A PASTORAL LETTER

Dearest family,

Let me begin with words of thanks to all of you for being such supportive and committed members of our spiritual community. It was so wonderful to have a full house on Sunday for our remembrance of the person, not the church, Christ Our Shepherd. The common loaf and cup just say afresh to us what Jesus said of himself: “I am the good shepherd…I lay down my life for the sheep.” Our focus was not on people, though we do honor those who have faithfully served this body over the years, but on Jesus, who invites us to his meal of celebration. Nothing could possibly embody more effectively what church is all about, and has been all about these past 25 years as communion: about waiting for and on Jesus, and about waiting for and on one another.

Thank you for being one of those sheep in this fold, this flock, this pasture, that is committed to do the two things that Jesus said his sheep would always do: hear his voice and follow in his footsteps. I also want to give a special thanks to those who attended the all-night of prayer from 10:00pm-6:00am. What a great and essential way to celebrate an anniversary. As usual, no one could believe how quickly the time sped by, as the prayer burdens were shared by all, and intercession was nonstop. There was a particularly intense two hours of prayer for the children and the next generation, which is only fitting as we consider the next 25 years. I would also like to express thanks to all of you who have spoken to, texted, emailed or phoned Celia and I with your words of encouragement, and your response to Sunday. As you’ve often heard me say, we are all in need of encouragement. It has meant so much to us and strengthens us to continue to “press on”. Although we are “under-shepherds” at best, the most important designation of our lives is less the descriptor “pastor” than it is “sheep”. Together with you, over all these years, as we have raised our six children in the context of this community, it has been the experience of being “just another family” in a loving context of kind, nurturing and supportive fellowship and friendship, that has blessed us and formatively shaped our lives and loves.

As a very brief meditation, we noted some of the constituent elements of Paul’s stock-taking in Phils.3:12- 14: his humility in inviting a true evaluation of his life; his intense focus on what mattered most; his consuming longing and desire for God’s future on God’s terms. He could stretch and strain for what was ahead because he was also standing firm and anchored in the non-negotiable realities of what Christ’s cross had accomplished in the past, and of what Christ’s coming would accomplish for the future. Our dependence is not on our history or what we have established in terms of constituted church life, but on the same verities that Paul depended on. We have never allowed any talk about “founders” at COSC. We don’t have any “aristocrats” or “landed gentry”! As scripture tells us, there is no other foundation laid than that which is laid in Jesus Christ. Our church life began with a three year exposition of the book of Ephesians, known as the “queen of the epistles” because it is the heart of Paul’s exposition and experience of the church. This was key foundation-laying for COSC. What could be a better and more desirable description of us than this: “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him too you are being built up together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.” (Ephs.2:19-22) Sounds like a church I would want to be part of, and we still want to become and remain!

Anniversaries are wonderful events if they serve to recover a God-worshiping, Christ-exalting spiritual remembrance rather than just a self-affirming sentimental reminiscence. I mentioned that there are two equal and opposite, necessary responses to the past according to scripture: knowing what and how to remember, and knowing what and how to forget. So we find ourselves at a moment like this, after 25 years, on a very fine pivot. The holy remembrance of the past provokes worship and thanksgiving, maybe tears as well as laughter; but to ensure that we don’t just become complacent or self-satisfied, there is a forgetting of the past, including victories and successes, that spurs us to consider only what is yet to be attained, the work that is yet to be done, the incompletions that we strive to yet see fulfilled, the immaturity that we yet long to mature, the latent that we yet want to become patent, the future hopes and expectations that we yet want to become the experience of our present reality That describes how I feel at a time like this, exactly.

Talking of maturity, after 25 years, how mature are we? After Paul encourages us to take inventory: to have a correct evaluation of ourselves, to have a concentrated focus on God’s future, to have a consuming desire for Jesus, he adds: “All of us who are mature should take such a view of things.” (Phil.3:15) My prayer is that our response to the past we that have been so blessed to experience these past 25 years, in both our holy remembering and holy forgetting, will indeed be the mark and the manifestation of our maturity. Indeed we’re on the way, and not arrived. Indeed we’re looking forward and not back. Indeed we’ve had our lions and bears, but we want God to give us our Goliaths.

Finally, let’s take heed to the maternity ward of this work of God that is COSC. It was originally born out of a prayer meeting in the basement of a DC apartment building, as a few scattered sheep fervently asked God to plant churches in DC. 25 years ago there was no where near the variety and diversity of church life that we have now. God has answered those prayers. COSC was born out of a prayer meeting in 1987 with a distinctive call to the District. The acquisition of our present building, our placement in this geography was born out of an all-church period of 40 days of prayer and fasting 11 years later, in 1998. Every step over these years has been a walk of faith in response to a word from the Lord, not a decision made on the basis of resources we had. As we walked, God provided. Nothing has changed church! We cannot lose either God -revealed vision or this DNA of faith. The remembrance of our roots reminds us of what will be as crucial for future advances and possession. What is obtained in prayer can only be sustained by prayer. What is born in miracle can only be maintained by miracle. What is the work of faith can only continue to work by faith.

One of the foundational scriptures the Lord gave us way back at the beginning was Isaiah 37:31: “Once more a remnant…will take root below and bear fruit upward.” What is true for private personal life holds good for public corporate life: take care of the hidden life and God will take care of the evident life. If there’s no root there will be nothing but leaves and no fruit. Maybe I’ll see you at the next night of prayer as we seek God together for this next season of COSC’s life. The three priorities for COSC’s life are: ASK, ASK and ASK!

And don’t forget….we’re going to remove the pews so you may want to donate a chair so you have something to sit on. There’s nothing worse than sitting cross-legged on the floor through one of Bo’s long sermons!

Still pastorally yours,

Stuart

http://www.christourshepherd.org/pastlet.htm (and follow links to download MP3 audio of sermon)