| December 09, 2007
You are Welcome to reflect on this message The Second Sunday in Advent – December 9, 2007
I can’t think of anything more fitting for Paul and Vi than sending them off with our prayers and love, citing our memories of how they faithfully and genuinely “spoke the word of God among us.” That’s rare in a world of superficial immediacy, where nobody remembers much of anything. That’s why we keep repeating past mistakes. Instead of studying the past to build a better future, we neglect the past, and consider tradition to be a hindrance to progress.
It’s created a struggle in the church, between the traditional and contemporary worship. And it drains the church of its energy. Just so you’ll know where I stand, I wouldn’t want to be starting out as a young pastor today. Just because something is new, doesn’t make it better. And, tradition isn’t necessarily bad; only the bad ones are bad.
Valuing good traditions and sound leadership is what lies behind our text in Hebrews. Don’t sell out, hold firm to the solid teachings you’ve learned, “remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to us.” No doubt the author of Hebrews thought highly of the leaders in the church. Yeah they should respect them, but also to “remember them.” Past tense. These are leaders who are not serving anymore. They’re time is over. But the guidance they offered is still relevant. The point isn’t to copy their mannerisms or ideology. It’s not about imitating them, rather its about imitating their faith. Its not that they spoke, but what they spoke.....the word of God. That’s the emphasis.
In I Timothy, St. Paul advises something similar to his colleague: to “guard the deposit we have received” (6:20). This author is writing to people who are about to quit on Jesus, turning back to Judaism. Verse 9 says, “Don’t get carried away” with the mod-squad, that comes and goes. Rather, he wants their faith to be grounded in something worth keeping. Jesus told us to remember Mary Magdalene, a thief, and himself. And the church is to “remember those who spoke the word of God.” Because “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
December 7th was Pearl Harbor day, which Americans have remembered annually since 1941. In 2001 we had 9/11. People blowing themselves up, mowing down innocent people at Malls. That never seems to change. But our culture changes, styles change, oil prices change, we change. But “Jesus is the same.” Our understanding of him is in constant flux, hopefully improving. But God stays the same.
And the life of Christ stands at the center of all history. His birth is still celebrated annually. His death changed the world. So those who “spoke his word” faithfully, are to be honored. Even generations back. We are to “guard the deposit we’ve been given” because it tells us about Jesus. And it’s so easy to forget why we are and whose we are.
The church has a checkered history in that regard. Some standing for nothing, falling for anything. But through it all, God has guided us and taught us. For two millennia now. So we respect our religious tradition and the leaders who spoke the word of grace to us.
This is the author who wrote “We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.” Who left us with the insight that there’s a difference between tradition and traditionalism. Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. The Christian faith isn’t something shallow that we re-invent every now and then. What Jesus did is to be remembered and passed on, as it has been passed down to us. “Guard the deposit! Remember your leaders!” That’s our word today because...we’re in danger of losing that. And it gets a little depressing when everything around us is full, and our churches are mostly empty. I feel for the new pastors coming on today. And I hope they will take seriously this text: to be faithful in remembering the leaders, who “spoke the word of God” in Jerusalem, Rome, in Athens, in Geneva, even Providence, and points south and west.
We should be proud of our American Baptist traditions. And the Baptist blood shed to gain religious liberty, the separation of Church and state, the priesthood of every believer, local church autonomy. The Bill of Rights, we owe to the wisdom of our Baptist forbears. Paul and Violet Becker are reminders that the faith of those who have gone before us lives with us still. Their favorite thing is “speaking the word of God” through Christian missions, at home and abroad. “Consider the outcome of their life. Imitate their faith.”
I know the contemporary is “in” today. But it’s a mistake to try to go from the 1st century to the 21st as if nothing happened in-between. The “deposit we are to guard” today has been transmitted from St. Paul to Timothy, to Augustine, to Roger Williams, and untold millions who make up that “great cloud of witnesses,” surrounding even our historic congregation. So “imitate their faith.”
The church was never called to be successful, only to be faithful. So while the church growth experts are telling us what “works” and how to “reach” prospects, I’ve never yet figured out how to market a cross, other than wearing it as a necklace. Jesus’ had spikes and blood on it. “Follow me and deny yourself?” How inconvenient! Do you realize how utterly senseless sacrificial commitment sounds in a society that lusts for easy street and luxury living?
