Note: Emanuel United Church of Christ celebrated its 150th anniversary on Sunday September 18, 2011. The Rev. Dr. Geneva Butz, Associate Conference Minister for the Pennsylvania Southeast Conference of the United Church of Christ, was guest preacher. Geneva's inspiring sermon follows...
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(Scriptures: Psalm 105:1-6, Philippians 1:21-30)
Remember God’s Wonderful Works
A sermon preached by Rev. Geneva M. Butz - September 18, 2011
Happy Birthday, Emmanuel UCC! Happy 150th Anniversary!! Today is a milestone in your history, and I am honored and pleased to be here to join in the celebration. I bring you greetings from our new Interim Conference Minister, Rev. Judith Youngman, and the 174 churches of the Pennsylvania Southeast Conference.
You know it says in scripture, "Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep." Well, today is a day of rejoicing, and we all join with you in marking this celebration! 150 years is quite an achievement. I’m sure there have been times when you wondered if you would see this day. Well, here it is! Congratulations!
The Psalm for today is a wonderful text for your celebration. It’s Psalm 105. The Psalm begins, in some translations, with a familiar word "Hallelujah!" There is no real meaning to this word, Hallelujah. It is simply a cry of praise. We say it when we are extremely happy. Hallelujah! Let us all say it together! Hallelujah!! Hallelujah to God for giving us this day. Psalm 105 is part of a series of Hallel Psalms that all begin with the word Hallelujah.
The next words we hear in this Psalm are words of thanksgiving: "O give thanks to the Lord, call on his name." Again, these are good words to hear this day. Today is a day of thanksgiving, of looking to God with gratitude for all that has gone before, of thanking God for all that has happened in and through this congregation. We could not find a better way to celebrate this anniversary than to give thanks to God for these 150 years. Surely you will agree, you did not make it on your own. God was with you, God was guiding you, God’s presence saw you through many difficult times and situations. So we begin this celebration by praising God and saying, thank you! You were with us, and because of you, O God, we pulled through.
According to Psalm 105, there is to be music in our celebration. And there has been very fine music today. The Psalmist asks us to sing our praises to God...to give glory to God’s name with song. We are to celebrate with our hearts and our voices, from the inside out, as we give praise to God with doxology–with music and singing. This Psalm itself was most likely sung because the Book of Psalms is the hymnal of the Jewish people.
Then the Psalmist asks us to remember all the wonderful works that God has done. You see, when we give thanks, it should not be just a general thanksgiving, rather it should be a specific listing of all the very real and rich, deep and meaningful things that God has done in this place with you, God’s people. Your time of testimony this morning was very beautiful, very moving. I really appreciated all the very real stories which were shared.
The Psalmist does likewise. The rest of Psalm 105 and the entirety of Psalm 106 are a recitation of the main events in the history of Israel. This is a good Psalm for a day of celebrating history. Starting with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Psalmist recounts the amazing experiences of the people of Israel–from slavery in Egypt and the Exodus, to the wilderness wanderings and settling in the Promised Land of Canaan. "So God brought the people out with joy, his chosen ones with singing. God remembered God’s holy promise, and gave them the lands of the nations....Praise the Lord!"
Today we are adding your stories to the history of Israel. We are adding the history of the church and your history here at Emanuel.
Maybe we should go next door to the cemetery and ask those who have gone before you to help us with this list. They are the communion of saints who constantly surround us and cheer us on. Just imagine, what they could tell us about all that God has done in their lives in and through this church.
I have read the history that Pastor Dave updated to include all 150 years–right up to the present time. In it are specific events which have occurred over the years. As I read through at your history, as outlined by Pastor Dave, I noted many small efforts which grew into something wonderful and significant. What are some of these?
1862 - first Sunday School organized - 12 scholars before a house of worship was built.
Money ($3,000) for plot of ground was raised by Ladies Aid Society–women sacrificing to pay for the ground on which this church was built.
