EASTER 5B 2009
The Journey: Yesterday, Today and Forever
#2
On May 31, Pentecost Sunday, we are going to have one Service at 10:00. During that service, we are going to ask each of us to make a pledge to help keep this congregation healthy. Whenever an organization, or a church, asks for money, the professionals say that they have to make a good case, or give a reason why people should give to that church or organization. This morning we are reminding ourselves of one key reason why we give to this church, and that is our children.
Many years ago, when I worked as the Archdeacon, or Bishop’s assistant in this diocese, I would travel around and visit our churches. While I grew up in churches that were full of children, now things were different. For many reasons, many main line type of churches grew older without keeping children and families. So at almost every church I visited the people would say: “Archdeacon McNair, we need children and families to come to our church or we are going to die.” But as I gained more experience, I realized that even though they would say this, most were not willing to make the sacrifices necessary to make children and families welcome.
Thus, when we began dreaming about starting a new
church in
I am thankful for all the adults over the years who have given of their time and effort to teach and care for our children. I know that it is not always easy. But I know, and have seen again and again, the truth that when children have a positive experience with church life, even if they drift away for a time, many, no most of them come back to the Lord as they mature and have families. This is the pattern for many of you who are now parents. The efforts we make with our children bear tremendous fruit that many of us might never see. While we might plant the seed, it is God that gives the increase over time.
Today we face the same challenge that we faced on the day we started this church. We need to work and pray and give to make this community safe and vibrant and serious about living and teaching the Christian faith to the children that are here today, as they will be the ones who will be teaching the children of tomorrow. As it did on the first day of the existence of Faith church, the responsibility for our children lies with we who are adults.
I like the attitude of the Psalmists in Psalm 22 that we read this morning.
My soul shall live for him; my descendants shall
serve him:*
They shall be known as the Lord’s forever.
They shall come and make known to a people yet
unborn*
The saving deeds that he has done.
The real priests of any family are the parents. Children learn what is important and valued from their parents. The Psalmists first says that he has made a decision to live for God – “My soul shall live for him..’ And in so doing, he dedicates his children also to the Lord. And in doing this, he foresees that they will make the saving acts of God to the next generation to come.
Today we have many new families attending this church. I would like to challenge the parents of young children to consider how important church and faith life is to their children. I believe with all my heart that there is no better inheritance that we can pass along to our children than the Christian faith, rooted and nurtured in the Church. We might give them opportunities to play sports, or music or be in drama or dance. We might help them in school and pay for a good education. We might teach them the hobbies that we love… but when it is all said and done, are these the things that are THE most important in life. If many of us are honest, we might say, yes, these are what we think are most important.
But we who are Christians see the
world with different eyes. We try and look at the world with the eyes of Jesus.
And when we do, we realize that while
all of these things are good, there is
another level, another realm, another part of life, and that is the spiritual. As the Apostle Paul once wrote:
2 Corinthians 4:18 because we look not at what can
be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what
cannot be seen is eternal.
Along with giving our children all that they need to live in this world, we need to care about their spiritual lives, about helping them see the things that are eternal. We work and hope and pray that they can learn that living for Jesus will bring them greater satisfaction than any success or wealth that they can earn in this life.
Our society has amped up all sorts of pressures and expectations on the lives of our children. I don’t really know whether this is good or bad, but things are very different than when I was a child. The activity level for children has been increased exponentially, whether it is in sports or music or the arts, and certainly in school. This increases the pressure. One personal example: I loved sports, and played them almost every day when I was young. I played football in High School. I was OK, and played. But during the summer, we goofed off. We never worked out with weights or went to clinics. We just showed up for practice in the fall and suffered. Then it was off to Basketball. This does not happen today. Kids have to be dedicated and focused and it is almost like a job.
For me there came a day when football, and basketball, and baseball were over. And I can remember very vividly wondering who I was then. I had to face life with a new identity and I floundered big time. All of our children too will have to face life as adults with all that goes with it. What foundation are we giving them?
So as I have said, central to who we are here at
A few weeks ago we had a closing pot luck for our Club faith. I attended and saw lots of families and children. A few days later we had the Sierra Service project dinner and saw our youth working and giving to raise money for their summer projects. Within a few days I saw the vision of our church being lived out. I was a little proud. During Holy Week our children led an entire Good Friday service. Every Sunday they are a part of our common life. Today we will hear about our upcoming VBS program.
Our challenge today is to maintain this vision and make sure that the babies and little ones present today continue to have these same opportunities.
Therefore a key motivating reason for giving to keep this church thriving is to maintain a strong and vibrant children’s ministry.
But the deeper and real reason for giving is summed up by John in the part of his letter that we read this morning.
1 John 4:10-11 ( NRSV ) 10In this is love, not that
we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice
for our sins. 11Beloved, since God loved
us so much, we also ought to love one another.
Our motivation for living the Christian life is rooted in the love and forgiveness we have received in Jesus. Knowing and experiencing the love of God changes how we look at the world. It changes our lives. Without this personal experience in our lives, when we in the church ask you to give, it feels no different than the public radio or public TV fund drive, or any other group asking for your money.
But Christians, truthfully, are
never afraid to be challenged to give. As a matter of fact, we want to be challenged to give more,
because we want to grow more and be more faithful followers of Jesus.
It may not always be feel comfortable, but we know that giving is central to living out our faith. As we give, we realize that we can’t give to every need our cause, and so we aren’t always guilty, but we struggle to give to those things which move our hearts.
If I thought that we, as a
group, was totally tapped out in our
giving to Jesus, we would not be having
this campaign. But the truth is, as a community, we have much more that we can give for the
extension of the
In closing I want to say again why we are having this campaign. Simply, we need to raise extra money, on top of our regular operating expenses, to continue to pay off our mortgage of 1.2 million dollar -- $12,000 a month! . On May 31st, at our one service at 10:00, we will be asking you to make a pledge to help us do this. I have every confidence that we will have a great campaign which will allow this church to grow and thrive and live out the vision that God has given us. AMEN!