Sermon from October 15, 2006
Last summer, I received an e-mail from a family that had come to BVBC for a short time. They were about to move again. The mom wrote to me and captured something about BVBC that we take for granted but is more rare than we imagine.
“Pastor Bo, I just wanted to take a minute and tell you how much I enjoyed attending your church. I grew up in the South and was raised Catholic. Baptist was something that I feared – thought it was too much Bible beating and old-school ways. I left the Catholic Church after marriage for various reasons – most of which came down to the fact that I just did not agree with much of what they taught, and therefore felt like a hypocrite sitting in church.
“My husband and I have floundered trying to find a church that met our needs, but we both loved your church. The beauty of that is that it was such a big step for me to even try a BaptistChurch, which I would not have done without my husband, and now that I have tried it, I plan on finding one when we move back to Texas, which I could not have done without you.
“You opened my eyes to the fact that not all churches try to control – you offered guidance and thought, and I really respected that you never told anyone how or what to think . . . I really enjoyed coming to your church.
“My husband and I didn’t always make it to church, but we work very hard to live Christian lives and instill Christian ideals in our children. We will continue that in Texas, and will work hard to find and attend a church. Thank you for opening my eyes to a church I truly enjoy. God bless!!”
That’s more than an encouraging letter. It offers a microcosm of thousands of people in the BrandywineValley, who have Christian roots, have drifted away from the faith of their childhood, and live fifteen minutes or less from this site. They believe that churches are Bible-thumping, controlling, and mindless places.
If reaching people with the love of Christ is more than a slogan, then we should figure out how to connect with them. They have prejudices against organized religion but are seldom hostile to Christ; and they don’t want to be coerced. We offer something here they many recognize as what they have been looking for.
Unity of Life Together
We need to listen to that young woman’s e-mail more closely. What did she and her husband find that kept them here? The crucial words in her e-mail are the tip of the iceberg. They take us deep inside the soul of this church. She said: “You opened my eyes to the fact that not all churches try to control – you offered guidance and thought, and I really respected that you never told anyone how or what to think.”
I hear that a lot. What I find interesting is that telling people what to think is about all I ever do. What I believe she meant, and what I actually do is to propose for your consideration what Christians ought to think, but I never try to impose on you what you ought to think; and I never make my relationship with you depend on your unquestioning agreement with what I propose. In this way I preserve your freedom of conscience to pursue the truth.
Why do you consent to this way of doing ministry? What keeps you coming here? On the surface there may be many answers to those questions that seem at first to have little to do with each other. For example, you might say, “The minute you try to impose your ideas on me, I’m out of here. Nobody tells me what to do.” Your neighbor might say, “I’ve had too many bad experiences in churches. This one is different, and I like it.” The person behind you might say, “I like to think, and you make me think.”
People also come here for many reasons that have nothing to do with what I do. “I like the music.” “My kids like the youth group.” “The children’s program is good.” “I’m glad you have a singles’ ministry.” “I need a small group.” “Your missions program is outstanding.” “I like to meet people in adult education classes and learn together.”
When people talk like that, they answer the question, “What is good for my life?” by saying, “I found at BVBC a significant part of what is good for my life.” “Freedom of conscience to pursue the truth is good for my life.” “Having a youth ministry that helps my teenager want to be in church reinforces what makes my life good.”
It is encouraging that so many people find so much here that makes their lives good. I should be happy. I’m not, and I’ll tell you why. I need to know if there is a greater good that unites these individual motives for staying at BVBC. If there isn’t, then we are not a community; we are just a collection of individuals, each pursuing an idea of what’s best for him or her. As long as we think like that, then BVBC is like another store at the mall. We go when we need something or have nothing more compelling to do.
It is not enough to say that Christ unites us. Yes, we all believe in Jesus Christ, and that common faith lays a foundation, but it doesn’t cause us to take responsibility for each other or pursue common goals together, any more than 65,000 fans in a football stadium take responsibility for each other or pursue common goals together.
I’m glad for what brought you here and keeps you here. But is this grab bag of motives the best we can do? Is there any greater good that unites these individual motives for staying at BVBC? Can we be a true community?
We can be, if (and it is a big if) some single picture of what our future can be takes hold of our collective imagination and unites us into a community in which we take responsibility for each other and pursue common goals together.
I want to show you a biblical example of what I have in mind. We find it in Genesis 12:1-3. These three verses begin the story of Abraham, and they give a single, compelling picture of what his personal future and his future legacy could be.
Land, Nation, Blessing
The LORD had said to Abram (that’s Abraham), “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
What took hold of Abraham’s imagination? Verse one gives a partial answer. ”Go to the land I will show you.” The picture of his future was so compelling as to uproot Abraham and his clan to follow the dream of having a new land he could call his own.
Verse two gives another partial answer. “I will make you into a great nation.” Genesis 11:30 tells us that Abraham’s wife, Sarah, was barren; she had no children. Being the father of a great nation was a vision that brightens many a chapter in Genesis for an old man, who had no children.