Started an orphanage in 1863–the 300th anniversary of the Heidelberg Catechism, now Bethany Children’s Home in Womelsdorf, PA. Still working with children. First contribution was $1.50
Lots of missionary activity - pastors returned from the mission field and went or sent children to the mission field (China, Africa, South America)
Your current pastor (Pastor Dave) is the great-grandson of Rev. Steinmann who served from 1918-1923 - introduced first English services.
Connection with the Philadelphia Protestant Home - pastors lived there or served as chaplain there, including Rev. Gene and Dorothy Grau.
Two ordinations: Rev. Charles F. Williman and Rev. Lois Ostermayer.
Youth activities throughout your history - Knights of the Cross, Youth Fellowship, Junior Choir, Girl Scout Troops
Recently ecumenical involvement - Polish Assemblies of God Church; support of Bridesburg Council of Churches
You may wonder, why it is important to know the history of your church. Why do you need to lift up events of the past? These stories happened years ago. What do they have to do with today?
Going back to Psalm 105, the Psalmist asks us not only to remember the wonderful works of God, but to tell about them, to name them, to talk about them. The Psalm actually says, "tell of all God’s wonderful works." Don’t miss one. Be specific. Lift them up, repeat the stories, share them, get excited as you remember how good, how great, and how steadfast God has been. God has been faithful. God has not wavered over all these years. God’s grace has been present, even when you or your ancestors doubted, were discouraged, or were unfaithful. When you look back and remember the stories from the past, the stories help you look ahead with hope and confidence. Because you know that God did not forget you in the past, you can be certain that God will not abandon you in the future. God will always be with you. That is God’s promise.
Native American author Leslie Marmon Silko writes these words in a novel titled Ceremony, "I will tell you something about stories....They aren’t just entertainment. Don’t be fooled. They are all we have, you see, all we have to fight off illness and death. You don’t have anything if you don’t have stories."
As a church you are rich in stories. You have personal stories of faith, stories about events which happened in your life, stories about how God has healed and forgiven you and transformed your life. You have stories about your church which we are recounting today. And you also have stories from the Bible, stories of your ancestors in faith, stories about how God was with them and delivered them from hardships and difficulties. These stories give hope and direction and meaning to life. So you need to tell them and teach them and pass them on from one generation to another.
Stories that are written up in a book and put on a shelf have no meaning. Stories only have meaning when they are told. Emily Dickinson once wrote, "A word is dead until it is said." Then it has life and gives life. Stories are powerful. They shape and mold a person’s identity and outlook on life. They anchor a person, giving strength and courage for the future.
So, teach the stories of your faith to your children and your grandchildren; tell newcomers and the people in this neighborhood what this church is all about. Talk about this day, tell others what this church means to you and how God has been with you through the years. Let people know that Emanuel means, "God with us," and that you are here to bear witness to the truth of your name. Let this community know that God is present, not just for you, but for them as well.
Many people today know only stories of disappointment and failure. But you know the one who defeated failure and even death. Telling and talking is how you offer hope to others going through tough times. The stories of our faith have the power to save people from hopelessness, isolation, and discouragement. They give life. And you are here as a community, not just to share these words, but to provide a welcome and a home to all who seek God.
I like this summary from your printed history: "The growth of Emanuel has not always been easy. Beset with reverses and disappointments over the years, this congregation, with divine guidance, has continued to move forward despite temporary setbacks."
These are good words. The setbacks are temporary, but God’s faithfulness endures.
2000 years ago the Apostle Paul wrote challenging and comforting words to the young church in Philippi. He wanted to encourage them, even in the midst of stressful times. These words of Paul can give you, the people of Emanuel Church and the people of the Bridesburg community, hope and encouragement too. Paul wrote: "Live in such a way that you are a credit to the gospel of Christ....Stand united, singular in vision, contending for people’s trust in the Gospel, the good news, not flinching or dodging in the slightest before opposition. Your courage and unity will show them what they are up against: defeat for them, victory for you–and both because of God. There’s far more to this life than trusting in Christ. There is also suffering for him. And the suffering is as much a gift as the trusting."
Suffering and hope, they are linked. You learn that when you uncover the stories of your faith...and the stories of this church.
