Sermon "A Seed We Sow: The Seed of
Time"
Rev. Lonnie Richardson
Sunday, October 31, 1999
Steve Denny
Steve, his wife Cathy, and their boys Brian
and Sean, joined the church last December -- although the boys'
sleep schedules have failed to accomodate service hours until
quite recently. The boys were baptized here in July.
Steve's origins in New Jersey help explain his current, continuing elation at the Yankee's decisive World Series victory -- as well as his lingering disappointment with the Brewers' shift to the National League.
Steve moved to the Milwaukee area in the early 80's to enter Marquette's graduate program in journalism, and, shortly thereafter, he helped start the publishing company he works for. Like everyone else, he's still trying to figure out how publishers can make money on the Internet.
Married a dozen years, Steve and Cathy have made their home in Wauwatosa since 1991.
Thanks, Lonnie, for the opportunity to talk. Good morning to all of you, and Happy Halloween!
With my family having joined the Church last December, the reasons we did so - the reasons for out commitment - remain clear in my mind:
A desire to embrace our faith more fully
A desire to extend our community
A desire to enhance our charity
In fact, these reasons became much clearer once Lonnie asked me to share them with you. As you consider Stewardship, imagine yourself standing here, addressing you. It's a great way to focus your thinking.
I hope my thoughts help you reflect on your own reasons for commitment.
Embracing our faith more fully...
We joined the Church so the word of God and the life of Christ would be part of our family's life. It's important to us that our sons come to understand and share our faith; that they learn and practice the values Christ taught. It's important to me and my family to reach beyond the ledger of daily commerce and know that we are part of a bigger life.
Without the Church's ministry and the people who support them in their work, we couldn't reach our goals. Without knowing Sunday school, worship, and Communion in a vibrant environment lie ahead for our boys, our outlook would be less optimistic.
Without my family's commitment to the Church, the ministry, the vitality of our worship, the quality and variety of the Church's education programs might diminish - might. Certainly, without our support, their potential would be more limited.
So we commit.
Extending our Community...
Beyond worship, Sunday school, and its other education programs, the Chruch supports many groups sharing common bonds. As I look ahead, it's Scouts for the kids, perhaps junior choir (with luck, the boys will display their mother's musical abilities). And the opportunity for Cathy and I to lend a hand with different groups is inviting. Members past and present have created an impressive array of activities that bring people together in the name of the church.
To support this community, the church provides facilites: kitchen and social hall, library, music room, and other meeting areas - not to mention Church and Chapel. Their availability and good repair enhance our activities.
Without my family's commitment to the Church, these facilities might become less inviting, they might hinder the programs they're intended to help. Certainly, without our support, the Church's ability to improve its facilities is more limited.
So we commit.
Enhancing our Charity ...
In my book, nothing beats community organizations meeting community needs. The Church is our best way to provide charity that has maximum impact - among its members, among the Wauwatosa-area community, in a community in Honduras. No big bureaucracy. No remote decision making. People and dollars collaborating for the greatest effect.
Without my family's commitment to the Church, its potential to improve lives and reach people may be limited. The positive impact of a person who is not held back by poor health or constrained by other circumstances isn't felt in the world. Witout our support, our world is certainly poorer.
So we commit.
We are newer members of this congregation. We think you have built something special and vital. You have created an environment where we, our neighbor, and friends want to see our children grow, our friendships flourish. We are committed to nurturing that environment with you, to making it an environment with fewer limits.
Thanks for your time, and thanks for your commitment.
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James Auer
James M. Auer has been a critic and feature writer, first for the Milwaukee Journal, then for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, since late 1972. Previously, he was Sunday editor of The Post-Crescent in Appleton. His repertorial specialty, the visual arts, has brought him into contact with literally thousands of artists, and hundreds of galleries and museums. He has written and narrated several documentaries for television, about varied art-world notables. He has contributed articles to numerous magazines, and is the author of a book, "The Spirit Is Willing: A complete Act of Mental Magic." (Yes, he does appear from time to time in the guise of a mentalist.) His photographs of artists, mostly made in the course of interviews, have been shown in recent years at Cardinal Stritch University, Mount Mary College, and the Paine Art Center & Arboretum.
Good morning and thank you for this opportunity to speak to you about what the church has meant to me over the close to seven decades of my life.
No doubt about it, I was one of the lucky ones.
I was literally born into Congregationalism.
My maternal grandmother, Jennie Friedland, an emigrant from Denmark, chose the Congregational church because her children would be worshiping in English--and because it was the church of the Pilgrims.
She was immensely proud of being an American.
As a result, since childhood, I have only been a member of two churches: First Congregational of Menasha and First Congregational of Wauwatosa.
As a small boy I attended Sunday School in a pillared building that still stands on broad Street just off downtown Menasha, in the Fox River Valley.
When my wife, son and I moved to Milwaukee in 1972, we joined this church--the church of which our valued friend, Norman Ream, was minister.
