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Written by: Michael A. Milton 3/29/2008 8:30 PM
No More Sea As I am writing, I am preparing to return to the Kansas City area for a funeral of a 25 year old man who took his own life. He leaves behind a grieving mother and father and extended family. And he leaves behind him a community in shock, with questions, regrets, and fears. I know that community well. I planted the church. I was pastor to that young man and his mother and father. My wife taught him when he was just a wee lad. I will not venture, right now, into the deep, dark inexplicable mysteries of mental illness that drives young people, in particular, below the line of despair. I want to focus with you on another young man in the scene: the pastor of that church. He is a fine pastor and I could not have hand picked a finer pastor to shepherd that flock of Jesus. He led them from vision to reality. If I was the evangelist who cast the vision and scattered the seed, he was the one who stewarded the vision and made the harvest. But this fine young pastor told me, "nothing in seminary prepared me for this." He was shaken. And if you have not conducted a funeral service yet, particularly for a young person, and particularly for a suicide, and particularly for a young man who grew up in the church and whose family were the pillars of the church then you may not fully understand what this pastor meant. I understood. But I had to tell him that in my opinion his seminary (it was not RTS Charlotte or another RTS campus for that matter, but a good school) did, in fact, prepare him for this moment. I told him that in every class, in Systematics he was prepared for this. In NT and OT, in Church History, and in Greek and Hebrew, in Homiletics and in Worship, he was prepared for this. For seminary when it does well prepares us to read the Word, exegete and exposit that Word, and with the ministry of the Holy Spirit, apply that Word to the hurting, broken human condition. We aim to produce what the English Puritans called "doctors of the soul" who can diagnose and treat humanity not just for pastoral care but in a real way for pastoral cure through the Gospel of God's grace in Jesus Christ. He understood. And to be honest he knew that before I said it. I just wanted to encourage him in what he already knew. Which is what I hope you will take away from this as well. Each time I see you walking through the halls, sitting in the library, laughing at the "food chapel" or heading back into class (and I can't wait until I get to be there teaching you), I think, "Soon they will be out there. Soon all of the precious teaching they are receiving here will be given away to six year olds, and sixty year olds, and plumbers and physicians and lawyers and homemakers, singles and married, divorced and wanting-to-be-divorced. And yes even 25 year old believers who are struggling with sin and life and hope and living. Sometimes you will hear the quiet sobs of a mother or a father, that far away existential look of a new widow. I have often heard John Donne's question in my mind at those times, "Thou hast made me and shall They work decaye?" The Gospel never shines brighter than when announced against the black backdrop of death. I read the reflections, recently, of Dr. Craig Barnes on the work of pastoral preaching and I like them: "To fulfill this calling, it is necessary that I as the pastor allow my soul to become the crucible in which the words of the people and the Word of God get mixed together. Only then can I step up to the pulpit with biblical proclamation to these people. When I prepare sermons, I write not detached orations, but pastoral commentaries that continue the sacred conversation between the people and their only Savior." I am praying as I prepare for this funeral. And I am praying for my friend who is there at the church now. I pray that our souls will know some of the anguish, that we might cry out, ourselves, for the Gospel healing that our people will need in order to cross over this sea of despair. "No more sea" is where we are going according to Revelation 21. Until then we live in the places where the deep, unfathomable waves of sorrow and death separate. And so for now we need men and women who know God, have heard His call, have followed Him, have steeped themselves in His truth, and who are willing to cross that sea. And we will need, now and until Jesus comes again, pastors who will shepherd us, in every season of our lives, with the healing word of Jesus Christ. As I finisht this entry, I am returning from Kansas City. And I am praying, "May many Spirit-shaped, theologically driven 'heart and mind' pastors arise from this place;" pastors just like my friend who preached Christ so powerfully and faithfully yesterday.
No More Sea
As I am writing, I am preparing to return to the Kansas City area for a funeral of a 25 year old man who took his own life. He leaves behind a grieving mother and father and extended family. And he leaves behind him a community in shock, with questions, regrets, and fears. I know that community well. I planted the church. I was pastor to that young man and his mother and father. My wife taught him when he was just a wee lad.
I will not venture, right now, into the deep, dark inexplicable mysteries of mental illness that drives young people, in particular, below the line of despair.
I want to focus with you on another young man in the scene: the pastor of that church. He is a fine pastor and I could not have hand picked a finer pastor to shepherd that flock of Jesus. He led them from vision to reality. If I was the evangelist who cast the vision and scattered the seed, he was the one who stewarded the vision and made the harvest. But this fine young pastor told me, "nothing in seminary prepared me for this." He was shaken. And if you have not conducted a funeral service yet, particularly for a young person, and particularly for a suicide, and particularly for a young man who grew up in the church and whose family were the pillars of the church then you may not fully understand what this pastor meant. I understood.
But I had to tell him that in my opinion his seminary (it was not RTS Charlotte or another RTS campus for that matter, but a good school) did, in fact, prepare him for this moment. I told him that in every class, in Systematics he was prepared for this. In NT and OT, in Church History, and in Greek and Hebrew, in Homiletics and in Worship, he was prepared for this. For seminary when it does well prepares us to read the Word, exegete and exposit that Word, and with the ministry of the Holy Spirit, apply that Word to the hurting, broken human condition. We aim to produce what the English Puritans called "doctors of the soul" who can diagnose and treat humanity not just for pastoral care but in a real way for pastoral cure through the Gospel of God's grace in Jesus Christ. He understood. And to be honest he knew that before I said it.
I just wanted to encourage him in what he already knew. Which is what I hope you will take away from this as well. Each time I see you walking through the halls, sitting in the library, laughing at the "food chapel" or heading back into class (and I can't wait until I get to be there teaching you), I think, "Soon they will be out there. Soon all of the precious teaching they are receiving here will be given away to six year olds, and sixty year olds, and plumbers and physicians and lawyers and homemakers, singles and married, divorced and wanting-to-be-divorced. And yes even 25 year old believers who are struggling with sin and life and hope and living.
Sometimes you will hear the quiet sobs of a mother or a father, that far away existential look of a new widow. I have often heard John Donne's question in my mind at those times, "Thou hast made me and shall They work decaye?" The Gospel never shines brighter than when announced against the black backdrop of death. I read the reflections, recently, of Dr. Craig Barnes on the work of pastoral preaching and I like them:
"To fulfill this calling, it is necessary that I as the pastor allow my soul to become the crucible in which the words of the people and the Word of God get mixed together. Only then can I step up to the pulpit with biblical proclamation to these people. When I prepare sermons, I write not detached orations, but pastoral commentaries that continue the sacred conversation between the people and their only Savior."
I am praying as I prepare for this funeral. And I am praying for my friend who is there at the church now. I pray that our souls will know some of the anguish, that we might cry out, ourselves, for the Gospel healing that our people will need in order to cross over this sea of despair. "No more sea" is where we are going according to Revelation 21. Until then we live in the places where the deep, unfathomable waves of sorrow and death separate. And so for now we need men and women who know God, have heard His call, have followed Him, have steeped themselves in His truth, and who are willing to cross that sea. And we will need, now and until Jesus comes again, pastors who will shepherd us, in every season of our lives, with the healing word of Jesus Christ.
As I finisht this entry, I am returning from Kansas City. And I am praying, "May many Spirit-shaped, theologically driven 'heart and mind' pastors arise from this place;" pastors just like my friend who preached Christ so powerfully and faithfully yesterday.
Copyright ©2008 Michael Anthony Milton
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