Using the verses from the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 13, verses 31-35 and 44-52, this was given at the congregation in Lynnville (IL) on July 24, 2005. As I note in the ‘live’ version, I had spoken and/or pastored here for over 3 years… THIS ‘talk’ contains the announcement of my moving on… 😦

       As most of you know, the way I start work on each of these sermons every week is to read all of the verses listed in the lectionary, determine which one I think I would most like to preach on, and then search my memory for a story to lead into it. Now, the story doesn’t always have to tie into what I think the main point of the sermon might be, but oft times it does. And as much as possible, I try to use stories from my own past and experiences… I feel like it is that that helps me connect so well with each of you… I mean, how often have one or the other of you come up to me afterwards and shared a similar story from your past… and I feel like it is that connection that helps everyone maybe listen a little closer and hear more of what God is trying to tell us!

So it was that, as I read these verses from Matthew this week, I saw a short story that I could tell about each of the separate parables that Jesus was telling. For example, the mustard seed reminded me of the time I was in Pine Bluff, AR some years ago picking up cottonseed oil. The cotton was brought in pressed into bales then fed through a row of twenty-or-so cotton gins, which separated the seed from the cotton itself. The cotton was then loaded into trucks and hauled to another plant where it was carded and made into cloth. The seeds were then processed into cottonseed meal… a by-product of which is cottonseed oil! Now, there were trucks and trucks and more trucks all lining up and hauling out the cotton after it had been separated, and there where quite a few trucks each day hauling out the meal… but we tankers only went down there every few months or so… and each time I sat there being loaded I thought, “How many cotton seeds does it take to make 7000 gal. of oil?” And yet, the mustard seed that Jesus is referring to is smaller still!

And when I read about the kingdom of heaven being like yeast, I can’t help but remember ‘Herman’. How many of you remember Herman? Some twenty-or-thirty years ago, Herman could be found, it seemed, in every kitchen across America. Somebody started a batch of it somewhere and then shared with a friend, who shared with the family, who shared… well, you get the idea! This stuff just kept growing and growing… it reminded me of Steve McQueen’s first movie, ‘The Blob’, where the alien creature kept eating everybody and getting larger and larger and larger!

The parable of the pearl reminds me of the ‘Star Trek’ episode where Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are all taken to a planet and tortured to test the abilities of an empathic girl to save them. At the end, after telling their stories and filing their reports, Scotty says about the girl that she must have been a pearl of great value. When Kirk asked him to explain, he said, “Have ye not heard the story of the merchant who, having found a pearl of great value, went and sold all he had so that he might purchase it?” Kirk replied, “Yes, she was all of that!” And as to the parable of the good and bad fish, I wouldn’t know where to begin telling fish stories and/or talking about nets and so-on.

So the question begs itself, “Why did Jesus use so many different parables just to describe the Kingdom of Heaven?” Well, as the Life Application Commentary points out, “No one parable can completely describe God’s kingdom in all its aspects, so Jesus gave several. Through these parables, Jesus explained that his kingdom would have a small beginning, but would grow to encompass the earth.”

Just as the tiny mustard seed grew into the largest herb bush in the garden (reaching 10 or 12 feet tall in just a few weeks!) and as the yeast penetrates the entire mixture of dough and forces it to expand, so began Christianity… one man… Jesus… then the twelve… then hundreds… then thousands… then hundreds of thousands… and so on!

Meanwhile, the Life Application Commentary tells us that… “The treasure and pearl parables tell of the joy of finding peace with God. There’s no other word to express it. Both stories involve people who very happily find the answer to their life’s hopes and dreams.

That’s what becoming a Christian is about: deepest needs met, deepest longings satisfied, deepest hurts bandaged, and a future and a hope unlike any other. It all adds up to joy!”

Jesus could be quite the story teller. And all of His stories were drawn from real-life situations that the people of that time would relate to… scattering seed, a lost sheep, even the prodigal son were all things that many of that day had first hand knowledge of, and all would have understood them. I’d like to think that many of my stories do the same, today. My hope has always been that by connecting a real-life story from my life to the message I felt the verses contained on any given Sunday, each of you might make a connection in your own lives to that same message! And I think it has worked… but only because God uses and guides me in making it work!

It seems as if most weeks I sit down at my computer with only my ‘story’, and perhaps a simple idea of a point I want to make or a direction I want to go, in my head. But some hours later, here exists, in black-and-white, a full-fledged sermon… and I cannot always take credit for it… I honestly feel that God has used my fingers to put out what He wants people to hear! And frankly, sometimes it seems He wants ME to hear it as much as he does all of you!

You see, I am not anybody ‘special’ in any way… I am as human and as fallible as anybody in this room… and perhaps more so than most! The only thing that separates me from any one of you is my ability to remember and relate all of these ‘life experiences’ that I have had and my openness to let God guide me in using them.

I saw a plaque in a gift shop, recently, that I very much wanted except for the fact that it had ‘Missouri’ plastered all over the bottom of it. The message read, “Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment!” Believe me, I have lots of experience! And I feel very honored and blessed that God has let me learn from all of that experience and use it to, maybe, help others avoid or at least deal with making the same mistakes as me.

However… for some time now, it has seemed as if God has been calling me to start trying to correct some of those earlier mistakes that have led me to committing so many others over the years. And it is to that end that I have a very important announcement to make to all of you this morning.

After countless hours of praying, soul-searching, discussions with God, discussions with my friends and advisers, more prayer, and thousands of highway miles to think and plan and decide… the time has come for me to begin rebuilding my life into something that I believe God intended for me to do before… and very much wants me to do now!

I have signed up for courses starting this August at Lewis & Clark Community College in Edwardsville and Godfrey. A week-ago-Saturday I gave my employer my two-week notice… this will be my last week of driving over the road… at least for the foreseeable future. To facilitate all of this I will be moving in to my mother’s house in Edwardsville the first week of August. I have given much thought about what to do about being your pastor… my first thought was to try to fit it in amongst everything else and drive up-and-back each Sunday… I even OK’d that possibility with our District Superintendent! But in the end, we have all decided that it will be much easier to make a clean break of everything and see what work I can get involved with down there. And so, it is with great sorrow, on the one hand, yet great excitement and anticipation, on the other, that I announce to you that August 28, 2005 will be my last scheduled Sunday to preach here!

There are many more things I want to say… words of thanks and words of encouragement… but today is not the time for that. This is not my ‘farewell address’… I will save that for that final Sunday! Today, I am merely telling you what is happening and asking for your prayers… and your love, understanding, and encouragement… as I begin this totally new chapter in my life!

As always, I am… and will eternally be… In His service!