As notice of the retirement party invitations go out it is clear that my tenure here as minister of the Amber Congregational Church is rapidly coming to an end. My last fulltime day is September 30, although I will be parttime for a month or so until your next minister, James Vespoli, begins in November. This inevitability has me looking back over the forty years we have been here in Amber, and in doing so my mind went immediately to Psalm 84 and the thoughts of finding a home.
When we moved here in 1984 we were looking for a home. One of the first church pamphlets that we wrote for local distribution began, “We are proud of our community and glad to be a part of Amber, New York. To us, it is home - a place to settle down and raise a family; to sink down roots; and grow strong together.” That is exactly what we have done. We raised four children in this town, this church, this parsonage. It has truly been the home that like the sparrow’s nest has been the place where we have raised our young.
But as appropriate as the words of Psalm 84:3 may seem to us, this psalm is not really about finding a hometown, a house, or a piece of property. What is being sung here is the fact that God, “the LORD Almighty,” is who our “soul yearns for” and our “heart and flesh cry out for,” indeed nothing meets our inner longing except “the living God”(84:2). The primary place Psalm 84 sings about is the place of worship, “How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty” (84:1). In a real sense any location can be home if God is recognized and worshiped there.
Amber Church has provided that place for us, and all of you are the “blessed” who “dwell in God’s house and are ever praising him” (84:4). Oh, there have been some difficult times when we have “passed through the valley of weeping,”but those times have made it “a place of springs,” where we have been able to “go from strength to strength” (84:6-7). Without question we can sing, “better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere” (84:10). And as our time as your minister draws to a close, we still stand united together as worshipers of God. The conclusion of this Psalm is then a fitting final word for all of us; “the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. O LORD Almighty, blessed are the people who trust in you”(84:11-12).
Our time together is not over. Instead of standing in the front on a Sunday morning I will be sitting in the pew with you. We will continue to share this home, this place of worship. And I can think of no better thing to say then to repeat my standard closing line to each ShoreLight article, “See you in Worship.”
Rick
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