BOASTING ABOUT A CHURCH
2 Corinthians 9
I am very grateful to Jeff and the Stewardship committee for inviting me to preach today; not only because Janet and I are so fond of this church, but also because you have given me the opportunity to repeat what I say about you to other people.
At dinner parties I am often a social bore. People ask me what I do and I say I am a retired minister from Lawrenceville. Their eyes glaze over, and then they donít know what to say, so I tell them about you. In fact, I boast about you. I go on and on. They listen for a few minutes and then they turn to the person on their other side. So I welcome this occasion. How does one boast about a church? I boast about this congregation the same way the apostle Paul boasted about the Corinthian congregation. Let me tell you a little about Corinth and that church before we talk about Lawrenceville.
Corinth was a wildwest town, with people from all over the Mediterranean coming to make their fortunes. On every corner there were con artists, promising magical solutions for sickness or infertility or impotence. Sort of like modern TV advertising.
The congregation itself was what in modern days is called a "clergy killer." Some members supported Paul as their theologian and pastor, and some opposed him. Some said the end was near and any day Christ would come again to raise up the righteous and punish all sinners. And they said Paul was missing the signs of the times. Sort of like modern apocalyptic preachers of the "Left Behind" stripe. Some members claimed that the Spirit spoke through them, and that proved their spiritual superiority. And they questioned Paul's credibility, wondering if he was truly an apostle of Jesus Christ. Some said they were already raised from dead and could live in complete freedom, and they shrugged off Paul's ethics and morals. In spite of this congregational craziness, Paul boasted about them. But it was their generosity that he boasted about.
He was coming to Corinth to pick up an offering they had raised for the mother church in Jerusalem. The church in Jerusalem needed help with their widows, their many widows. Jewish men from all over the Mediterranean world went to the holy city to die. That left hundreds of widows, and the Christian congregation in Jerusalem took it upon itself to feed, house, and care for them. It wasnít a rich church, so Paul asked the Corinthians to raise an offering. And they were generous. He writes now that he is coming to pick up the offering and take it to Jerusalem.
Like Paul, when I talk about this congregation I boast about your generosity. Last week Dr. Mikoski mentioned the difficult economic times in which we live. That is certainly true. But this congregation has lived through a lot of difficult times, and I want to tell you about the generosity of this church throughout its history.
I am telling you this because you are part of the history of this congregation; you are part of the tradition of this church. This history runs through us and takes us into the present and future, and you stand in the tradition of a generous church.
Our story has three parts. First: our generosity as an immigrant church. Second, our generosity as a community church. And third, our generosity as a mission church.
We began as an immigrant church. Immigrants settled here in 1684, coming mainly from England. These immigrants were mostly Presbyterians. They came here in part for religious freedom. Their grandparents had yearned for religious freedom. They had been persecuted in England because they were not Anglicans or Roman Catholics. When the first immigrants came here they gathered a congregation to be Reformed Christians, or Presbyterians. They had been given a grant of land near Carter Road and Route 206 for a church, but that land was never used, probably because the church would have been an Anglican Church, what we call an Episcopal Church, and these immigrants, our spiritual forbearers, were Reformed Christians, or Presbyterians. The immigrants raised a log building here in 1710 on land that Ralph Hunt sold to them for 10 pounds. He was the farmer who owned the land out there. A half a century later, in 1764, some forty or fifty families raised money to build the first part of this building, using ballast bricks from trading ships. Then, in the early 1800's a lawyer and landholder named Jasper Smith, whose grandfather was one the original settlers, left his lands to his wife as long as she lived, and then to the church. That became the church's first endowment, and especially during depressions, those funds have carried the church through hard times.
Thus, this worship space, this building, is a sign of the generosity of that congregation, right from the beginning. And you are part of it, as you have kept this building functional and beautiful. Think of all the people who have worshipped here as you do, sitting where you do, through birth and marriage and baptism, through hard times and celebrations, through wars and recessions, until they were called in glory to God.
There is more here. There is a book, an important book, at the center of our worship space. This book, the Bible, speaks of Godís generosity and stands for the beliefs of these early Presbyterians. The Bible here, front and center, reminds us of generosity, of God's generosity, of God's freely given love, no strings attached, of the salvation of our souls and bodies. So the Bible is here, calling us to a new life.
It is here for another reason. The early Presbyterians remembered the struggle of their forbearers to read the Bible themselves, in English, without being arrested and tortured and burned to death. So the Bible stands in the center, to be read and listened to in the native tongue, to be discussed and pondered by the congregation, to be used in weddings and funerals, and for devotions at home. The Bible and the people: Reformed Christians, Presbyterians.
These immigrant Presbyterians also knew that the Bible called for lay folks to be leaders, called presbyters or elders, to share the leadership of the church with the pastor. No pope, no bishop, no bowing and scraping before the clergy, no magic, just the love of God for all and the shared responsibility of all. The Bible called for churches to be run in a democratic fashion, not a dictatorial or autocratic fashion. So they placed the Bible here, front and center, as a written Word of the generosity of God's love. Front and center, the Bible was a clarion call in the United States for freedom of conscience, freedom of choice, freedom of speech, and freedom of worship.