I've never had reason to regret eith decision.
It has been a long and rewarding association.
Walks in the crisp snow to midnight church servies on Chrismas Eve.
Joyous Easter Morning services, with fragrant flowers and inspiring messages.
Enlightening sermons about the life of Jesus, and the lates interpretations of his teachings.
Rewarding friendships that continue over the years, in a world where relationships are all too short, and often curtailed by travel, changes of residence and work location.
A sense of being part of something that is larger than all of us -- something that is now 2,000 years old -- but as fresh and alive as the moment the faith was born.
Do you wonder that I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been exposed, early in life, to the freedom and fellowship that are so much a part of the Congregational way?
Faith, for most people, is an evolving thing, by no means a fixed quantity. Childish wonder is inevitably replaced my adolescent skepticism, which in turn is displaced by a mature, if still mutating affirmation.
Growth, if we are lucky, continues throught life.
We are fortunate, all of us here today, to be associated with a church which has, as part of its statement of purpose, the creation of an atmosphere in which members and friends are free to seek the truth in their own way, with the help of a skilled ministerial staff.
Our church has never been one that requires blind acceptance of a rigidly defined system of thought. It leaves room, beautifully and sensitively, for individual conscinece and probing investigation.
As the same time it is an institution that serves as an irreplaceaable fulcrum for our ethical and spiritual lives.
The family is part of this, of course, and is rightly stressed.
But the church and its teachings also impinge in very important ways on our business lives, our political stances, even on our interactions with total strangers.
Right now all of us live in a culture which is being increasingly secularized. Separation of church and state is constitutionally mandated, and that is as it shoudl be.
Still, there is room in all of our lives for a greater sense of moral and spiritual purpose--of a sense that a higher power does, indeed, play a role in history, personal and national.
Faith, in short, does matter, even though in some quarter it is out of fashion.
How we deal with and get along with others, how we judge and come to understand, and even forgive, ourselves, how we relate our actions to the teachings of Jesus, how we apply scriptural lessons to today's difficult world,- all of these are matters that require serious and prayerful thought.
And it is here that church membership pays enormous dividends.
Fortunately, in a church such as this we have several overwhelming assets.
We are a community, rather than simply an assemblage of individuals, and we have the inspiring and redemptive example of Jesus Christ to guide us.
We can, therefore, as a group, reach out to other groups. We can learn of other people's experiences and share ours with those of our friends who are different. We can study and learn without fear of censure or criticism. We can grow spiritually at our own pace.
Those of us who are luckier than others, in a material sense, can share our substance with others, and by so doing ameliorate the suffering of those of our neighbors who haven't had similar advantages.
We also have an opportunity to give of our substance to the church itself.
The church is, after all, Christ's body on earth...the living sum and substance of his followers.
The responsiblity for its continuity is in our hands only briefly, and then is passed into the hands of others.
During this brief moment, then, we have both the joy and the privilege of helping this important institution to grow, and to impress its wisdom, insight, generosity and life-giving force upon the greater community.
We expect the church to be there when we need it. It should be no surprise, then, that we must be there when the church needs us. This, it seems to me, is both the blessing and the challenge of stewardship.
It is a blessing -- and a challenge -- well worth thinking about in the weeks ahead.
Thank you.
Enter Silent Prayer:
O God who is love,
When you seem so far away from us,
Remind us to reach within
To the fountain of feelings at the core of ourselves
And there, let us find you.
Let us be open to you now
And share our inner most desires
Through silent prayer.
Pastoral Prayer:
Lord of forever,
In wisdom you have given a time for everything, a season for
every purpose under heaven:
Time to grow, to play, to work, to think, to love, even time for
amendment of life.
We each have an identical 24 hours every day, yet time can feel
so very different to each of us.
In this moment, Lord, help us set aside the bonds and bounds
of time for a little while.
Help us take a deep breath of the unhurried and everlasting.
Help us sense the breadth and depth of your eternity: let it calm
and relax our minds, our hearts, our muscles, washing away both
anxiety and dread.
Help us see the present time of our life as just one state in the
full and flourishing life you have for us.
Help us praise you for this tiny fragment of time that for the
moment, belongs to us. Help us be humble, courageous and gracious
for the time is ours.
Help us deal with the frustrating limitations on our times.
Help us focus on what we can do in the time available, time you
give for serving others.
Let your Holy Spirit alert us day by day to the opportunities we have day by day to live fuller, truer, more timely lives.
Especially this morning be with those who are involved in the disappearance of the airplane off the coast of Nantucket. Be with all those in this time of wait, watch, and wonder.
Give to us wisdom's clear sight to see where we can make changes in our lives so that we make the most of the time we have, so that what is most important takes precedence over the daily clutter of tasks and toils. Discipline our hearts and minds so that we waster no time on what is mean and foolish, so that we may be free to welcome the day you give us with eagerness, knowing you have given us time aplenty for all that is needed.
Lord, in you mercy, hear us as we join together in prayer.
