|
Foundry United Summer in the City
2009 Outstanding Preacher
Series Rev. Dr. Leslie John Griffiths |
|
|
“Built on
Foundations” Sunday, July 19, 2009 11:00 a.m. |
|
|
Ephesians 2: 11-23
|
Whenever
I travel, one of the biggest questions that needs answering is this: What
shall I take to read? This trip was no
exception. I could take two books. One was obvious – a historical novel about
the English Reformation, which I have to review. The other boiled down to a choice between
two: a)
a well-reviewed book called “God is Back,” being recommended to me
by a b)
a biography of Clarence Thomas, written by two black journalists In view
of the timing of the Senate hearing for Judge Sonia Sotomayor, I thought it
would be both interesting and topical to bring the Thomas biography though,
in the end, their hearings could hardly have been more different. Imagine
my surprise when, arrived in Bay View, Michigan, a week ago, I found the book,
“God is Back,” sitting proudly on our host’s sitting room table. I thought I’d thumb through it to see what
I’d be missing. But I never got
further than the blurb where I read the following hype: “Since the Enlightenment, intellectuals have assumed
that modernization would kill religion, and that religious “Many things have helped spark the global revival of
religion, including the failure of communism and the rise of globalism (sic). But above all, 21st century faith is being
fueled by a very American emphasis on competition and a consumer-driven
attitude towards salvation. These qualities
have characterized this country’s faith ever since the Founders separated
church and state, creating a religious free market defined by
entrepreneurship, choice and personal revelation. As market forces reshape the world, the
tools and ideals of American evangelism are now spreading everywhere.” There! Starbucks can teach us everything. The renewal of the church will owe more to
spontaneous combustion, the bursting into life of some wayside flower, than
to any idea that honors the past, builds on it, injects new life into it,
unfolds God’s plan one stage at a time.
Difference
between You have space. We have time. The
Tabard Inn is lovely; it cultivates a sense of age. Yet it was born at almost the same time as
Walter Cronkite. And however
frustrating it is for Americans who’d surely like to think that they’ve had a
part to play in everything meaningful that’s ever happened, most of the
Christian story goes back further than us: Foundry Methodism The Reformation The Schoolmen The Celtic Saints The Greek or Latin fathers The Apostles in The Prophets of Old It’s an
old, old story. Like
the film, “The Wizard of Oz,” it breaks out of black and white into glorious
Technicolor along the way. But the
story of our salvation is one that has its roots in the beginnings of time;
it’s the tale of God’s unfolding plan.
It flows from the mind and the will of God, not the needs or desires
of men and women. God so loved the world . . . God was in Christ reconciling . .
. You are built on the foundations laid by the apostles
and prophets. Once
we’ve got our heads sorted out about our foundation, then we can begin to
think about what we build on those foundations. We can think of all kinds of construction
but they’ll only cohere, make sense, hold fast, if their cornerstone is
Christ. Think of churches that seem in
thrall to one novelty after another: -
a mission statement; -
consumerism; -
a budget target; -
some aspect of liturgical gobbledygook; -
a denomination; -
a favorite theological emphasis; -
a preacher. Nope. It’s
Christ and Christ alone – the same yesterday as today; Alpha and Omega; Beginning
and End – who sets the tone, undergirds the enterprise, and holds the whole
thing fast. He’s
got to be at the very heart of Christian life and work, worship and service. And
then, with such foundations and such a building we can merrily set about knocking
down the walls of separation that keep people apart. Pass me
the sledgehammer! Race, gender,
orientation, class, education. Knock ‘em all down and discover that they were
never load-bearing walls at all. I’ve
been reading about Walter Cronkite, who’s just died at the age of 92. 30
years ago, almost to the day, a man who’s now just about Cronkite’s age (and
the age of the Tabard Inn) came to We’d
put down foundations. We were building a Christian school and we were
destroying walls of ignorance and prejudice: Haitians and Americans, buckets
of cement, next to each other in line. The man
who brought that team was later to give me and Margaret and our children our
first opportunity to visit And
he’s here today. Danny True. I honor you and thank God for you. Oh boy.
And
that’s the way it is. www.foundryumc.org |
|
|
|
|
|
|
