Prayer: O God, for all the great and wondrous things you have done for us, we are grateful. You give us strength to go on when we are troubled and discouraged. You grant newness of life as we share in Christ’s resurrection. We want to pass on the good news by the way we live each day. Lead us and guide us in your steadfast love, that we might channel your gift to all we meet. Amen. (Taught By Love Resources for Year A, Lavon Baylor, United Church Press, p.117)

As you know, I am preaching from some of my favorite Bible verses throughout the months of June and July. The reading from Habakkuk is a favorite because it affirms God’s promise that if we watch and wait, if we prepare with discipline, the revelation we wait for will come to us. And I cannot hear the words to the Corinthians without remembering my graduation from seminary, they were part of the graduation litany at that ceremony twenty-two years ago. There is another reason I love these verses. Their advice and wisdom are so fresh they could have been written yesterday. That really is the gift of scripture - a word spoken by God through men and women in remote and ancient times is as clear to us today as it was when it was first spoken. It’s a fresh word because they describe situations that we know.

How are you feeling about the state of the world these days? Habakkuk looked around the world he lived in and saw no justice, just corruption. He saw no accountability, only abuse of power, he sees no hope, only despair. Things were not the way he believed God intends them to be, and he asks God, “what are you going to do about this God. I am waiting.”

“Look, I am here on the watchtower, I am up high so that I can see whatever deliverance you send come toward us. I am here straining and looking for that word that it will be alright. What do we do now? I am waiting to see.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m up in the tower with Habakkuk. I have questions about how justice is administered sometimes, and I know we are not feeling terribly secure these days. A look at the morning paper tells the tale. We are in a state of war, fires rage in Arizona and Colorado, children are missing from their parents’ homes, we know about some of them and some we never hear about at all. Politicians, and others, some in religious authority abuse their positions and our trust. Where is the justice? What is the right thing to do? God, you urge our belief in you. You promise us blessings, where are they? We can’t see them!”

God says, “You are my hands and feet, ears and eyes, and speech in the world. Write the vision,” God says. “Write it so that it can be seen by someone running by, make it as big as a billboard or one of those handheld signs on the “Today Show”. Write on it, ‘God wants peace and justice for all people. God will act in the future as God has acted in the past. If God came through before, God will do it again. Live in the blessing and justice of God now. Make it clear.”

“The vision will be fulfilled. It’s on the way. And if it is coming, then live with high expectations now. Get ready for it.” You know about getting ready. The flowers in your yard were once seeds or flats that you believed would grow and because you believed it, you watered them. You removed weeds that would stunt their growth. You put down fertilizers and other material to give them the nutrients they need. You did all you could to fulfill the vision of what you flower garden and your vegetable garden would be.

Those children who grew up in your house, or who are there now, weren’t always the size they are now. But when they came to you, you wrote a vision for them, preparing them to be good adults. And because you had a vision, you had some expectations for them that you made plain. “Do your homework, develop good manners, don’t stay out or up too late. Choose partners that will respect you, respect yourself, eat good food, exercise, laugh. Believe in God, receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, trust the Holy Spirit.”

“Habakkuk, the vision will be fulfilled in its time. Wait for it, keep it in front of the people so they can always see it. My article in the July issue of our newsletter expresses my excitement about the season of preparation and fulfillment that we are in now. There is a discernment process going on, preparing us to live in a public, open, evangelizing way, the justice and the diversity we value so highly. There is the ongoing adult Sunday School class, and two Bible study groups currently meeting. People are working hard to provide an excellent and fun week of Vacation Bible School. Other groups continue to meet and study and pray together, and as they do, our life together is made strong.

It is all preparation for us to receive the vision God has for us. There is a spirit of openness and eagerness in this place. My heart and soul tell me that the more we live in faithfulness, the better prepared we are, the sooner our waiting will be over. This church is going to grow. This corner is going to jump and leap, and explode with the excitement of God’s ministry. We will continue to know the fullest possible blessings of God, The time is near, the moment of delay is nearly over. The blessings are on the way. Our vision and mission will be fulfilled. We will be an inviting and welcoming household of faith that supports and serves the community in our neighborhood and around the world. And because of our vision we will claim our mission, “to be and to live the good news of Jesus Christ for all people.” God has promised.

So where is it? Where is the fulfillment of the vision? Why aren’t these pews filled? Why isn’t our treasury even more in the black than it is now? Why isn’t everybody involved in at least one ministry of this congregation? Where is the mission being lived out? It is in our hands and the work we do. It is in our hearts and the faith we hold; it is in our right relationship with God and our trust that God will lead us to where we need to be and will bless us on the way. We are the precious people of God who by faith and belief rely on God.

But we say, “our vision is too heavy, we cannot carry it all by ourselves. No we can’t. What we can do is share the vision and the mission in a way that brings people in to see what we are about, and then as they do, we can pray with them that they will decide to have their own relationship with Christ. And that they will join us in our household of faith.

