BKCC Past, Present, Future (Jeremiah 1; 1 Corinthians 13)

 Jan 27, 1946

The last Sunday of January, 1946, was a foggy, drizzly morning i n Long Beach. On that day, 76 years ago - in the building that is now our Fellowship Hall - Bixby Knolls Christian Church held its first worship service.

Some of those present would eventually become members of the new congregation, but many were supporters from neighboring Disciples’ congregations. A total of 277 worshipers signed the guest book that day.

On the following Sunday, there was a thunderstorm; and, since many of the roads in the neighborhood were unpaved, the roads were muddy, and getting to church was difficult. That was just one of the many challenges our church faced in its first few months.

At that first worship service 76 years ago, a statement was read in which this congregation affirmed its commitment to the whole community. This church was not founded solely for the benefit of its members, but for the benefit of those who are not members.

This sentiment was reaffirmed in our recent “New Beginnings” process. We continue to seek ways to serve and love our neighbors.

It takes a lot of energy to start a new church; and it takes a lot of energy to keep a church going. We face some of the same challenges as 76 years ago, but many of the challenges we face are new.

Yet God calls us to continue building the church, and finding ways to love and serve our community.

It’s tiring work. We may be tempted to protest, like Jeremiah did. “Ah, Lord God! What do we know? We are just a small church. There’s just a few of us, and often, we have no idea what we’re doing!”

But God responds, “Do not say, 'we are only a small church'; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you.”

And somehow, by God’s grace and strength, we keep doing just that. We keep speaking God’s love; we keep proclaiming God’s desire for justice; and we keep finding ways to love and serve our community.

In the book of Revelation, God says: “I am the Alpha and the Omega [the first and the last], the one who is and was and is to come.”

This suggests that God transcends time, that God is present in the past, present, and future. As we look to the past, we see God present. As we look to the future, we see God present. 

The future toward which we are headed - the future which may fill us with anxiety, fear, or dread - God is already present in that future. God is already there, just as God is here, right now.

That future which seems so uncertain to us - God is already there, waiting for us.

We Welcoming All to the Lord’s Table

At that first worship service 76 years ago, our congregation affirmed its intention to be a welcoming and inclusive congregation. 

Over the years we have taken that commitment seriously, and we have grown in understanding. We have expanded our welcome.

And we continue to grow in understanding, and we continue to seek ways we can become even more inclusive, welcoming, and affirming of all people. And it all began with a commitment made 76 years ago.

That, I think, is the key to understanding why it’s good to pause and look back at where we come from, and what we stood for when we started, and reflect on how we have or have not lived out the intentions we first set forth.

It’s like how, every week, we gather around the Lord’s Table, which gives us reason to ponder its significance, and reflect on how our lives are changed because we’ve accepted Christ’s invitation to gather and partake.

It’s like how we are invited to reflect on our baptism - even if the day of our baptism was many, many years ago. As I reflect on my own baptism, and the commitments I made that day, and the overwhelming grace of God that was affirmed in my life, I continue to grow in understanding of just what it all means.

Love is Everything

As part of our learning and growing as a congregation, we often give deep thought to what it means to love. The most well-known Bible passage on love is from 1 Corinthians 13, and in our memories it begins, “Love is patient, love is kind.” But there are actually three verses that come before that in chapter 13, the three verses that were read for us.

“If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”

Which means that if your theology is correct - if your understanding of atonement is correct, for example, or if you have the right understanding of the resurrection, or if you have the right interpretation of scripture - but you lack love, then everything you have is meaningless. It’s all meaningless without love.

Love is challenging. Love is bold. Love is courageous. Throughout our congregation’s history, we have shown love and affirmation to people of different races and nationalities. We have shown love and affirmation to refugees and immigrants. And we learned, over the years, to show love and affirmation to the LGBT community.

But we’re still learning how to love. We’re still learning what it means to be welcomed, unconditionally, at the Lord’s Table, and how we are called to pass on that welcome to others, and to proclaim God’s radical love in word and action.

What Kind of Church?

