PASS IT ON

Nathan Attwood

Pastor, Marianna First United Methodist Church

"For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." 1 Corinthians 11:23-24.

Many years ago when I was a young student pastor in a rural parish, a man in my church pointed something out that made a lasting impression upon me. He showed me a towering pine tree that was chock full of pine cones. He said, "See all those pine cones? That tree is dying. It puts out all those cones to replicate itself before it dies." I've since learned that he was probably incorrect, that pine trees put out more cones as a stress response due to drought but not when they are unhealthy and certainly not when they are dying. But the lesson I took from what the man told me is certainly true. Regeneration is part of the life cycle. In order for any living thing to survive and thrive, it has to give itself away to the generations that will remain after it is gone.

At some point, people who have given themselves to doing a job the right way with pride and with a sense of serving others will notice that they have more years behind them than in front of them in their work. At some point, they realize that they won't be doing what they do forever. They begin to think about who will be able to do what they have done. If no one seems to be coming behind them to do what they do with the same skill and heart, they will begin giving away what they know to others to make sure what they have offered the world will continue to be available in the future.

I once had this very conversation with Chris Sikes, owner of James and Sikes Funeral Home here in Marianna. Chris operates a locally owned family funeral home, and he is a truly fantastic caring professional. I've worked with many funeral homes in many places throughout my ministry. Oftentimes, family-owned funeral homes sell out to corporations when the owners retire, and the personal quality of the care is affected. Once, while driving between a funeral and a graveside service, Chris and I were discussing this dynamic and how his family is preparing to offer the same kind of care in the future after he retires.

I'd like to think I'm not an old dying tree, but I've put a premium on giving myself away for a long time. My daughter serves as a pastor at my church, and I demand of her to offer the kind of care to the congregation as I have offered throughout my ministry. I carefully teach her how to do the right thing in the right way for the right reasons.

She's not the first person I've mentored. My doctoral project was an intern program partnership between Huntingdon College and the First United Methodist Church in Montgomery, a program that has raised dozens of students who have gone on to serve in a multitude of ministry contexts.

I have taken the lessons I learned in my doctoral work to every place I have served and have mentored emerging leaders for the church everywhere I have gone. The people who I have had the opportunity to help train are now serving from sea to shining sea. They include military chaplains, large church and small church pastors of local congregations, youth pastors, children's pastors, missionaries, campus ministers, academics, teachers, and more. I've had a major role in the journey of some of them and a minor role in others, but for each of them, there is something I received of value that I was blessed to be able to pass on to them.

In First Corinthians, the Apostle Paul uses the language of "passing on" to describe the Lord's Supper. As he teaches them about the most precious things he had been given that he can give to others, he reminds them of how he taught them to take the holy meal as the Lord himself had passed this gift on to him. When we take Holy Communion, we are always in the position of being given a precious gift, a sign and carrier of the love of Jesus Christ, a holy thing that is literally placed in our hands freely. In each generation, the Church has passed this gift on to the next generation, faithfully continuing a tradition of the love of God without fail.

When I was attending seminary, I rented a small apartment from a retired pastor. One day, when I returned from class, the old man was sitting on his porch and called me over. He placed in my hands a small black box. I opened it and found a beautiful communion set inside. He told me that he had been given the set by his student appointment when he was a student, that he had first used it to give a last communion to a man who was dying of cancer in the 1950s. He told me that he had no son in the ministry to give it to, that I was the closest thing to a son in the ministry, and that he wanted me to have it and to use it to share communion with others throughout my ministry.

I treasured that communion set for decades. In 2018, I had an associate pastor named Matthew Montgomery who did ministry doing the right thing in the right way for the right reasons. I told him the story about the communion set. I passed it on to him. It grieved me to let it go. But I couldn't think of a better way to honor the man who gave it to me than to pass it on to be used for generations to come.

It's never too late or too early to pass along a gift. Every person has some heritage, some wisdom, some knowledge, some legacy, some precious thing to pass along to someone who needs it. It might be a pie recipe, marital advice, a guitar lick, or a trick of the trade. It may be a family Bible, a family story, or a family heirloom. Maybe it's teaching a younger generation how to dress the altar at church, or write a thank you note, or tie a tie, or make up after a fight.

Whatever you have been given, pass it on. Whether it's your professional capacity, your faith, your life lessons, whatever is of value God has put within you, pass it on. Whether it is received with tearful eyes or rolling eyes, pass it on. The best things in life are the things that are passed on, and we have each been recipients of precious gifts passed on to us. It's through giving ourselves away that all that has been valuable in our lives can persist and continue. Whatever you have that is precious, pass it on.