Hear in Habakkuk as he urges us patience. Hear Paul as he offers a word of encouragement to us when our hope and stamina are low. “I will not give up”, Paul says, “and I don’t want you to give up either.” “Don’t lose heart (II Corinthians 4.1)”, Paul says. After all, God has placed in us the good news of Jesus Christ. That is why we are here and we want the good news to be visible in our lives that’s why we have come looking for a relationship with him. We had it once, but it seems far away, we’ve come to get it back. Bad news is indeed all around us - we want to be good news for people.

But we are just human beings, we say. We still feel wholly inadequate to carry such news - to announce God’s vision. Why us? Because God trust us, that’s why. After all God made us, and, as the poster says, “God don’t make no junk.” You have value and staying power,” Paul says. Then he likens himself and us to an earthenware vessel, an ordinary clay pot - and not a very expensive one at that. The good news is that in Paul’s day as in ours, things of value were kept in regular everyday containers. Then it was clay pots. Who knows what it is today? If you don’t have a home safe, or a safety deposit box, you likely keep your things in an everyday container. Where do you keep your most precious stuff? Is it in an old shoebox, in a cigar box, or in a plastic freezer bag? Our things are precious not because of their container, but because of what they are. God has placed in us the message of the risen Christ. We carry this extraordinary news in our ordinary lives. That is an awesome responsibility that we have even though we fall down sometimes. Still, we have what we need to get up again.

I may have told you before that most of my graduation ceremony was a conversation between the congregation, the faculty of the seminary, and the graduates. After our degrees were awarded, the congregation told us to “beware of pride.” We said with all the confidence people with fresh new theological degrees could muster - "We have this treasure in earthen vessels to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us.”

Then they said to us, “but can you endure?” Those were their words. What they were really asking us was this. Do you have what it takes to stand on the watchtower with people who are at their best and at their worst. Can you dream dreams and deal with disappointment? Can you serve the church and its people, and open yourself to the vision God has for you so that you can share it with us and it can become our vision too. Can you stand in the watchtower and tell us what you see? Will you be the runner sometime? Do you believe God wants you to believe and be blessed and then to share your blessings with us?

And we responded, with the words that have been in my soul ever since. They are not just words for ministers and leaders, but for all people of faith who rely on God, and on God’s Christ to see us through.

Most of us have gone through some trauma and drama in our lives. Some of you have dealt with the kinds of losses and calamities many of us cannot imagine, and you have survived. Your vessels may battered, chipped, and cracked, but you are still standing, still living, till on watch tower because you know that for all you have gone through, God has still blessed you, and you believe God will do it again.

So we say as my brother and sister graduates did that day: We are afflicted, but not crushed. Our faith will be hard sometimes - but we will not be hopeless.

We are persecuted, there may be days when we suffer for our faith, but we are not forsaken. We will feel the presence of Christ who said I will not leave you orphaned.

We are struck down, do you ever feel like you have gone through a storm, and you don’t know how you are still standing, but you are? We will be struck down, but we will not be destroyed. We can be rebuilt, we are never useless. We believe God is with us that Christ died and was raised for us, so we will always spot words of hope. We believe and so we will say.

We believe some things here in Broad Street Christian Church. We believe, and so let’s say with Paul that God, who raised Jesus from death, will also raise us up and bring us into his presence.

We believe and let’s say so, that each of us is an earthen vessel holding something precious and valued - we hold the love and grace of God. Each of us has a place in the watchtower. Each one of us is loved by God, redeemed by Jesus Christ, and sustained by the Holy Spirit. Each one of us has received blessings enough to believe that every moment we wait on God strengthens us to continue to grow in our faith.

We believe and so let’s say that we can write our vision and become an inclusive community and make it plain so that it can be seen when we run with it, and so that someone running by will see it. That is why we will be in Bicentennial Park Saturday after the Pride Parade. It is why we baby sit children on Thursday nights, and it is why we serve at Trinity House and have a membership in BREAD. It is why we engage in ministries of outreach from Vacation Bible School to Central Community House, to our participation in Racial Unity Services. It is why when people come to our door looking for assistance, some genuinely in need and some not, they will all be treated with respect. They have read our sign that says Broad Street Christian Church is a place where God’s people gather for study, worship, for service and fellowship. We pray and play together, we stand with each other, console and celebrate with each other, and we want others to become a part of us too. Our sign says, “there is room for you here.”

Finally, we believe and let’s say so: the vision waits its time, it won’t be long now. Let’s get ready to claim the vision and then to run and tell everyone we know all about it. God through Jesus Christ has promised to run with us. And the promises of God can be trusted absolutely. Amen.

Dr. LaTaunya M. Bynum
Senior Pastor