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  When you're driving down the highway, it's important to have a good rear-view mirror.

Where We've Been; Where We're Going - Isaiah 58: 9-14; Hebrews 12: 1-2­ September 30, 2007 - Cicero United Methodist Church - Everett J. Bassett

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            When you're driving down the highway, it's important to have a good rear-view mirror. And when you're driving down life's highway, it's important to be able to see where you've been. For one thing, we've all heard the phrase, "If you don't know your history, you are doomed to make the same mistakes over and over again."  But, more than that, if you don't know your roots, you can never quite know yourself - who you are, where you came from, why you think and act and respond this way or that.

            Every year, at the Bassett family reunion, we read the minutes from the reunion forty years ago. It is one of the best things we do. Only a small fraction of the family comes anymore, but I always think: that those who are there are blessed by that sense of rootedness - that reminder of the people of the past - that rear-view mirror. I felt the same way this summer when Sharon and I traveled to the land where her ancestors came from, and witnessed her connection with the people still there who share her heritage.

            We lose a lot when we lose our past. If you have been in any kind of counseling or spiritual direction program, more than likely your first journey has been backwards - into your family, into your childhood, into your roots - because there are amazing lessons to be learned there. In the same way, any community, any society, any nation that forgets its past is putting itself in great danger. And we live in such a hectic, straight-ahead, fast­changing world, that people aren't learning their history, and that points to deep trouble,

            The people of the Bible were very aware of this. The journey of the Bible from Genesis to Revelations is a journey of amazing transformation -- a chronicle of great changes. Yet it has a big rear-view mirror; the people of the Bible were never disconnected from the lessons of the past. I was reading from the Book of Exodus this week - the dramatic event when the Hebrew people were led out of slavery in Egypt, through the Red Sea, to freedom on the other side. And there is one detail in then: that I had forgotten. As they were preparing to make their break for it, out of Egypt, when you would think that every fiber of their being was consumed with the opportunity of present and future freedom - they remembered to do this: they fetched the bones of their ancestor Joseph, and carried them along with them out of Egypt. Isn't that something'? When they got out into the desert, they barely had the clothes on their backs; they didn't carry water; they didn't carry food. But they carried the bones of their ancestor. Because the connection to the past must be kept, or people get lost on the road.

            Centuries later, when the Hebrew people had again fallen on hard times, the prophet called Second Isaiah was one of those who kept them strong. He reminded them how God had been faithful in the past. In today's lesson, when God is speaking words of promise to them, He says, " ... I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob ... " And we see this again and again in the Old Testament - connecting with the past is how they keep their hope. During hard times, they can turn to the God who helped Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Joseph ...

            Jesus carried this forward - he taught lessons about Noah, and Moses, and David, and Solomon, and Jonah; his whole teaching was rooted in the heritage of the past.  And so, the church had this great foundation.  In Hebrews 11, when the writer wanted to describe the power and the quality of faith, he lists all the great leaders of the past who kept the faith through tough times.  And then, in the beginning of chapter 12, we read these words:  "therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith..."

            This could be the motto of this Heritage Sunday. We connect again to the great past of this church, the great past of this town - because this is the cloud of witnesses that surrounds us. This is what enables us to lay aside every weight, to shed sin that clings so closely, and then to celebrate Jesus, who perfects us all. You may come here this morning with a sense of disconnection; perhaps your life seems adrift, and you can't quite make sense of it, and you feel overwhelmed by the problems of the day. Here's what you can do. Check the rear-view mirror. There are literally hundreds of generations who have traveled this road before. And they have found along the way that God is faithful; God is strong - stronger than any challenge that can frighten us. And those generations are the cloud of witnesses who speak to us from the Bible, and from the great history of the faith.

            But here's the other thing, just as essential: As you're traveling down the highway, it's also important to have a clear windshield. It's important to see where you're going. This, too, is the witness of the Bible. As rooted as the Bible is in the glory of the past, the Bible is through and through about the new thing that God is doing. "Behold, I make all things new," says the Lord. Jesus talked about himself as the bringer of new wine. He said, "This is the blood of the new covenant." And the Bible ends with a vision of the new heaven and the new earth. This, too, is part of Heritage Sunday - to embrace both the legacy of the past, and the new things that God is doing.

            I read about a young piano student, who could play very well once she got her bearings, but always had trouble starting because she couldn't find Middle C. Then her teacher said, "You can always find Middle C because it is under the S in 'Steinway." With this simple tip, the young lady was able to progress beautifully, and to plan her first recital. Everybody gathered, and she came on stage. But when she got to the keyboard she froze -- because someone had replaced the Steinway piano with a Yamaha.

            I don't know about you, but sometimes I feel like someone has switched pianos on me, and I can no longer locate middle C. Nothing in seminary quite prepared me for dealing with HMOs, Power Points, Web sites, and cars that start without inserting a key. As I said in this month's newsletter, I have a great deal of admiration for those who have witnessed amazing changes in their town, and in their church. It must seem like the Steinway has gone, and the Yamaha has replaced it. But Middle C is still here. There are still the same number of black keys, and the same number of white keys. And the music is still beautiful here in Cicero, because God is still here.

            And Heritage Sunday is our reminder that God is still so good.  Wouldn't those first Methodists back in the early 1800s be thrilled to see our Senior High Sunday School class this morning, filling the corners of the room?  Wouldn't they be proud to see two bustling Sunday School hours, and church and community activities here very night of the week?  But more than that, wouldn't they be thrilled to know that the faith is still strong; that people are still turning to Jesus as the ‘pioneer and the perfecter' of their faith:  And wouldn't they be cheering us on today?  Wouldn't they be reminding us to keep the faith, and to turn again and again to the cross, where salvation and hope enter our lives, and God's love is so strong that the powers of the centuries cannot break it?

            Praise God! Praise God for the mirror that lets us see where we've been. And praise God for the window that lets us catch a glimpse of the glorious future where we're going.