In a  little while and you will see me no longer; and again in a little while, and you will see me. John 16:16

When you and I get to heaven one of the words I will never miss saying ever again is the word: “Goodbye”. We’ll never again have to give a last hug to someone, never again have to stand at a graveside crying, never again have to watch someone go off into the distance, see a child grow up and move away, or have that horrid pit in your stomach when it is you who are moving off. I always remember leaving my grandparents’ house up in Clinton, Massachusetts as a child. For the first dozen miles or so of the trip back home nobody in the car said anything. I knew I would see them again someday. But my stomach was for some reason tied up in knots. I hated having to say “Goodbye”.

Jesus today spoke of those times in His own life. When our text is taking place, it is on Maundy Thursday, the day before He would die on the cross for us all. The disciples as far as they knew were having a good time at the annual Passover meal that Jesus was celebrating with them. It was the one time in the year when you ate to your heart’s content, the wine flowed and nobody worried about it. You went into a food coma at the end and could barely keep your eyes opened. You were with family and everyone was together. But then Jesus drops the news on them that soon they would see Him no longer. They had no idea what was coming but He did. He knew the things they were about to face and how days of sorrow and crying and lamenting would within a few hours be upon them. Jesus knew as He knows us.

Even though the disciples did not get it our Savior understood that days of separation would happen as it always does in life for us. But then, reminding them one more time of what He had said many times before, in a little while they would see Him again. None of them remembered it on Good Friday or Saturday as Jesus lay in the tomb. On Sunday morning for all of them it was just another day, although one also filled with fear because perhaps the authorities would come for them as they had for Jesus.

But then forty days later in a way it happens all over again. Jesus would lead His followers out to one of the hills around Jerusalem. He extended His arms one last time in a blessing over them. And as they look He ascends and rises up into the clouds. And because they are still straining their necks as they see the One they love go away they don’t even notice two angels standing by them. But they do hear the words of the angels: “Don’t worry. Jesus will come back again just as you saw Him go. You will see Him again.”

And the words that ring in my ears as you and I hear again that someday we will see Him are the two words: “Until then”. The day is coming and is rapidly approaching when you and I will look up into the sky and see Jesus and what a day it will be. But until then we’re here. And our Savior is with us always. We just can’t see Him; but He is there. It seems perhaps like He is gone. Take a look at the world with its sorrows and hurts and you may think Jesus is gone for good. But it won’t be long when we see what we cannot see now. I remember my parents saying that to me when I was sad at saying “goodbye” to Gram and Gramp: “It won’t be long.” Now that all of them are gone I have to repeat the words to myself as do you. But they are also the words of our heavenly Father to us all: “It won’t be long.”

I felt that this week as I had a privilege unexpectedly fall into my lap. I felt very sad that President Keurulainen fell ill this past week. But one of the results was that I was able to take his place in St. Louis this past week at the call services and vicarage assignment services that happened there. It was an unbelievable honor to sit up front with our Church Body’s District Presidents from all over the nation and to watch all these young men (and believe me did they look young to me) file past as they heard their names called out and the location of where Jesus had called them to be Pastor or where He had called them for a year to serve as a Vicar.

I remember talking to Ryan Kleimola, last year’s Vicar, outside the chapel on the front steps before the worship was to begin and before we all had to head inside. I think you know that there is a love in my heart for all these Vicars and always will be. They are all my brothers in Christ Jesus.

Ryan was someone that I also felt fatherly to and I felt that way to Bradlie

his wife and little Lila his little daughter. And as he stood in line and

filed past as they got to the letter G, then H, finally, J, and at last the “K’s” our eyes made contact and I gave him one last smile and a final thumbs up. Then I heard with him that he was going to Trinity Lutheran Church in the towns of Shawnee and Mission in Kansas. And I rejoiced with him and his family. But in my heart there was also a: “Kansas???” So far away! That last hug afterwards with Ryan, now Pastor Kleimola, did create a knot in my stomach because like you there was a small voice going, “I wonder if I’ll ever see him again?”

But there was also another young man present there that day. His name was Ben Braun with a wife named Anna and ironically another little girl under the age of one named Kyah. He was the one who when he went through the line of Vicars being assigned their churches heard the name, “St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Hartford, Connecticut.” And so it goes on in the Lord Jesus.

Because another innocent and anxious young man is headed our way, who has already asked me the question every future Vicar asks: “What do we wear on

Vicarage?” and the host of other questions they all have. One comes.

Another goes. The work goes on until we do look up into the sky and see Jesus coming again.

And in a way it hit home for me personally. You see, today is May 2, and although none of you could possibly have known it or remembered it, it was literally May 2 in the year 1985 when another young man at the age of 26 heard the words “St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Hartford, Connecticut.”

Just in case it’s too early in the day for you to do the math, today, May 2, is literally the 25th anniversary of when I heard I was coming here to be Pastor. And although Revelation speaks about what heaven will be like, I still say that if there ever was a heaven on earth, I have known it with you saints sitting before me today, and with those saints of the last 25 years whom it has been my honor to serve the Savior, people who put up with so many mistakes in me as they still do, but somehow forgive and manage to grow in Christ, and love the Father and His children on earth, despite my worst failings. I know that someday there will come a day when it will be time to say “Goodbye”; probably as they wheel me out in a pine box if a gracious Lord and Savior hears my prayers to spend the rest of my life here with all of you. But “until then” we live and work and love as Christians and followers of the dear Savior Jesus, warts and all, and all sins forgiven at the foot of the cross.

This week because of where I was I knew that I had a dilemma. I wouldn’t be able to watch any sports on TV. Like a lot of fans I wanted to know if the Celtics would advance in the playoffs’ how the Hockey teams would play, baseball too, and so on. However, one of the wonders of our day and age is that we have access to machines connected to our Televisions that allow us to record things we miss. So the good news is that coming home I had the

chance to sit down and watch what I couldn’t watch earlier. I remember a

time once a few years back when a hockey team was down by two goals or so with one minute to go. What happened as I heard it later on was a miracle.

So of course I made a date with the television to do just that. As I watched, most of the game the team was being beaten pretty badly. It looked hopeless at times. As the game was almost over I think that one of the announcers even said that it was finished. But then came the miracle. And the funny thing is that I knew what was going to happen. Because of that when I saw this team going through a miserable night it didn’t bother me at all. I knew how it would turn out.

When you and I read Revelation today we know how things are going to turn out. Right now things may look sad, even hopeless at times. The medical diagnoses come and life has its valleys for you and me; earthquakes occur and nations go to war and threaten to blow us all up with nuclear bombs if certain parties can get their hands on one. But it turns out OK.

This week I said my goodbyes to ones I love. Maybe it won’t be the last time. Maybe it will. But someday there will be no more goodbyes. Jesus is coming back, and the days of sorrow and hurt that assault us because He seems to be away from us will be over. And what I was reminded of this week by being at that seminary and by remembering what May 2 means in my own life especially today is that we all have a calling from God until Jesus comes back. He has put us where He wants us to be and for a reason. It is not just me or Pastors or Vicars. It is you too. And for the little while it really is that we have a chance to be His lights in a dark world let us shine like never before. Let the world see Jesus Christ in us until the world does see Him coming in the clouds of heaven. “Until then….” let us be the people of God! Amen.