Services for Churches - Stewardship

In for the Long Haul

This sermon was preached by Rev. Rusty Hedges, Senior Pastor of First United Methodist Church, Irving, Texas in September of 2003.

1 Corinthians 3:5-14

I want to read today from Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth. We know from Paul’s letters and from other sources that the Corinth congregation was a troubled place. It was a very diverse community and was at a crossroads of trade and ideas and great ethnic variety in the community and so the church as it grew in Corinth was always sort of bubbling over with potential turmoil.

We know from Paul’s letters - he wrote two letters to a congregation he knew well trying to help them understand what they needed to understand. We know from the end of the first century that there is another letter called 1st Clament that almost made in into the New Testament and it’s again a letter from the Bishop of Rome writing to the church of Corinth saying, “Now come on guys, if you will just settle down here,” and so we know that this was a place that often had difficulties. And apparently at one point there was some conflict in the congregation between those who looked to Paul as the spiritual leader. He had founded that congregation and apparently another evangelist named Appolis had come through and so some people looked to Paul and some people looked to Appolis as their spiritual leader. And so Paul writes to this congregation these are to people that he knows very, very well.

He says, “What then is Appolis? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe as the Lord assigned each. I planted, Appolis watered, but God gave the growth, so neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but only God who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. For we are God’s servants working together. You are God’s field - God’s building - according to the grace of God given to me like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation and someone else is building it. Each builder must choose with care how to build it, for no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid - that foundation is Jesus Christ.

Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw - the work of each builder will become visible, for the day will disclose it, because it will revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. If what has been built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a reward.” This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!

Twenty years ago today you would have found me assisting with worship at Oak Lawn United Methodist Church over in Dallas. I was not long out of seminary and was an Associate Pastor there and that’s a great church. It was over 100 years old when I was there 20 years ago. And it’s a congregation with - I know of one family of which seven generations of a single family have been a part of the life of that congregation. During the time that I was there the church had applied for a plaque - they already had a Texas historical marker and so they applied for a plaque that described them as a place on the national register of historic places. So they got another plaque to put on the building. And it was interesting as we went through the process of applying and then receiving that plaque and then we had a ceremony and an unveiling and all that sort of thing - two things that I learned as a part of that process.

One was I remember a conversation with a long time member of that church - a gentleman who had been there since he was a child and who had lived in that neighborhood - the Oak Lawn community, and he said one day, if you don’t know, Oak Lawn is an area that has transitioned several times and still continues to be a neighborhood that changes over time. And so I was talking to this gentleman and he said to me, “You know I can remember when this was a neighborhood church. I can remember walking to church as a child and all the people who went to this church lived in this immediate vicinity. Then the neighborhood changed and a different group of people came and those people left and we were still here. And different people came to the neighborhood and lived around the church and it was a very different kind of neighborhood, and in time, those people left and we were still here. And now there’s a different kind of people here and some day they’ll be gone and we’ll still be here.” He was taking what you would call the long view, but it was important to understand that he had a sense of the place that that church was in that community and how changes came and went, but the church remained ministering to whoever were their neighbors at that moment.

It was also interesting as we went through this process of applying for this national registry designation, it was interesting because we had to change the zoning and so the City of Dallas came and put this sign in the yard - right there at the corner of Oak Lawn and Cedar Springs - they put up a big sign that said ‘Zoning Change Pending’ as if to let anybody comment who wanted to comment. And it was amazing when that sign went up, we got calls from people who had no connection, people we had never heard of, and who had no connection with the church who called and said, “Are y’all selling the church?”

In the early 80’s they had some pretty good offers. Things were booming here at that time and for that whole block there at Cedar Springs and Oak Lawn, there was some serious money on the table. Part of that decision to seek that historical designation was the church’s way of saying, “You know, this is our place. We’re staying!” What I learned from talking to those people who didn’t come to church there for whatever reason, but who saw the value of that church to that community, because that church made a statement. There in the middle of 12 or 14 story buildings on either side of the church and then here is this great historic church building right in the center of it and it was a very visible symbol of the presence of God in that community and it made a statement that said, “We’re the church and we’re staying and that this is not just a collection of commercial and retail property, this is a neighborhood, this is a community. We live here!” And I think that whether you’ve thought it out or not, that’s what this church has done.

The Building Committee that built this sanctuary, that put that steeple up there that lifted high the cross was making a statement to say, “This church is here! We’re staying! The church of God is open for business!” Now it is for us to live up to that claim - to be the church that we have architecturally proclaimed ourselves to be. We need to be who we say we are - a place where the cross of Christ is lifted high enough for all to see - a way that says we will be faithful, we will be here to be the presence of God in this community in this time. We all need in our lives to learn to look at things from the long term.

