Remember the Turtles? If you are a Boomer you do--and their version of Ecclesiastes 3:1-9? "To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time for every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born, a time to die,
A time to plant, a time to reap,
A time to kill, a time to heal,
A time to tear down and a time to build,
A time to weep and a time to laugh . . ."
Pastor Steve played his guitar and sang that song Sunday, many of us in the pews sniffling or openly weeping. It's hard when a pastor leaves, worse than when a child leaves for college. It's not that he's moving far, just a few miles north, but our relationship as shepherd and flock has run its course.
In the past seven years Pastor Steve stood by us and prayed with and for hundreds of us in the intimate times: death, birth, marriage, suicides, family problems, job loss, crises of faith, joy, successes. Sunday after Sunday he shared his own faith journey, and he challenged us, encouraged us and coached us.
The pastor's family too shared their lives with us. His wife Kim has her own career, yet she made time to bake a hundred dozen cookies to treat us at Christmas. She sought us out at potluck dinners, taught classes, and undoubtedly supported her husband and kids through situations we don't even know about.
Sunday's sermon was Pastor Steve's last at Longs Peak UMC: "A Time for Everything." A time for completion, a time for new beginnings.