Emanuel Church, you have trusted in Christ, and you have suffered for Christ. Today, we celebrate and sing, we rejoice and are glad. And we say, thanks be to God because God has given you the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. May God grant you the grace of many more years of mission and ministry in this place.
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Please join us at Emanuel United Church of Christ on Sundays at 10 a.m., as we give thanks for God's continuing wonderful works. We're on Fillmore Street (just off Thompson). www.emanuelphila.org
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Forgiven and Forgiving
(Scriptures: Genesis 50:15-21, Romans 14:1-12, Matthew 18:21-35)
I suspect each of us has a story to tell about where we were on September 11, 2001. I remember it was a Tuesday, and a beautiful sunny day, not a cloud in the sky. For myself, I remember I was at my office in Elkins Park, north of the city. I’d just gotten to the office maybe half an hour before, and was on the phone with someone from Blue Cross about some relatively mundane matter, when I heard a gasp on the other end of the line. I asked the person what was wrong, and she said that she heard on the radio that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. Other people in my office had had similar conversations, and the few of us who had radios turned them on. As the events of the day unfolded – a 2nd plane flew into another tower, the Twin Towers collapsed, we heard about a 3rd plane flying into the Pentagon, and yet another plane crashing in Shanksville, PA – heard the words “America is under attack” - we were in a daze. People responded in various ways to the unfolding events. Many called their families, and then began to make calls to check in on any friends they had in New York City. Of course, the phone lines were jammed. In the days that followed, there were worries about other potential targets, even in Philadelphia. In 2001, I was on the Official Board of Old First Reformed church down at 4th & Race Street – right smack dab next to the Mint building. Would a terrorist try to fly a plane into the Mint, or Independence Hall, or some other symbolic target in Philadelphia?
Even now, 10 years on, the memory of that day gives me a sick, dazed, angry feeling. I suspect I’m not the only one. Our lives have changed. We have words in our vocabulary – homeland security, Patriot Act, transportation safety administration – that weren’t there 10 years ago. If we travel by air, we now take it for granted that we’re expected to remove our shoes so that screeners can be sure they don’t contain plastic explosives, and we know that we can only take tiny amounts of sunblock and toothpaste and other items that come in tubes and bottles. (On my first church trip to Cuba in 2008, my sunblock was confiscated, and I joked for the rest of the trip about my sunblock of mass destruction.) We live with the knowledge that our email messages and phone calls are likely under potential or actual government surveillance.
On a day like today, with all manner of local and national September 11 remembrances, today’s Scripture readings may seem not only irrelevant, but even offensive, practically obscene. On a day like today, listening to a Gospel reading about forgiving others 70 x 7 may make us angry, angry enough to see red, maybe even angry enough to walk out of the church service, perhaps spitting at an usher on the way out. On a day like today, our Epistle reading about respecting differences in worship traditions may make us instead want to thump our chests and insist that we, who of course worship God aright, are saved, and everyone else is damned. On a day like today, listening to Joseph’s words in our Old Testament reading – “what you meant for evil, God meant for good” – may make us turn away in disgust. What possible good can God bring out of a terrorist attack? And for those of us who lost loved ones in the attacks, September 11 will for the rest of our lives be a day not only of national, but of personal, mourning.
Our country has changed in the 10 years since September 11, and not necessarily for the better. I haven’t heard the phrase “freedom fries” for a while, nor have I heard people from France referred to as – to clean the phrase up a bit - “cheese-eating surrender junkies” recently – but 10 years after September 11, there is, I think more than before the attacks of 10 years ago, a very strong tendency in our country to think that every dispute, personal or national, can and should be settled with a fist, a knife, a gun, a bomb, that diplomacy and negotiation are for wimps and weaklings, for the French – indeed, for cheese-eating surrender junkies. Movies in which the hero saves the day by shooting people and blowing things up are a dime a dozen, but when’s the last movie anyone has seen about resolving personal or national disputes by means of conversation and negotiation. We don’t know, and don’t especially care, how other countries view the United States. And within the USA, the aftermath of the attacks has done nothing to bring us together as a nation. Within the USA, there seems to be little sense of community, little sense of what it is to work for the common good, almost no sense of what it is to be our brother’s or sister’s keeper. Congress is bitterly and hopelessly divided, for the most part bought and paid for by corporate donations, and outside of Washington DC it’s every man, woman and child for themselves. Those few who have risked their lives and their well-being for the common good – our military personnel, our national guard, our first responders, fire and rescue personnel – if they are injured, find themselves out of luck, our society expressing its gratitude by leaving them without sufficient health and disability benefits. More than a few of the folks we encounter on the street, missing arms and legs, panhandling, years ago had gone to Iraq and Afghanistan, and before that Vietnam, on our behalf. After World War II, a generous United States through the Marshall Plan sacrificed to rebuild war-devastated Europe. Fifty-five years later, the highways, bridges, and rail lines our fathers and grandfathers built are crumbling around us, and we won’t even sacrifice to restore them – our own infrastructure - to its former condition, let alone expand and improve them.