I don’t know about you, but I’m still learning how to show love when someone asks me, “What kind of church is it, that you belong to?”

What I want to say is that we are a church that loves others and does its best to follow Jesus.

Unfortunately, people have a lot of ideas about “church” these days - a lot of assumptions - and you know as well as I that not all the ideas people have about church are positive.

The reasons for this are many. The media often present just one image of church, rather than the spectrum and diversity that exist within the body of Christ.

And, too many churches have, in fact, harmed people rather than helped them. 

So when people ask about church, we might feel tempted to say, “... but we’re not that kind of church.”

OK, then, what kind of church are we? 

I’ve started using the word “progressive” to describe us. I’ve resisted doing so for a long time, because I just really don’t like labels. 

I remember when I heard Gustavo Gutierrez speak - the “father of liberation theology.” He said something that surprised me; he said: “it wouldn’t bother me one bit if liberation theology disappeared tomorrow, because I wasn’t ordained to preach liberation theology; I was ordained to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Well, I wasn’t ordained to preach progressive Christianity; I was ordained to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

William Barber is another one who feels uncomfortable with certain labels. Many consider him a leader of progressive, liberal Christianity, but he describes himself as a “theologically conservative liberal evangelical biblicist.” In a speech he gave a few years ago, he said, “I know it may sound strange, but I'm a conservative because I work to conserve a divine tradition that teaches us to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.”

Clearly, using a label like “progressive” - or, any label - isn’t perfect; but if all I say is that I’m a Christian, or that I preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, people are going to make assumptions. Right? They’re going to paint a picture in their mind, and it’s likely that it won’t be a picture I agree with.

I wish I didn’t have to clarify that I’m a Christian who actually believes that Jesus wants us to care for the poor, to reach out to the outcasts, to welcome immigrants and foreigners, and to affirm every person that is condemned by society. I wish I didn’t have to clarify that I’m the type of Christian who believes God desires healing over punishment. 

But because of the assumptions that are made, I’m feeling more and more that I do need to clarify these things. And one of the easiest, simplest ways to do that is to say I’m a progressive Christian.

Another option would be to just keep quiet, to just not talk about it at all. In fact, I’ve been in gatherings where I’ve told people I’m with, “Don’t tell anyone I’m a pastor,” because I just don’t want to have those conversations. I don’t want to have to explain that I’m not that type of Christian, I don’t want to have to defend myself against someone who might challenge me for being too liberal, and I don’t want to have to defend the church to someone who has become anti-church because of all the things they’ve heard.

And yet, I do want to live authentically. I want to live out my truth. I don’t want to hide this about me. And I believe that God does call me to proclaim the gospel - the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of love, the gospel of healing, wholeness, and salvation.

God has put a word within me, and God doesn’t want me to hide it.

BKCC - Past, Present, and Future

And if there is one thing that the queer community has taught me, and one thing that the queer community can teach the church, is the importance of living authentically, of coming out to the world.

I’m an introvert. I once described our congregation as an introverted congregation. Meaning, that it’s our nature to be quiet, to not go around talking people’s ears off about who we are or what we do.

But Elizabeth Edman, in her book Queer Virtue, made me realize that maybe it’s not just that we’re an introverted congregation. Maybe it’s that we are a congregation that’s still in the closet. Maybe it’s that we are a congregation that hasn’t quite yet figured out how to live authentically, how to proclaim the truth about who we are, what we believe…

And maybe that’s how God is calling us to grow in the years ahead.

Fortunately, we have 76 years of growth behind us, which fills me with confidence that we will continue growing in the years ahead.

Fortunately, we have a legacy of love for our neighbors in our community and around the world, and that love will guide us in the years ahead.

Fortunately, we have the encouragement of the one who said to Jeremiah and who says to us “Do not be afraid; I have put my words in your mouth; and I will be with you.”

Because I am the God who was, and who is, and who is to come. I am the God who was with you in the past, who is with you in the present, and who is already with you in the future that is coming.

