I suppose that every trip has its themes. Certainly one of the themes of this trip has been “succession.” At each stop so far, we have visited with family about the process of making the transition from one generation to the next. I was thinking that this might be a particularly difficult concept for our generation because it seems like we have really struggled with how to keep things going when our parents have died and we don’t remember similar struggle with the transition from our grandparents to our parents. Then I realized that it is just that we don’t remember the tensions of previous generations, and I said to myself, “Look again.”

The issue of succession is as old as the stories of our people. Cain and Abel can’t figure out how to get along. Conversation erupted into anger. Anger erupted into violence. Everybody suffered. One boy ended up a victim. The other ended up condemned to live with the result of a bad decision made in anger. We didn’t keep that story as an example of how to live, but rather as an example of what not to do.

The way the story is told, Jacob and Esau were born fighting. Jacob conspired with his mother to gain a greater portion of the inheritance and when he did he struggled with his conscience so much that he ended up wrestling with an angel on the way to a reconciliation meeting with his brother.

Elijah couldn’t give up his mantle of leadership until the very point of his death.

Saul’s son didn’t get to inherit his crown.

It took over three centuries for an effective prophet to arise from the priests that Solomon banished.

Jesus referred to Peter as the rock - a cornerstone of the next generation of God’s faithful people. The disciples didn’t envision the power and passion of Paul. Paul chose Timothy because he knew his mother and grandmother.

The stories go on and on and on. When you examine our history you discover that the problems of how to make a graceful transition from one generation to another is a major theme of our story. Our generation didn’t invent this tension and passion. We didn’t invent the sense of entitlement or the fear that the next generation wouldn’t be able to properly manage their legacy.

We have a tendency to think that the challenges of our time are ones that are new to us. It always seems like ours is the pivotal generation - the place where either everything comes to a bad ending or the future breaks forth in new ways. Reading the stories of our people, however, gives us a different perspective. It is unlikely that the entire future of the church has been placed in our hands alone. New leaders have always emerged in God’s time. God will provide what is needed for the next generation.

Often our job is to let go. And that is much easier said than done.

We care. We have invested time and energy and enthusiasm and passion in our vision of the future. We have enjoyed visions of what might be. We also have enjoyed the power of being in charge. And we do not yield that power and responsibility lightly.

Maybe our pride gets in our way. I know I have looked around and thought to myself that there was no one who is capable of doing my job. It doesn’t take much contemplation to realize that such thinking is far from the truth. When I let my ego do the talking, I deny myself the benefits of humility. The truth is that there is no one who will do my job the way that I do it and that my way is only one way that it can be done. The truth is that there are plenty of different ways for the future to unfold and I do not control the future.

The future belongs to God.

It is fascinating to me the ways in which going on vacation gets my mind to thinking about the work I am called to do at home. The change of perspective is refreshing. As I write I am beginning only my second full day without access to the Internet. I didn’t even go all day yesterday without cell phone access. For a while in the late afternoon I was where there was a signal. I chose not to check my email and not to make a phone call or send a text message. It is liberating to pull myself into the present and focus on the people in this place.

Such focus, however, does not make me more distant from the people and church I love and serve. If anything it reminds me of how important it is for me to remain faithful to that call. Perhaps, however, it also reminds me that I need to make room for new leadership to emerge. Since I have been reminded that the legacies we pass on travel in God’s ways and not our own and that we cannot control the future, I need to provide the kind of relationship with the church that makes room for new leaders and new styles of leadership - perhaps even for new directions in the life and ministries of the church.

And I need to read the stories of our people again with this fresh perspective and a fresh commitment to discovering the ways in which our forebears discovered the grace to pass on the mantle of leadership to new generations.

The ranch still produces grain that is made into bread that feeds hungry people. The river still flows by and carries its water to the ocean. The birds still sing and the deer still graze in the river breaks. These will continue. The land never was ours to own. Even though our great grandparents thought they could earn it, it was theirs only for a little while. We, too, are here for only a little while.

The story will continue long after we are gone.

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