There’s a genre of movies – “Back to the Future” is the first that comes to my mind, “The Butterfly Effect” is a more recent effort – that envision what would happen if the lead character could travel back in time and get a “do-over” on some decision they later regretted. What would happen if the hero had asked the girl out on a date instead of pining for her at a distance? What would happen if they avoided a certain intersection where a fatal car accident happened? What if? Even though, yes, hindsight is 20-20 – even so, I’d ask us to think over the past 10 years and ask what if? What if our national leaders had worked to bring our country together, had worked to promote a sense of shared sacrifice, rather than letting poor and working class families bear almost the entire cost– in terms of death and injury – of our national defense over the past 10 years, while telling the rest of us to go shopping? What if our sense of patriotism had gone beyond waving flags, to actually trying to care for our injured troops and their families. What if we had tried to understand Islam – not convert to Islam, not agree with Islam, just try to understand Islam - instead of demonizing it? What if we had taken the time to find out who actually planned the attacks of September 11, 2001 and held them responsible, rather than stomping into other countries with guns blazing, willy nilly? Ten years after 9-11, it’s a haunting question. What if?
To be fair, our Scripture readings today are about resolving disputes within the family, within the church. Peter asked Jesus how many times he should be expected to forgive a member of the church. Paul was writing about disputes between the early congregations, early house churches, who had different views on whether it was necessary for Christians to observe the kosher laws. Joseph is addressing his own kin. Today’s readings say nothing directly about our actions toward those outside the church.
Even so – while our impulse is to read these passages like W. C. Fields, as he once said, “looking for loopholes” – the clear thrust of all three of our Scriptures is forgiveness, and beyond that, the desire for the restoration of a renewed relationship. Individual congregations are not to be divided into hostile factions; clusters of congregations are not to demonize and undermine each other. And beyond our own walls, in the words of our reading from last week, we are called to love our enemies, to bless those who curse us. Jesus’ talk of loving one’s enemies sounds lovely – until the moment we actually encounter an enemy, when suddenly these words of Jesus sound, not beautiful, but contemptible. And yet these words of Jesus stand. Pastor Dave didn’t put those words in the Bible; they were there in the Bible when I found it, there before I or any of us here ever thought to open a Bible. If we are to call ourselves Christians, we need to find a way to come to terms with those very difficult commands of our Savior.
I believe that, even in the horrors of the aftermath of 9-11, there were divine lessons to be learned, had we at the time ears to hear. And the book of Jonah reminds me that when God wants us to do something, God has a way of making it happen, has a way of sending a whale to pick us up from wherever we’ve fled and bring us back to where God wants us. To whatever extent we haven’t fully learned the lesson of forgiveness, God may find ways to replay the lesson for our benefit.
When we hold grudges, personal or national, what is missing is the consciousness of how much God has forgiven us. As difficult as it would be for any of us to find peace with the acts of 9-11 – God in God’s commitment to humankind, God in God’s gracious love for each of us has had to make peace with so much worse. Our crucified Savior reminds us that our purported righteousness is like filthy rags, that we all come before God with empty hands, that we are all entirely dependent on God’s grace. Because we are forgiven, we too are called to be forgiving.
