A sermon by Senior Minister John B. McCall, January 28, 2007
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Over my years of ministry I’ve had the privilege of being close to some remarkable people – in the best of times and the worst of times. Many of you have taught me about faith and hope and courage. But when all is said and done I cast my vote with the Apostle Paul in this familiar passage from his letter to the Corinthians. The greatest of all is love.
He wasn’t talking about easy love, or a teen-age crush. He wasn’t talking about being nice or kind. He was talking about that deep bond that connects us to God and to each other, that passionate readiness to love each other even when it seems to cost us.
That kind of love doesn’t come from times of comfort and convenience. It’s forged in the hardest experiences we can go through together. I think of:
• the love that compels a single mother to work two jobs at an hourly wage so her daughter can be the first in the family to go to college;
• the love by which a devoted husband stands steadfastly and courageously next to his wife, walking together day by endless day through the long decline of fatal illness;
• the love by which a young couple and their children rearrange their lives completely in order to bring her elderly mother into their home rather than let her go to nursing care.
Hollywood knows that such stories can make a good three-hankie chick flick. But we also know that this kind of love is the fiber of our communities, our families and our church. This kind of love is selfless. As Jesus said in the Gospel of John – “greater love has no one than this – to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. And I have called you friends.”
Few of us will die as an expression of our love, but many will make a genuine sacrifice out of our love. Many of you have laid down your life for the sake of another, putting your own wants and needs in second place. These are truly the things we do for love.
Today I want to echo the message from First Corinthians 13 and remind us that the only authentic measure of our common life is our love – our love for God, for the Gospel, for the world in general and for each other in particular. Our building, our budget, our programs, even our worship will come to an end and will disappear, just like everything the Apostle listed. Prophecies, spirit-filled messages, knowledge, and all the rest will end. Faith, hope and love will endure – and love is the greatest.
Each year on the day of our January budget meeting, I offer my perspective of what’s going on in our congregation; something like a “state of the Church” message. Some years I’ve stood here with a litany of challenges and crises. I’ve spoken of dangers and opportunities. Some years – including last year – I’ve pointed to the budget short-fall and tried to surround our fiscal challenge with the faith challenge.
Today I can say simply – and with a deep sense of gratitude – our 2007 budget is balanced, realistic, and lean. There are always areas that we would want to fund at higher levels, but our financial affairs are in good shape. Last year we stepped out on faith and God’s grace sustains us as we move forward.
I know that some of you are giving at a sacrificial level, expressing your faith and hope through your generosity. Oh, the things we do for love.
I report, also, that our core ministries are strong and healthy: our worship, our music, our opportunities for faith formation and for fellowship. Our mission of outreach and service is growing in scope and impact. I thank God that we continue to claim that this ministry belongs to us all. Each of us is called and each of us is equipped to serve.
These are all signs of the spirit, and manifestations of God’s holy work happening all around us and within us. All is well in our congregation, here and now. Breathe deeply and enjoy the feeling of hope and trust. [pause]
But this present moment passes in the blink of the eye. Our hope is that God will guide us in the future as God has guided us this far. What do I see on the horizon? From our position of faith, hope, and love, let’s be sure we have the courage to ask what more God may be calling us to be and to do.
First – we need to be intentional about membership growth. We have good news to share and a community that is welcoming and vibrant. We see many new faces in worship it appears that we’re growing. But we’re not. Over many years our worship attendance and our total membership have declined slowly. Mainstream churches like ours are declining in numbers almost everywhere, with very few exceptions.
And it’s true that here in northern New England even conservative denominations struggle. There are no mega-churches in our area. We have a lower percentage of folks who attend worship than any other region in the country.
But, friends, there are a lot of self-identified Christians who might well come to our church if they know who we are. They are your neighbors, your family members, your colleagues at work, and the parents who stand next to you at your kid’s athletic events. We can advertise or put signs out front, but the most effective way to grow numerically is for you to invite others to join you on Sunday morning. There is simply no substitute.
Oh, the things we do for love!
I know that one of the roadblocks is that many of you don’t know how to talk about your church – how to describe what kind of Christians we are, and what kind of experience your friends will have here. Elsa and I and many others can help you with that. I’ll make that the theme of my message next Sunday: how to describe who we are and who we are not.