An Environment for Listening (Jeremiah 1:4-10)

Last Tuesday, I spent the evening of my birthday attending an orientation and training session for adults who are willing to serve as merit badge counselors for boy scouts. In order to earn merit badges, scouts need to contact and work with a registered merit badge counselor.

There are approximately 120 merit badges that scouts can earn, on a variety of topics such as: camping, first aid, robotics, automotive maintenance, space exploration, and golf. Just to name a few.

(Contrary to popular belief, boy scouts do not have an “assisting the elderly” badge. Only Wilderness Explorers have that.)

The merit badge I signed up to counsel is called Environmental Science. It is one of the merit badges that are required to become an Eagle Scout, which means it is one of the most popular merit badges to earn. Among the requirements to earn the Environmental Science merit badge is one that requires scouts to spend some time observing nature.

Believe it or not, for many scouts, this is the hardest requirement of all. Other merit badges require scouts to do things like build and launch a rocket, lash poles together with rope to build a tower, swim 150 yards, hike twenty miles in one day, or describe the advantages and disadvantages of investing in stocks, mutual funds, life insurance, CDs or savings accounts.

But this particular merit badge, the Environmental Science merit badge, requires scouts to sit still for an extended length of time in a natural environment, using their senses to quietly observe what’s around them.

It doesn’t get much harder than that.

Can you imagine it? At our most recent Chi-Rho gathering, I had the two middle schoolers who were present sit quietly and discover how many different sounds they could hear. I had read recently about how important it is to a life of prayer to simply notice what’s around us, wherever we may be. The author whose book I was reading wondered what would have happened if Moses was too lost in his own thoughts or too distracted to notice what was going on in his environment, or if he was too focused on getting his sheep to whatever pasture he was leading them, too focused on the destination, not paying attention to the journey. Would he have missed the burning bush, not noticing that strange sight that was off to the side?

I asked the Chi-Rho kids to sit quietly, and listen. I wanted to create an environment that, I hoped, would be conducive to prayer—and prayer, I believe, is as much about listening as it is about speaking. So we sat in silence, and afterward, they reported that, in the silence, they heard cars and motorcycles in the street; they heard voices from downstairs; they heard the building creak; and they even heard the fluorescent lights in the room, buzzing softly. I was impressed by that. How often do any of us notice these sounds that are all around us?

On the other hand, the time of quiet didn’t last long. The silence lasted a total of one minute, fifteen seconds. One minute and fifteen seconds was as long as the kids could sit still and listen, doing nothing, ignoring their cell phones, keeping quiet in order to hear the sounds around them.

Kids just aren’t used to periods of quiet these days. In fact, most adults aren’t, either. I just read about a woman who got a new GPS for her car, one that gives audio driving directions. According to what I read, she was able to choose the voice she wanted, so she chose a soothing male voice. Then she programmed her GPS to help her get to places she didn’t know how to get to.

However, she soon started using her GPS to get to places that she did know how to get to, like her own home. Why? Because she liked hearing that soothing male voice. She didn’t like the silence. She didn’t like being left along with her own thoughts.

How many people do you know who leave the TV on when they aren’t really watching it, or who leave the radio on when they aren’t really listening? It drives me crazy when I’m carpooling with someone somewhere, and they have the radio on to some news station, but the volume is low—too low to really hear what’s being said. If it’s a long drive, the station may fade to static—and they don’t even notice! After all, they didn’t really turn the radio on to listen to the news; they turned it on just so they’d have some noise, just so they wouldn’t have to endure the silence. And so they don’t even notice when it fades to static.

Kids these days (I know, using a phrase like that makes me sound old—but I did have a birthday last week) don’t have just radios and TVs. They also have computers and video games and cell phones that do a hundred different things. Their world, I think it’s safe to say, is almost never silent.

When Elijah met God on Mt. Horeb, he encountered a powerful wind, a wind so strong it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks. A tornado, perhaps. But, the scripture says, the Lord was not in the wind.

After the wind there was a mighty earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

After the fire, there was a sound of sheer silence.

And in the silence was the voice of God.