The national office of the UCC sent out a 9-11 remembrance message this week. It acknowledged the losses, but it also called on us to remember with hope. It included two sayings of Jesus: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you.” “Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” Perhaps for today it’s enough for each of us, in our own way, to ponder what it means to remember 9-11 in light of these words of Jesus. Amen.
I suspect each of us has a story to tell about where we were on September 11, 2001. I remember it was a Tuesday, and a beautiful sunny day, not a cloud in the sky. For myself, I remember I was at my office in Elkins Park, north of the city. I’d just gotten to the office maybe half an hour before, and was on the phone with someone from Blue Cross about some relatively mundane matter, when I heard a gasp on the other end of the line. I asked the person what was wrong, and she said that she heard on the radio that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. Other people in my office had had similar conversations, and the few of us who had radios turned them on. As the events of the day unfolded – a 2nd plane flew into another tower, the Twin Towers collapsed, we heard about a 3rd plane flying into the Pentagon, and yet another plane crashing in Shanksville, PA – heard the words “America is under attack” - we were in a daze. People responded in various ways to the unfolding events. Many called their families, and then began to make calls to check in on any friends they had in New York City. Of course, the phone lines were jammed. In the days that followed, there were worries about other potential targets, even in Philadelphia. In 2001, I was on the Official Board of Old First Reformed church down at 4th & Race Street – right smack dab next to the Mint building. Would a terrorist try to fly a plane into the Mint, or Independence Hall, or some other symbolic target in Philadelphia?
Even now, 10 years on, the memory of that day gives me a sick, dazed, angry feeling. I suspect I’m not the only one. Our lives have changed. We have words in our vocabulary – homeland security, Patriot Act, transportation safety administration – that weren’t there 10 years ago. If we travel by air, we now take it for granted that we’re expected to remove our shoes so that screeners can be sure they don’t contain plastic explosives, and we know that we can only take tiny amounts of sunblock and toothpaste and other items that come in tubes and bottles. (On my first church trip to Cuba in 2008, my sunblock was confiscated, and I joked for the rest of the trip about my sunblock of mass destruction.) We live with the knowledge that our email messages and phone calls are likely under potential or actual government surveillance.
On a day like today, with all manner of local and national September 11 remembrances, today’s Scripture readings may seem not only irrelevant, but even offensive, practically obscene. On a day like today, listening to a Gospel reading about forgiving others 70 x 7 may make us angry, angry enough to see red, maybe even angry enough to walk out of the church service, perhaps spitting at an usher on the way out. On a day like today, our Epistle reading about respecting differences in worship traditions may make us instead want to thump our chests and insist that we, who of course worship God aright, are saved, and everyone else is damned. On a day like today, listening to Joseph’s words in our Old Testament reading – “what you meant for evil, God meant for good” – may make us turn away in disgust. What possible good can God bring out of a terrorist attack? And for those of us who lost loved ones in the attacks, September 11 will for the rest of our lives be a day not only of national, but of personal, mourning.
Our country has changed in the 10 years since September 11, and not necessarily for the better. I haven’t heard the phrase “freedom fries” for a while, nor have I heard people from France referred to as – to clean the phrase up a bit - “cheese-eating surrender junkies” recently – but 10 years after September 11, there is, I think more than before the attacks of 10 years ago, a very strong tendency in our country to think that every dispute, personal or national, can and should be settled with a fist, a knife, a gun, a bomb, that diplomacy and negotiation are for wimps and weaklings, for the French – indeed, for cheese-eating surrender junkies. Movies in which the hero saves the day by shooting people and blowing things up are a dime a dozen, but when’s the last movie anyone has seen about resolving personal or national disputes by means of conversation and negotiation. We don’t know, and don’t especially care, how other countries view the United States. And within the USA, the aftermath of the attacks has done nothing to bring us together as a nation. Within the USA, there seems to be little sense of community, little sense of what it is to work for the common good, almost no sense of what it is to be our brother’s or sister’s keeper. Congress is bitterly and hopelessly divided, for the most part bought and paid for by corporate donations, and outside of Washington DC it’s every man, woman and child for themselves. Those few who have risked their lives and their well-being for the common good – our military personnel, our national guard, our first responders, fire and rescue personnel – if they are injured, find themselves out of luck, our society expressing its gratitude by leaving them without sufficient health and disability benefits. More than a few of the folks we encounter on the street, missing arms and legs, panhandling, years ago had gone to Iraq and Afghanistan, and before that Vietnam, on our behalf. After World War II, a generous United States through the Marshall Plan sacrificed to rebuild war-devastated Europe. Fifty-five years later, the highways, bridges, and rail lines our fathers and grandfathers built are crumbling around us, and we won’t even sacrifice to restore them – our own infrastructure - to its former condition, let alone expand and improve them.
