FINALLY, FAREWELL
A Sermon by
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
11Finally,
brothers and sisters, farewell.
Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in
peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. 12Greet
one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.
13The grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of£ the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
Sweat dripped off our brows, our lungs burned from the
effort of traversing the steep hillsides, the packs on our backs seemed to gain
weight with every step. My buddy Mike
and I had been hiking all morning in Red River Gorge, determined to finish the
long trail we had chosen. The trickling
streams of the ravines, the lush foliage of ferns and rhododendrons, the
massive trunks of the towering trees had long ceased to excite us. We were now just trying to finish, perhaps
having forgotten why we even chose to take this trek. The overpowering hemlocks and maples seemed
to close in on us, oppressing us instead of impressing us. As we ascended yet another forest-choked
incline, each of us panting like big dogs after a long hot run, Mike asked,
“Are we having fun yet, Mc?” Before I
could gasp out a cynical response, the trail opened up before us like the
parting of curtains on a stage. We stepped
out into a vast open space, the stone floor worn smooth by time and weather. Before us stretched out a
panorama of hills and forests and valleys, the whole Gorge in one glance, the
robin’s egg blue sky above and puffs of white clouds reflecting the brilliance
of the sun. If we had any breath
left, this sudden sight took it all. It
was the whole scope of nature’s beauty and we were smack in the middle of it. Suddenly, instead of weariness, hope and
promise filled our hearts, as if we stood on the brink of something great.
To our high school graduates, that is about to happen to
you. The whole world is about to open
up. So let the apostle Paul give you
some advice for your journey. Paul
writes his farewell from the vantage point of having gone through struggle and
adversity. Just as you have had an
arduous journey through the ups and downs of high school, a place where
discovery clashes with tedium, where insight amazes but where tasks often seem
daunting, Paul has been on a rough journey as well. Just as Mike and I alternately
acclaimed and cussed our way through the mysterious beauty and the challenging
terrain of the Gorge, Paul had his own mountains to climb. I tell you this so that you will take his
advice seriously. He’s been there. He knew what struggle was all about. He had started the church at Corinth, worked
to teach the converts the way of Christ, sacrificed time, energy and
soul-strength to get them on the path of Christianity, only to have them wander
off time after time, only to have them divide into cliques and do battle
against one another, only to have them twist his words to suit their
desires. So he visited them three times to try to correct and stabilize that
church. These few verses then are Paul’s
final words after his last visit. So I
think they are important to hear as you stand at the end of a tough journey
with all the possibility of life spreading out before you.
First, “put things in
order,” Paul advises. I don’t think
he meant to be obsessive about your house.
My brother was so compulsive about order in his room as a youth that all
the pencils on his desk would be placed to point the same direction. If you have ever seen my office, you can tell
that all the “orderly” genes in my family’s DNA went to my brother. But Paul is speaking of greater issues
here. Avoid total chaos. Freedom is a wonderful thing but it is like
chocolate or medicine. A little here and
there is extremely beneficial while overdoses of it are extremely
destructive. There is a reason that we
have speed limits on roadways. My car
may have 120 miles per hour on the speedometer, but there aren’t many roads in
Second, Paul advises, “listen
to my appeal.” I think we can take
this to mean to listen to the counsel of scripture. You are going to hear lots of counsel in the
coming days. “This is how to be
successful. This is what counts in
life. This is how to get ahead.” Peers will try to mold you into a carbon copy
of themselves. Society will try to press
you into conformity. Evil will whisper
its lies into your ears. Your own
desires will mislead and misdirect you.
Courses you will take meant to challenge your thinking and broaden your
mind will try to fill it with values that are less meaningful than what they
replaced. One good piece of advice is to
learn to think for yourself. Don’t just accept some information because
your trusted friend forwarded it to you by email. Check it out yourself; check your sources;
check your heart and conscience; but most of all check the scriptures. These may be ancient but they don’t get
old. They may be time-worn but they are
never outdated. The language may be
archaic but the concepts are as modern as this moment. And never forget that though there are
hundreds of pages in the Bible, Jesus was able to boil it down to “Love God;
love your neighbor.” That’s what it’s
all about. Make life decisions that jibe
with those truths and you won’t go too far wrong.
Third, “Agree with one
another.” Paul was trying to get the
members of a divided church to work together for the common good, to learn to
act together instead of constantly reacting to one another. Find ways to be positive and
cooperative. The man saw a truck driver
struggling and straining with a huge heavy box at the back of his truck. Seeing the trucker in obvious distress and
some danger from the heavy crate, the man stepped up and said, “Let me help you
with that.” For half an hour they tugged
and pushed and pulled but the crate barely moved. The man, completely exhausted, slumped to the
floor of the truck and told the driver, “It’s no use; we’ll never get this
crate off the truck.” “Off??” said the
driver, “I was trying to get it on!” So
much of our world operates in the oppositional mode, not as concerned with what
they are for as concerned about what they are against. Let your generation teach us better
communication, more cooperative spirits, deeper trust, greater tolerance, so
that we may at least move in the same forward direction and God’s world may
advance toward harmony.
Fourth, “Live in
peace.” I heard it again this week,
but then, I hear it almost every week. There are so many in our world who cannot
envision a time when we will have no enemies.
At best they envision a time when the “good” nations all line up against
the “bad” nations to produce a thin, tense time of peace. Of course, everyone who takes this stance
sees their nation as one of the “good” ones.
When my brother and I were small, we played cowboys and bandits, good
guys and bad guys, sneaking all around our old frame
house, trying to get the drop on the other with our cap guns. One day we cornered each other on the front
porch. I drew down on him first but he
claimed the same thing. I shouted, “Drop
your gun!” And he shouted back, “No, you
drop yours!” “No,” I yelled, “You drop
yours!” And the verbal battle raged
without ceasing, right outside an open window.
Finally my mother burst through the screen door, grabbed the cap guns
out of both our hands and, without a word, went back inside. Jim and I stood there weaponless, not knowing
how to threaten each other, not knowing how to continue the game. My plea to you is to envision such a day, to
envision peace. Use your life to teach
the world how to play a different game. “And the God of love and peace will be with
you.”
And I end with Paul’s opening line, “Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell.” But the Greek word translated here as
“farewell” can also mean “rejoice.” It
was a common goodbye in Paul’s time. I
have tried to think of a comparable word today.
The Italian greeting and farewell, “Ciao,” comes close. Or the Hawaiian “Aloha.” We certainly need something more powerful and
hopeful than, “Have a nice day.” Back in
my youth we would have said, “Be cool.”
But maybe the closest to Paul’s word, “rejoice,”
is a phrase I heard used by young people back in the 1960s as the world seemed
finally to be paying some attention to fresh voices. In farewell they would say to each other (and
Paul and I say to you), “It’s your world.”