Genesis 17.9-13; 1 Corinthians 11.23-26
Creation, Covenant, and Christ.
Anchors of our faith …
Strength for every-day living …
The backbone of our hope …
Creation, Covenant, and Christ.
Guidance for the big questions: Who am I? Where did I come from? Am I just an accident of the universe, a happenstance conjunction of amino acids and protoplasm?
And what’s my purpose? Do I have a purpose? How do I know? What’s right, what’s wrong? what’s good, and what’s bad?
It’s vital we ask big questions … because big questions keep us big.
Big questions push the boundaries, test the limits, keep us flexible …
Big questions are good for the mind, though big questions can give us a headache.
The anguish of Jeremiah … the struggle of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane … the distress of the Apostle Paul.
They all had headaches at different times …
So did Martin Luther King, Jr. …
His medieval namesake, Martin Luther, had big headaches, and so did John Calvin, St. Teresa and Dorothy Day.
Here, at Westminster … we ask big questions, suffer our headaches … and search for new answers … NEW ANSWERS!
Because yesterday’s answers are no longer viable.
That’s the mystery of time … or maybe it’s not such a mystery, as it is just plain irritating …
Yesterday’s answers worked well yesterday …
As a friend said, “If yesterday should ever come back again, I’m ready!”
The world that built Westminster is gone.
The world has changed … America has changed … people are different … some suggest that we’ve become godless … took prayer outta the schools, and such as that.
To those sorts of those complaints, I simply say, “Baloney!”
Truth be told, if we could step into a time machine and turn the clock back to 1950, and then ask people if the times were easy, we’d get a square answer - they’d tell us: “The times are hard, and we’re working at it. There’s war and rumors of war. We’re having issues with racism and anti-semitism. Jim Crow laws, and sundown communities. The war in Europe is over, and now we’re in a Cold War. We’ve got Joe McCarthy railing away in Congress, and we’ve got polio in the summertime. But we’re doing our best. People want to work … and we’re building the church.”
And then they’d tell us: we’re betting on the future … we don’t want to go back to the 20s or the 30s … we want to move ahead … and so should you. Don’t look back to us as if we had it easy … look ahead, and build the world for your grandchildren.”
History is the story of deep change …
Folks wise in the things of God, see change as opportunity … to find new chapters in God’s great story …
Every age has its own gifts, and if we’re stuck in one age, we’re cheating ourselves, and we’re cheating our children and grandchildren.
Every age is a gift .
In every change, there is promise.
Because God remains God.
The challenge for the church is to be faithful to Christ, as Paul the Apostle put it to his young protege, Timothy, “in season and out of season.”
If we could ask Paul, What do you mean, he’d gone and tell us:
It will be hard; it will be easy. It will be joyful; it will be challenging. There will be laughter; there will be tears. There will be big questions, and the occasional headache. There will be success; there will be setbacks. There will always be Christ.
We don’t have all the answers, and no one every does.
Don’t for a moment look back as if it were easier for our grandparents and great grandparents. It wasn’t.
They found their answers … as best they could.
And that’s what we’re here at Westminster.
Not here to reclaim the past.
We’re here to forge the future.
And why is that important?
Well, it’s up to you to decide if that’s important or not … but let me at least offer some ideas to guide your thinking …
There are those who suggest that God created the heavens and the earth and then retired to Palm Springs. It’s called deism.
Some say there is no God at all, and the world as we know it is just an accident. It’s called atheism.
A friend of mine recently wed, and someone wrote on her fb page, “You’re betting on the future.” And she replied, “You bet I am.”
Everything God does is a bet on the future!
All the covenants of the Bible are a bet on the future … from the moment of creation to the gift of Christ … everything God does is a bet on the future … and it’s true for us, too.
Getting married is a bet on the future … so is taking a job … reading a book on politics and history … planting a tree … writing a book, composing some music, joining a Scout Troop … going to church … saying a prayer … we’re betting on the future … we’re looking beyond today, reaching for tomorrow.
Call it faith, call it trust, call it love … love bets on the future … love doesn’t walk away … love hangs in there … love puts its hand to the plow and doesn’t look back … love says “Yes!”, and pulls ahead … love endures!
Love comes to us …
Love abides with Adam and Eve …
Love pays a visit to Abraham and Sarah …
Love walks with Israel out of the land of slavery, through the sea, into the wilderness … all the way to the Promised Land.
Love comes to us in Bethlehem’s cradle …
Love calls the disciples to leave their nets …
Love welcomes the woman dragged through the dirt …
Love gives sight to the blind and wholeness to the lame …
Love breaks bread, and pours out the cup of blessing .. and says, this is the new covenant, in my blood.
Love suffers under Pontius Pilate … Love dies that day, and slips into the deeps of hell … Love rises again from the dead … and ascends into heaven, to sit at the right hand of God …
Love abides with us, Love keeps us close to God … Love at work in all things for good … love is God’s bet on the future.
Hallelujah and Amen!
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