The other reason I love this passage is because it is a clear call to perseverance and commitment. It is an invitation to us to remember that we have made a vow and we are building a spiritual life on the foundation of our faithfulness to Jesus Christ, and on his great love for us.

Every week we are privileged to gather for worship in a building that has stood on this corner for nearly 100 years and I am looking forward to celebrating a centennial of service from this corner in 2007. We will celebrate the heritage of Broad Street Christian Church and we will look forward to its future. We have a future here if we believe that we are built to last because God wants us to be here. That is why we need a vision. Despite our brokenness, God has yet more ministry and work for us to do here. I have a vision for this church. You might describe it as a Big Hairy Audacious Vision. I shared the vision at the Board/EZEKIEL Team retreat a few weeks ago. The vision is simply this: beginning right now, from this moment until a date far, far into the future, Broad Street Christian Church becomes a spiritual destination for all who are seeking to know God, build relationships, and do justice.

What does that mean? It means that when people come there to worship or for a wedding, or for a concert or another kind of program, they will feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in this place. They will be as awed and impressed by the ministry that happens here as they are by the incredible beauty of this building. I want to increase the “wow” factor of our church so that not just this room, but the quality of our study and stewardship and outreach that will lead guests and will lead us to say “wow” there is a church standing on a firm foundation, I believe it is built to last and I want to be part of it.

You and I are the ones who will make the vision reality. In fact, the vision will die unless we give it life. So how do we give life to our ministries? First, we can understand that the foundation on which we are built is Jesus Christ and our commitment to him.

There is an insert in your bulletin with five questions on it. The questions come from an article I read the other day. I want you to take some time to answer these questions and reflect on the questions through this coming week. It is not a test, you do not have to reveal your answers. In fact, no one else needs to see the answers unless you want them to. They are for you to reflect on the importance of Jesus for you; the beginning of your faith; a time when your faith was hard to maintain; the relevance of Jesus in your everyday life; and how you would encourage someone looking for faith (from the “Emerging Church” website. www.rejesus.co.uk/encounters/finding_faith, p.1-2).

Each of those questions is important for each one of us to answer because the answers are the foundation on which our faith is built. If Jesus is of little or no importance to us; if our faith formation has not yet begun, not that it will ever be complete, if faith fails at the first sign of crisis, if Jesus has nothing to do with how we live our lives daily, and if we have no word of encouragement to give to one looking for Jesus, then our foundation is not very firm at all.

On the other hand, if we can say why Jesus is important to us, how and when our faith began; if we can talk about when faith was hard to sustain, but we sustained it anyway; if we can say how faith in Jesus Christ leads and keeps us every day, and if we have encouraging good news to share with someone looking for a faith-filled relationship with Jesus Christ, our foundation is firm and we will be built to last.

I imagine that if Paul were asked to say why Jesus was important to him, he would answer this way: “Jesus has occupied most of my thoughts and prayers from way back. When I was named Saul, I thought about him and I prayed that his movement would be destroyed. I made it my purpose to hunt down Christians and to collect bounties on them. But Jesus loved me. One day, when I was on my way to Damascus Jesus of Nazareth came to me in a vision. The vision was so powerful that it knocked me off my horse, left me temporarily blind, and placed me in the hands of Christians who loved me with the love of Jesus. Jesus himself spoke to me, and sent me to a place where I would be safe and loved me so much that I claimed him as my savior. It hasn’t been easy, but my life is filled with goodness and gratitude now.

“That is why I told the Corinthians what Jesus has done for me. That is why I helped to start the church there. I want them to know what I know. I want them to have what I have. I will not lose heart, I will not hide my faith, I will speak truthfully and integrity. I will stand with you and proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord. The one who said, ‘let light shine out of darkness, [and] who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ (II Corinthians 4.1-6). That is who Jesus is for me. That is the source of my strength when life gets hard, that is the story I tell to people who need a word of encouragement in their search for faith.” Paul’s is a testimony of persevering faith.

The second way we give life to our vision is by refusing to give in to despair.

If you received a copy of the Buckeye Disciple this month, you probably read our regional minister, William Edward’s column. If you read his column, you know that it addresses some of the verses from II Corinthians that I just read. Bill describes Paul’s situation this way:

“II Corinthians is a letter in which Paul is defending his apostleship to a church that years before he helped start during his second missionary journey. But now, the Pastoral Relations Ministry Team of Round the Way Christian Church in downtown Corinth complained that Paul was too sickly to be effective as an apostle, that he didn’t have the intellectual sharpness of Apollos, nor the dynamic speaking ability of Peter.

