A lot is going on in Rapid City. The Central States Fair is in full swing with carnival rides, animal displays, entertainers, and more. This is the last weekend before the start of a new school year, so some families are heading to the hills to enjoy the last weekend of camping and recreation before another school year. Other families are heading to town to shop for school clothes and supplies. Years ago, when we were pastors serving a congregation in Rapid City, a late August Sunday would likely mean light attendance at worship, with families finding a lot of other activities that attracted them.

We will worship with the congregation this morning. It has been five years since we retired, and it has taken us that long to adjust to what retirement means. We returned to Rapid City and worshiped with the congregation a little more than a year after we retired. The timing of our retirement meant a strange transition for us. In the spring of 2000, with the pandemic in full swing and people uncertain about what the future held, the decision was made to suspend worship. Health officials were warning against any public gatherings. People were wearing masks whenever they left their homes, and it was feared that gathering for in-person worship might become an event that spread the illness. I was reluctant to stop in-person worship. Worship is the heart of a congregation, and I have invested my career in crafting meaningful worship. I had shared every Sunday worship with the Rapid City Congregation for twenty-five years. In my mind, stopping worshipping was not an option. So we went online. In a single week, I learned how to record and livestream worship on social media. I figured out how to upload the services to YouTube and make a link from the church’s website to its YouTube channel.

And then it was time for our retirement. We set up a stage at the front door of the church and held a worship service in the parking lot. People could listen to the service in their cars. There was a drive-by greeting at the end of the service. We packed up our household over the summer and moved to northwest Washington. A year later, we decided to take a retirement trip and pulled our camp trailer across the nation to visit our daughter in South Carolina. We stopped in Rapid City on that trip and had a face-to-face worship opportunity with the congregation. They hosted a farewell for us with a special cake and reception following worship.

We haven’t been back since. It is part of the way that professional ethics work in our denomination. When a congregation no longer employs pastors, they stay away and allow that congregation to choose the leadership that will follow without influence from the former pastor. The new pastor moves into the congregation and serves without the former pastor meddling.

After that quick visit to the congregation, we went to work for a congregation in Bellingham, Washington, where we served as Interim Ministers of Faith Formation for two years before becoming fully retired.

Time passes. Things change. The congregation with which we will worship this morning is not the same one we left. Members have come to the end of their lives and have been laid to rest. New members have come. New leadership has brought a new style to worship. The building is receiving major work. Walls have been painted, programs have changed.

We, however, are not returning to visit a building, even though that building is filled with memories for us. We are returning to see people. We have a lot of friends who are part of that congregation. We care about them and the events of their lives. There are familiar faces that I long to see.

The past few days, we have focused much of our attention on the hills and have not spent much time in Rapid City. We have missed the hills, and it has been good to drive about and explore. We enjoy seeing the places and animals that are familiar to us. The reunion has been good. Today, however, we head to the center of the city and return to the church we served, for a brief reunion with people we love.

There was a time when the congregation was the center of our lives, and our leadership was central to the church. Now we are part of the history of the place. Our story belongs to the past. For those who have joined since we retired, our visit will not carry much significance. For others, our visit will spark memories. We’ll be in the pews for one service, and then we’ll be on the road back to our home in Washington. However, memories and history are essential.

When I was pastor of the congregation, I often arrived at the church early on Sunday mornings. I would go into the sanctuary before anyone else arrived. I would sit in the pews and go through my plan for worship, thinking about the people who would come and how they might receive my words. I know from that experience that part of the sacredness of that sanctuary is the memory with which it is infused. It is the place of baptisms, weddings, funerals, and confirmations of generations of church members. And it was home to a congregation that had accumulated a substantial history before moving into that building. The stories of the church flood back each time I visit that room. The people we meet will spark memories of others we miss. Our community is much broader than one place and much longer than one moment.

Life goes on. The future comes. Our time is short, but we are part of the ongoing story of the ministry of Jesus Christ in Rapid City. It will be a day of thanksgiving for us, a time of memory to be sure. But it will also be a time of hope. God is still speaking.