Good-bye (sermon text version)

There are a few things in life guaranteed to make me cry. One of them is a good good-bye.

In the movie, The Wizard of Oz, the wizard is in a hot-air balloon floating off to Kansas without Dorothy and Toto. He cries out that he can’t come back because he doesn’t know how it works. Dorothy is left crying there in Oz, perhaps ready to strangle Toto for chasing a cat and preventing her going home in the balloon. She’s crying because it was supposed to be good-bye, but it didn’t end up being good-bye. The balloon and the wizard said good-bye to her. Dorothy is left there…crying. Then Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, shows up.

Dorothy: Oh, will you help me? Can you help me?
Glinda: You don’t need to be helped any longer. You’ve always had the power to go back to Kansas.
Dorothy: I have?
Scarecrow: Then why didn’t you tell her before?

The next thing might have been for Glinda to be honest and say that, well, there wouldn’t have been a book or a movie if she could have gone back right away. No Academy Awards. No film debut of color. Nothin’. But instead Glinda says, “She wouldn’t have believed me. She had to learn it for herself.” Which is probably a bunch of bunk. Dorothy would have caught on right away once clicking those ruby slippers and having that hallucinogenic swirling going on all around her.

And then, there wouldn’t have been that good-bye scene, sure to make me bawl every time.

Dorothy: It’s going to be so hard to say Good-bye. I love you all too.
Good-bye, Tinman. Oh, don’t cry! You’ll rust so dreadfully. Here’s your oil can.
Tin Woodsman: Now I know I’ve got a heart, ’cause it’s breaking…
Dorothy: Good-bye, Lion. I know it isn’t right, but I’m going to miss the way you used to holler for help before you found your courage.
Cowardly Lion: I never would’ve found it if it hadn’t been for you…
Dorothy: [to Scarecrow] I think I’m going to miss you most of all.

And the Scarecrow, having a brain, wisely said nothing.

Paul, in today’s passage, probably wasn’t handing out oil cans to keep people from rusting, but a few hearts were breaking and a few people’s courage was failing. This farewell address would address all of that.

It was a good good-bye.

It was typical of farewell addresses of its time, but is also remarkable in what it teaches us about Paul, about ministry, about faith in Christ, of a life well-lived, and of the value of a good good-bye.

John Steinbeck, in The Winter of Our Discontent, writes “Farewell has a sweet sound of reluctance. Good-by is short and final, a word with teeth sharp to bite through the string that ties past to the future.”

Which sounds remarkably negative. But it not need to be seen as anything more than Good-bye being the hand letting go of the back of the bicycle so the youngster can pedal and experience all the freedom of riding wherever his feet and mind and daylight can take him. The training wheels are gone and Paul’s hand is off the back of the Ephesians elders’ bicycle, so to speak. Good-bye sets everyone free to do God’s will.

I think I’ll read the whole passage for us today and then go back and point out what we learn from this farewell address. To see what God wants us to know about the good Good-bye.

Acts 20:13 We went on ahead to the ship and sailed for Assos, where we were going to take Paul aboard. He had made this arrangement because he was going there on foot. 14 When he met us at Assos, we took him aboard and went on to Mitylene. 15 The next day we set sail from there and arrived off Kios. The day after that we crossed over to Samos, and on the following day arrived at Miletus. 16 Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia, for he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost.

17 From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church. 18 When they arrived, he said to them: “You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. 19 I served the Lord with great humility and with tears, although I was severely tested by the plots of the Jews. 20 You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. 21 I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.

22 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me– the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace. 25 “Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. 26 Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. 27 For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. 28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. 32 “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. 33 I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. 34 You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. 35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'”

36 When he had said this, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. 37 They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him. 38 What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.

Paul knew he was supposed to go to Jerusalem. He was “compelled by the Spirit”. Much like Christ knew He was going to go to Jerusalem and face the Cross. Paul’s ministry was coming to an end. The Good-bye in Miletus where Paul tells the Ephesian elders he won’t be coming back has a beautiful similarity to Luke 9:51 “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.”

Compelled. It’s time. It’s time for good-bye.

Just like our observance of Communion today will be a reminder of Jesus’ saying–at His Last Supper–His final good-bye.

All good ministries end.

And new ministries begin.

Seasons in the life of the Church.

