Sam Clemance

Reading a blog post recently about Pastor Fred Winters who was shot in the middle of his sermon on March 8, 2009 left me thinking. If I knew I were about to preach my last sermon what would I say? This question about what we would say or do in our last moments is nothing new. We almost obsess over the idea. We even make note of the last words that come from people’s mouth looking for some sort of inspiration. Last words have been in some cases ironic such as those of General John Sedgwick “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist . . .” just before he was killed during the US Civil War. In other cases filled with regret such as in the case of Leonardo da Vinci “I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have.” Still others are just deep such as Henry Ward Beecher who said “Now comes the mystery.”

Christians all over the world pay the ultimate price for their faith daily. Still this time it hit close to home. Being a pastor in North America myself this tragedy really caught my attention. And only a month before Easter no less. The time that we set aside each year to remember the sacrifice of Christ on the cross for our sin. Even in His last words on the cross He demonstrated His dedication and resolve to do the will of the Father as He cried out “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” (Luke 23:46)

In what are some of the apostle Paul’s final recorded words he says to Timothy “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day–and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:7-8) To borrow from that old song “oh how I want to be in that number,” to be counted among those who didn’t just coast into eternity or try to scrape their way into Heaven but fought, and ran, and in the end lived every day in the light of eternity. I want to live like Christ with His mantra “the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” (John 5:19) In the end I want to have fulfilled the purposes of God.

To his housekeeper who begged for his last words so that she could record them, Karl Marx said “Go on, get out – last words are for fools who haven’t said enough.” Unlike Marx I want my dying words to be one’s of praise to God, however when I breathe that last breath I want to be empty of purpose. I want to have nothing left to say, nothing left to do, no unfinished business. I want to be able to look back on my life knowing that I had accomplished everything that God has called me to. And I want the first words that I hear to be “well done good and faithful servant.”

Orriginally written for The Camrose Canadian