Ministry at the Edge of the Earth: February 2016

Bowie as the "Thin White Duke"

Who is your favorite musical artist? And I mean, the artist that has been with you many years, your all time favorite?

Isn't it amazing how some people have such incredible talent, and they touch so many of us through their art... and bring so much positive energy, happiness and joy to the world?

It makes me reflect on the depth, the spiritual aspects of the arts.

For me, my all time favorite artist ...is David Bowie! Yes, David Bowie. And I tell you, I never thought I'd be talking about David Bowie in a sermon. But here we are!

Bowie was in fact my first rock concert I ever attended, when he was the "Thin White Duke" in the '70's. Over the years, I have seen him in concert four times, and have many of his records, er, CDs, er iTunes.

And sadly, as many of you have heard, he just passed away a couple of weeks ago. I am just so sad over this...his death has affected me much more than I ever thought...but to tell you the truth, it never entered my mind that someday... he would be gone.

But the one thing that is constant in life, is change... And for Bowie, it was all about change. His look, his music, all his characters over the course of his career, his persona never stayed the same.   He was always evolving and changing!   In fact, one of his earliest hits was ch-ch-ch "Changes", where he sang, "...time may change me, but I can't trace time..."

"Changes" One Bowie

Over the course of time, Bowie released over 25 records over a span of 40 years. Even this past year, the last year of his life, he recorded his last record. Unbeknownst to just about everyone, including the musicians who played on his last recording did not know he was sick and battling cancer. His record came out on his 69th birthday, and he died two days later. A true artist, he made music right up to his dying day.

Music. Like music, Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 has a kind of rhythm to it, doesn't it? A time for this...and a time for that...'a time for war and a time for peace, a time to plant, and a time to pick up what is planted...' It speaks of polarities and contrasts.

For everything there is a season... The many seasons of life, transitions, and changes. Moving from one phase of life to the next.

But how many of us, when it comes time to go toward a new phase of life tend to dig our heals in the sand? Or have trouble letting go?

And not just the seasons, but there is the time of the "in between". The negative space. Not just the times for "this" and times for "that", but the time of the in between.

In between the seasons, in between the major life events...in between the beats... of the rhythm & the music of life...

Oh, what we can learn when we are in the "in between" time! That is, if we are open to it. If we let ourselves feel the beat...and the music of life.

Yes, life transitions can be difficult.

Many years ago, when I was a young captain chaplain stationed at Luke AFB, one year I did what seemed like dozens of invocations for retirement ceremonies. I would listen to the person who was retiring from their military career of 20 years, 25 years, 30 years, telling their stories when it was their time to speak. And almost all of them would well up with emotion and tears as they spoke. This phase of their lives, that had been for so many years, so many memories, they were now leaving...and going into the unknown.

After doing so many of these retirement ceremonies, it finally clunked me on the head, that (gulp), someday this would be me!

It was hard to fathom that someday this would come to be, for I was young and retiring was not in my periphery...

But all those retirement ceremonies made me think. I wondered what my legacy would be...someday, when it would become my turn to retire and enter a new season of life. A time so far in the future...

But now, that time, has come. Very soon it will be time for me to pass the baton, leave the military ...and become once again, regular Laura.It has been an incredible career, now almost 26 years. I have been all over the world, served with so many wonderful people. It has not been dull!

Yes, I confess, I am hesitant. I have been in the military so long, it is difficult to imagine what it will be like to not be in the military! I am a little afraid. What does the future hold? This next season of life? As I end this season, and walk into another?

But perhaps "it" really does not end at all...

It just changes...

[This was a sermon given on January 24, 2016 at the Moffett Chapel, Moffett Airfield, California]

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