Standing Firm

Scriptures:     Exodus 16:2-15, Psalm 145:1-8

Philippians 1:21-30,   Matthew 20:1-16

Happy 156^th birthday, Emanuel Church!  We’ve made it through another year together – and these days, that’s an accomplishment that none of our churches here in Bridesburg can take for granted.  Officially chartered in 1861, at the beginning of the Civil War, our congregation has seen two World Wars and numerous regional conflicts, a Great Depression along with any number of recessions, changes in our country, changes in our city, changes in our neighborhood – and here we are, still.  When Emanuel Church began, we worshipped in German; now we worship in English.  We started with $9 in the bank – and while we have a much larger bank balance now, we continue to live with financial challenges.   The group that began meeting in 1857 to plan and organize this congregation started with 34 members, and after four years of planning together and 156 years of walking together as Emanuel Church, we are back at roughly that number of members. Some things have changed, some haven’t changed, and some have come full circle.  And yet, here we are, still.  Here we are, still preaching and living the good news of Jesus Christ in a neighborhood that needs good news.  That’s one thing that hasn’t changed in 156 years.

In our reading from Philippians, Paul is writing from prison to the church he had started in Philippi.  The church in Philippi, despite having very little themselves, had been generous to Paul in supporting his mission.  Paul told them that when he was just beginning his missionary travels – what Paul called “the early days of the Gospel,” they – the church at Philippi - were the first ones and indeed the only ones to support him, and they dug deep into their pockets, supporting Paul’s ministry repeatedly.  The letter ends with thanks for the latest gift  the church in Philippi sent to Paul in prison.  Besides thanking them for their generosity, Paul’s main wish and concern for the church was unity.  Paul was writing to heal some divisions between two faithful, dedicated church workers who were at odds, and whose squabbling was causing division.  In our reading today, Paul wrote that he wanted know that they were “standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel.”

Standing firm.  The challenge of Christian discipleship is stand firm, to be faithful, not just for an hour or for a day or for a week, but for the long haul.  Christian discipleship is, in the words of the title of a book by Eugene Peterson, “a long obedience in the same direction”.  Anyone can get caught up in a moment, perhaps at a revival or after hearing a particularly inspiring sermon at church, or after having been spared some awful calamity or blessed in some unforgettable way, and say “Yes, Jesus, Yes!  Yes, Jesus, I will follow you to the end.  Yes, Jesus, I will follow you all of my days....”  But then one day comes, and then another, and another, and the enthusiasm starts to fade away, like air slowly seeping out of a balloon until it lands on the floor, deflated.  And then maybe trouble comes, illness or family problems or financial struggles….  We may be tempted to say, “Yes, Jesus, I said I’d follow you, but you didn’t tell me it was going to be like this.”  And we may be tempted to fall away, and dismiss our promise of discipleship as a passing phase – “I tried the church thing for a while and it didn’t work.”

What makes the difference between faith being just a moment, versus faith being a lifetime movement of long obedience in the same direction?  Of course, Scripture gives us the witness of those who knew Jesus and those who were part of the church from its earliest beginnings, and reading Scripture will strengthen our faith.  Regular, daily time in prayer will also sustain us.  But even with the gifts of Scripture and prayer,  it’s very difficult to sustain faith over the long haul on our own.  To be a Christian in isolation can feel like clapping with one hand – you can see that your hand is moving, but you don’t hear or feel much of anything, and nothing much seems to be happening.  

And so, in addition to Scripture and prayer, God has also given us the gift of community, the gift of the church, the gift of one another.  As we have seen in our readings from Matthew’s gospel earlier this month, community was incredibly important to Jesus, so much so that he told his disciples, “Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, I will be in the midst of you.”   And so as we gather to worship, each of us here is a gift from God to one another.  Each of us is a gift.  If someone ever told you that you acted like you were God’s gift to the world, well, here at church, its true – although it’s true of each of us, not just you, so don’t get a big head.  Our Psalm reading proclaimed, “One generation shall laud your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.”   We need to share our faith from one generation to another, from older to younger, from younger to older.  Our longtime members, those who have labored faithfully and kept the church going for so long, have such a vital role in telling how God sustained them and the church over the course of their lives.  We need to hear their stories.  We need to hear from those who have walked this road , that it’s worth being faithful, even when everything and everyone around us is telling us to quit.  And we need the stories of our newer and younger members as well.  Our longtime members need to know that when they go on to their heavenly reward, their work here won’t have been in vain, that what they did here made a difference in the lives of others, that the younger generations will pick up the baton from them and in turn pass it on to their children.  “One generation shall laud your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.”  We need to pass down our history without being trapped by our history, to share our stories from the past while being open to writing new stories for the future.

