HOW DO YOU SAY GOOD-BYE?

Text: 2 Corinthians 13:11: FINALLY, BROTHERS, GOOD-BY. AIM FOR PERFECTION, LISTEN TO MY APPEAL, BE OF ONE MIND, LIVE IN PEACE. AND THE GOD OF LOVE AND PEACE WILL BE WITH YOU. MAY THE GRACE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND THE LOVE OF GOD AND THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE HOLY SPIRIT BE WITH YOU ALL.

We are counting down the days....this year...that seemed so daunting a few months ago...perhaps that 3 or 4 or 5 year program that seemed so long is now....in the next few days....finished. Goals have been reached, careers have been formed, friends have been made and over the next few weeks we will look around and find that someone we’ve stood side by side for the past few months or years is already gone—and we didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.

How do you say goodby: Like Arnold! Hastalavista baby, I’ll be back, See you around. It’s been a slice. How do we say goodbye? Because many of the people we have been friends with will go their own way–at least for the summer–and yes, some we may never see again.

I remembered my own time as student body president, back in the years when there were under a 100 students at Concordia. On the council were 3 others who I worked with during some very difficult days at this school. We were a team, we were friends and we were committed. Then all of a sudden one day we had our last meeting and we thought we would talk but we didn’t and they were gone. I haven’t seen any of them for 35 years. My buddy Leonard from Summerland who introduced me to Led Zepplin 2 is a church musician in California. Ann, I have heard, is an environmental lawyer in Victoria, and Paul works for a coop near Calgary. Paul stopped by with his son a few years back and it was strange–time dissolved and we were back–yes in the good old days and the connections were made again. The internet helps but we were not the online generation, at least then.

Saying goodbye is hard for us. Paul in our text had to say a lot of goodbyes to people with whom he would share faith, the power of Christ with and then move on without phones, tv’s email or any other contact other than a word he might write and take months or years to receive. I find our text today special. SHORT, SWEET AND TO THE POINT. Finally brothers. Good bye

Christians say goodbye because we know that sometimes God calls us to new places, new challenges, and new adventures, to changed lives and changed lands and this all involves making new connections within the body of Christ and moving from old ones, often dear ones. Saying goodbye is hard. To let go, to move sometimes is really hard but necessary. But there are things that cannot change as Paul points out: AIM FOR PERFECTION, BE OF ONE MIND, LIVE IN PEACE.

There is something different in the bond between the children of God. There is a bond, which space and time cannot change, and eternity will only enhance. Christians never really say goodbye, as in—I’ll never see you again, or have any connection with you again–for if nothing else–we will meet again in heaven when the one who has united us here, will gather us around his throne for an eternity of celebration of the lives God has given us in Jesus.

Goodbye is a different word for the children of God. The connections, though invisible, are powerful. Each time we worship, each time we kneel to receive the Lord’s supper, each time we remember the family our baptism has made us a part of we keep in touch with those who have knelt with us, prayed with us, cried with us, and laughed with us, and been touched by the gracious hand of God. Goodbye. But as we face those inevitable goodbyes Paul reminds us of an aspect of goodbye that Christians understand in ways that words cannot comprehend. AND THE GOD OF LOVE AND PEACE WILL BE WITH YOU.

Look in your Bible for God saying goodbye. Did you ever notice... God never says goodbye. He might be visibly apart for a while but the message of the resurrection is that God, through Jesus, through his word, his spirit, will never leave us: Listen to these words: I will not leave you as orphans. Lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age. I will never forsake you, my people. A great statement is made when Moses is saying goodbye to Joshua who would lead his people int the promised land: BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS, FOR YOU MUST GO WITH THIS PEOPLE INTO THE LAND THAT THE LORD SWORE TO THEIR FOREFATHERS TO GIVE THEM...THE LORD HIMSELF GOES BEFORE YOU AND WILL BE WITH YOU. HE WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU NOR FORSAKE YOU. DO NOT BE AFRAID; DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED.

Brothers and sisters in Jesus—in the next few days there will be a lot of goodbyes: to each other, to friends, for some, a way of life as a student, to Concordia, to special people and special memories. We part wishing good to those we leave, but as God’s people, and I think this is such a special gift of being part of a school and community such as this, we will never really say goodbye forever, but only for a time. We will never really be apart for we have a God who has been with us together in the past days, and he will go with us, and lead us, and hold us in the years ahead. Paul said it long ago....and we still do today. MAY THE GRACE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND THE LOVE OF GOD AND THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE HOLY SPIRIT BE WITH YOU ALL. Amen Pastor Garry Dombrosky, April 13, 2011