3rd Sunday of Easter
April 19, 2015
Acts 3:12-19; Psalm 4; 1 John 3:1-7; Luke 24:36b-48
It’s funny, I was given a bookmark about the names of
Jesus this week, you know, Alpha and Omega, Emmanuel, King of Kings, Morning
Star, Prince of Peace, and so on, and I took it as a sign because I had already
been thinking about names. That was the
word that had jumped out at me from the Acts text: “His name
itself has made this man strong. That is, because of faith in Jesus’ name, God
has strengthened this man whom you see and know.”[1] Asking the question, “What’s
in a name?” leads us to Shakespeare’s play Romeo
and Juliet, where Juliet asks, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
by any other word would smell as sweet.”[2] The problem for the star-crossed
couple, of course, being that their families were fierce rivals, much like the
Hatfield’s and McCoy’s here in the U.S.
Juliet wishes that Romeo’s last name weren’t Montague and Romeo says
he’s willing to change his name for her.
And so, what’s in a name? Is it
who we are? And who are we?
I can tell you about the psalmist
who wrote Psalm 4. He feels
forsaken. “How long… shall my honor
suffer shame? How long will you love what
is worthless and go after lies?” “Many
people say, ‘We can’t find goodness anywhere. The light of your face has left
us, Lord!’”[3]
Can you identify with that? We
can’t find goodness anywhere. The light
of your face has left us, Lord. We are
forsaken. This psalm is a lament, and
yet it ends in hope. “I will lie down
and sleep in peace, because you alone, Lord, let me live in safety.”[4]
The psalmist recognizes that while he feels forsaken, he is not, actually, forsaken. He says that “the Lord will hear me when I
call out to him” and that “the Lord has filled my heart with joy.”[5]
The psalmist is not
forsaken. We are not forsaken.
So, who are we? 1 John tells us that we are God’s children. “See
how much the Father has loved us! His love is so great that we are called God's
children – and so, in fact, we are.”[6] What does it mean to be God’s children? It means we’re all part of his family, as we
talked about last week. It means that we
have the confidence to pray to him. If
you listen closely the next time we have communion in a couple weeks, or if you
want to turn to the front of your hymnal now to look at it, right before we
pray the Lord’s Prayer together, the directions to introduce it say, “with the
confidence of the children of God, let us pray.”[7] Knowing that we are God’s children gives us
confidence. It gives us confidence to “approach
the throne of grace with boldness,” as the book of Hebrews puts it, “so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of
need.”[8] Knowing we are God’s children also gives
us confidence in ourselves. It doesn’t
mean we should be too self-confident
such that we become arrogant, but we can rest assured, or live in safety, like
the psalmist, secure in the knowledge that we are God’s children.
Our Gospel reading tells us one more thing about who we
are. The resurrected Jesus says, “The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day,
and a change of heart and life for the forgiveness of sins must
be preached in his name to all
nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of
these things.”[9] We are witnesses. It means
we testify to these things. We share
about suffering and how resurrection and victory over death come after the
suffering and death, that death is not the end.
We talk about how a changed life has to include repentance and
forgiveness. And we take this message to
all the world, beginning here, locally, in our home town. Finally, we do all this in Jesus’ name.
That’s what’s in a name, and what it means that we are witnesses.
So, who are we? We are not forsaken. We are God’s children. And we are God’s witnesses. But let’s talk a little more specifically
about who we are. I’ve been here almost
a year now, a solid six months in a row since coming back from maternity leave,
and this is just what I’ve observed.
We are
Cowenton, a
community that was planted along the railroad tracks, which were brand new at
the time, connecting Baltimore to Philadelphia and New York. This development was named in honor of John
K. Cowen, the President of the B&O Railroad. Unfortunately, the post office refused to
recognize Cowenton because they already had a town with that name in the
area. So the official town name was
quickly changed to White Marsh. Not much
is left that still bears the name Cowenton, but we are still Cowenton.
Back in 1895, this church was started out of a concern
for Christian education for youth and so it began as a Sunday school. Children are one of our key values that
I have identified as something that is extremely important to us. I have heard lots of stories about how the
Sunday school was full to overflowing, about past Vacation Bible Schools and
other children-oriented ministries. There
Terrific Tots program was an outside program that we hosted, because we like
having children among us. Children are
important here and are valued here.
That’s why we’ve started staffing the nursery again and put it on our
sign outside. It doesn’t matter if our
volunteers are down there by themselves and all the children stay in worship;
just by having it we are offering hospitality to young families, letting them
know there is a place for them here. We
welcome them and their children.
A related core value is education.
We didn’t start with worship for those youth back in 1895 or a
playground; no, we started with Sunday school, with education. We wanted to teach the youth about Jesus, and at one time our Christian
education program began with children as young as 2. In cleaning things out, we have found old
curriculums for children and old attendance sheets for adult classes. At one point things were so full there was an
adult class that met here, in the sanctuary.
