“God so loved the world  that he gave his only Son , that whoever believes in him may not die but have eternal life.” 

                                                                                  John 3:16

The word “emeritus,” as an adjective means, according to Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary,”holding after retirement an honorary title corresponding to that held last during active service.”  As a noun, it designates “one retired from professional life but permitted to hold the rank of his last office as an honorary title.”  In other words, you and I are not today beginning anything, nor are we concluding anything.  We began something on July 1, 1982, and we concluded what we had begun on June 30, 2003.  What you are doing today is recognizing what we had and what we did in those twenty-two years together and honoring me with the title “Pastor Emeritus.”  I am, indeed, honored and profoundly grateful for that.

    This may not be a “once in a lifetime” event for you.  It is entirely possible that Hidenwood Presbyterian Church will have other Pastors Emeriti in its future.  It is most likely that this is a “once in a lifetime” event for me.  I can think of no other place where I am likely to be honored in this way.  Given the opportunity to preach on this occasion, I have asked myself, “What do I most want to say as a minister of the Gospel?  What are the theological assertions which I would most like for you to remember and to hold fast?” 

    To answer those questions I first had to decide which biblical text I regard as closer to the center of my conviction than all the others.  That is because, for me, a sermon is only a sermon if it is an exposition of a biblical text.  The text which incorporates what I most want to say is probably cherished more by Christians than any other, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

I.    The first thing that I most want to say and most want you to believe is that there is a creator God who loves the world, and I want to emphasize the two dimensions of that statement.

    The first dimension is the conviction of Israel and the Church that there is a creator God who made the universe and humankind and to whom it all belongs.  (Parenthetically, this is not an endorsement of what has come to be known as “Creationism.”  There is no doubt in my mind that the universe and humankind have come into being through an evolutionary process which is still going on.  I also believe that this process was set in motion and is being sustained by a creator God.) Nobody ever said it better than the writer of Psalm 95 who wrote
        Come, let us worship and bow down
            let us kneel before the Lord our Maker!
        For he is our God
            and we are the people of his pasture,
            and the sheep of his hand.
    I want to emphasize that, because it is our universal forgetfulness of that or denial of that which so endangers our lives individually and corporately.  Think about it.  When we have no sense of belonging to or being accountable to a transcendent God, we find ourselves alone in the world competing anxiously, fearfully, even viciously with other people for places, positions, prerogatives, personal relationships which we need in order to feel secure.  We are like rival siblings without a parent.

    The same dynamic then operates at the corporate level.  Without awareness that there is a sovereign God who made us and to whom we all belong, to whom we are all accountable and before whom we all are sinners, we are inevitably captured by some ideology—capitalism or Marxism or fascism or nationalism—upon which we become convinced that the future of the world rests; and we give our bodies and souls to advance that cause against all other causes, with the result that faction is set against faction and nation against nation.

    One of the things which I most want to say is that we are not alone in the universe, that we do not have to clutch and grasp anxiously for personal or group power and superiority, that we do not have to give ourselves body and soul to any cause; because we belong to and are responsible to the God who made us.
    The second dimension of the first part of John 3:16 that I want to emphasize is that this God to whom the world belongs is a God who loves the world.  It is possible to believe in the existence of a creator God and still not be reassured, because God can be perceived as one who is primarily concerned for his own honor and well-being rather than that of his creatures.  As a matter of fact, I sense that, to a considerable degree, the God that many of us have in our minds is a very narcissistic deity.  We see him laying down the law for his own benefit, not ours.  We think of his Ten Commandments as restrictions which he places upon us for his own pleasure and honor.  Seen in that way, he is a God whom we tend to resist in the interest of our own freedom and autonomy.  He may have made us, and we may be the sheep of his pasture, but we will try to stay out of the way of his shepherd’s staff lest we find ourselves, limited, restricted, confined.

    What a grave injustice we do him!  And it must break his heart; because he desires our well-being, not his own.  His law is for our health and wholeness, not his own.  His staff is to lead us beside still waters to restore our souls, not to enhance his authority in his own eyes.

II.    He loved us so much, in fact, that he gave us his only Son.  This is the second thing that I most want to say.  “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” 
According to the biblical perspective on human life, no sooner had the Great Shepherd made us and set us down in pleasant pastures than we wandered away into the wilderness where there was little or no water or grass.  “All we like sheep went astray; we turned, everyone, to his own way.”

