August 8, 2004
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The Isaiah passage we heard earlier in the service is the
theme text for the 18th Biennial session of the National Convocation
of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The theme of the meeting taking
place on the east side of Indianapolis until Tuesday is New Day – New Way: Equipping God’s People to Lead. You may know that the National Convocation was begun in 1917 when Preston
Taylor, a preacher and mortician in Nashville, Tennessee convened the first
session of what was then the National Christian Missionary Convention. As is
true with other Disciples organization, the name has changed, mission statements
have come, gone, and come again, but the purpose of the Convocation is the same.
It exists to equip and empower African American Disciples for participation and
leadership in the whole church. I thank God that representatives of all of the
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) are present and participating in the
Convocation, and I thank your pastor, my seminary classmate, and you for the
invitation to share in worship with you this morning. By faith in the risen Christ and the living God, we are able
to stand up in chaotic times. The two readings for today reflect the chaos. On
the one hand, we hear the prophet say to people who have been captives in
Babylon and who are about to be set free from exile, don’t dwell on what
happened yesterday don’t look back too long. It is a new day. On the other
hand, the reading from Hebrews tells Jewish Christians facing persecution, who
are ready to abandon the Christian faith, don’t give up. Instead, take a long
look back to see what your spiritual ancestors did when they faced times of
uncertainty. “Remember not the former things. I am about to do
a new thing”. But we are people with memories we want to keep, and
besides, we know that we cannot and should not treat the past as if it never
happened. The Bible lecturer at our meeting reminded us yesterday that the phrase,
“do not remember” is not a call to amnesia. It is not to say erase from your
memory. Rather, it is a call not to get stuck in the past, or to think God has
already done for us all that God will do. Besides, the reality is that some of
the people did well in captivity. They built homes, they started businesses,
they learned the Babylonian language, and they worshiped in Babylonian temples.
Some of them did not want to leave exile. We know the feeling. Like them we
sometimes say in the face of having to leave a place, “we know this place, it
is comfortable here. I’ve got a good life here, and I don’t like to move. I
remember the years in Babylon; I did pretty well there. I like the energy of
their worship, and the food was good, the breeze off the water was pleasant.
Those are the days I want to remember, I don’t want to forget – I’m not
sure I want to leave. And don’t you know that the way back to Jerusalem is
dangerous. It may not be ideal, but it is what I know”. You may have seen a list of historical items making the
Internet rounds. The list is called “Older Than Dirt” and it is a survey
that asks the reader to count the items that are part of our living memory. It
does not count if you were told about them, you have to actually remember. It is
a fun exercise and by its criteria, I am indeed older than dirt. I enjoyed
remembering black jack gum and sitting in diners with jukeboxes on the table,
but do I want to go back? Absolutely not. I do not want to trade my cell phone for a phone on a party
line, my CD’s that I can play in my car, in my office, at home, or
while I am exercising for 45 rpm records. I am
not willing to give up my computer to go back to mimeograph
paper, or my digital camera for slow, blinding
blue flashbulbs, or my multiple speed, multiple temperature, multiple
water level washing machine for a washtub with a ringer.
Besides, our history forms the basis of our present and
future experience. Back there in the past is where our history is. Our triumphs
and failures are back there. There is something good to be gained from our
missteps. If we let them, they can teach us how to fall and how to rise again.
Sometimes we will get up quickly, sometimes slowly, but we can get up. They give
us patience and discipline. There is also something to be gained from doing
things right. If we look back at our past and recall the relationships done
right, the responsibilities met with a sense of joy and thanksgiving instead of
mere obligation, we can get other things right too. Our past helps to shape who we are, and it forms us for
faith. It is not news for me to tell you that faith is necessary in these days.
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is in a time of transition as we
prepare to call a new General Minister and President. We live in a nation that
seems at times to live in perpetual tension and I believe that our faith is a
counterweight to the fear and divisions all around us. We will hear much in the
next 100 days or so days about red states and blue states. We hear about
generational divisions – millennials, Gen-X’ers, busters, boomers, strivers,
etc. Do you live in the city or suburbs? What do you believe about God? Is God worshiped best in
formal, traditional, informal, pipe organ, midi, or guitar? Is it about
contemporary music and worship or its opposite which some of the people I know
call simply, boring. Do you prefer hymnals, or words on a screen? Have you got
an opinion about the culture wars, worship wars, sports wars, real blood and
guts wars? Do you remember the way I remember? Isaiah says don’t make a shrine out of your memories,
don’t worship at the altar of what you have done or what you have known. It is
instructive, but is not final. God is wants to do new things in us and by faith
we make room for God to act. It is true that the ones who made their way back to
Jerusalem walked into a ruined city and an uncertain future, but they went.
Let’s move with faith toward the future God holds for us. That is the word for
the Hebrew Christians and for us today. In the early days of Christianity, people who pledged their
allegiance to Christ often faced tests and persecution. We may not face
persecution, but we know what it means to have our faith tested. Life gets hard
sometimes, there are pressures at work or school or home, and even at church.