Beginning this fall we are going to renew our push for all of our
members to be in some time of Christian education, whether as a teacher or
student, whether Sunday school or bible study or some other format. Education is important here, which means we
also know the importance of being lifelong learners. We never stop learning and God is never done
teaching us.
Finally, the third core value I’ve noticed here is
music. The music library over here to my right is
impressive, by anyone’s
standards. And it says that music is
very important here. When we were
cleaning out our closets and such, we found some old pictures of past choirs,
from Christmas cantatas, and when the choir went on tour. We’re going to frame some of these pictures,
and others, and put them up downstairs so that we can remember and celebrate
our history, especially our musical history.
Music makes a difference in the life of this church. You may have noticed, the choir robed up and
processed in and sat up front here with me on Easter, and you know the comment
I heard later? The difference that a
clearly visible choir makes? Choir
members, here’s the difference you make: I was told that simply by having the
choir robed and processing, it looked like the first time in a long time that the church cared. Not that it was the first time in a long time, simply the appearance of caring. The
choir represents the church as much as any other group here and the effort they
put forth simply to robe and process reflected an effort on the part of the
church as a whole. Music makes a difference here, and seeing our musicians put forth
effort inspires the rest of us to also
put forth effort.
Now, if you think I’ve incorrectly identified these
three core threads that run through our congregation’s history and values,
please let me know. Perhaps I’ve placed
too much importance on one of them or I’ve missed another thread that’s equally
important. I may be wrong about children
and education and music, perhaps I’ve missed something and I’d like to know
what you think it is, because this isn’t just a pointless exercise. When we can say who we are, and what our core
values are, what it means to be Cowenton,
then we can also identify our next steps forward because we know then where to
focus our time and energy and resources.
It gives us a sense of our particular purpose for being planted here in
this place and the particular mission that God has for us in this community. What’s it mean to be Cowenton United
Methodist Church? What are our key
values? Let’s play to our strengths and
develop and focus on what’s important to us and not dawdle on what is less
important. Just because it’s a good
thing doesn’t mean we have to do it. If
children and education and music are our core threads, then everything we do as
God’s children and God’s witnesses should have something to do with them.
///////////////////
We are Piney
Grove. We began as a worshiping group in 1872 in a
pine grove, where we get our name from. Two
years later, the Pennsylvania Railroad deeded the land to the faith
community. We grew exponentially during
World War II because of the influx of workers at local defense plants. Unfortunately, when the jobs dried up, many
of the people left. And that was perhaps
the first time we started sending people out to serve.
You see, we have a history of
sending people out from us into ministry.
Some of our members have gone on to become pastors. Pastors have gone on to become District
Superintendents. This is one of the core threads in our history, and while it
hurts to see people leave to serve God elsewhere, and we miss them, this is a
vital mission of the church. Not that
many churches can say that they have sent out as many people as we have. This means that there is something going on
here, something to do with spiritual formation and an openness to hear God’s
call and a willingness to respond to it.
A related thread in our values is
what it says out in our Fellowship Hall – “We are mission-minded.” The amount of outreach and mission projects
that this church is involved in is impressive by anyone’s standards. Every
week we serve dinner to the homeless.
Once a month we have a soup kitchen, that is housed here in our building. During
the winter, we feed the men of Streets of Hope once a month. At other times we have clothing
give-away's. We give away Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets. This is a church that is there for the poor of our community. And that’s exactly where Jesus said we should
be. No, it’s not easy. Sometimes we feel worn out. Sometimes we want to throw in the towel. We do a lot of mission work; it is definitely
one of the core threads of this church.
The third core value I’ve noticed
here is hospitality. We aren’t just
involved in a soup kitchen, we have it here,
in our building. We host AA once a
week. We have shown incredible
hospitality toward Pastor Jorge and welcoming him as well as a new faith community into
our midst. We even have a Hospitality
chair, which not many churches have. We
are known for being friendly, because hospitality is important to us.
We are a church who sends people into ministry, who is
not just mission-minded, but active in mission, and for whom it is
important to show hospitality. Now, if
you think I’ve incorrectly identified these three core threads that run through
our congregation’s history and values, please let me know. Perhaps I’ve placed too much importance on
one of them or I’ve missed another thread that’s equally important. I may be wrong about sending and outreach and
hospitality, perhaps I’ve missed something and I’d like to know what you think
it is, because this isn’t just a pointless exercise. When we can say who we are, and what our core
values are, what it means to be Piney
Grove, then we can also identify our next steps forward because we know
then where to focus our time and energy and resources. It gives us a sense of our particular purpose
for being planted here in this place and the particular mission that God has
for us in this community. What’s it mean
to be Piney Grove United Methodist Church?
What are our key values? Let’s
play to our strengths and develop and focus on what’s important to us and not
dawdle on what is less important. Just
because it’s a good thing doesn’t mean we have to do it. If sending people out and reaching out to the
least in our community and welcoming are our core threads, then everything we
do as God’s children and God’s witnesses should have something to do with them.
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