Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost – 115th Anniversary Celebration – 27 August 2006
St. Paul Lutheran Church, ABQ NM – The Rev. P. L. Holman
Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18; Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:56-69
“We Have Come to Believe: The Story for All Questions”
About ten years ago I took a group of confirmation youth to camp at Rainbow Trail, Hillside CO, for what turned out to be a rather memorable week. One of the highlights of camp was the opportunity to spend a morning rafting on the Arkansas River. Past years at camp had taught me that these were rather uneventful mornings. So, we suited up in life vests and listened as the river guide instructed us how to respond in the event we were dumped in the river. [I was thinking, I’ll model attentive behavior but just like the flight attendant telling us how to manage in the “unlikely event of a water landing” I knew I wouldn’t use the information.]. Just 45 minutes later we were heading into the rapids named Maytag: one moment I was poised in the raft with paddle in hand, the next I was totally immersed clothing and glasses in tact and paddle in hand UNDER the raft. Like it was yesterday I remember looking at the murky water around me and thinking, “I can panic and die, or I can remember what that guide said and have a chance to live.” I opted for the latter.
Remember what the Guide said, and live. The story of God with his people is a story for life, a guide for all the questions that confront us. What a blessing it is to gather this day and remember the old times and old friends, the stories that shape who this community of faith is today. You’ve already started sharing some of those; displays in the Fellowship Hall will invite you into more chapters; the commemorative booklet includes photos and stories written by members and friends offering more glimpses into the past of this place. These stories are part of God’s story, a testimony to the God who has blessed and strengthened, comforted and guided God’s people through all times, who continues still to bless us as we struggle to live the questions of our times.
The reading from Joshua today reminds us that this leader of God’s people was a guide of sorts, one who challenged the eclectic community of believers to choose the God they would serve. What is omitted is a recitation by Joshua of God’s saving acts with the people throughout history: Abraham’s journey to land of Canaan, the blessing of his offspring and the journey to Egypt; the guides named Moses and Aaron, the plagues in Egypt and the wilderness wanderings. Joshua reminded the people how in many and various ways God was with them through it all, through their failings and foibles, through the turmoil and the rejoicing. The recitation ends with a humbling reminder: “I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and towns that you had not built, and you live in them; you eat the fruit of vineyards and oliveyards that you did not plant. Now therefore, revere the LORD…” Joshua challenged the hodge-podge community unrelated by blood or common experience to unite in service to the one God. Their response: We know what this God has done for us; we have come to believe in the power of this God. Therefore we also will serve the LORD. The book of Joshua concludes with the affirmation that Israel did indeed serve the LORD all the days of Joshua and beyond, and the bones of ancestor Joseph that they brought up with them from Egypt were buried in the new land. Imagine that – the bones of Joseph lugged all that way all those years with them on the way! Centuries later Jesus would tell his disciples that same thing in the form of the new covenant promise: “Go …make disciples…[remember] I am always with you ” [Matthew 28.20].
Like the ancestors that shape our story in the church, we’re carrying the bones of the past and being shaped by them for our living in this day. We can’t cut ourselves off from the power and the personalities of the past -- in a very real way yesterday keeps vigil over today. And that’s mostly good news. But the journey of 115 years has not been without its challenges. Personnel changes, personality conflicts, differences over building decisions and political involvement as well as social justice issues – from what I’ve gleaned in my five years here I’d say this community has certainly known its share of conflict over the years. You won’t see or hear most of those stories told in the recollections today, but they are a part of our past that is also keeping watch over our present. As we dare to look honestly we will find that brokenness in the scars of any community life, in the bruises of any family life, brokenness that is keeping watch over the present in these circles as well. You will also find that brokenness in the scriptures, in the recorded history of God’s people as well.
We live in a broken time. Defining the death dealing powers of the world against which Ephesians calls us to arm ourselves is not that simple. The reality of is both/and rather than either/or: we live as citizens both of this country and of the church of Jesus Christ. To suggest that it is clear in the conflict, say, between Israel and Lebanon, that there is a good side and an evil side is to belie the complexity of the world as it is. It is not easy for us clearly to identify the gods we are serving in any given situation. Yet the God who is witnessed to in the readings for this day is the very God whose identity we do know – this is the God who passionately connects through the history of his saving grace to all God’s people, wherever they are in their journey, whatever questions of life confront them, whatever brokenness hobbles them. What is asked of us is faithfulness to this God – faithfulness not found in easy false dichotomies but rather struggled with in ongoing deliberation and prayer, faithfulness to the God made known to the world in Jesus.
As Jesus shared the hard reality of his suffering for the sake of others this word offended some who turned back and no longer went with Jesus. “Do you also wish to go away?” The path of following Jesus is a dangerous one – it led Jesus to the cross. It will lead us to places we never imagined we’d go, decisions we never imagined we’d make, into frustration we don’t know how to vent constructively. Time and again over the past 115 years it has done that here, and there is no end in sight. How will we respond to the invitation to continue on this path of boldly proclaiming the mystery of faith: will we panic and die, or remember the words of our Guide and live? Someone once said: if you want to hear the train you need to be near the tracks. Reading scripture, daily prayer, covenanted prayer circles or groups, times together in worship and fellowship with sisters and brothers in faith – all these are opportunity to recite and remember our history, God’s history with the people, the story of God’s saving love and God’s desire for all people to turn to him and live – to “come near the track” to know the Living Word of God and the power of following Jesus for faith in daily life.
Does the Church have a future? Will our future have a Church? I’ve wrestled with that in recent years as mainline traditions have come under attack from a variety of directions, as participation wanes in traditional church activities. I have no easy answers, but one thing I do know: God does not give up easily, and God longs for us not to give up either. God longs for us to live the questions, together, wrestling like Jacob for a blessing, limping forward with one another trusting Christ is with us. God longs for us to respond as Peter did to Jesus: “I know it doesn’t make sense, Lord, but there is no other way. You have the words we need for life.” Only through the Christ among us glimpsed in the faces of those hungry for justice and for food, only through the Christ among us tasted in simple morsel and meager sip can we find the strength and commitment to stay the course as it winds in ever more chaotic ways, to stay the Jesus course, the way of the cross, the way of life.
There were a few tense moments in that raft as I regained my composure and the six of us regrouped to continue our rafting journey; later that day we were able to share the story and laugh, grateful for having survived the ordeal. It is good for us to regroup this day, old friends and new, to celebrate together the God whose grace is sufficient for all our questions, for all life’s challenges, and to reaffirm our commitment to following Jesus. We’ve listened to our Guide, not as we ought but as we were able, and by the grace of God have come to know and to share life. For what has been we say, Thanks be to God. For what is yet to be, God give us the courage to say YES.