I taught math for forty-two years, but I was `invited’ to give my last lecture in 1978 when I had only been teaching for six years. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds. Each year the College Union invited a faculty member to give what they would like their last lecture to be. I basically said that I wanted to go down with my boots on. I described three famous, interesting, unsolved problems (it is very difficult for me to resist describing them now) and said that I would like to lecture about their solutions, but I didn’t think that I would be able to, since I didn’t expect them to be solved in my lifetime. Well, I guess that God will never call me as a prophet, for two of them have been solved. By the way, my actual last lecture was about my collection of mathematical postage stamps.

Some of you may have read The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, which was on the New York Times best-seller list. Pausch was a Computer Science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, who was invited to give his last lecture in 2007. The book is based on his lecture “Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”. Both the lecture and the book, although very upbeat, were made more poignant by the fact that Pausch was dying of pancreatic cancer and knew that he had less than a year to live. His lecture had three parts: (1) My Childhood Dreams, (2) Enabling the Dreams of Others, and (3) Lessons Learned Along the Way. The first two parts were a humorous reflection on his life and career, which by themselves made a good lecture and book, but I think the lessons, and the context in which they were given, are what made the book a best-seller. Here are some of them: tell the truth, be earnest, find the best in everybody, be prepared (luck is when preparation meets opportunity), apologize, never lose your child-like curiosity, help others, acknowledge and thank those who help you, work hard, and focus on others not yourself. Comparing his last lecture to mine made me humble, which was another of his lessons.

I’ve never heard of a Last Sermon series for ministers, but I think it could be very meaningful to hear the sermon Pastor Art would want to give as his last. I think I know the last sermon of the Apostle John. He lived to be a very old man, and Christian tradition says he grew so weak that he would have to be carried into services. When ask to say a few words, he would always say, probably in a feeble voice, “Love one another. God is love.” I have no proof that this story is true, but 1 John, Chapter 4 makes me believe that he would have chosen those words. That chapter touchingly conveys God’s unconditional love for you and me and tells us that we play a role in His expressing that love through our love for others.

Jim