Saying good-bye to good soil

Tomorrow morning I will say good-bye to our church. We've gone to Community Mennonite in Markham for six years. Although I'll visit there three or four more times before Cheryl and the boys join me in Montana next summer, after tomorrow I will be more guest than member.

I will give my official good-bye during children's time. Somehow that seems appropriate. Children know how to say good-bye and mean it. When I was ten or eleven, my best friend Danny Snyder stood with me at the end of a country lane near Bloomingdale, Ontario, waiting for my mother to come pick me up. It was the last time we would spend together before my family moved back to the United States. Danny said good-bye by crying. It was a gift I have never forgotten.

The sermon topic for tomorrow is on the soil imagery of Matthew 13:1-9 and 18-23. I will tell the children that there is only one thing I want them to remember about the passage. I will tell them that they need to remember that their church is good soil. And then I will ask them to help me say good-bye to their church.

First, I will read a list of the good, rich soil that has settled in our church. I will describe:
- Shirley's care in telling me about the escapades of her cat every Sunday when I sit next to her in the pew;
- Mertis's unfailing good humor even when she has to stay behind from a family reunion to care for her ailing daughter;
- Martha's evident joy when she starts prayer by clapping for Jesus;
- Paul's ability to draw wisdom from the animals in his life;
- Keith's faithful prayer requests for his clients, neighbors, friends and family;
- Bonnie's ability to make Zach smile by hugging him every time she greets him;
- Lee's willigness to do a new thing by reading scripture in many scripture dramas;
- David's courage to stand up and offer prayer for his family even though he is young;
- Grace's persistence and humor that does not let anyone think too highly of him or herself;
- Chuck's playing of his guitar until the strings break;
- Jocelyn's dancing;
- Steve's Christmas letters;
- Cyneatha's sermons that she gives without notes;
- Ivorie's ability to move us through meetings without breaking a sweat;
- George's smile;
- Laura's and Eric's and Karen's passion for all our youth;
- Delores's care in cutting out job advertisements when I was searching for work.

I will tell the children that the list could go on. There is so much good soil in our church.

But I will then ask them to remember all those people for me and tend them well. I will tell them that I can say good bye better because I know they will be there to grow in the soil that is their church. I can say good-bye because they are there to water and weed, to soak up the sun, to prune, and to bear good fruit. Both gardeners and gardened, the children like all members of the church will tend and be tended. They will do so well. I can say good-bye knowing that I have been so tended and have offered my tending as well.

Tomorrow morning I will say good-bye to our church. I will miss Community Mennonite in Markham. I will miss the good soil there.