There’s a genre of movies – “Back to the Future” is the first that comes to my mind, “The Butterfly Effect” is a more recent effort – that envision what would happen if the lead character could travel back in time and get a “do-over” on some decision they later regretted. What would happen if the hero had asked the girl out on a date instead of pining for her at a distance? What would happen if they avoided a certain intersection where a fatal car accident happened? What if? Even though, yes, hindsight is 20-20 – even so, I’d ask us to think over the past 10 years and ask what if? What if our national leaders had worked to bring our country together, had worked to promote a sense of shared sacrifice, rather than letting poor and working class families bear almost the entire cost– in terms of death and injury – of our national defense over the past 10 years, while telling the rest of us to go shopping? What if our sense of patriotism had gone beyond waving flags, to actually trying to care for our injured troops and their families. What if we had tried to understand Islam – not convert to Islam, not agree with Islam, just try to understand Islam - instead of demonizing it? What if we had taken the time to find out who actually planned the attacks of September 11, 2001 and held them responsible, rather than stomping into other countries with guns blazing, willy nilly? Ten years after 9-11, it’s a haunting question. What if?
To be fair, our Scripture readings today are about resolving disputes within the family, within the church. Peter asked Jesus how many times he should be expected to forgive a member of the church. Paul was writing about disputes between the early congregations, early house churches, who had different views on whether it was necessary for Christians to observe the kosher laws. Joseph is addressing his own kin. Today’s readings say nothing directly about our actions toward those outside the church.
Even so – while our impulse is to read these passages like W. C. Fields, as he once said, “looking for loopholes” – the clear thrust of all three of our Scriptures is forgiveness, and beyond that, the desire for the restoration of a renewed relationship. Individual congregations are not to be divided into hostile factions; clusters of congregations are not to demonize and undermine each other. And beyond our own walls, in the words of our reading from last week, we are called to love our enemies, to bless those who curse us. Jesus’ talk of loving one’s enemies sounds lovely – until the moment we actually encounter an enemy, when suddenly these words of Jesus sound, not beautiful, but contemptible. And yet these words of Jesus stand. Pastor Dave didn’t put those words in the Bible; they were there in the Bible when I found it, there before I or any of us here ever thought to open a Bible. If we are to call ourselves Christians, we need to find a way to come to terms with those very difficult commands of our Savior.
I believe that, even in the horrors of the aftermath of 9-11, there were divine lessons to be learned, had we at the time ears to hear. And the book of Jonah reminds me that when God wants us to do something, God has a way of making it happen, has a way of sending a whale to pick us up from wherever we’ve fled and bring us back to where God wants us. To whatever extent we haven’t fully learned the lesson of forgiveness, God may find ways to replay the lesson for our benefit.
When we hold grudges, personal or national, what is missing is the consciousness of how much God has forgiven us. As difficult as it would be for any of us to find peace with the acts of 9-11 – God in God’s commitment to humankind, God in God’s gracious love for each of us has had to make peace with so much worse. Our crucified Savior reminds us that our purported righteousness is like filthy rags, that we all come before God with empty hands, that we are all entirely dependent on God’s grace. Because we are forgiven, we too are called to be forgiving.
The national office of the UCC sent out a 9-11 remembrance message this week. It acknowledged the losses, but it also called on us to remember with hope. It included two sayings of Jesus: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you.” “Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” Perhaps for today it’s enough for each of us, in our own way, to ponder what it means to remember 9-11 in light of these words of Jesus. Amen.
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