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Farewell Pastor Maddy 7.19.26 · St. Paul Podcast

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_02: Hi everyone and welcome to the St.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: Paul Podcast.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: My name is Mark Neethammer, Senior Pastor at St.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_02: Paul Lutheran Church, located in Davenport, Iowa, part of the Greater Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: Right here each week you will find beautiful music and a message of hope and good news to guide your life.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: I'm hopeful that this podcast can inspire you and help you on your journey of faith as you grow in love and trust in our God.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: This is considered Paul's finest work of the theology that he's been he's been talking about who Jesus is for the world.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: And this is the letter that he wrote to the churches in Rome as a kind of culmination of all these other letters that are also in the Bible as well.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so this is this is uh in an area in a part of the area, in a part of the letter where uh Paul is talking about uh new humanity that's being created.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so this is from Romans chapter 8.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: So then, brothers and sisters, we are obligated not to the flesh to live according to the flesh, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: For all who are led by the spirit of God are children of God.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you receive a spirit of adoption.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: When we cry, Abba, Father, it is that very spirit bearing witness with our spirit, that we are children of God.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: If we in fact suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: For creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: For the creation was subjected to fertility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set will be set free from its enslavement to decay, and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: We know that the whole creation has been growing, groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: And not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit, grown inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: For in hope we were saved.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: Now hope that is seen is not hope.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: But who hopes for what one already sees?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: But if we st if but if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: Grace and peace to you, dear friends, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: Well, here we are.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: 18 months now passed in the blink of an eye, and it's time to say goodbye.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: But I remember though, like it was yesterday.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: This first time I stood before you, right over here, in fact, nervously holding a microphone.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: I introduced myself as this loud and proud city kid, born and raised in Chicago, who was a proud, lifelong White Sox fan.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: Because my dad took me to many White Sox games as a kid.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: But I also remember that I might have mentioned that I was open to claim a new baseball team.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: And briefly I considered the St.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: Louis Cardinals.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: But this was because the White Sox had hit rock bottom and were likely stuck there for a while.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: So here's what happened.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: In the 2024 season, you would hope that the team you loved would smash all kinds of records, career highs, most runs scored.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: But instead, the White Sox achieved the worst losing record in modern professional baseball history.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: Out of 162 games in that season, they lost 121.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: This obviously kept them in last place.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: Then the summer of 2025 arrived.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: And it really wasn't that much better.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: The Sox still didn't completely turn it all around.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: They finished last in their division, and the ballpark still looked empty on the cameras.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: Fans waited, longing for that breakthrough that felt like it would never arrive.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: But now we are halfway through the 2026 baseball season, and my dad never fails to mention in every phone call that we have about how well the White Sox are have been playing this year.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: I know there's still plenty of season left to go, but I found it ironic that when I started my residency complaining about my home team, and I end my time with the White Sox.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: When I read this passage of Paul from Paul's letter to the Romans, where there's so much language of groaning and suffering and hope in our God, I just couldn't shake this parallel of the White Sox being a completely new team, and Paul's words of a new creation.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'll be honest, I'm not entirely, I'm not sure entirely of all the things that they did to turn it around.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: This small parallel can only go so far.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: But this isn't about how they did it.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: I believe this is a story about how hope can still surprise us, even when we believe nothing is going to change.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: There is a degree of separation between Paul's time and our own.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: Paul and the early churches' experiences weren't about a sports team's losing record.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: They were experiencing very real division and isolation as a church during the Roman Empire.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: But they were still everyday people just like us.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: The churches that Paul wrote to, in some ways, likely asked the similar questions that we have about God and navigated interpersonal relationships and life experiences similar to how we do.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like us, they were trying to follow Jesus as faithfully as they knew how.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: In this letter, Paul addressed the questions about what humanity's new relationship with God looks like through the risen Christ and how one lives into this relationship with God.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: They needed God's love and compassion like we do.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: Paul focuses his letter on reassuring the church in Rome of their new relationship with God, which is not focused on what humanity needs to do, but by the boundless, unconditional grace and love that we receive through the risen Christ.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: Through Christ, we are saved and raised into a new life.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: As according to Paul, children of God and heirs of God with Christ.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: This is the good news that Paul needed the church to hear, and what we need to hear today.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: We hear the word hope many times.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: And the word for hope that Paul uses is defined as anticipating with eagerness, especially when we feel that immeasurable need for something to change in our present reality.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: Paul explains how all of creation is growing, groaning, waiting for something new to arrive in its place as humanity endures the brokenness of the world around them.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: Groaning is a visceral and deep noise that emerges when words no longer feel adequate.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: It is this collective expression of need that the world longs for something new.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think we can all think of what our world groans for.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Eagerly waiting for a day when we didn't turn on the news and see footage of people fleeing from wildfires, smoke, and floods?
