Old Salem Shrine Founders Day Message from Rev. Dennis Alexander
Scripture Passages: Isaiah 43: 1-4, Amos 5: 14-15, I Corinthians 13: 4-8
All we need to do is look around us and notice: How things have changed!
A year after this building was built, Alexander Graham Bell shouted into a crude instrument in Boston saying: “Mr. Watson – Come here I want to see you! – and thus the first US telephone was created. Last week while standing in line at the Post Office, the 80 year old woman in front of me received a text on her cellphone – it was from her car - telling her that her car needed an oil change. Moments later, I received a text on my cellphone – it was our dryer in the basement telling me it was time to clean the lint filter.
Heraclitus, the ancient Greek Philosopher wrote these words 500 years before the birth of Christ: “The only thing constant is change. Change is the fundamental essence of the universe for everything is in a constant state of flux. Everything flows!”
As a young pastor appointed to Wesley Church in downtown Minneapolis, we decided to start an endowment for the church from the proceeds of the sale of the Wesley Temple Building. I wrote a document entitled “The Permanent Wesley Church Endowment”. Our church attorney, Fremont Fletcher counseled me to remove the word permanent from the document. I asked why? This wise seasoned attorney looked at me and said – “Permanent is far too high an ambition.” While I quietly disagreed with Fremont at the time; today neither the Wesley Endowment nor Wesley Church exists.
So is there anything – steadfast, enduring, or unshakable? What word did the pastor’s here preach that were considered unwavering and unfading? What lessons did the Sunday school teachers here offer the kids that they could count on to be true throughout their life?
Paul writes in 2 Corinthians: “Let us not focus on the things that can be seen but on the things that can’t be seen. For the things that we can see don’t last, but the things that we can’t see are eternal – indeed everlasting.” So what are these eternal truths that we can trust?
One: There is a God, who keeps watch upon his own!
How many times have you heard these words from Deuteronomy: “The Eternal God is our dwelling place and underneath us always are the everlasting arms.”
Like a mighty rock, God is under our feet. Like the strongest roof, God is over our heads
Like the brightest horizon, God is ever before us. Like the refreshing waters we drink in, God is within us. Like a pebble dropped into the sea, we are surrounded by God on all sides, at all times. Wherever we go, there God is!
It is God who is able; God is the One for whom nothing is impossible! Our Creator and Sustainer! It is God who never sleeps, who keeps our lives!
A stronghold in the midst of storms
A light that darkness can never overcome
Trustworthy to always keep God’s promises
The giver of life, the author of our days & our eternal home
It is God who is just and good for no matter how dark the world may appear. It is God who holds the final word, who makes the last move; thus who guarantees that the moral arc of the universe is long, but always bends toward justice.
Transcendent, sacred beyond our grasp, holy other, supreme, worthy of our devotion and worship: all-powerful, all-knowing, infinite, unequaled, and wise.
Yet this great almighty God; who knits us together in our mother’s womb; calls us by name, walks with us through all things; feels our pain, bends down to listen to our cries. This unchanging God – changes out of love for us when affected by our lived-out relationship together.
Two: There is a Love that will never let us go!
Out of love for us, God draws near and takes on human flesh.
The transcendent becomes immanent; the beyond becomes present
Once hidden by the storm
Away in the burning bush,
Beyond the snow-topped mountains,
Too terrible to look upon,
Aloof from human ways,
Utterly invulnerable.
God, bored his heart to humanity In Bethlehem,
Laying himself wide open
To accident and disease,
insanity and poverty,
human ridicule and rejection
wounding and killing.
God drew near and became vulnerable on Christmas Day,
As do all who ever say - "I Love You!"
This great eternal God put on human skin and moved into the neighborhood. Emmanuel, God with us! Love made real that we can see, touch and feel. An ever surrounding presence, among, within, fully accessible; One who now walks and talks with us and tells us we are God’s very own and loved unconditionally. Good Shepherd, Holy Comforter, Faithful Friend.
I once made it known that I was unhappy that our United Methodist Bishop wasn’t visiting the churches of the city. I felt she was unavailable, remote, and distant. The very next Sunday before morning worship at Wesley Church I turned the corner and there stood the Bishop. She leaned forward and simply asked me: “How’s this for access?” She then personally greeted many of the congregation, joined us for worship and fellowship and expressed her gratitude for the urban witness of Wesley. After the service, she said “You know I care!” I replied: “I do now for your presence made all the difference. You came among us!”
Three: There remains for us a daily choice between doing Good and Evil.
While living out our lives, we make choices between listening to our better angels or acting on our worst instincts, between making things better or making things worse, between advancing the common good or our own self-interests, between life and death.
It was Alexander Solzhenitsyn who said: "The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. Indeed, within the human breast rages a constant conflict between the higher ideals and the lower motivations of life.”
We like sheep have all gone astray. We pull away. We wonder lost. We choose to follow our own path even when it leads to our own and others destruction. Yet, God always seeks out the lost until they are found and brought safety home; for there is no sinner beyond God’s reach and no sin beyond God’s forgiveness. Indeed all the wickedness in the world that humanity might work or think is no more to the mercy of God than a live burning coal dropped into the sea.
It was William Sloane Coffin who said: "How do we Christians get away with this idea of an autocratic death-dealing God, against whose fixed judgements there is no appeal? When will we ever get it through our heads that there is far more mercy in God than sin in us?”
Yes - we will choose to make it worse, to wonder off the path into lostness, but we have a Redeemer, a Savior who seeks, forgives, restores, resets, and makes us whole again!
Each morning may we arise, ready to choose life! And each evening before closing our eyes, may we seek a holy time with God and confess those moments when we did it wrong, when we disregarded the needs of others and choose the path of selfish behavior.
Four: We’re called to be Christ’s loving presence in this world.
Our faith isn’t a pathway to escape this world in order to live happily in the next;
our faith is a call from God to help usher in the Kingdom of God on earth.
We are made in love to be love. Created to be world changers! Called to be Salt and light! It’s our divine purpose. It’s what gives true meaning to our lives.
Walking with God; we first do no harm.
We hate what is evil and seek to do what is good!
We endeavor to do the next right thing.
We live by an inner moral compass that affirms truth, goodness, kindness, and justice for all.
Tearing down barriers that divide
Creating loving communities where all can belong
Making peace not war, saving Mother Earth.
Caring for the least, the lost, the outcast, the left-behind
Knowing that love is stronger than hate; we make love our aim!
When we choose to love another person; (all persons not just those who are easy to love)
it becomes the most powerful way of seeing the very face of God!
What we do for ourselves soon dies and passes away;
But what we do for others and for this world - remains and is immortal.
Amen!