to return to your place in the text.To read endnotes, click on the the note number, then click on the
Of course, the idea of a Presbyterian church in this
neighborhood is MORE than 40 years old. Sometime in 1956, a
local milk man, Murdock Brown, took note of the explosive growth
in the area - new homes going up everywhere on land that was
formerly farmed.(1) He took the idea to his pastor and session at
Glenwood Presbyterian Church, and the wheels were set in motion.
The following year a Sunday School was established at Murphey
School. Worship services began that summer with the leadership
of a seminary intern. By February of the following year, the new
work was ready to be organized as a congregation of the
Presbyterian Church (US), and the service making everything
official was held at Glenwood church on the afternoon of October
23, 1958.
The next step was the calling of a pastor. A pulpit
Committee was formed - seven men (including Herb Reese and John
Perkins [two members still active]). Apparently, some
sesquicentennial celebration was in progress at the time, so all
the men sported beards. These hirsute wonders made their way
down to Wrightsville Beach and talked with Jerry McCann about
becoming the organizing pastor of this new work. What does one
say to a strange collection of hairy men? Well, the rest, as
they say, is history.
Presbyterians do not believe in accidents. We do not
believe it was an "accident" that Murdock Brown came up with the
idea of a new church here. We do not believe it was an accident
that Glenwood church took on the challenge. We do not believe it
was an accident that Jerry and Nan found their way to Greensboro.
We do not believe it is an accident that we are here together,
some 40 years later. We read the passage in that first chapter
of Jeremiah and hear God say, "Before I formed you in the womb I
knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you."
Presbyterians believe that God's call to Jeremiah, God's
affirmation that the call is more than human wish or whim, is
repeated over and over and over again - to individuals, in calls
to specific ministries; to groups in the establishment of new
works. We are here - you and I together - 40 years after the
fact, because God chose us to be here. God still has work for us
to do.
The work is somewhat different now. The community has
changed. Instead of young families moving in day by day, we have
stable neighborhoods without the joyous explosion of growth.
Homes that once teemed with children are now left to grandparents
and their memories, or more transient families without local
ties. A church to which everyone flocked because it was the
center of community activity, now finds itself one of a half
dozen churches within a stone's throw of each other, all
competing to attract the same folks. Instead of an era in which
attendance at church and Sunday School was the highest in
American history, we live in a time when church participation is
on the decline and the hemorrhage of members from mainline
churches has been attracting national attention for more than a
generation. In 1958, Hillsborough Park was a "field of dreams"
for a new church - "If you build it, they will come." In 1998,
things have changed.
How do we deal with the changes? To be truthful some would
rather not. The old joke about how many Presbyterians it takes
to change a lightbulb..."CHANGE??? We can't change that; my
grandmother gave it!"...is apt. Change is uncomfortable.
I was talking with my son the other night about all the
decisions that are facing him as a High School Senior. He has
major choices facing him that will effect the rest of his life.
Where to go to school? What major? What scholarship
opportunities? What commitments? It is almost unfair to ask
someone so young and with so little real experience in life to
choose between options that will largely determine his future.
He wisely said, "I wish I could stay a kid for just a little
while longer." I know. But...
By the same token, we might wish that things were the same
around St. Paul as they were during the days of the
congregation's youth. But they are not. And if we wonder about
the implications of that, we are blessed by an intriguing
juxtaposition in our lectionary readings - Jeremiah, chapter 1
and 1st Corinthians, chapter 13 appear together. The Jeremiah
passage is the account of the prophet's call to preach - the
young lad protests that he is too young for the task (and, no
doubt, expresses the unspoken wish that he could stay a kid for
just a bit longer), God's promise of divine protection, and, not
only that, God's promise of a message: "I have put my words in
your mouth." We hear that and warmly hark back to our own call
as a congregational "youngster" in 1958. But it is now 1998. We
wonder about our call today. What words is God putting in our
collective mouth? Suddenly, we hear the second lesson:
"The tongues of mortals and angels"...yes, there has been 40
years of preaching from this pulpit. "Prophetic powers, mystery,
knowledge"...yes, there has been 40 years of Bible study, of
digging into the mysteries of the faith. "Give away all my
possessions"...yes, there is a 40-year tradition of generosity
and sharing at St. Paul that certainly continues today that would
be the envy of any congregation. But we hear the emphasis of the
lesson: all that is worthless without a spirit of love behind it.
Please be clear here - I am NOT saying that all these good things
have happened in our history, and they will be even better in the
future if we add LOVE into the mix. NO! These things HAVE been
accompanied with love, but the reminder of St. Paul, the Apostle,
TO St. Paul, the Presbyterians, is make sure that love is at the
forefront of our ministry.
Here Paul explains what he means. Love is not some warm-fuzzy feeling. Love means some very practical things:
No sentimental journey there. This is where the rubber
meets the road. Yes, this passage is read over and over again at
weddings, but not because it's subject is related to romance.