God tried to bring us back.  He tried to show us through patriarchs, prophets, wise men and kings the ways that make for life.  He spoke to and through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Rachel, Deborah, Joshua, David, Amos, Isaiah, Esther, Ruth and others; but we could not and would not listen.  We persisted in the ways of sin and death.  The way God finally reached us was by coming into our midst in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.  In the example and teaching of Jesus, God enabled us to see the dangers and the potentialities of human existence.  In the death and resurrection of Jesus, God delivered us from sin and set us on the path of becoming what we were meant to be.

One of the things I most want to do is urge you to keep Jesus firmly in your heart and clearly before your eyes so that you can keep the right balance between loving God and loving yourself and loving others . . . as Jesus did.  I urge you to keep Jesus before you so that you can keep the right balance between humility and tolerance, on the one hand, and righteous indignation, on the other . . . as Jesus did. I  urge you to keep your eyes on Jesus so that you can keep the right balance between working and resting, between serving and being served, between being forbearing and being assertive, between striving for peace and fighting for justice. . . as Jesus did.  In other words, I urge you to look at and listen to Jesus in whom God has revealed those qualities of thought and action which make for the wholeness and happiness of human existence.

III. The third thing I most want to say is that faith is central.  “God so loved the world (point one) that he gave his only Son (point two), that whoever believes in him may not die but have eternal life (point three).”  The possibility that we have of moving out of darkness toward light, away from emptiness toward fullness, away from feeling broken to feeling whole, exists first of all because of God’s initiative in creating us and then in redeeming us through his Son; but the possibility does not become a full reality in our lives until we respond in faith.  This faith has three components:  (1) intellectual acceptance, (2) trust and (3) obedience.  Faith is a matter of the head, the heart and the hands. 

    Faith begins with something that you accept with your mind; namely, that in Jesus of Nazareth the Divine Spirit behind the universe has revealed his nature and his purpose for human life.  That is an astonishing thing to believe.  People of limited or lazy mentality may not find it especially difficult.  People who think more deeply and more rigorously often struggle with the doctrine of the incarnation, the doctrine that God became flesh in Jesus of Nazareth.  That, however, is where Christian faith begins.  It begins with intellectual acceptance of the proposition that God was in Christ. It is worth remembering that many people of deep and penetrating intellect have come to such acceptance. 

    That belief, however, only comes to life through trust.  You can believe something without being willing to stake your life on it.  You can believe that water will support your body sufficiently for you to swim, and you can choose not to get in the water.  If you do that, you will never discover the satisfaction of swimming.  You can believe with your mind that air flowing with sufficient speed over the wing of an airplane will provide the lift necessary to keep the plane in the air; but, if you do not trust yourself to get in the plane, you will never experience the satisfaction of being stuffed into a seat like a sardine and breathing germ-laden recycled air for as long as the flight lasts.  You can believe the Bible when it says, “Cast your burden upon the Lord and he will sustain you,” and then you can choose to keep on carrying those burdens by yourself; but, if you do, you will not experience the freedom and lightness which God wants you to experience.  To experience that you must be willing to put your heart where your head is.  You must be willing to add trust to belief.  One of the basic questions asked of persons making a profession of faith in the Presbyterian Church is, “Do you put your trust in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord?” 

    One other question is, “Do you now promise, with God’s help, to live your life in a way that is consistent with the life and teachings of Jesus?”  When we answer this question affirmatively, we are adding obedience to belief and trust.  We are promising to try sincerely to speak and act in ways which reflect the values which we see in Christ—values such as tenderness, patience, worshipping with God’s people, giving generously of our money, forgiving those who injure us, siding with the poor, putting the requirements of God ahead of  the demands of any political, economic or social ideology.  The trouble with us is that we want the victory without the battle.  We want to reach the finish line without having to run the race.  We want the crown without the cross.  It does not work that way.  Faith without works is dead.  Belief and trust must be verified with obedience.  “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”  That belief involves acceptance with the mind, trust with the heart and obedience in action.
Conclusion

    Let me summarize and conclude.
    There is a creator God who made you, and it is to him alone that you ultimately belong and are ultimately accountable.
    There is a redeemer God who presents himself to you in Jesus Christ and offers you fullness of life.
    There is a sustainer God who has made that fullness of life—that wholeness, that freedom, that joy, that hope—contingent upon your believing him and trusting him and serving him.

    On this special occasion in my life and in my career as a Minister of the Gospel, to a congregation which has had, does have and always will  have a very special place in my heart, that is what I most want to say.  And may God bless you all as you continue to love and serve God in this time and place. 

Amen