The end of verse three tells us more about the picture of Abraham’s future. “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” How could that promise have made any sense for Abraham? How could one person realistically conceive such a thing?
There you have it. The promise of land, nation, and blessing took hold of Abraham’s imagination and drew him out of his old religion, his old ways, and his country of origin. And we learn something else about this single picture of the future that captured his heart. He would have to experience the vision to know what the vision actually meant. “Land, Nation, Blessing” is a slogan. Experience would give it substance.
For example, look at Genesis 15:2-3. But Abram said, “O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
The childless one was still childless. The shine had worn off his picture of the future. How could he ever have thought that he and Sarah would have a child? Like many whose dreams fade, he became more pragmatic, more realistic. But if the picture of the future comes from God, it will have resources to be regenerated.
Look at verse four: Then the word of the LORD came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.” And so, the picture of the future was revitalized, and Abraham dreamed again.
Two other times in Abraham’s experience the dream faded. Two other times God brought it back into focus. Likewise, if a single picture of what our future can be takes hold of our collective imagination and unites us into a community, we should not be surprised to have the same repeated experience of apparent loss and rebirth.
You should know something else about this picture that captured Abraham’s imagination. Genesis 12-50 tells many stories about Abraham and his immediate descendants. The stories are dramatically diverse, but every story has to do with land, nation, or blessing. The single picture that took hold of Abraham’s imagination unified the otherwise different episodes of his life and the lives of his descendants and made them into a community.
Can anything unite the individual motives we have for staying at BVBC? Yes, if some single picture of our future takes hold of our collective imagination and unites us so that we take responsibility for each other and pursue common goals together.
Known by Our Love
Is there a single picture of what our future in this church can be? I believe there is, and I believe it is organically related to the third part of the vision that captured Abraham’s imagination. God said to him, “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” The reality is that “through Christianity, hundreds of millions of people have entered into relationship with the God of Israel.” (The Sun, “Dabru Emet,” September 10, 2000)
Jesus pointed the way for the Church to be such a blessing in John 13:34-35. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” According to John 15:12, Jesus said,“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” After listing distinctive Christian virtues, the Apostle Paul said in Colossians 3:14: And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
We all believe in Jesus Christ here; we have that in common. Now, we have a picture of what unites us into a community, so that we take responsibility for each other and pursue common goals together. The mission of BrandywineValleyBaptistChurch is to be followers of Christ, known by our love.
I said early in this sermon that in my ministry I propose for your consideration what you ought to think about many life issues, but I never try to impose on you what you ought to think; and I never make my relationship with you depend on your unquestioning agreement with what I propose. In this way I preserve your freedom of conscience to pursue the truth.
Then, I listed some reasons why people come to BVBC and stay here. Let’s go back to the first reason I mentioned: “I stay, because you don’t try to impose your ideas on me. But the minute you try to do that, I’m out of here. Nobody tells me what to do.”
How might we respond to someone who says that? We might be cautious. “Don’t offend the guy. He might leave, and he’s a big giver.” Or there is the variation, “He’s got an attitude. Stick it to him; maybe he will leave. Good riddance.” But our mission has the power to change our response.
This person, prickly as he may be, is my brother in Christ. God has put us together in this church. In some way, perhaps as yet unclear, we need each other. If the picture of being a community of Christ’s followers, known by our love, has caught my imagination, it would be unjust for me to ignore him or work to remove him from the fellowship. It would also be unjust of me to fail to say appropriately what I thought was the truth, even if he might not want to hear it.
This person, prickly as he may be, if the picture of being Christ’s followers, known by their love, has caught his imagination, may realize that he’s not just an individual, pursuing his idea of what’s best for him. Instead, he is part of a community in which we take responsibility for each other and pursue common goals together.
The Pastoral Center of Gravity
What I propose to you is that BVBC become such a community. Let it be the mission of BrandywineValleyBaptistChurch is to be a community of Christ’s followers, known by our love. It will take years of experience to learn what that means and for that experience to teach us what kind of church we are.
Like Abraham, we will have to experience the vision to know what the vision actually means. Like Abraham, we will have times when we wonder if we have followed a fantasy. We will be dogged by our individualism and selfishness and decades of bad habits. We’ll be tempted to dismiss the mission as Pollyanna nonsense.
But if this mission has connected with the purpose of God that cannot be thwarted, the dream will shine again, and we will continue to be a blessing in the Valley of the Brandywine.
A community like this will attract people like that young woman whose e-mail opened this sermon. Phase III will make room for more people like her and provide a better platform to get the word out to the spiritual yearnings of our neighbors that something is very right here.
I wish every one of you shared this vision of BVBC’s future. If you are led to give, I ask you to dig deep and pledge big. I don’t want anyone to place himself or her household at risk by pledging too much. Neither do I want anyone to place Phase III at risk by pledging too little. We need many large gifts. We need many small gifts. We can only do this together – both the vision and the project.
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