"Love is patient," even when he leaves his dirty socks in the
middle of the floor after you have asked him gently to pick them
up ten previous times. "Love is kind" even when the dinner she
cooks for you would be top-rated in the annals of heartburn
history. "Love is not envious" when she gets a raise and you
don't. This list goes on and on. Practical stuff. And if
husbands and wives routinely treated each other like this, we
would not see one out of two marriages ending in divorce.
Do you want a good gauge of how YOU measure up to this high
standard? Substitute your own name at the appropriate places in
the list, then listen carefully to see if the passage rings true.
"David is patient; David is kind; David is not envious or
boastful or arrogant or rude. David does not insist on his own
way; David is not irritable or resentful..." Get the idea? Does
that sound like you? Is there some work to do? Probably.
Now Paul explains the importance of what this emphasis is.
And remember he is writing to a church that has had its ups and
downs. These folks in Corinth had more problems as a
congregation than any you or I have ever encountered. To be
honest, if it were not for the fact that the church belonged to
the Lord and NOT those people, it would have folded long before
Paul ever wrote. Here he makes an intriguing statement: "Love
never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as
for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to
an end." Do you hear what he is saying? He is pooh-poohing
religion! That's right. Religion...or at least our human
expressions thereof. Good for him. Some of the meanest
behaviors the world has ever seen are over religion: the
crusades, the inquisition, Northern Ireland, the Middle East.
Congregations are torn apart because people want to fight about
theological details. We still do it. Mark Twain said we have "made
a graveyard of the globe in trying to ease our brother's way to
happiness and heaven." Paul says STOP IT! Please! GROW UP!!!
"When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a
child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an
end to childish ways." What the Apostle is offering is no less
than a religion for a "grown-up" church. Even a church that does
not see as clearly as it once did (give me those bifocals): "Now
we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face.
Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have
been fully known." Mature. Seasoned. Grown-up. The Corinthian
congregation does not qualify as of this writing. Perhaps St.
Paul Presbyterian does.
Would you like to grow again as you did 40 years ago? It
will not happen by simply opening the doors. It WILL happen when
people see a warm and winsome fellowship of people who understand
Christian love, and treat one another according to that standard.
When folks see that, and find that they are welcome to join in
and experience that love for themselves, the growth begins.
Let me tell you a story.(2) A family is out for a drive on a
Sunday afternoon, and they relax at a leisurely pace down the
highway. Suddenly, the two children begin to beat their father
in the back: "Daddy, Daddy, stop the car! Stop the car! There's
a kitten back there on the side of the road!"
The father says, "So, there's a kitten on the side of the
road. We're having a drive."
"But, Daddy, we've got to stop and pick it up."
"No, we don't."
"But, Daddy, if we don't, it will die!"
"Well, then, it will just have to die. We don't have room
for another animal. Our house is a zoo already. No more
animals."
"But Daddy, are you just going to let it die?"
"Be quiet, Kids, let's just have a pleasant drive."
"We never thought our father would be so mean and cruel as
to let a helpless little kitty die."
Finally, the mother turns to her husband and says, "Dear, we
are going to have to stop."
So, reluctantly, Dad turns the car around, returns to the
spot and pulls the car off the road. "You kids stay in the car.
I'll see about it." He gets out to pick up the little kitten.
The poor creature is just skin and bones, sore-eyed and full
of fleas; but when Dad reaches down to pick it up, with its last
bit of energy, the little kitten bristles, baring tooth and claw.
Ssst! He picks the kitten up by the loose skin of the neck,
brings it over to the car and says, "Don't touch it; it's
probably got leprosy." Back home they go.
When they get to the house, the children give the kitten
several baths, about a gallon of warm milk, and intercede, "Can
we let it stay in the house just tonight, please, please, please?
Tomorrow we'll fix a place in the garage."
The father says, "Sure, take my bedroom; the whole house is
already a menagerie." They fix a comfortable bed, fit for a
pharoah.
Several weeks pass. One day the father walks in, feels
something rub against his leg, looks down, and there is the cat.
He reaches down toward it. When the cat sees his hand, it
doesn't bare its claws and hiss; instead it arches its back to
receive a caress. Is that the same cat? Is it? No, it is NOT
the same as that frightened, hurt, hissing kitten on the side of
the road. Of course not. And you know as well as I what has
made the difference.
"And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the
greatest of these is love." Let us remember that for the NEXT 40
years. Then we will truly be a GROWN-UP CHURCH.
1. Historical information comes from Louise Tuttle Roberts, A 30 Year History of the St. Paul
Presbyterian Church, unpublished. 2. Fred Craddock, "Praying Through Clenched Teeth," in The Twentieth Century Pulpit, Vol.
II, James Cox, Ed., (Nashville, Abingdon, 1981), pp. 51-52
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but
do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging
cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand
all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all
faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love,
I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and
if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not
have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or
boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its
own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not
rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all
things, endures all things.
Amen!
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