Gone in a Flash

The pastor’s study here at the church is beginning to look a little bare.  The books are off the shelves and into cartons ready to be taken to a new place.  The desk and file drawers are empty and pictures have come down from the walls.  The children’s art from the gallery just outside the door has been carefully stowed and will be a precious reminder of one of the very good things about being pastor at Park. 

I’m leaving with fewer packed boxes than when I arrived in June of 1998.  I’ve culled some old books from my library, but mostly the fewer boxes are the result of fewer files and folders.  In fact, copies of all the sermons preached, all the classes taught, all the meetings moderated and mission trips organized; every ABC booklet published and funeral planned are stored on a single flash drive.
A flash drive, if you’re not familiar with them, is small device about size of a key.  It plugs into your computer and you can download, well, you can download a gigabyte worth of sermons and lesson plans and meeting notes onto a flash drive. 

Nearly ten years gone in a flash.  My ministry at Park Presbyterian Church dangling from the ring it shares with the key in the ignition as I drive from one end of the Pennsylvania Turnpike to the other. 

But, of course, ministry and our lives in the Kingdom are not measured in bytes of information stored on a flash drive.  In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul wrote, “we have this treasure in jars of clay.”  The treasure to which he was referring is the gospel, the life-changing good news of God’s redeeming love in Jesus Christ.  We are the jars of clay, of little import or beauty, save for the precious treasure they contain.    

The treasure Becky and I, just a couple of clay jars, will carry from Beaver to Langhorne is measured in those lives that have been turned toward God and those that have been drawn closer to Christ and the Kingdom.  In fact it is measured in the Word preached and heard.  It is measured in classes taught and lessons learned.  It is measured in meetings attended and plans accomplished. It is measured in dreams dreamed and dreams fulfilled.  We carry a rich treasure from Beaver to our new lives in Langhorne. 

But the currency of Kingdom treasure is human.  Human lives and hearts and tears and embraces.  It is God glorified and enjoyed in the living of earth-bound lives.  

Thank you for sharing the journey and your lives with us.  We love you. 

See you Sunday.