Letting Go and Holding On
Our extended warm weather has given elementary school kids plenty of days to be out on the playground. I don’t know whether monkey bars are still considered safe enough to remain available, but I remember the exhilaration that our kids felt when they were able to maneuver across them. Monkey bars test coordination, physical strength, and willingness to risk. In order to get from the first bar to the third bar, one needs to let go of the first bar while holding onto the second bar and swinging toward the third one. Moving forward requires both letting go and holding on.
I’ve been thinking about that as our time together is drawing toward a close. My last Sunday at Alpine will be October 26th, which is also Reformation Sunday. You might hear the monkey bars image in the sermon that day unless I come up with something better-suited. But for now it will have to do. These past 23 months have included letting go and holding on. Holding on to what we know while letting go of enough to free a hand to grab hold of what’s next. It’s hard for us to do with traditions, practices and habits. And it’s hard for us to do with people.
I have enjoyed being with you and serving as your pastor. Thank you for welcoming me into your lives. And thank you for your willingness to try some new things with me. The nature of interim ministry is that my assignment was to prepare Alpine and myself to leave. To let go…and have the next bars we reach toward be a new pastor for Alpine and a new setting for me.
Alpine is ready for Pastor Rachel. And Pastor Rachel is ready for Alpine. You’ll each begin with what you know and hold onto it. And you’ll each be open to– even expecting– new things. So the first reach will not require letting go of anything. Then it gets harder. The thing that will take Alpine forward will only be reached when you let go of what you know. Sometimes you’ll be exhilarated. And sometimes you’ll fall. But even in falling, you’ll have gained the experience of letting go. And be confident the next time that swinging more boldly toward that third bar will generate enough momentum to get you there.
And…when we remember well, as I will remember you, we can hold onto the memory without remaining in place.
“Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, make you complete in everything good so that you may do his will, working among us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Hebrews 13:20-21)
Pastor Don