The Rev. Dr. Maynard Pittendreigh
Senior Pastor
August 17, 2003
The Final Sermon Of Dr. Pittendreigh As The Senior Pastor Of Sunrise Church
Numbers 6:22-27
22 The LORD said to Moses,
23 "Tell Aaron and his sons, ’This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:
24 "’ "The LORD bless you and keep you;
25 the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26 the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace." ’
27 "So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them."
(NIV)
And so it comes to this.
My last opportunity to preach a sermon to the Sunrise Presbyterian Church as its Senior Pastor.
My last word!
There is in the worship service a time each week for the minister to get in the “last word.”
It is the Benediction.
Now, ministers are not the only ones who give Benedictions. Most of us give them all the time.
When my son was younger and I would drive him to school, I would always tell him as he got out of the car – “Be good.” A Benediction.
My wife, as many of you know, has already gone to Georgia because she had to start work several days ago. We talk on the telephone every night and we always end the conversation with “I love you.” A Benediction.
I believe I may have mentioned my mother’s favorite Benediction that she would give to me when I was in high school. As I would leave the house she would say, “Now don’t forget who you are.” To which I would always love to reply, “Aw Mom, how could I forget a name like Maynard Pittendreigh?”
Of course, she was not afraid that I would forget the name, but rather that while I was out there at school, or in the ball park, or with a crowd, or alone on a date, that I would forget my values.
“Don’t forget who you are” – A Benediction.
I remember that as a Seminary student and then as a newly ordained minister, many things made me feel uncomfortable as I entered the ministry.
I remember the first several times I did a Baptism – I was so uncomfortable. I wondered, what would happen if I drop the baby? Or worse, what if the diaper is loose and that baby tries to baptize me back?
I remember how silly I felt the first time I put on a pulpit robe. It took a while for that to feel natural.
And I also remember the first time I gave the Benediction!
I lifted my hands up in the air – and I felt silly.
The Benediction is the only time in a Presbyterian service that we are called upon as ministers to do something physical, besides stand, sit or speak.
If I were Roman Catholic or Episcopalian or Lutheran, there would be all sorts of liturgical actions.
When the minister in the Episcopalian Church receives the offering from the ushers, he or she takes it, raises the plates into the air as a prayer is said.
In leading certain prayers, the minister will turn with the back to the congregation and face the altar.
In reading from the Old Testament or the Epistle, the minister will read from one side of the chancel, but when reading the Gospel, the minister will walk to the other side of the chancel.
But in our tradition the only time I have to do anything with my hands is at the Benediction.
And if you think that wearing a pulpit robe feels silly the first time you wear one, try giving the Benediction and doing THIS…
In fact, when I was in seminary some of us felt so awkward about giving the Benediction that we tried to use humor to dispel our discomfort. We watched other ministers give the benediction and we produced a lengthy catalog of the various ways to hold our hands while delivering the benediction
You are probably familiar with these styles.
There is the STORM TROOPER.
The BOY SCOUT.
The ever popular STICK ‘EM UP.
And the lesser-known FRANKENSTIEN.
And there was one we called the GIVE ME A HUG Benediction, which now that I’ve been to Sunrise Church, I think I would now call the MARY ANN ENGEL BENEDICTION.
I suspect, however, that there was more to it than that. Students of ministry feel embarrassed when asked to deliver the Benediction early in their career, not just because they have to hold their hands in a certain way, but because they are called upon to say words that have a very special meaning and power.
“And the word of God to Moses…
and to those of us in the ministry today…
Tell Aaron, tell the ministers….
Give the people a Benediction, a blessing.
Say to them: The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you
and give you peace.”
Young seminary students and ministers early in their career feel uncomfortable and often embarrassed. And the reason can’t be because we have to hold our hands in a certain way. It has to be more to it than that.
Maybe one of the sources of our embarrassment as young ministers came from the fact that we were afraid that the Benediction had become for many people an empty ritualistic action, void of meaning.
After all, those of us who give the Benediction are up here with our arms spread out, proclaiming the blessing of God and at the same time, most folks are out in the pews folding bulletins, putting the hymnbooks back into the pew racks, and stuffing life savers into their purses.
Tom Long, my preaching professor from my seminary days, has observed that for many of us in the ministry, there is a fear that the benediction has become nothing more than a way of saying, “The service is over, time to go home, good-bye.”
