Reporting Again For Active Duty

Today brings us an entire week into a new year. A week before the new year began my grandson and I were discussing the calendar. I pointed out to him that we operate with the Gregorian calendar rather than the Julian. He had never heard of this. So I told him to Google it. He immediately grabbed his iPhone, went to the Net and came up with some kind of answer. When I pushed him, he indicated he was not that interested in the topic and we left it for another.

We Christians have also entered the wonderful season of Epiphany, that time when we remember the coming of the Magi from the east to worship the infant Jesus. Thus, at the very beginning of the Gospel of Matthew and the New Testament, we are reminded that the Good News of Jesus is for all men. It is not reserved merely for the Israelites, as important as they are in the history of God's grace.

So I personally find it significant that tomorrow I will be meeting with a group of leaders from a new congregation of Lutheran Christians in Montgomery, Texas. We will be discussing my role as a temporary or interim pastor in assisting them with the task of spreading the Gospel in that part of this vast world.

Yes, you heard me right. I'm temporarily moving back into more active pastoral ministry after being retired, if you will, for the past eight years. Like the world around us, we pastors (presbyters, priests, clergy) have adopted the term retirement. It is not a Biblical term. There's no Biblical record of prophets, priests, apostles or pastors ever retiring. What does the term mean then? Here are a few current definitions:

• retire - go into retirement; stop performing one's work or withdraw from one's position; "He retired at age 68"
• retire - withdraw: pull back or move away or backward; "The enemy withdrew"; "The limo pulled away from the curb"
• retire - withdraw from circulation or from the market, as of bills, shares, and bonds
• retire - adjourn: break from a meeting or gathering; "We adjourned for lunch"; "The men retired to the library"
• make (someone) retire; "The director was retired after the scandal"
• retire - dispose of (something no longer useful or needed); "She finally retired that old coat"
• retire - lose interest; "he retired from life when his wife died"
• retire - put out: cause to be out on a fielding play
• retire - cause to get out; "The pitcher retired three batters"; "the runner was put out at third base"
• retire - go to bed: prepare for sleep; "I usually turn in at midnight"; "He goes to bed at the crack of dawn"

I haven't been put out at third or even second base during this time. I'm too old for baseball anyway. I haven't been sleeping. I haven't withdrawn completely from the battle. I certainly was not forced to retire. I did retire from full-time, remunerated ministry at the age of 67. Sylvia and I did begin to draw from funds set aside for both of us by the organizations we served and by the U.S. government (e.g. Social Security). Consequently, I did not spend all my time in the service of a local or national church. I began to pursue other interests, like writing this Blog. But now I'm returning to a more active role in a local congregation. Does that mean I'm "un-retiring"? You decide.

So check in from time to time. In this new year I plan to chronicle what that means for me, for Sylvia and our family, and for the people I'll be serving. Perhaps we can all learn some things together.