Mutter, Kevin F.

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Mourning the Loss of a Leader

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 21Issue 2 Aspects of Ecumenity Article 711-1-1995Mourning the Loss of a LeaderKevin F. MutterFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Sermons is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationMutter, Kevin F. (1995) "Mourning the Loss of a Leader," Consensus: Vol. 21 : Iss. 2 , Article 7.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol21/iss2/7Mourning the Loss of a LeaderKelvin F. MutterMinister, the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec,and Graduate Student, Cambridge, OntarioThis message was originally given to a congregation on theSunday following a vote which dismissed their pastor. The orig-inal sermon was given extemporaneously. The text which ap-pears is a transcript taken from the audiotape and edited forprint. To protect the identities of those who were involved inthese events all names and places have been deleted.Text: Deuteronomy 34About three years ago I heard a guest speaker remark thatwhen a speaker comes to a gathering under special circum-stances he or she has three choices. The first is to acknowledgethe occasion which brings the speaker to that place and to tryto do something to address it. The second is to ignore the oc-casion altogether and do whatever he or she wants to do. Thethird is to acknowledge the occasion which brings the speakerto that place and then to do her or his own thing and ignore itanyway. When I received the phone call from the chairman ofyour board last Friday morning I gave a lot of thought to thosethree options. This morning I believe it is in the best interestsand the health of this congregation to choose the first route.For this reason I wish to state openly to you this morningthat I have been friends with members of this congregation onand off for fourteen years. I have known your pastor, your pastpastor, for eleven years. For the last three years or so I havebeen aware of the fact that there have been times of difficultyin this congregation. It is those times of difficulty which havecome to completion, as it were, and have brought about thisoccasion when, on this Sunday morning, the man who has beenyour pastor for a number of years is not here and I ani here96 Consensusin his place. I recognize that at times like these emotions rundeep and emotions are strong. Members of the congregationhave feelings toward each other as well as towards themselvesconcerning the events which have brought this thing to pass. Iam not here today to cast judgement. I do not want to be heretoday to take sides. But I do believe that God’s Word has aword for us this morning.As I prayed and thought about my being here with youtoday I was reminded of the words which are recorded inDeuteronomy chapter 34 and I would encourage you to openyour Bible to this passage. This will not be a deep, as in heavy,scripture lesson this morning. But I want to present you withsome possibilities as to what God’s Word might be saying tothis community of faith in this time of change.To begin with, however, I would like to acknowledge anunspoken question concerning the relevance of this passage.It is entirely possible that some of you may be thinking, “Butthat was then and we are us, their circumstances were differentfrom ours. How then can we relate to this Bible story when thecircumstances are so different?” To this I say, yes, there aredifferences which need to be taken into account. Specifically,there are two critical ways in which the circumstances of thepeople of Israel in Deuteronomy 34 are different from yourcircumstances as a congregation of people.The one way in which their circumstances are different, I’mjust going to put it out for you to acknowledge it, can be seen inthe fact that their leader died. And the leader of your church,however you wish to describe it, is still alive. He may not behere, but he lives in this community. They had a. grave, youdon’t. They would never see Moses again. You, however, mayrun into your former pastor at the Mall, or on the streets.The second critical difference between the situation of thepeople of Israel in Deuteronomy 34 and this congregation todayis that Israel had a leader designate. Deuteronomy makes itvery clear, and the early chapter of Joshua makes it very clear,that Joshua had already been designated as the next leader ofIsrael. They knew who was going to lead them next. You as acongregation, however, do not know. There is an uncertaintyin that regard. You do not know who your next pastor will be.Those are the two key differences.Mourning 97There are, however, a number of similarities, four in fact,between their situation and yours. The first and most obvioussimilarity is the fact that this congregation, as with the expe-rience of Israel in Deuteronomy 34, has experienced the loss ofa leader. Someone who was there no longer is. And that is achange.The second thing which I note from this passage, and I noteit