Wednesday, December 6, 2006

“O come, all ye faithful…”

God’s people are constantly answering the call to serve and worship. The Jewish people of Jesus’ day were faithful to a fault: they strove to keep every Law in the Torah, and did so remarkably well.

We also recognize that through the years, the church has been a faithful people. This church has managed to reach out to people and make a difference in the community. If it were not for this witness, the church would not have survived and grown all these years.

Yet as the events pass, we tend to forget all but the highest points in that history. We say “anyone could have done that” yet it was particular people who actually did respond to the call of God in specific ways. Our expectations become based on our history, on “the way it always has been” (since we have known this church.) Still, to seek God’s will for the future means paying some attention to the foundations laid in the past for us, for the faithful witness of the saints past who have brought us to the present, and shaped the character of who we are now. As we look to the future, as we gather “all the faithful” for the work of tomorrow, we need also to be aware of the roots from which we have sprung.

WHAT ARE THE STRENGTHS AND SUCCESSES OF FIRST CHURCH IN THE PAST YEARS?

WHAT FIRST DREW YOU TO THIS CONGREGATION?

Prayer: O God, we give thanks for the saints who have prepared us for this moment, who have given us a church in which to worship and serve, and who have served as the models of discipleship as we have grow in our own faith. Amen.

Dr. John Clifford