Word to the Wise
Tuesday, May 6, 2008 - Tuesday in the Seventh Week of Easter
[Acts 20:17-27 and John 17:1-11A]I consider life of no importance to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to bear witness to the Gospel of God's grace. But now I know that none of you to whom I preached the kingdom during my travels will ever see my face again.....
"Farewell Addresses" are an important moment both for the person delivering the address and for the community receiving it. I've had to give a number of them myself during my many moves for ministry. It's never easy. I don't like to say "Goodbye!" We are told that the elders at Miletus openly wept when they escorted Paul to the ship that would carry him to his eventual arrest in Jerusalem. Jesus' "farewell discourse" goes on for quite awhile in the Gospel of John. The farewell addresses of Moses are worth reading as well. In modern times as in ancient it is a time for reviewing past achievements and perhaps asking for forgiveness for errors and faults. (At least it is for me, for my faults and errors are many!) What St. Paul does in today's first scripture is to give a kind of "apologia" for his ministry. He notes, "I did not at all shrink from telling you what was for your benefit, or from teaching you in public or in your homes!" I suspect he continued his inevitable stepping on other people's toes! It is hard not to be moved, even, today by the scene. It is an interesting challenge to consider how each of us would write a "farewell address." Changing jobs, terminal illness, long journey with uncertain results - how would our faith impact the way we would express ourselves? Try it sometime! AMEN
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