THE ECLECTIC CLERIC - “Mother, May I?"

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Now that the month of May is fast upon us, I am down to my final two appearances in the pulpit here at First Parish. On May 10th, Mother’s Day, I will be preaching on the topic “Wir Alles sind Gotts Kinder” (“We are all God’s children” -- I’ll explain why the German in the Sermon), and then on Memorial Day weekend (Sunday May 24th) will be my last appearance ever as your settled parish minister, title and topic still to be determined.


These last two sermons will also represent the 653rd and 654th sermons of my career, as well as the 43rd and 44th sermons I have delivered to this congregation, beginning with the very first sermon I preached here as a candidate on Mother’s Day two years ago -- the same day I discovered that my own mother had been hospitalized with a recurrence of her cancer, a cancer that would eventually take her life in a matter of only a few weeks.

The title of that first candidating sermon: “A Warm & Welcoming Place in the Heart of the City,” has continued to provide the theme for everything else we’ve attempted to do together here these past two years, through both my cancer and an economic meltdown that has touched the lives of just about everyone I know, both neighbor and stranger alike. Likewise, the distance we have traveled together in that time: spiritually, socially, psychologically, emotionally...seems immense.

And yet, in the greater scheme of things it is really only the blink of an eye: about 4% of my current life span (although perhaps 50% of my current life expectancy), less than six-tenths of one per cent of the history of First Parish itself. And I have no way whatsoever of measuring the effect that my ministry may have had on any of your lives personally, but I hope that it has been a meaningful and positive one.

As I have said on several other occasions, the privilege of being someone’s minister is NOT something clergy receive on account of our education or our credentials, or ultimately even as a result of our elective “call” and the subsequent covenantal relationship we enter into structured by the rules and traditions of our ecclesiastical polity. Rather, it is a relationship we earn one individual at a time, each time someone new decides we are worthy of being THEIR minister, and entrusts us with that sacred responsibility.

So thank you so much, all of you who have found me trustworthy in this way these past two years. As I prepare to return home now to the West Coast, to be closer to my family and to give 100% of my attention to fighing this disease, knowing that I carry with me the prayers and good wishes of so many of you makes a huge difference. Thank you so much for the privilege of having been your minister. And thank you again for the many ways that you have ministered to me as well.............twj