We can make decisions based on looking in two directions. We can look to the future, whom no one can predict; adapt to every trendy thing that comes along, with the emphasis on entertainment not service. Or we could benefit from looking back at the gift of 2000 years of Christian tradition that’s been passed down to us, “remembering those who spoke the word of God to us.” The future we can only anticipate. But we know the past. Or we ought to.
So the author of Hebrews advises us to: “Pray for one another...love one another...keep ourselves free from the pull of money...and remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to us. Imitate their faith.” When we remember who we are, by remembering who Jesus is, it will make a difference in the way we live, in the way we treat one another. And when we forget...like those all around us have done today, the church is in danger, if it hasn’t already, lost an entire generation to the pull of “mammon.”
On behalf of our congregation, I want to thank Paul and Vi for all they’ve done so faithfully to help make our church what it is. Their love for the Lord is genuine, as is their love for people. And you can only get as close to God as you are to people. But I’ll just share with you one story as we say goodbye to this good couple that sums up why I deeply appreciate them. A few weeks ago it was a busy time following worship. We had a deacon’s meeting and immediately afterward I was taking Evelyn Fox to visit Mary Campbell, who was in the Memorial hospital. And just at that time, a needy young mother came in with an infant in her arms. Two more family members arrived, cold and out of breath, needing a place to stay for the night. (Remind you of anything?)
They’d just come from another church a few blocks away, who did what they could and suggested they come here. Sunday morning isn’t a good time to “listen to somebody’s story,” but it never is. I knew right off what this family needed was going to take more time than I had to go to the meeting and then on to the hospital. So I went to Linda Bausserman, who knows more than I do about how to get institutional help. She checked on the shelter and said “They were full.” (Remind you of anything?) Like Jesus’ family, in dire straights in “the little town of Bethlehem,” some 2000 years ago when there was “no room in the inn.” I felt like the frustrated Innkeeper must have on the first Christmas Eve. “The shelter was full.”
Just as I was about to advise the young couple with the infant in her arms, I came by Vi, sitting at a table signing letters for “Amnesty International.” Ding! A bell goes off in my head. There’s Vi. Instead of breaking the news to the couple “There is no room in the Inn,” I just said, “Vi can you talk to this young lady...she’s in need of a place to stay, and there’s no room in the shelter.” With an eager nod and a wink from her, I hurried on to the deacon’s meeting for which I was late, hoping for the best.
Later in the week, I learned the couple was taken to a local motel, and the cost was covered. Like the “Good Samaritan on the road to Jericho” long ago, and like the Bethlehem Innkeeper, they found a way, and made room when “the shelter was full.” Now that’s the kind of stuff that makes God smile.
I want to close with something Paul pointed out to me recently: “Life is like a coin, you can spend it any way you like. But you only get to spend it once.” Paul and Vi, we celebrate how you have spent your lives among us. We promise to “pray for you, and love one another, and keep ourselves from financial gain as best we can. And we will remember you, our leaders who spoke the word of God to us.” That’s what makes church good: “imitating the faith of our leaders;” to continue what you’ve begun among us. And we hope, that makes you smile!
Pastoral Prayer: (12/9/07)
When our short-sightedness causes us to miss our footing and our blindness and laziness and unwise decisions contributes to our unbelief, teach us not to expect too much magic from our faith. Like wanting to make everything crystal clear and free from complexity and frustration. “Teach us the patience of unanswered prayer,” and save us from our illusions and give us a steady, growing faith that gives life true direction, guided by the saints who “spoke the word of God to us.”
Thank you for this loving church family and all it does to add meaning and purpose to our lives. And especially for Paul and Vi as they move on to a new place to live and serve. Grant them traveling mercies and enable us to keep blessing the hurting, welcoming the stranger, accepting the outsider, caring for the dying, and inspiring the living. Grant us the insight to distinguish between popular opinion and the Christian Gospel.
Be especially close to those who are grieving and struggling, and those whose weaknesses get the best of them, but with your help and our caring, they can overcome them. Let this Meeting House continue to be known for opening up possibilities in the name of Jesus and for doing our part in making this world more fit for people to live together, instead of being unfit to live with.
Enable us to see the many gifts you have to give us as angels invade our mundane lives with new hope. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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