especially in verse eight which says that “The sons of Israelwept for Moses” and it speaks of “the weeping and mourning”.I notice that there is a sense of communal grief. The people ofIsrael at the time at which Moses died, as a group of people—not just individuals but as a group of people—experienced com-munal grief. I haven’t had a chance to talk with all of you thismorning but I know those I have talked with feel a sense ofgrief. As I look out on the congregation I can see signs of grief.Some of you are in shock, others are weeping. This is a com-mon experience at times like this. From my knowledge of othercongregations who have gone through similar processes I knowthat there is a sadness which settles in on the entire group ofpeople. This is an important similarity.Thirdly, I notice by implication that the people of Israelneeded a time of healing. It says that “the children of Israelwept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days”. I wouldlike to suggest that this congregation will also need time forhealing.And the fourth key similarity between the experience of thepeople of Israel and the experience of this congregation is thefact that the people of Israel had not yet reached the promisedland. They needed to move on and do God’s will. There is aneed in this congregation to move on as well.Having, therefore, acknowledged these similarities I wouldlike to reflect purposefully on Deuteronomy chapter 34 verse 8to see what it might sa}^ to this congregation as God’s peoplein this time in your life. I would like to explore it a little deeperto discover some additional insights into its message for us.I would like to begin where the text begins with this phrase“the children of Israel wept for Moses”. “The children of Is-rael”, the people, the community, wept for Moses. And thatimplies in my mind a public acknowledgement of the loss.Those who study grief and loss note that one of the impor-tant aspects of grief and loss is the importance of being open.98 ConsensusPeople experience loss differently. Some experience it as re-morse, others as betrayal, some with deep anguish, and others !with deep anger. Some have momentary relief and others set-tle into shock and don’t know what they are even feeling. Animportant first step for healing for an individual who is in griefis to be able to say I have had a loss and I feel that loss.When I read Deuteronomy 34:8, and I see that the childrenof Israel wept for Moses in the Plains of Moab, I see the com-jmunity of Israel saying to themselves and to each other, “We 'have had a loss and we feel that loss.” There is an opennessabout the loss.A few years ago I was at one of our sister churches whentheir pastor left in the midst of conflict. I remember therecame a time when we were able to say, “We have had a lossand we feel that loss.” Healthy grief and healthy healing movefrom anger and pointing of fingers, move from blaming, movefrom self-critical remorse, move from beating ourselves overthe back, move from the shallowness of relief, move from thestunned feelings of shock, and we begin by saying “I hurt be-cause I have lost something.” I invite you right now to say thatcjuietly to yourself. You don’t have to say it out loud, rathersay it to yourself in the pew, quietly, mentally, “We have hada loss in the family and I feel it.” (silence)The second thing that I see in this passage is that the griefwas a community experience. I know some of you from othersituations. I know that you are a people who are acquaintedwith family grief. You know that there is a tendency in grieffor people to withdraw from other people and become isolated.But when I look at the events recorded in Deuteronomy 34:8I see that in some way, in some measure, the community wasworking together to work through this grief experience as agroup of people. I have found in my work as a pastor that thisis one point where people often stumble. We leave individu-als to cope for themselves without support. But even worse,our culture has made people so expendable that organizationssometimes just pick up the pieces and keep on going as if theperson who is gone never even existed! Communities of people,like individuals, need to work through their grief. This requiresthat they work together.This brings me to the third point which I see in Deuteron-omy 34:8, namely, that the people of Israel wept in the plainsMourning 99of Moab for thirty days. It took them time. They didn’t getover it overnight. The loss of Moses was so significant that ittook time to adjust to the new reality that he was gone. Re-member, Moses had stood up against Pharaoh. Moses had ledthe people for forty years. Moses had met God face to face onthe mountain, and Moses had dared to intercede for the peoplewhen God was angry with them. Moses was a powerful leader,and he left a powerfully big hole.For some people that hole may have left them wondering“What next?” For others it may have seemed like a goldenopportunity, “Finally, he’s gone!” Remember, Moses was notuniversally popular. He also had his