For many of us in the United States, this is a season of goodbyes.  Like many of you, I have been to several graduation parties and retirement celebrations.  When I lived in Bellevue, summer always brought a series of military transfers that moved good friends out of our community.  Farewells can be quite emotional for the ones leaving as well as for the ones left behind – even today when cell phones and the internet mitigate the separation a bit.

For parents, teachers, coaches, mentors, neighbors, youth group leaders, and many others, these times are tinged with anxiety.  Did I do enough to prepare them for what lies ahead?  What should I have done differently?  Is there anything else I can do for them?  Will they be okay?  Today’s New Testament readings indicate this sort of thinking with both Paul and Jesus.  In the verses from Acts, the leaders of the church in Ephesus have traveled to Miletus to see Paul, their friend and leader.  Paul, knowing it is the last time he will see them, quickly reminds them of key points he hoped they had learned from his words and his actions.  In the Gospel of John, we find Jesus praying on the night that he would be taken prisoner, leading to his trial, execution and resurrection.  He worried, in essence, “What will happen when I am not here to protect and to guide these folks who are so dear to me?”

One of the pastors at my church regularly includes in his benediction the call to “surrender your anxious cares to God.”  We see that with Paul, who surrenders his anxieties when he tells the presbyters, I commend you to God.  We hear echoes of that in the Gospel reading, when Jesus surrenders his anxieties by praying for God to keep and protect his followers.  If you are worried for someone, the best you can do for them is to lift them to God in prayer.  For those of us who question ourselves – “Am I ready?” or “Why didn’t I prepare better?” or “Will I be okay?” – surrender those anxious cares to God.

To quote television infomercials:  But wait!  There’s more!  First, we see both Jesus and Paul emphasizing the importance of God’s word for showing each of us who God wants us to be.  Jesus prays, Consecrate them in the truth.  Your word is truth.  When Paul commends the Ephesians to God, he also commends them to that gracious word of his that can build you up.  As you surrender your anxious cares, turn to God’s word.

Second, turning to God’s word will turn you to serving others.  Note Paul’s directive to help the weak is made stronger because, as he reminds them, he had modeled that behavior in every way.  This echoes Matthew 25:31-46, when Jesus tells of sheep and goats divided based on how they had cared for the weak and vulnerable, the hungry and thirsty, the stranger and prisoner, the naked and the sick.