Those of us who are preachers, sometimes wonder if the Benediction inside the Sanctuary has become as meaningless as the Benediction outside the Sanctuary,
Which of course is GOOD-BYE,
Which used to be GOD BYE
Which used to be GOD – BE WITH YOU.
And so, ministers feel uncomfortable.
We don’t like to waste our time with things that are meaningless, and there is the haunting doubt that what the Benediction has become is something meaningless.
But no. That’s not all of it.
I don’t think that is the complete answer either.
We who are ministers feel embarrassed by the Benediction, and the reason has to be more than because we are called upon to do something with our hands, or because SOME people don’t take its meaning seriously.
I suspect that the real reason why I am uncomfortable with the Benediction is not because I’m afraid that some of you DON’T take it seriously, but rather because I DO take this act of worship so seriously.
Because I know that when I am delivering these words, I am delivering something special and powerful, something that is not really mine to give.
The Benediction is unique. It is not simply a prayer. It is more than a prayer.
In a prayer, I ask God for something. But in a Benediction, I don’t ask for anything. I TAKE something from God without asking and I GIVE it to you.
My God! No wonder I fell so uncomfortable with the benediction. Because I am called upon to give what is not mine to give, the very blessing of Almighty God.
Karl Barth, a theologian, once remarked about preaching, but he could have been talking about the benediction, said, “The only appropriate attitude that we can have is one of embarrassment. There we stand in front of the people. Waiting. Expectant. And we are the ones whom they have called to give them the ones whom they have called to give them the one thing that they need and the one thing that we do not have and cannot possess – the Word of God. We are never weaker. We are never more vulnerable. We are never more dependent on the action of God that we are at that point.”
And God said to Moses…
You tell the ministers.
Give the people a blessing.
Many ministers would say that this is something they cannot do, that they cannot presume to be so bold as to pronounce the blessing of God.
Several years ago, I attended a Presbytery meeting and there was a motion to congratulate one of our churches for something they had accomplished. The motion called for the moderator of the Presbytery to convey to the people of that congregation “the blessings of God.”
Well, one of the ministers stood and spoke against the motion. He was indignant that anyone could ever think they could convey God’s blessing on anyone else.
And yet, that is what the benediction is all about.
God said to Moses…
You tell the ministers.
Tell them to give the people a blessing.
AND I MYSELF WILL BLESS THEM.
Peter DeVries, in his novel, THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB, presents a thinly disguised autobiography. In THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB, there is a father who loses a daughter to Leukemia, paralleling an event in the author’s own life. In the book, the father is raised in a strict conservative Christian home, but as an adult he departs from his religious upbringing.
As a college student, this man wrote in the campus magazine, “I think we ought to get rid of this silly crutch of religion. After all, we’re supposed to go through life standing on our own two feet.”
But later in this novel, life kicks him down as his daughter battles hopelessly against leukemia, and in the final pages of this book, the father is called to the hospital room for one final visit.
When he walks into the room, a nurse is taking blood pressure. She whispers – “Almost none. Just a short time now.”
He and the nurse step outside of the room for just a moment. She tries to be comforting. “Maybe it’s better now. After all, now her dreams will all be peaceful.”
But the father is empty.
He walks to be bedside.
He doesn’t know what to do.
His daughter has only moments to live.
He reaches out to touch her.
He touches the wounds where the needles have been.
He caresses her hair.
He touches the childish face that will never grow up.
He wants so much to say something.
He wants to give her some words of comfort for her last journey.
He wants to give her one last gift.
But he has nothing to say.
He has nothing to give.
And out of his emptiness and beyond himself, he reaches back to his childhood and remembers a phrase. And the father gives the only think he knows to say.
“My little lamb.
The Lord bless and keep you.
The Lord make his face to shine upon you
and be gracious to you…”
In the benediction, I give what I do not have. I give what is not mine to give.
This is an important day for me. I’ve preached in this pulpit over 500 times. Today is the last day I will get to do that. Over the last several days, I’ve said good-bye a lot.
But right now I want to give you something more, than just a good-bye.
I feel awkward. I feel foolish. I feel embarrassed.
I want to give you something that is not mine to give, but I give it anyway, because I believe the promise.
I believe that even as I say these words, God himself will bless you.
I invite you, the congregation of Sunrise Presbyterian Church, to stand and to receive the Blessing, which God Himself will give to you.
May the Lord Bless you
And keep you.
The LORD make his face shine upon you
And be gracious to you;
The LORD turn his face toward you
And give you peace.