We live in an age of instant gratification. It’s all about what’s in it for me right now - that’s what we want to know. And yet life teaches a very different lesson. Jesus taught us, the Bible teaches, and experience in life teaches that the things that really matter take awhile - whether it’s friendship, or marriage, careers - the things that we really build our lives on take awhile. They’re slow developing, but they’re the things that last, that ultimately give meaning and purpose and substance to the life that we live.

And so it is with the church. Paul was trying to help the Corinthians look beyond just the challenge of the moment to see that this was a long process, that they built a foundation and one person did that and someone else built on that and someone else built on that. You know it is a joy to be a pastor of this church, but one of the reasons that it is a joy to be the pastor of this church is because of what Ed did, and because of what Phil did, and because of what Mike did, and all the foundation that has been laid by so many people over the years that we build on today.

So we look back, and I don’t think there’s anyone left who was here when this church was founded in 1908. I was going to count, and I forgot, but I was going to find out how many people have been a member of this church since 1908. I have no idea, but I’m sure it is in the thousands of people who have at one time or another been here among this community of God’s people - who have worshiped God in this place. And I doubt that many of you, maybe with what medical science is doing, a few of the children here will still be here 100 years from now. I hope so, but most of us will be gone, but we can look to where the church will be 5 years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, or 100 years from now. And we have a way to relate to those Christians. I think that it’s important that in all of our lives, whether it’s our own physical health, in our relationships, our work, that we invest for the long haul, that we commit ourselves to Christ not just for a day, or a month, but for all our lives and for all that comes after our lives.

We have started a Permanent Endowment Fund. There is a brochure in the bulletin this morning. And what we are asking for you to consider is that you will give some thought as to what your relationship with the church will be for the long haul. Gifts can be given now, but we hope that you will consider making provision in your will, in your estate planning for the needs of this congregation in the future. First of all, if you don’t have a will, you need one. But I hope that you will think about how the church might be a part of your estate planning. There’s lots of different ways to do that. You can make a gift now and get the tax credit for it and yet for the rest of your life you will receive the interest for as long you live or for as long as you and your spouse live. And you probably can get a higher interest rate on that money than you can on any CD, or any other kind of money market funds. So there’s a whole variety of ways and trusts and gifts, one thing and another, but there’s more than just a financial issue, there’s a spiritual issue as well.

We have the opportunity to continue our relationship with this church past the time when we are physically present here. That’s what we are asking that you consider doing. Think about your relationship with this church and how that might tie in to your estate planning. It’s important because it reminds us that our little piece of the story is not the whole story. This church has been here for 95 years. The church in America has been here for 220 years. The church of Jesus Christ has been in business now almost 20 centuries. We have no idea what the future holds - whether the church will be in business for another 100 years or for another 20 centuries until God brings it all home. But the point is that we’re trying to be sure that in the years ahead that this church will have the tools that it needs for the ministry that is before it.

It’s kind of like Joseph in Egypt. If you remember that story from the end of Genesis, Joseph goes off to Egypt and he becomes a very powerful man because he interprets dreams that the Pharoah has had - dreams that tell of a time of prosperity to be followed by a time of famine. And under Joseph’s leadership during the time of plenty, resources are set aside so that in a time of need those resources are available. And I think that’s what we are called to do - to look to the long haul, because that’s the way that God looks at it. God doesn’t relate to us just for a period of time or a portion of our lives or in one particular chapter of our lives. God is there from the very day we are born to the day that God wraps his arms around us and brings us home. And so we too have that long-term relationship.

These are not the best of times, but that’s compared to where we were 5 to 6 years ago.

The truth is that if you look over the last 40 years, many of us have done pretty well, so we’re in a point where we have the resources that now we can put some aside so that 10 years from, 20 years from now, 50 years from now, 100 years from now, the church can draw on those resources to have the tools that are required for ministry. This is a way that we can invest in the future of God’s kingdom. We can use some of the resources that we have to buy a piece of the future, to say, “We love this church and we have received blessings from this church. We want this church to continue on and not always to be having to scramble for money, and so we’re willing to make some provisions.” Often that can be done without taking any money away from what your children might receive, or what other charities might receive, but you can make a place for the church.

I think that it is really important and I really want to say this to you beyond the financial issue, that we catch some glimpse of the long-term implications of our relationship with God to remember that God is always with us and in fact we are always with God. We can look not just for a moment, for a day or a year, but that we can invest ourselves now today in living a life that becomes the gospel and we can just like we need to do with all the other things of our lives, that we continue to nurture that relationship, we continue to discipline ourselves, we continue to make the sacrifices in our lives that strengthen us spiritually. That’s what gives us the roots that we need to weather the difficult times that come in every life.

Look to the long term. Get in for the long haul. That’s what Jesus did. That’s what we are called to do. And I hope that you’ll think about the resources that you have and how we can guarantee that this church will always have the tools to be in ministry with the people around us.

It’s a big challenge, but, with God’s help, we are equal to that challenge, or any challenge, amen.