Our reading from Exodus tells us a story of a difficult moment in the movement of the Israelites from slavery to freedom.  Moses had led the people out of Egypt, out of slavery, and into the wilderness, and the people were hungry.  There was no Wawa in sight, no Crispy Crème donuts to munch on.  And as the people got hungrier, they blamed Moses, and looked back to the “good old days” in Egypt – even though we know that in reality they were very bad old days of being worked nearly to death as slaves.  But in their hunger, the people didn’t remember the back-breaking work.  They only remembered the food:  “If only God had killed us in Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread, because now you’ve gone and dragged us way out here in the desert to kill us all with hunger.” 

It’s good to read stories like this in Scripture, even on Anniversary Sunday, maybe especially on Anniversary Sunday. Because we at Emanuel have had our struggles over the years.  Back in 1863, when our pastor the Rev Emanuel Boehringer and his wife started what would become Bethany Children’s Home, I’m sure there were members of the congregation who grumbled that he should be spending his time and energy on the church, on them, the folks who were paying his salary, and not on caring for other peoples’ children.  There were epidemics in the early years of the 20^th century – there’s a headstone in our cemetery marking the burial place of a number of children who died in one epidemic, with the words, “Here rest in God our children.” – and dealing with all that sickness and death must have been a strain on pastor and congregation alike.  In the late teens and early 1920’s, under the leadership of the Rev. Felix Steinmann – Felix Steinmann was my great-grandfather, as it happens - the congregation started services in English, and I’m sure there were longtime members who struggled to welcome the new people these services would have attracted.  In the 1940’s, under the leadership of the beloved Rev. Victor Steinberg, we ended worship in German, and I’m sure there were members who mourned the passing of an era.  It’s easy to hold hands and sing kumbaya when all is well, but with difficulties come differences in opinion, and with change comes controversy – and we may be tempted to despair whether the church will be strong enough to come out on the other side.  But God provided manna in the wilderness to the grumbling Israelites, and over the years God has provided for our congregation even in lean times – and is providing for us now.  The Israelites got through their grumbling and eventually made it to the promised land, and over the years our congregation has come out on the other side of the struggles of the day, stronger for having gone through the storm.

What does the future hold for Emanuel Church?  I have no crystal ball.  These are lean times for the church – nearly all churches are struggling, and many are closing.   The days are long gone when a church could just open up its doors and expect people to flock in.   Our situation is like that of the early church, surrounded by a culture that doesn’t understand us – and much of this misunderstanding is due to the bad witness of churches and pastors over the years and over the centuries. Many people in our country, in our city, maybe even in this neighborhood, have been traumatized by the churches they grew up in, by Christians who preached love on Sunday but acted with hate or indifference Monday through Saturday, by Christians who talked about caring for the poor on Sunday but did nothing to help them Monday through Saturday.  For many, the church has a bad reputation to overcome.  That is why Paul’s instruction to the Philippians to “live your life in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ” is so crucial.  For those who will never darken the doorstep of a church, our lives may be the only sermon they’ll ever hear.  For those outside the church, our lives out there in the world preach sermons, for good and bad – so let’s make our life sermons good ones. 

We also know that in the earliest days of the church, the church didn’t just sit and wait for people to come to them – the church went out to the people.  And we will have to do the same.   If the people will not come to church, the church must go to the people.  We must bring church to the people, to our neighbors.  We must find ways to preach good news and to be good news out there, where the people are.  Paul’s words in his second letter to Timothy can be our guide:  “Preach the word; be persistent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and encourage, with utmost patience in teaching….Always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.” (2 Timothy 4:2,5)

“Declare God’s mighty acts from one generation to another.”  “Stand firm in one spirit.”  “Live in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.”  “Preach the word, in season and out of season.  Do the work of an evangelist.  Carry out your ministry fully.”  These are God’s words to us today.  These are the words of those believers who have gone before us, who have run their race of faith and who have passed the baton of faith on to us, that we may run our portion of the race and in turn pass the baton to others.   May these words be engraved on our hearts and minds, and may they be carried out in our lives and in the work of Emanuel Church. Amen.