detractors and people whowere upset with him. Yet as I read our text I see that thosesame people were bound by the same process which took therest of the people thirty days to mourn as a community. Thegroup together, working together, finding healing together, notby rapidly stepping out and doing some new thing and gettingon with it, but finding the roots of healing by being humbleand honest with each other.They waited, they took time, they resisted the temptationto press forward. Canaan waited for them! But they waitedto grieve. Joshua waited for them! And they waited to grieve.Those thirty days during which they remained in that placewere critical to them as a community. Those thirty days helpedthem find their identity without Moses. Those who loved himand those who resented him both had to confront the fact thathe was no longer a part of their lives. They had decisions tomake. Decisions as to where they were going to go in God’sname, and what they were going to do in God’s name. I urgeyou as a congregation to be sensitive to each other and to waiton each other during this time of change.As I look on this verse I am aware of a fourth point whichwe need to consider. The text says: “They wept for Moses inthe plains of Moab.” I don’t know how familiar you are withthe history of the Book of Numbers. But the plains of Moabwere not exactly one of the places where Israel had enjoyedsuccess. According to the Book of Numbers the king of Moabbecame scared when Israel came into the plains of Moab. Forthis reason, we are told, he tried to recruit a prophet fromAssyria names Balaam to come and curse them. While thisprophet didn’t succeed in cursing Israel, Balaam did tell the100 Consensusking how he could cause the people of Israel to disobey Godand sin. Thus we read how the women of Moab enticed the menof Israel so that they committed fornication with the womenof Moab. The plains of Moab were a place of great ambiguityfor the people of Israel. It was a place where they had sinnedand suffered embarrassment. It was a place where they hadstruggled with their own sins and many had died.Yet the plains of Moab were also the place where theygrieved the loss of their leader. I find it intriguing that it wasin the place where they had sinned that they took the time togrieve Moses’ death. I think that this suggests something verysignificant for us as a people of God, namely, that before God’speople can move on we need to be able to stop and pause andconsider our own personal history.Many of you are aware of my connection with one of oursister churches when they went through a process similar tothe one you have just gone through. What some of you maynot know is that four years ago I was in the same position thatyoiii former pastor is in today. I am not going to make anycomments about him, rather I want to say something aboutmyself. Part of my personal healing came when I took thetime to stop, think and reflect on my own walk with God, myactions, and my place in what had happened. Healing camewhen, in that place, I sought God’s forgiveness, and began toask “How might I reach out again to others?”,including thosewith whom I had worked. That has been the process whichGod has brought me through. It began with me on my own“plains of Moab”. So I speak to you as one who has been there.I know it is hard. But it is in that place where God’s Spiritreaches down to us with the cup of cold water and restores oursouls.Today you feel defeat. Today you feel the burden of thedecisions which have been made. There is a certain sense ofdiscomfort that comes when you think too much on the eventswhich have brought you to this place. But it is to the humbled,the disheartened, and the broken that our Lord extends forgive-ness, healing and life. Remember it was out of the brokennesswhich followed Peter’s denial of Christ that Jesus called himto feed his lambs.Simply put, Jesus Christ, the living resurrected Son of God,the Alpha and Omega, is the one who makes old things newMourning 101' again. I therefore urge you all literally to fix your eyes upon“ that cross. I urge you to learn from the life of our Lord JesusChrist and to reflect on what his life, his death, his resurrection,i his ministry means to you, and to take the life which he offersij as nourishment to your souls.iThe final point which I wish to draw from our passage isisimply this: the last half of Deuteronomy 34:8 says, “The daysiof weeping and mourning for Moses came to an end.” SomeIpeople are afraid to take the time because they are afraid itIwill never end. But an end does come. The time comes whenI the person gets up out of their chair, up on their feet and theyIsay, “Now is the time!” I know that there are concerns in thiscongregation for healing and getting on. I say to those forwhom this is a major concern, “That time will come.” You as!a congregation will know it. YOU WILL KNOW IT. You williknow it.

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Mourning the Loss of a Leader

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