SO LONG ITS BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YOU

How does one say farewell?  It has been good to be among you here in Highland , a city I have come to appreciate and love.  It is the role of interim pastors to help a church make the transition from one pastor to another, and then to move on.  That is what I will be doing in March – moving on to yet another congregation in the St. Louis area.

First of all, I want to welcome the new senior pastor here at Evangelical United Church of Christ, the Reverend Christopher “Chris” Hill.  He has my blessing.

Secondly, I hope to leave some words of what I trust will be wisdom for this community as well as this church:  Remember how the Apostle Paul said farewell to the churches of Asia as he left for an uncertain destiny in Jerusalem :  “I commend you to God and to the message of his grace.”  (Acts 20:12 )  Back in the Seventeenth Century, the pastor of the Pilgrims, John Robinson, knelt on the dock of the Dutch city,  Delfthaven.  He prayed for his flock as they took ship for America .  Then he urged them to be as open to new light from other pastors as they were from him.  He said:  “I beseech you to remember that it is an article of your church covenant that God has yet more light and truth to break forth out of his Holy Word.”  As we say in the United Church of Christ, “God is still speaking!”  Yet God’s voice is the same voice that we have heard in the Bible and in the Good News of Jesus Christ. As Robinson said, “Be as ready to receive it as ever you were from me.”

Rev. Dr. David Beebe

Evangelical United Church of Christ , Highland