“Crossing Divides: Our True
Heritage”
Acts 10:44-48
John 15:1-8
Introduction. Have you ever given much
consideration to why you are sitting here today, in this church? Some of
you might be thinking, “because I'm a Christian, that's why.” Some of you
might be thinking, “because this is where I feel most at home.” Others of
you might be thinking, “Because my spouse dragged me here.” Although these
are all valid answers, you may be not quite understanding what I'm trying to get
at. You are here because a group of people, part of this church, did at
least one of three things. First, they maintained, with their financial
gifts or their labor, the physical facility in which you are sitting.
Second, they reached out to you, either by sharing the gospel with you which at
some point you came to believe, or simply by inviting you to church. Or
third, they created a welcoming place to which you felt comfortable to come
back, and come back again, and again, until you claimed it as your church
home. In addition, this group of people found a way to be relevant.
They not only supported this facility, reached out, and provided a welcoming
atmosphere; but they also found ways to present the gospel in word and in action
meaningfully. You came, and continue to come, because of them.
Move 1. Even further than that, the
people of which I speak came because of the ministry and relevance of a former
generation; and they, the generation before them; and so on, until reaching the
beginnings of this congregation in 1878.
In July of 1878, a man named Calvin Parks, a
Presbyterian commissioned lay preacher who was a lawyer by occupation, arrived
with his wife Susan in Logan. Yes, our church was founded by a
lawyer. On September 1 of that year, Parks led the first regular worship
service of First Presbyterian, in a rented space “on the ground floor of the
Lindquist furniture factory on the north side of Tabernacle Square.” The
very next day, Monday, he opened a primary school, one of the valley's first if
not the first. Parks faced some challenges. He once wrote that
“'People are mostly in sympathy with us…except some spies, Episcopalians, and
Mormons.'” (Mike Sweeney and John Cushman, “Early Historical Moments; First
Presbyterian Church of Logan, Utah,” p. 3; based on documents from the J. Duncan
Brite archives, Manuscript Collection No. 5, Box 4, Utah State University,
Special Collections, Merrill Library). But he labored on. He led the
formal organization of the church on December 4, 1878, at which time 11 charter
members were signed on.
Just a few months after the founding, Pastor Parks
wrote the following to the director of missionary activity in the western
territories: “The Mormons have commenced hostilities at their Quarterly
Conference….Some very strong language was used against the 'outsiders who have
lately come among us' and our landlord has been the subject of their fiery
darts…. (He) has succumbed (and) taken his children out of school…. My lease
will hold, I think--yet, if there was a different place, I believe I would take
it, for the room overhead is a shop, you know, and he has six workmen and the
noise is almost intolerable and unendurable for any comfort especially for a
school…. Our meetings are smaller than before the oppression and the disturbance
from the boys outside greater. Yet, we have very encouraging
audiences--men and women come to hear.” (letter from Calvin Parks to Dr.
Sheldon Jackson, February 6, 1879; as printed in The Pulse, the
newsletter of our church, April 2005))
Parks eventually saw the building of the wooden
chapel on the property on which you now sit. But others, long after Calvin
Parks' death, built the current sanctuary, ready for worship in 1925. And
still others, under the leadership of Reverend Miner Bruner, built the current
gym and Christian education wing. They, along with countless others,
continued to finance, invite, and welcome.
And they continued to find ways to be relevant,
using a variety of educational, recreational, and spiritual tools to
meaningfully spread the gospel, in ways that touched peoples' lives. They
didn't change the core good news of Jesus Christ. But they did change the
ministries of First Presbyterian over time to make an impact in this community,
and they are the reason you are here.
Move 2. Of course, this effort toward
relevance goes back much further than that. It goes back to Jesus and the
apostles. It certainly can be seen in the book of Acts, which records the
story of the early Christian movement and its spread.
The story today is actually the ending of an account
of two men named Peter and Cornelius. After the death and resurrection of
Jesus, Peter, probably the most famous of Jesus' disciples, is wandering around
preaching the good news of the risen Christ. Peter is a faithful Jewish
man, and as such would not consider associating with Gentiles, or non-Jewish
people, because the Jewish people of the Bible consider them to be
unclean. Yet he has a dream, sent from God, which shows him that he is no
longer to keep himself separate from Gentiles. He is shown in this dream
that he will be led by God to cross the divide between Jews and Gentiles, will
wind up sharing good news with those different from him.