God’s voice is not always easy to hear. It’s not always a big, thundering, booming voice. I know a lot of people who believe that God has spoken to them, but not one of them has described God’s voice as sounding like that. Usually, God is heard in the silence.

In a world where noise is everywhere, God’s voice can be hard to hear. One of the most important things a church can do, especially for its children and youth, is provide an environment in which God’s voice can be heard.

In addition to being hard to hear, God’s voice can also be hard to recognize; especially if one is not used to hearing it.

The Bible says that in the days of Samuel, the word of the Lord was rare. I wonder why. If I were to make a guess, I would say that perhaps it was because it was a noisy time in history, and people just weren’t listening very well.

One person who did experience silence, and thus was able to listen, was Samuel. The fact that, at night, he actually slept in the temple probably helped him find times of silence. I imagine the temple to be a rather quiet place at night. But even so, when God called, Samuel did not recognize that it was God’s voice he was hearing.

Fortunately, Samuel had the old priest Eli to help him realize that the voice he was hearing was, in fact, the voice of the Lord. The environment in which Samuel found himself was perfect for hearing God’s call. He had times of instruction, periods of silence, and the guidance of a mentor who was able to share with Samuel his knowledge and wisdom.

I think that the prophet Jeremiah was also raised in an environment that allowed him to listen for the voice of the Lord. Jeremiah’s father was a priest, and everything I’ve read suggests that Jeremiah’s childhood took place in an environment that had all the right ingredients to make listening for God possible.

Growing up, Jeremiah must have known he was a child of God. Like Samuel, he knew from a very young age that he was called to be and do something special. He was instructed in the ancient wisdom, and was given the time and the silence necessary for one to listen and hear the voice of the Lord. And when that voice did come, he recognized it. He was surprised to hear it at such a young age, but still, he heard it. And he responded, and became one of the great Jewish prophets of old.

One of the most important things we can do as a church is to nurture our children and youth, to provide them with an environment in which God can be heard. I give thanks every time I see our children come up for the children’s moment; and when they go tromping out of here to Sunday school and Worship and Wonder, passing right by me on their way out, I really do count my blessings.

And as the teachers herd them along, hushing them and getting them out the door, I give thanks for those who work with our children: Scheri and Sandy, who sacrifice their worship time to be with our children; and Christine, our nursery attendant; and Barbara, who leads the Heavenly halos; and David and Margo, who assist me with the older youth; and others who step in to lead the children’s moment or assist our Christian Education committee. These folks do an excellent job creating an environment in which our young people are nurtured. I encourage you to express your gratitude to these folks next time you see them.

It never bothers me when the children take too long to get out the door, because it just gives me extra time to be thankful, extra time to count my blessings. Likewise, it never bothers me when a baby cries softly during worship, or when an antsy toddler is roaming the aisles as I preach. I just count another blessing, and move on as best I can.

But I will tell you what does bother me. When I was a scout, the Environmental Science merit badge requirement was to spend eight hours observing nature, in four two-hour increments. Granted, at the time, it sure did seem like a colossal waste of time, especially at summer camp, where more exciting activities like archery and swimming and sailing awaited.

But I know now that time spent like that is not only beneficial when it comes to developing an awareness of one’s environment; it is also beneficial when it comes to developing an awareness of God’s Spirit. And to this day, I often find myself looking for opportunities to spend some time quietly observing the world around me, listening for God.

However, in the years since I was a scout, those eight hours of observing nature have been reduced to two hours; two hours, spread over six twenty-minute increments. That by itself isn’t so bad, I guess; a necessary concession to the noisy, fast-paced world in which we live, I suppose. But the worst thing is that, for this requirement, scouts are now given a choice between two options; the other option has no time requirement at all.

Opportunities to listen for God, to listen for God’s call, are becoming quite rare. As a result, it is becoming increasingly rare for people of all ages—but especially young people—to hear the word of the Lord. Now, more than ever, it is vitally important for the church to do all it can to provide our young people with an environment in which God’s voice can be heard.