“If it had been some of us, it would have probably been enough for us to question our “call” [or invitation] to offer ministry in the name of Jesus. However, Paul answers his critics by re-interpreting what it means to minister for Christ. He reminds the Corinthians in the first verse of chapter 4, ‘through God’s mercy we have this ministry’.

Ministry is not about we who have it together sharing our wisdom with those who don’t. Ministry is us sharing God’s strength in the midst of our weakness, that is why Henri Nouwen calls Christians wounded healers. Our witnessing for Christ is not based on who we are, but on the one who lives within us. We are just fragile earthen vessels, ’cracked pots.’

“As Christ’s power was exhibited in the humility and brokenness of the cross, so Christ takes us in our brokenness and not only uses us in spite of our brokenness, but actually through our brokenness. For God uses broken things, it takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to produce bread, broken bread to give strength. All we are, are earthen vessels, broken” (William H. Edwards in the Buckeye Disciple, October, 2005).

But by the mercies of God, Christ’s strength can heal our brokenness.

We understand that Jesus as our foundation is made strong in adversity, because we are resurrection people, we are people who proclaim life and not death.

Are we feeling in many ways as if our very life as a congregation is threatened? Yes we are and it’s not just us. It is too many churches in too many places, feeling afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down. I know we feel it here. And as we feel it, the temptation is to give in to despair and give up hope. We are not immune from what happens to us but we need not be defeated either. There is another way. We can persevere. You know that last weekend I was the speaker at the Annual Prayer Breakfast of my home church; I preached for them last Sunday. They are a diminished community of 25-30 people in worship. They have few resources and their forty year old pastor died suddenly last summer. They are down, but they are not out. They are looking forward to their future, they refuse to give in to despair; I am looking forward to our future, whatever God has in mind for us, and I will not give in to despair either.

The third way we give life to our vision is by being true to who God called us, clay vessels that we are, to be. We do not despair because we are part of the community of Jesus Christ, part of a 2000 year old church that has seen changes and hardship, and joy and transformation. It has seen the death of Jesus and lost hope, and it has at times teetered on the brink of despair. But it lives because the death of Jesus is not the end of the story. We have seen his resurrection, and because he lives, there is life in us too. Jesus Christ has been raised and we are raised up with him.

We have been built to last. We may be radically transformed. The work of transformation may take us through the wilderness for a while. And all of that unfamiliar noise, and the blazing sun, and the shivering cold, and the dark skies will be scary. But think of the wilderness not as a place of fear, but as a place of faithfulness. Our Hebrew ancestors found the protection of God in the wilderness. John the Baptist emerged from the wilderness ready to prepare the world for Jesus. Jesus emerged from the wilderness to claim his ministry.

This may be our wilderness time. It is surely a testing time, it is an uncertain time. But it is also our time to keep the faith, and to keep strong. We are not the biggest church in the neighborhood, we are not the best known church, not yet, but we are here and by the grace of God, we will be here.

Hard times will come and they will hurt like blazes. They will leave scars and memories and make us shy of putting ourselves out there. But hard times are not permanent; it might feel as if we have been here a long time, but Paul is right, this is just a slight momentary affliction. It is all preparation for what is to come.

The final part of the graduation litany at my graduation from seminary included a prayer by the graduates. The prayer spoke to our commitment to the church we were being trusted to serve. It said in part:

“God put us to what you will; put us to doing, put us to suffering,
Let us be employed by you or laid aside for you,
Exalted for you or brought low for you;
Let us be full, let us be empty,
Let us have all things, let us have nothing;
We freely yield all things to your pleasure and will,
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

That is my prayer for us, too. I pray daily that we will know how good we are and how blessed we are so that we can give ourselves in love and trust to the One on whom our faith is built. I pray that we develop vision beyond what we can see and that we can reach far beyond what we can grasp. That is what it means to stand on a sure and firm foundation. May we stand strong and determined in the extraordinary power given to us by God. Thanks be to God, and may Jesus Christ be praised.

Dr. LaTaunya M. Bynum
Senior Pastor