by Tom Beck | Sep 3, 2018 | Pastor's Word
Hi, and Bye. I’m retiring. I’m retiring, but not disappearing.
We have had a wonderful relationship for 17 years. You called me to be Pastor to Faith Lutheran, and that is what I did. You invited me into a community and I came into the community. Thanks!
I am retiring from what you called me to be. As of October 1, I will not be Pastor of Faith Lutheran. I will not do any of the “pastor things,” like baptisms, marriages, officiating at communion. I won’t even worship with you. I can’t, ‘cause I’m retired.
There is a reason for this. It isn’t because anyone is angry at anyone. It is because everyone loves everyone. I need to get out of the way for the next person who will come to take the place of pastor. Probably that will be an Interim Pastor. In that relationship you will have an exciting opportunity to review your ministry, strengthen growing areas and strong areas alike. In that relationship you can let loose of old things in order to take a hold of new things.
I’m not disappearing. Kathryn and I will live in our home in Reno. We might see each other in the grocery store, or at a UNR performance. What changes is the nature of our relationship. I can no longer be Pastor Tom at Faith Lutheran. I will continue to be a pastor in the ELCA. Maybe there are some different duties for me down the road. I don’t know.
Some have asked, “Where will you worship?” I don’t know. I can think of many opportunities, and we’ll have to try them out to see what fits.
Some have asked, “What will you do?” I’m not sure. I advise everyone: Warning! Retired pastors can talk a lot. We go on, and on, and on. Probably there will be family duties for me. As you know, my mother is 102 years old. Maybe I’ll have some care giving to do. I hope I won’t need to learn Norwegian to talk to her.
I have interests to pursue. Music continues to interest me. There are things at home. There is the “honey do” list.
So life goes on. I’m retiring from being the Pastor of Faith Lutheran. I do this with a heart filled with thanks. I’m not disappearing. Perhaps we’ll cross paths, and if we do we’ll say “hello”.
In the meantime, we shall keep each other in prayer. No one retires from their relationship with our Lord, and no one disappears. We continue to have a blessed relationship as children of God, for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Pastor Tom
by Tom Beck | Aug 2, 2018 | Pastor's Word, Uncategorized
Hello. This is my penultimate newsletter article.
OK, you wonder what that word means? “Penultimate”? It is the next to last. Merriam Webster says this; The word ultimate itself comes from the Latin word for “last, final, or farthest.” The pen- part of penultimate is simply the Latin prefix that means “almost,” so the word literally means “almost last.” So the last newsletter article from me to you is September. It is the ultimate one (better be a good one!). The August newsletter article is next to the last. It is the penultimate one. It doesn’t mean this is article is one notch poorer than the last one, it just means this is next to the last one.
So, what does that mean? It means things are shutting down. Hmmm. Things are shutting down. That doesn’t sound particularly energizing. It sounds a little sad. We don’t like it when thing are shutting down. We like it when things are accelerating, “revving up” and moving forward.
We don’t like decrease in income. We certainly don’t like decrease in health! We don’t like the end of things. We like hope, optimism, and continuous growth. Our trouble is with reality. What we like, may not happen. What we don’t like, may well happen.
What shall we do? I think we need to get religion. To put it another way, I think we need to attach ourselves to something more permanent than the experience of “things are shutting down”. St. Paul says it well in Romans chapter 6: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Paul is talking about decrease and loss, and Paul welcomes it. Paul welcomes the decrease of death because it results in a glorious increase and gain. God takes death and makes life from it. A very good thing for us to bear in mind when we suffer our various losses and decreases. In our every experience of decrease and loss, we might wonder, and pray, what will God make out of this?
Paul ways it well again in his letter to the Romans. For I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do… Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
The Grace of God does not abandon us to loss and evil, but rescues us to a life of Christ. God is in action again, rescuing us from the loss of death to be blessed. This is the ultimate of God for you and for me. Rescue. Life. Right now we know these gifts of God are coming our way. Our present experience is penultimate to God’s ultimate. The ultimate is grace and this grace is coming to you.
‘Till’ next month,
Pastor Tom
by Tom Beck | Jul 21, 2018 | Pastor's Word, Uncategorized
I am surprised at the process of letting go. As I approach retirement, I have to do a few things. Clean up my office. Reorganize my files. Distribute some books. Each one of these sounds like it falls in the category of housecleaning, but that is the surprise.
I don’t like letting go of things. Maybe some old files, some old projects, but probably not the books. Even if I have little chance of using them I still want them. Volumes of Greek dictionaries. Hebrew dictionaries and concordances. Lotsa stuff I’ll never use.
So what’s the grief? Isn’t this a good thing? Why should it be troubling? I think I am missing past unfinished things. I have to admit, now I won’t improve my biblical language skills. I hate to let that go. I won’t spend time studying Luther’s Works. This is too much work for my energy. I hate to let that hope go.
What is there to do about this? How can I let go? I think I let go better when I put down what I am doing to reach out for a new thing. I mean, exchange the past for the future. This is really a faith thing. I need to trust in the future.
All of us have a support for doing this, for trusting in the future. We even say it out loud to one another. Christ has died, Christ is Risen, Christ will come again. There is the future! Not on a calendar but in a person. The person is our Lord, who owns the future and brings it to us! Our grieving over the past is replaced by joyful anticipation of the future.
There. I feel better. But I still need to go through a batch of books.
Pastor Tom
