GK Chesterton wrote in his autobiography,

the only way to enjoy even a weed

is to feel unworthy even of a weed.

How much more does the true enjoyment of the church,

not a weed, but the bride of the Christ depend on a sense of unworthiness in her service. Before the Psalmus could exult in Psalmate in his dominion over the world, he had to feel the words, what is man, that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you care for him.

So I hope you will understand when I say that my joy in knowing you and my joy in serving you and feeding you and leading you has been all the

greater when I have felt the most clearly and deeply my unworthiness of the amazing gift that you are to me.

When a Christian feels a sense of entitlement, anger and unhappiness are almost sure to follow.

I say this, not from seeing mainly,

but from sinning mainly. The happy ones are the humble ones. When we know how little we deserve, we look for the gift in everything.

So the first thing I want to do in my closing remarks is to ask for your forgiveness.

I'm not aware of any personal grievance that anyone has against me.

I could be wrong and if I am I hope you'll help me with that.

But I have in mind something else, namely,

that in a room now in a service like this, some more than others, are keenly aware of the

disproportion, the imbalance between the tributes expressed and the flaws known.

Some of you, however, are sitting there white content with the way things are going tonight,

and in 10 years you're going to be listening to a sermon by Jason on the Christian ministry.

And your first thought in that message will be,

that's true, that's a perfect expression

of what the pastorate is. and your second thought will be

Pastor John wasn't very good at that and so in advance of those experiences in the years to come,

...