Spike Milligan's gravestone reads "I told you I was ill." Sir Christopher Wren's, in the cathedral he built, reads "If you seek a monument, look around you." What, then, will yours say?

On Sunday 16th August, Revd. Mark Fletcher preached the closing sermon in St. Peter's series on the Acts of the Apostles, taking Acts 20:17-38 — Paul's farewell to the elders of the church at Ephesus, delivered at Miletus on his way to Jerusalem. It is a scene of real tenderness: when Paul had finished speaking he knelt and prayed with them, and they wept as they embraced him, grieved most of all that they would never see his face again.

Paul was not always the man he became. That, Revd. Fletcher suggested, is the encouragement in it: "It is never too late to become the person that God made you to be."

Two things marked Paul's legacy. The first was integrity — he never took a penny for his ministry, working as a tent maker to support himself, unlike the travelling teachers of the ancient world who went where the money was and told wealthy audiences what they wanted to hear. The second was his care for what came after him. He warned the elders to keep watch, because savage wolves would come, some from among their own number.

"The people of God need trustworthy shepherds in the likeness of Jesus who will protect the flock from those who would lead people astray for their own personal gain."

The sermon closed where it began, with the question of legacy — not monuments or possessions, but love, faithfulness and selfless service, travelled in company rather than alone.

Read or watch the full sermon: https://stpeters.ch/sermons/pauls-farewell-speech/