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: When we long for a world where peace is sustained.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: Do we groan also when in this world where everything feels more expensive, do we groan when we find yet another bill that must be paid by a deadline?
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: Might we groan also, holding our breath for the test results to confirm that our health isn't failing, or hope that the cancer hasn't returned, or even when nothing shows on scans or blood tests and we are still sick, don't we also still groan?
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: And how about all of the groans that may emerge when we feel that deep exhaustion deep in our bones after spending hours or days trying to perform at our very best, to be the most patient caregiver, the most attentive partner or friend, or to tend to that inner critic in ourselves when it tries to say that we aren't enough.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: But I am convinced that for all the groaning mentioned in Paul's words today, and that we may be feeling within ourselves, hope still surprises us.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: While we wait for a world where all the uncertainty, brokenness, and hurt experienced in our lives and our world are completely wiped away, we can still trust that God is working in our world right now and among you.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: Paul assured the church in Rome and to us that we are still actively encountering the living Christ today.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: Our Savior isn't far away waiting for us to arrive.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: We experience the living Christ here and right now, already redeeming and raising us into new, abundant life, full of God's grace, love, and belonging.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: So imagine if we open ourselves to be surprised.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: Even in the times when we feel nothing may change.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because the living Christ is already alive among each of you.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Because how surprised I was, dear friends, of the breadth of your kindness and generosity and love that you shared with me from the very moment I started as your resident pastor.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: As it is time now to take my leave, as I step into a new space of my own uncertainty and hope, know that I carry with me all the surprising and profound encounters of the living Christ among each of you.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: With every meal that we shared, in every song praising God that we sang together, in every game that was played with friendly competitiveness and radiated joy and connection.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: When we worship together, receiving these gifts of God's grace and love in bread and wine.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: And when we welcome a new child of God into God's family through the splashing of the baptismal waters, I'll take with me every story, every conversation and joke fueled by donuts, coffee, and how are you?
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll hold with me every sacred prayer we prayed together, sharing in our groans, hoping for God's compassion to find us and heal us.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'll remember every swing of a hammer, every pole of a saw and other construction tools used in freedom to love our neighbors and help provide warm and safe homes for people to raise their families in and make new memories.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: And for every bin that was packed with food and essentials driven to families who are hoping for a new life here in our neighborhoods.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: Where hard questions were embraced, where curiosity and grace were shared, where generosity and kindness was extended to every single person in this space and out in the community.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: Though our chapter together is now at its end, the story is still being written.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: This story of the living Christ that is still, who is still among you, working incredible and wonderful things.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I can't wait to learn what happens next.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: So, my dear friends, until we meet again, may the Lord bless you and keep you.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: And may the living Christ always continue to surprise you.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks be to God.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: Give us today our daily bread.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_02: Today it's time to say that goodbye.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_02: That is always hard hard to do.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_02: But we also get a chance to say thank you to Pastor Maddie for her ministry here.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: She served as our pastor in residency for the past 18 months of learning and growing and being challenged by what it is to be a parish leader.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: And we are excited to see what's up next for her.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_02: While she does not have a call uh finalized as of yet, she's currently engaging a couple different congregations on opposite sides of the country.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: That's really efficient, Maddie.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: Good job.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: Uh looking for what might be a good fit for her.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: She's endeared herself to many of you in all sorts of ways, and I think many of you have grown to know and love her as well.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_02: So, Maddie, you take with us our collective prayers and gratitude.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for what you've brought to this place over the last year and a half.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_02: We wish you all the best in all future endeavors, and we look forward to especially hearing where you land.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you for everything.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_02: But we would like to send you away as a congregation with these words of blessing.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: As you go on your way, may Christ go with you.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: May Christ go before you to show you the way, behind you to encourage you, beside you to befriend you, above you to watch over you, and within you to give you peace.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: And now receive this blessing.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: May God who calls across oceans and continents, yet speaks through the smallest seeds, bless us now and through all time.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_02: Our commitment to endeavors that lend hope to other people stretches across the country and around the world.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: We hope that in a good way you feel a part of that reach.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_02: Tune in next Thursday for another edition of the St.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_02: Paul Podcast.