Keep up, set the pace, meet the goal, exceed expectations. Money problems,
family problems, crises of belief, and no real belief that it will get better
make life difficult. By faith
listen to the word that assures us that, as God was present with them, so God
will be with us. “Faith
is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen”.
Thomas Long reminds us that the writer of Hebrews, whom Long refers to as
the preacher, wants us to know that faith “already possesses in the present
what God has promised for the future. Faith is how we respond to the God in whom
we put our trust. Inwardly, faith moves hearts, outwardly, faith moves
mountains” (Interpretation
series.
Hebrews. Thomas G. Long. Louisville: John Knox Press, 1997, p.
113-114). By faith we are moving mountains little by little, day by
day, and pushing fear aside as we move in acts of faith and trust in God. The
decision to commit your life to another through marriage and covenant, through
having children, building a life and a family together is an act of faith.
Buying a house, going to work in these days is an act of faith. Choosing a
congregation or starting one as the charter members of this congregation did is
an act of faith. The decision to be baptized, the decision to live your life
as a child of God and a follower of Christ wherever you are, to hold onto him in
great times and in terrible times is an act of faith. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. It is the
conviction of things not seen. We can’t always see the destination, but we
know it is out there, and we move toward it. So when my mind and spirit must look back, I want to look
back not with nostalgia, but with a vision that tells me that what is behind is
a preview of what is ahead. I want the vision of the SANKOFA, which has to do
with wisdom, knowledge, and heritage. SANKOFA is a word out of Africa that means
to go back and retrieve. A mythical bird that flies forward with its head turned
backward symbolizes it SANKOFA and reflects the belief that the past serves as a
guide for planning the future (www.marshall.edu/akanart/akanknow.html). In the spirit of SANKOFA, mindful of what God has done, we
are by faith, hope filled even times of chaos and uncertainty, for what God will
do. By faith we are inheritors of a promise. Naming heroes of the
faith to encourage scared people to see that faith is essential, Hebrews tells
us that Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Jacob received the promise that all of us
participate in as God’s promises to one nation becomes universal. You will be
great in number; you will personify my faith in humanity. You will be the people
I love just because you exist. Abraham and Sarah receive and believe the
outrageous promise that you’ll become parents in your old age. If God can do
that, what can’t God do? Believe while you live in tents and wander from place
to place you are yet moving toward that land that God had promised. I left
California to spend one year in Washington, DC in 1982. After six months there,
after twelve years in Indianapolis, nine months in Lincoln, Nebraska, and eight
years and counting in Columbus, Ohio, I haven’t gotten there yet. But
everywhere I have been, God has been there leading me, and I have been able to
serve God and respond to God’s call in my life. Move and dream in faith. The
foundation is strong, the architect is God and your people will get there.
They wouldn’t have gone back if they could. The exiles that
left Babylon to return to Jerusalem, not knowing what waited for them walked by
faith. The Hebrew Christians, living in unsure times are urged to look back at
heroes of the faith, who along with their families, saw the land, almost touched
the promise but could not quite get there. Hebrews 12.1 will call those heroes a cloud of witnesses who
yet cheer us on. They are our spiritual mentors who urge us on, who having seen
the goal, couldn’t quite get there, and cheer for us all the more. So as we think of their faith and as we think of ours, as we
think of their uncertainly, and as we look at ours, one last question begs to be
asked. The question and the answer to which I say “Amen” is provided by
Thomas Long. It reminds us that by faith we are ever in the care and custody of
God. Knowing they died with their faith in tact, but with promises unfulfilled,
“are we simply left with a heartbreaking tale of faithful pilgrims who
journeyed in faith but never arrived at their cherished destination? No, we have
a God who keeps promises, a God who sent another pilgrim, the heavenly Son,
whose journey of faith led him into the valley of human suffering, into the
place where Abraham and all who share his hope were perishing before coming to
the end of the road. This pioneer made perfect through suffering (2.10) gathered
up Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Jacob, and all who trust him, and took them home
to the distant city, saying to God, "here I am and the children your gave
me. In Jesus the journey is completed”. (Interpretation
series. Hebrews Thomas Long, Louisville: John Knox Press, 1997 p. 119). We live in faith, claiming the awesome task of moving and
living with Christ. As we live in faith, we are able to honor the past, and look
to the future. And so by faith, we are heirs to a promise, called to live in
Christ’s name and able to claim the promise made and believed by unfulfilled
in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and those who came after them who lived as we are
called to live, by faith. Thank God for new days and new and renewed ways. Thank God that we walk with the one in whom the journey is complete. Thank God for the faith of all of those whose faith enabled ours. Praise God for those who look to us as mentors and models of faith. Thanks be to God, may Jesus Christ be praised. Amen. Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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