Isaiah 49.1-7; John 1.29-42
Her name was Peg.
A member of St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Livonia, MI … every Sunday, there she was, in her pew …
One Sunday, Nick and Patty attended …
They found a place to sit, and settled in; when an elderly lady came up to them and said, “You’ll have to move; you’re in my pew.”
Well, they moved, and lived to laugh about it … it was Peg who told them to move … it was her pew, and that was that.
Studies have been done on how we find our pew … by the third or fourth visit, we’ve claimed our space … those who study the brain suggest that we’re constantly trying to simplify life - so when we attend church, there’s at least one decision we don’t have to make - we have our pew, and that’s where we sit … unless someone else comes along, and they don’t know who’s pew it is.
Which reminds me: in days of yore, families owned a pew … a name plate affixed … this was how churches funded their budgets - people paid annually for their pew … the closer the pew to the pulpit, the more a family paid … sort of like seats at Dodger Stadium behind home plate. And, if one couldn’t afford a pew, well, there were always the free seats in back of the church.
Who’s pew are you sitting in this morning?
We sit where gladness sat.
We sit where sadness sat.
We sit where joy and happiness snuggled one another.
Where greed and hypocrisy smiled smugly at the world.
Where faith, hope, and love grew strong.
Where heartache and anger were healed.
The best and the brightest.
The scoundrel and the crook.
The saint and the sinner.
The saved and the lost.
The lost and the found.
Here is where they all gathered to hear the word of Christ.
The word of grace.
The story of God!
Where are you sitting this morning?
Those worshipping in their homes - much the same idea - who owned the home before you arrived? Who rented the condo, the apartment you now call home? Maybe you built the home, but in times past, who lived on the land? Who came before us? Who will be here when we’re gone?
Every pew here has its own story … if only they could talk, eh?
The school teacher who loved her children and gave them windows on the world …
The real estate agent who refused to show a home to a family of color …
The families who stood firm for integration and believed in the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The auto mechanic who loved old cars and the smell of grease, with walls of hanging tools and drawers full of spare parts …
The architect who put dreams on paper, to create a home for a family …
The factory worker who joined the union and learned how to bargain for fair wages and real benefits …
The young man out of work, looking for a job …
The struggling couple yelling at each other in the car on their way to church, hearts broken for dreams now lost …
Each with their own story … and, yes, their faith … faith well-formed for some, and hardly-formed for others …
Yes, we’re sitting in someone’s pew …
For the time being, it’s our pew; it’s where we sit …
In time, others will sit in our pew.
Life is like that … a script nicely laid out … on Thursday, we do the laundry, on Saturday, we mow the law, on Sunday, we go to church … pattern … purpose … priorities … promises and prayers … we have our script … and then, time moves on.
As it must, as it will … our pew will go on the market - with a nice ad - “Lovely pew, good view, well-taken care of … waiting for you to take ownership.”
One Sunday morning, someone will walk in - they’ll find a pew, and maybe make it their own …
To be the church of Jesus Christ … to care for God’s earth … to love one another as best we can … to shed the light of faith upon the human journey.
To take up the mandate of the Creator to those created in God’s image.
You and I were created in God’s image, to be up close and personal with creation … to care for it in ways that promote its wellbeing and its future.
In times past, humanity’s interaction with creation was hardly noticeable … we plowed the earth, dug our water wells, but to little or no defacement of the earth; no permanent harm … the earth gave us what we needed …
And, then, the industrial age … and we know the rest of the story …
Extraction and exploitation … the earth suffering, war on a scale previously unimaginable … a few grew rich on the sweat and labor of the many.
The drive for profits and power … smoke and steel rising, better living through chemistry … pesticides and fertilizers, plastics and hazardous waste …
And here we are … 2023 … challenges that exceed whatever personal responsibilities we might have - conserve water, recycle our waste, be mindful of what we eat, drive an EV … all of that and more … it’s the “more” that challenges us beyond the personal disciplines of mindful living.
What we need is good government, good politicians, who will tell us the truth and work for the common good … who will marshal the resources of private and government interests to seek the common good … who will reach for the best in the human journey, rather than pander to the worst.
Dr. King said: "Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?' "
We need CEOs and stock holders who go for more than the bottom line, but reach for the stars … young people who go to college and graduate with degrees in “mindfulness and character-development,” who refuse to sell their souls to the highest bidder, and yes, we need to get rid of the college-debt cash cow, which enriches a few and burdens the many …
We need leaders who will challenge the insanity of a consumer culture, a culture of consumption, a culture trapped in the idea that more is better, when less is better, by far … leaders who will continue to raise the alarm with the growing patterns of anti-semitism, homophobia, racism …
Where are the people we need?
The politicians, the CEOs and MBAs … Where are they?
May God raise a new generation of leaders who can see the goodness of life, and life’s purpose, who defend it with all their worth - not for personal gain, but for the welfare of all God’s creatures, great and small.
Here we are today … sitting in someone’s pew, keeping it warm and up-to-date for those who’ll be here tomorrow.
What we pray for, how we vote, the things we value … it all counts - our faith in Christ - it’s all important. The world needs people of faith.
God Bless you on this weekend in honor or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. … and to God be the glory. Amen!
