned a Catechism and told them, “I have taught our catechumens from its pages, and I now return it to you.” He did the same with the baptismal shell and the vessels that held Holy Communion. Each object he returned was central to what he had done there since 1974.
Don, who has always had a good sense of humor, and was quite involved in children’s messages, had this to say when he was ready to relinquish children’s ministry, “Over the years I have attempted to engage and involve our children in the worship life of the church through weekly children’s messages. These times with our children have tested my creativity and playfulness, and I will miss our times together.” So – what would he leave them? “As I leave, I return to our children a six month’s supply of Jolly Rancher’s.” (He would regularly give them out at the end of the children’s messages.)
But it was what happened at the end of the relinquishment that moved me deeply. Don took off his stole and returned it to the congregation officers. He said, with tears in his eyes, “Finally, I return to you my stole. It has for 41 years symbolized my office as minister of Word and Sacrament; and though God may call upon me to wear such a stole in the future, I can, presently, no longer wear it in service to you.”
A stole, in our Christian tradition, symbolizes that one is ordained. But more than that is tells everyone about these three things – a call, a burden, and a joy. Today, using the words from First Timothy, I want to talk about being a pastor.
Paul, writing to Timothy says this about being a pastor, also called an overseer, “Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task.” (I Timothy 3:1) Noble – another way of saying that is this – he desires a good thing. In this passage you heard all about the requirements of being a pastor – “Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.” (I Timothy 3:2-4) Why all these requirements? Why all these things about what you’re not to do and others that you must exhibit? It is because God cares about His church, His bride. He cares about you and so any pastor must know that they have a call from God to love His people. Later in this same book we hear this admonition, “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” (I Timothy 4:16) The stole is a picture of the God’s desire for good, now and forever, to be with His people.
A stole is also a symbol of a burden, a heavy burden that God places on His shepherds. A pastor has a burden for their people. Early in ministry I got a phone call from one of my members that their daughter, who had two young boys, was killed in a car accident on the interstate near Fort Morgan. We drove the two hours to identify her body, to be with the boys and her husband who were all injured in that fatal crash. That grief that I shared with them was part of that stole. “Carry each other’s burdens” is the call for every Christian and for every pastor. When a sudden tragedy comes, or when a lingering illness finally reaches its end, there is a burden, a weight that a pastor shares. When life falls apart, when marriages that are supposed to last forever don’t, when jobs disappoint, or when faith stumbles, the heart of our God is hurt by each struggle of His people, and so is the heart of the one who had the burden of a stole placed on them.
St. Paul says, “Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?” (II Corinthians 11:28-29) He didn’t stand as on observer of such pain but as a fellow participant.
Quite often folks share some sympathy with their pastor when December comes around and the number of services and sermons that need to be prepared and preached increases dramatically. Then when Lent begins or when Holy Week shows up just a few months later, the pastor should just move their bed into the office because it seems they never leave the church. Church members sometimes have some pity for their pastor during those weeks and days. But when you share your sympathy with me, I will tell you this – I knew when I signed up for this job that I’d have to work overtime around Christmas and Easter. But there was something I didn’t know when I began ministry – I don’t think I knew the emotional burden that I would carry with all the challenges that you face. Like Paul says, “Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?”
But this call to be an overseer, a shepherd, a pastor is much more than a burden, it is a joy. Remember, Paul begins this chapter with the words, “If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a good thing.” When Pastor Hinchey retired some of the highlights of life and ministry were given, “By God’s grace, from 15 families meeting in a rented night club in 1974, Our Father has grown to a congregation of nearly 1400 baptized members.”
It is a joy to see growth. It is a joy to see new members, new visitors, new faces. I think back a few years ago to a joy that was unique to me. It was a Sunday morning and I arrived quite early to get ready for worship. When I unlocked the doors my nose was assaulted with a horrific smell. The place stunk. But then I smiled and I knew it was a great smell.
That evening was our night to house the homeless in our building. It has been very cold that night and so we were sheltering 30-35 folks in our Fellowship Hall. Our guests had not showered for some time and my nose knew it. It was a great smell because I knew that what we were doing for them was what God wanted us to do.
The stole, that I am still privileged to wear, tells me of the joy of what God is doing here, among us. God’s Word works, it is powerful, it changes lives. It takes someone who is lost and dead and makes them alive and well. It takes a person that is heading toward hell and brings them into heaven. It gives hope and strength and new life. Any pastor gets to tell folks about the only savior from sin and death and hell – Jesus Christ. He changes lives. With joy Paul tells Timothy, “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage.” (II Timothy 4:2) What joy it is when God’s people “read, mark, learn and inwardly digest” His Holy Word. Paul spoke to the Thessalonians and shared his joy in this way, “And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.” (I Thessalonians 2:13)
Many years ago, when Pastor Marc Vanderwerf was the pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Highlands Ranch, we had an installation of another pastor in our area. As we got our robes on I saw him lean over and kiss the back of his stole before he placed it over his shoulders. I had never seen that before. Now I know why he did it. It told him of a call, a burden and a joy.
I am humbled that God has allowed me, and a number of you, to wear this stole. I pray that many others are called to do the same. Amen!!
