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Click to hear this sermon sermon070930
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.
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