Jesus knew the Church would not born if it weren’t for His death. He was eagerly looking forward to being reunited with His Father in heaven after the satisfaction of His finishing well. Finishing well by dying for human sin on the Cross.

Paul, likewise, is eagerly looking forward to heaven after the satisfaction of a job well done. Paul’s mission was different. A job well done was to have finished the task God gave him of introducing the Gospel to the entire Gentile world.

This good-bye Paul says here is a good one. It has several features. It speaks of:

A life worth imitating v 18 “You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. 19 I served the Lord with great humility and with tears, although I was severely tested by the plots of the Jews.
A Gospel worth proclaiming 20 You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. 21 I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.
An obedience worth pursuing 22 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me– the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.
A warning worth noting 28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. 32 “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. ” A warning finishing with a word of hope. God can protect you, preserve you, and give you an inheritance if you stay the course, persevere, and do what is right! Press on!!
An example worth following 33 I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. 34 You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. 35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'”
A prayer worth remembering 36 When he had said this, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. 37 They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him. 38 What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.

After the Last Supper, Jesus and His disciples sang a hymn and everything was ending with a good Good-bye. It just didn’t seem so to the disciples at the time. Especially as Jesus tells them they’ll all scatter and Jesus gets arrested. It was Good-bye.

The character Peter Pan is often quoted as saying, “Never say good-bye because good-bye means going away and going away means forgetting.” Fortunately that’s fiction.

Good-bye may mean going away, but it doesn’t need to mean forgetting. Because, in our case, we have the Bible to tell us about the life of Christ and the ministry of Paul. It’s written. It’s a forever reminding. The good-bye is just part of it all.

J.D. Salinger’s character Holden Caulfield says in The Catcher in the Rye,

Only, I wasn’t watching the game too much. What I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of good-bye. I mean I’ve left schools and places I didn’t even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don’t care if it’s a sad good-bye or a bad good-bye, but when I leave a place I like to know I’m leaving it. If you don’t, you feel even worse.

You feel worse because it strips things of their meaning when something meant so-much-of-nothing that you didn’t care it was gone.

In a good-bye, one recognizes something’s importance, its value…it celebrates a milestone, marks the moment as having been significant somehow. It leaves one without regrets at never having had the opportunity to say good-bye or to know it was important.

In the movie Field of Dreams, that yes I quote a lot, Dr. Archibald (Moonlight) Graham states this profundity:

It was like coming this close to your dreams… and then watch them brush past you like strangers in a crowd. You know we just don’t recognize the most significant moments of our lives while they’re happening. Back then I thought, well, there’ll be other days. I didn’t realize that that was the only day.

A good good-bye sets significance to a moment. It’s how you’ll be remembered if people never see your face again. For Paul and the Ephesian elders, their last memory was praying together.

People will remember how you left, the manner and disposition of it…even more than the fact of your leaving.

So what about you? When you have the opportunity to choose a good good-bye or a bad one, which do you choose? When leaving the house in the morning and you say good-bye, see-ya-later-alligator to those at home? When you say good-bye at the bus that takes your kids to school or when you drop them off? Easy? To have a good good-bye? Not always. We all have our days.

OK, how about when let go from a job? Will you take the opportunity to launch and poison the watering hole? Leave in a flame of emails or a burst of anger telling everyone exactly what you think? Or will you choose to be remembered for something good? When leaving the hospital while your spouse or a child is stuck there overnight? What will you say to your loved one, the nurses and the doctors, and the person at the visitor’s desk? How about when selling a house? When moving away from neighbors? When leaving a family reunion or your table and your server after dinner at a restaurant? What will be their lasting memory of you, if they never see you again? When leaving a ministry or a church because God has called you elsewhere? Even in Paul’s case like going to Jerusalem knowing that his life is nearing the end.

Paul sets the tone for remembering well by this farewell address. It’s a good good-bye. He reminds the Ephesian elders and us that it’s okay to weep on earth at the parting of friends, but in Christ and in heaven there will be a beautiful reunion for those who follow Jesus and by His forgiveness have eternal life. But moreover to strengthen us for today, we have a written record. So that good-bye may mean leaving but it doesn’t mean forgetting. No oil cans required even if there is a bit of weeping and a few broken hearts. Good-bye can be good even with tears because it’s a mark of love. And it’s a good good-bye.

A good-bye to mark