Numerical growth isn’t the only challenge. We need to pay more attention to the spiritual growth of our adults – through small groups, fellowship groups, seasonal groups, and more. That’s going to take some doing. We know from experience that when we offer an adult class we can expect usual suspects. I don’t know if we’re just not offering topics of real interest or whether many of you get stuck in your spiritual journey – feeling no need to stretch, and grow. I’m not sure whether that’s just the appearance or the reality.
The past two Sundays remind us that each of us has a faith story to share for the sake of all. Two weeks ago the Diversity Committee crafted and led worship; last Sunday it was the Deacons on our annual Laity Sunday. Bryan Wiggin’s account of God’s presence and action in his life reminds us of how one person’s story can be an example for all of us. And, in three weeks the Mission Board will lead worship with Elinor Redmond giving the message. Elinor is a long-time member who’s blessed our congregation in many ways and, in the community, lives her faith as executive director of the Wayside Evening Soup Kitchen. Oh, the things we do for love.
Third, we need to be more intentional about forming the faith of our children. Last Sunday, the sanctuary of the United Church of Christ in Chappaqua, New York, was filled with the spirit and with people who gathered to ordain Elsa Anders Peters to Christian Ministry. It was a glorious event. I was struck particularly with the many people who were there who had helped raise Elsa up from childhood to adulthood, who had taught her the faith and whose children had been taught by her in Sunday school.
When I thanked one of the women serving the great dinner after the service, she simply said – “we all wanted to pitch in – we’ve loved Elsa since she was a child.” Here was a tangible witness to the way faith weaves our lives together and brings forth the best we can offer. Oh, the things we do for love.
Throughout the year we hear pleas for Sunday school teachers and assistants, for help with Youth Ministry, for Confirmation Mentors, and other opportunities to teach children the faith by simple acts of caring. If our kids don’t get that message when they’re small, they’ll have nothing to return to when they are older and will have to start from scratch. The new “parenting potluck” group is an exciting step towards mutual support.
Helping our children grow in the faith does mean some sacrifice. But that’s what we’re called to do. Oh, the things we do for love!
Fourth – we need to grow in our stewardship. A steward is someone left in charge of something valuable on behalf of the owner. Literally speaking, nothing we have is ours. It’s on loan for a little while. Our Stewardship Board tells that story each year and invites our generous support for the annual budget. Each year we see growth in total giving and each year we see that many households give little or nothing. By emphasizing proportional giving we all share in the cost and joy of discipleship.
Annual giving is only part of the puzzle. Just this week we received a generous bequest from the estate of Rosella Loveitt – a dear saint who died this past year just short of her 99th birthday. She never married, but devoted her life to teaching, serving more than 40 years in the classroom, most of them at South Portland High School. Many of the Greatest Generation have left a such legacies here for their church when they die. Their generosity – and that of many of you here today – goes a long way in assuring a vital future for our congregation. Thank you! We need to spread the word and make the mechanics manageable for others who have the will and the way. Oh, the things we do for love.
We want to be responsible stewards of our buildings, as well. We’re blessed with lots of fully-accessible space in generally good repair. Various funds are in reserve to assure care for the building and the Trustees are just beginning a Capital Needs Assessment so we can be wise in planning repairs and replacements for the future.
Finally, governance. Several of us spent many months with you discerning God’s leading in the life of our church. Much of what we heard was general satisfaction with the way things are in worship, mission, and fellowship. We thought we heard clearly that the old model of guiding the church’s ministries through three year terms on board and committees is increasingly hard for you. So the Discernment Team turned our energy to a new model for church governance, with smaller elected teams – each one engaging many more in short-term, clearly defined tasks.
But it’s fair to say we’ve lost momentum. In three weeks, at our February Cabinet meeting, we’ve invited all those who are currently serving on boards and committees to hear report-backs from the working groups and together to decide if we’re really committed to moving forward with this new model for our church governance. From the beginning we agreed that we wouldn’t know the outcome ‘til we got there and the time has come. Oh, the things we do for love!
That’s enough for me to say and you to consider this morning. I want to share with you a spirit of hope and optimism, and certainly a spirit of love. We’re engaged in ministries that matter. We are blessed with tremendous assets that put us in a position of strength and give us many opportunities to serve in Christ’s name.
We also have particular ways we need to be growing. Frankly, I hope that will always be true. Remember the wisdom of Albert Schweitzer who said: “A man can only do what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.”
So it is in our lives and in the life of the church.
Oh, the things we do for love!