As we continue to experience the Word of the Lord together, Let us Pray. God of grace, God of glory, help us for this coming hour. We put our trust in you, and we know you to be a faithful God. Use this time to strengthen us, to fill us with your Word, to prepare us for whatever the future holds. We place ourselves in your hands, because we know that you hold the future. If these words are not Your Word, may they be forgotten and come to naught. But if they be Thy Word, may they adhere to our hearts, forever transforming us from glory into glory, into the creatures you would have us be, Thou who art our Rock and Redeemer, Amen.

Hear now The Word of the Lord as it comes to us in the gospel of Mark. Listen.

Mark 9.2-8.

²Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, ³and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. ⁴And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. ⁵Then Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ ⁶He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. ⁷Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!’ ⁸Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.

The Grass withers, the Flower falls, but the Word of the Lord endures forever…Thanks be to God.

Sometimes the sermon is really mostly for a small group of people; maybe it’s a type of people or a group of folks who are acting in one particular manner or who believe some peculiar dogma. Sometimes the sermon is just for an individual. This may be one of those. This one may be for me. I don’t know. When Jeremy informed me that he would be leaving us, I was saddened. And then I became worried. I was worried about how you would react. I know how much he was, no is, loved here. And I worried that you all would be saddened too, because that is what I have felt. I also worried that there would be some sense of panic, perhaps because I felt that in a small manner. When you find good staff, and people who work well together, you want to keep them. Finding good staff who work well together is not as easy as it should be.

However, your reaction has not been that at all. Or if it has, you have been really good about keeping it from me, which is not something I advise. You hopefully are aware that I welcome you talking to me about things, things that frustrate you in the church, even things that I may have done, though that is not the case here. Any way about it, I just have not heard anything that could be called panic. Sure, I have heard your disappointment, coupled with your excitement for Jeremy. But I haven’t heard nary a peep about people leaving over this, nor any fear that the church won’t be the same ever again, nor any regret about starting the search process up again.

So, maybe this one is for me.

Let me give you the Pastor’s view of Jeremy. One of the most important, and often most difficult, relationships in a church can be between that of the pastoral staff and that of the musical staff, especially between the Senior Pastor and the Director of Music Ministries. Sometimes, and I know that none of you will believe this, but I promise that it is true, sometimes a pastor can be a little bit into power. I know. I’m sorry to shock you, but it can happen. And sometimes, and this will be a shock too, a director of music ministries can be a little into the power as well. I’m sorry to let you see the workings behind the curtain, but in the interest of truth, I thought it best to tell you. So, when you find a team that works well, it is a relief to all involved. The sigh of relief can be heard from the office of the Pastor almost as loudly as it can be heard from the office of the Director of Music Ministries, and that almost as loudly as it can be heard from the pews. The folks in the pews always seem to know when the staff is working well together.

And this Pastor had tons of respect for Jeremy’s talent, for his gifts, for his work ethic, for his hours of preparation that most of you didn’t see except for the results on Sunday mornings, for the way he organized the choir, for how much progress he initiated – not only in the choirs, but in our congregational singing. That last one is hard to envision, but ask yourself, do you personally sing better now during hymns than you did 2 years ago. I don’t know the answer to that, but I do know that on the whole the answer is yes, because the congregational singing is much livelier here. All of that however, to me at this point, is secondary to this. Jeremy was great to work with. There was never a power struggle between us, nor was there a time when I had to get on his case to get something done. He was a self-starter who worked well in our team atmosphere of a staff. I will miss his talents, his gifts, his work ethic, his funny personality, his dry wit, but more than that, I will miss working with my friend.

I want life to be like Peter wants it to be. When things are going great, when the presence of God is transfigured right in front of you, I want to build upon that. I want to make shelters, one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah, and just keep building on what is so great. When you’ve got a staff team like Jeremy and Lisa and Melissa, you want to build booths for them, so they will stay.

But it doesn’t happen for Peter, and it doesn’t happen for church staffs. Jesus will not be confined to a particular place for long, nor will the work of the Holy Spirit be confined to keep the same situation for long. The average length of stay for choir directors is roughly 2 years. The average stay for a minister is around 4 years, but don’t get any ideas in your head. You may wish you could get rid of me, but it ain’t happening.

Perhaps it is because it would be so easy to trust the establishment if it were simultaneously good, as well as long established with a sense of permanence. If that were the case, you could be in danger of trusting it and loosing faith in God. Not that NPC is in danger of doing that. You have gone through a good share of change over the years. Maybe that is why so many of you seem to be taking this in stride. You’ve been here, done this, it’s not your first Rodeo Cowboys and Cowgirls. You have learned that there is one constant in the church. No matter who sits at the piano, or sings in the choir, or sits in the pew, or stands in the pulpit, one thing is certain. Jesus will be here every Sunday, and that is what we come here for, not the staff.

But I want to look at Peter a little closer. We’re going to cover what I call God’s timing in a couple of weeks during a series I call Four Things that Really Annoy me About God, beginning next week, but for now I want to look at how the gospel of Mark reads. Peter suggests the dwellings, because he didn’t know what to say. It was an amazing site, and Peter does what he does best, speak first, think later. Fortunately, none of us is guilty of such a fault. But Mark informs us as to why Peter says this, which the other accounts of the transfiguration leave out. Verse 6, “He did not know what to say, for they were terrified.” In Matthew they fall down in awe because they hear God’s voice saying “This is my beloved Son…listen to him;” the awe has little to do with the inspiration to make dwellings. In Luke, they didn’t know what to say, so Peter suggests the booths. Again, they only become afraid when a cloud comes over them and the voice of God speaks. But in Mark the fear is attached to the suggestion to make the dwellings, to keep Jesus, Moses and Elijah right at that particular spot.

Mark writes that Peter suggests staying on the mountain top, keeping things status quo, working and building to make sure nobody leaves, all out of fear. Perhaps this is why I’m not hearing many of you about Jeremy being gone. You aren’t afraid. You have faith, you know that Jesus is the reason you come to church, not whom you see in the red seats with you nor whom you see in the seats up here, and you are fine with that. Sounds like you got there before I did. Good for you. Thanks for waiting for me.

We’re going to be fine folks. We’ll miss Jeremy, but I am thankful for his time with us. I think we benefited greatly from his being here, if only for about the average stay of a choir director. We learned and we grew, and for that I am thankful. And I think we also learned that we can afford to be patient enough to hire only the best, which is what we promise to do. We place our trust in the God who is always faithful, who is at this moment simultaneously preparing us and our new music director for our time together, whenever that is fit as God’s timing. In the meantime, Jesus will be here every Sunday. Amen.