We began as an immigrant church. When you think about it, we are all immigrants, some more recent than others. Lawrence Township is growing with immigrants. By the year 2020, white Anglo-Saxons will be in the minority in the USA. Studies show that second generation immigrants often seek out churches that help them learn about God, about the Bible, and about Christian ethics. Jeff and the Session have gradually made changes in the way we worship that can speak to people of various backgrounds. We can welcome newcomers and invite them to be part of our church family. That is the first way I boast about you: an immigrant church that draws its knowledge of God from the Bible, and can once again welcome immigrants and introduce them to a Christian life that is informed and shaped by the Bible.
The second way I boast about the generosity of this church is that we have been, and still are, a community church. During the Depression members of this church and of the village planted a village garden so everyone could grow food. They found part time jobs for one another, and merchants carried on their books the elderly who had little money. The church, the fire company, the school, and the grange, were the sustaining institutions of the community. Those were hard times, too, and people lived frugally but generously, taking care of one another.
We are still a community church. Last night over 230 citizens of the township and of this church paid honor and gave thanks to an African American Fred Vereen. Forty years ago he had a vision of improving the Eggerts Crossing area with better housing, childcare, schooling, and jobs. Members of this church joined with him to start a day care center, operation Head Start, a low cost loan program, a community center, and most of all, 100 units of rent subsidized housing. This housing has been voted over and over again a model for a community. Our members have been generous with time and effort under the leadership of Fred and others in the township. And others in the church have taken responsibility for leading the town government and school system.
A special sort of neighborliness builds a community. Neighborliness in the Bible means more than how we treat the person living next door. More than the person whom we know. Too often we define our community by those we exclude, to make ourselves seem special. You remember the Good Samaritan who saved the life of a man who was his traditional enemy. The Bible, and this church have understood community as drawing people in no matter where they came from, not in pointing to others and saying they are outsiders.
If this congregation continues to be generous with Gospel neighborliness, new friends will come here, and lives will be changed. We will no longer need to drink to escape loneliness. And the young who might shoplift or use drugs and will be helped to make a good future. And families will no longer need to run up credit card debt for things we really do not need. That is what the generosity of a community church can do. Joining a generous community encourages us to cherish ourselves and others.
And thirdly, we show the generosity of being a mission church. The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has a chapter called "The Church and Its Mission." It says, "The Church of Jesus Christ is called to be a provisional demonstration of what God intends for all humanity." When I read the words, ìprovisional demonstrationî I remember a day at football practice at Williams College. In high school I had been a running back in a single wing formation and when I got to college in my sophomore year they turned me into a quarterback, which I knew nothing about. One day I was trying to learn a play involving a fake hand off, then sliding along the line, watching the defensive end, and deciding whether or not to keep the ball, or pitch it to running back. Or, that all could be a fake and I would fall back and pass. I couldnít get it right. Finally, in frustration, the coach called me to climb up the tower on which he stood to watch practice. The first team quarterback ran the play again and again until I finally got it. That was a "demonstration."
From the tower of being retired I see us trying to do mission the right way. The right way is not patronizing. The right way is to learn from those we meet and share our bounty with. Look at those who collect clothing here, refurbish housing, visit shut-ins, work with our young, help the organizations in Eggerts Crossing. They come to know the people they work with. They feel the strength and faith and kindness of these folk. This way of doing mission demonstrates the world God wants. The people, who have gone to Haiti, or Florida and the Gulf Coast, have been generous with thousands of hours. They are like farmers who have sown their seed generously, and they come back affected by the bravery and faith of these folks. That has been the harvest they have sown. Just as Paul said.
This has been a mission church doing it the right way for a long time. In the latter part of the 1800's stretching into the 1900's this congregation helped the work of two of its members in Gabon, West Africa. Robert Hamill Nassau and his older sister Isabella went as missionaries, trained in medicine and community building, and worked for more than forty years. Isabella was buried there, and the representative from Gabon to the UN told this congregation she is remembered and honored because she and her brother built indigenous, local, leadership. They were not imperialist missionaries, but shared life with the people, and lived out the love of God. We are still trying to do it the right way. We are related in spirit to the people of our past, the people of this congregation, this tradition. It is about generosity, Paul said. Someone in my life, and I suspect in your life, turned our lives around when we were young, stood up for us in school when we were bullied, encouraged us to think and use our talents, showed us how to do our first job, went out of their way to include us when we were a stranger, and took care of us when we were sick. My hunch is that they were cheerful givers. How do we become cheerful givers? By what we believe. We become what we believe. That is God's miracle, and what Paul is talking about: being generous, without compunction or obligation, makes us a cheerful people. What about the future? If the times are hard, being generous brings us closer to those who were strangers and now become friends. If the times are prosperous, being generous keeps us from losing our souls and forgetting God.
This church has been generous in times of poverty, disease, revolution, civil war, two world wars, other terrible conflicts, numerous recessions, and a depression. This is a generous church, generous as an immigrant church, as a community church, and as a church with the mission of trying to be what God wants the world to be. I have good reasons to boast about you
October 26, 2008
H. Dana Fearon, III
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