Jesus Is Enough

“Jesus Is Enough”

Matthew 28:16-20

On my first Sunday here, 6 years ago, I sat in my office as some of the first people started to come into the building.

And the first Sunday in a new church for a new pastor is stressful.

I was nervous.

I didn’t know anyone and didn’t know much about this congregation.

Would I be accepted?

I guess it’s kind of like being the new kid in a school.

So, I was sitting in my office, behind my desk and the first person to come in and greet me was Janice Barker.

She came in with a great big smile, hugged me, and welcomed me to this congregation.

It was so comforting, so reassuring.

Everything was going to be all right.

Janice is no longer with us and this church has changed a lot in the past six years.

A lot of the people who were here when I got here have gone to be with Jesus—where they now see Him face to face and know Him as they are known.

And a lot of new people have come in.

We are a different church in many ways.

We have been through a lot together.

The way you embraced the food pantry, ran with it, and allowed the community to have as much ownership of it as you is no less than miraculous.

It truly is a work of God.

In the five years that the food pantry has been operating, one million pounds of food has been given away to people in our community who are struggling.

That ministry is strong, with people who are devoted to it, and it will continue until it is no longer needed, which, sadly, may be when Jesus comes again.

We made it through the pandemic.

Talk about a horrible, painful disruption that forced change upon all of us!

We lost church members, family members, and friends to that awful virus.

But even out of the ashes good things come.

We launched our preschool during the pandemic and it has been successful beyond all imagining.

It has been nominated for the best of the best three years running and has nearly one hundred and twenty children enrolled.

It hasn’t been easy doing this work.

Tough decisions have had to be made.

Change is always hard, but it’s necessary and it brings life, new life.

Beginning July 1st you will have a new pastor, Elizabeth Hamilton.

I have known Elizabeth for many years and had been praying that she would be the one appointed to follow me.

She and her family are so excited about coming to Red Bank.

Last week at the Annual Conference, Clair and I had lunch with Liz, her husband Matt, and their oldest son—Jordan.

When we were setting the lunch up, Liz said “We will have Jordan and his friend Carlie with us.”

I asked her if Carlie is Jordan’s girlfriend.

Liz replied, “No, we suspect they like each other but they will never admit it.”

Then she went on to explain, “Matt had to pick our dogs up today in Kingsport so he picked her up too.

Her home life is not great.

She’s been abused.

So, we take her places and try to pour in as much love as we can.”

That is the kind of family you have headed your way.

These are good people--committed and loving Christians living the kind of loving and self-giving lives that God calls all of us to.

I replied to Liz that what they are doing for Carlie is really awesome.

I told her “You are being Christ to her and she will never forget what you are doing.

It may just be what saves her life.”

Liz replied, “I hope we can stay connected to her.”

I said, “Me too. But she will never forget.”

As Christians we get to experience life with so many.

We are offered the opportunity to be Christ to one another, to those who, perhaps, have never experienced God’s love--the marginalized, the abused, the lonely, those who might be headed for a life of who knows what?

But those seeds of love that we sow in the lives of others might just be enough to make all the difference in the world.

And the memory of that love might be the only thing that saves them from going through with it and slitting their wrists or taking that first hit of Meth., or Crack, or whatever.

In our Gospel lesson for this morning, we find the Resurrected Christ reunited with 11 of His original disciples.

We know what happened to Judas, of course, but we also know that before Judas betrayed Christ, Jesus offered Him bread and wine and even washed His feet.

He showed us how we are to treat one another—even those who do us harm.