Dear Friends,
FIRST, a large THANK YOU to the Congregation and all of you for the recognition of my 20 years of service as Pastor of our Church. Sunday, April 22, I was very surprised, speechless (!), and over whelmed. And Sue and I are most grateful to you. Your gifts and words were in too great an abundance but deeply felt and warmly received. Thank you.
I must also be quick to say to you, no one’s work stands alone, least of all a pastor’s. There are so many of you who make possible, add significantly to, mightily multiply, and offer unending and critical encouragement. I could name dozens, literally, dozens of names, and frequently do, in my prayers for all YOU do.
There is something about doing that naming that is very much a part of our Biblical Faith. I do not know whether other religions do this or not, but Christianity does. Read Chapter 16 in St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans; it is filled with names: Prisca and Aquila risked their lives for Paul’s sake, Mary worked very hard, Andronicus and Junia were in prison with him, Urbanus was a co-worker, Herodian a relative, Rufus’ mother a mother also to Paul! Names, over and over.
The same thing is true in the Gospels. Isn’t it striking that the Gospels tell the enormously extraordinary account of the Son of God, Son OF GOD coming to the earth and what He said and did, and THAT account is filled with names of others - - - Mary, Elizabeth, Joseph, Peter, James, John, Lazarus, Bartimaeus, Zacchaeus, Magdalene, page after page, every page. So much that when the Lord Jesus says “the very hairs on your head are numbered” he is not engaged in exaggeration, hyperbole. You are known, to God, by Name.
And what you do is not lost sight of either, both the “doing” and the “you” who do it, both known, to God (and to many of us as well). I am going to name one of you now, I could name a great many, but one, Barbara Kimball. For years, week in and week out, Barbara sent notes and cards and articles and pictures to many, many of us, things to inform and brighten our day. Barbara and Dick were our uncommissioned ambassadors, visiting in hospital and homes people who would be cheered by a call. Barbara Kimball is one of those angels of the Lord who make the kindnesses of God real and the lives of the rest of us, better.
I know others of you who are like that, and likely there are a great many more I do not know of; but God knows. And YOUR NAME is in His Book. For you God gives thanks, night and day. Me too.
Pastor Condon
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