Sure enough, the story relates that at the same
time, in a different town, something else significant is happening.
Cornelius, a Roman centurion and, of course, a Gentile, also is having a dream
from God, that he is to send some of his men to find a man named Peter and
invite Peter to his home. He does this, and when Peter arrives, Cornelius
falls on his knees to worship Peter, assuming Peter is some sort of god
himself. But Cornelius hears Peter say, “Stand up; I am only mortal, not a
god at all.” Cornelius hears, right away, one of the most important part
of the Christian faith, and that is that there is something beyond a human being
who is the true object of worship. By this very first act of Peter in
Cornelius' home, Cornelius is an immediate witness to the fact that the strength
of Christianity lies not in humankind but in something else.
The story then moves toward Peter's explanation of
what this “something else” is. Cornelius finds out that it is Jesus Christ
who is the power behind the dreams, the power behind Peter, the power behind the
spread of the good news. And then, the Holy Spirit is poured out on Peter,
Cornelius, and others who are present, and the natural outcome of the entire
event is played out--Cornelius and the other Gentiles there are baptized, just
as Chyeanne Smallwood was baptized here last Sunday.
The entire story of the spread of Christianity is
encapsulated here--a crossing of cultural divides; to preach the good news that
Jesus Christ, not any human being, is Lord and alone is worthy of worship; with
the sacred act of baptism being done as a sign of Jesus' love. It becomes
real and relevant to those who probably would not have been moved by the Jewish
laws concerning cleanliness, but are deeply moved by the good news of Jesus
Christ.
Move 3. And so we get back to why we
are sitting here today, and perhaps more importantly, what we are to do with
that knowledge.
We are sitting here because Jesus Christ inspired
some Presbyterians in the 19th century to cross the religious and
cultural barriers in Utah, and not only to start a church, but also a school
that would appeal to Mormon and non-Mormon families alike. They decided to
preach the good news even in the midst of challenges. They decided to
baptize children and adult converts so that the movement founded by Jesus Christ
and carried on by Peter and many others could grow. We are sitting here
because they didn't let non-essential customs, or personal differences,
ultimately keep them from sharing the gospel in meaningful ways.
Like Peter, like Calvin Parks, we too should be
willing to remove the barriers that divide us from others. What is it that
we are hung up on that may be keeping us from reaching out into our
community? What is it that we might do to reach out? As one example,
either when we have a newly refurbished multi-purpose room, or before then, we
need to start a second worship service, one that will look different from the
one we are used to and love. Please hear me--we don't eliminate the style
of service we have now. We start a new one in addition to this one, in
order to reach out to people who are not necessarily attracted to this style of
worship but could get really enthused about one that would speak to them.
We need to give some thought to what such a service
might look like, but we can learn from some real life examples. There's
the church which occasionally bases entire services on the music of popular
Christian band U2, using song and video. There's the church which holds
multiple services each Sunday, including traditional, rock n' roll, cowboy, and
gospel styles. There's the church which uses ancient spiritual practices,
such as “lectio divina” in which worshippers meditate on a particular scripture
and then reflect together on it. We need to do such a service well.
We need it to be in honor and praise of Jesus.
But whatever we do--whether starting a school like
Calvin Parks, building a gym like Miner Bruner, adding a second worship service,
or finding other ways to reach out and be relevant--we need to recognize that
what is non-essential can be set aside for the sake of the gospel. And we
see what is essential in the story from Acts--being willing to remove any
barrier that separates us from others; pointing to Jesus in all that we do as
Christians; and baptizing in his name. We see that this is our true
heritage.
Conclusion. Heritage is a powerful, but
potentially dangerous, concept. It is dangerous when it is seen as
something static, something that confines, something that defines current
ministry to the exclusion of all else. It is powerful when it is
celebrated for how it pointed people toward Jesus. It is powerful when it
is dynamic, teaching lessons for life today. It is powerful when it lifts
up the relevance of previous generations in their times and places, and
encourages relevance today, moving us “out of our comfort zones in order to
share the gospel with those around us.” (quote from Ryan Moeller, in a
discussion with me on May 20, 2006)
May 21, 2006
Rev. Dave Hedgepeth
First Presbyterian Church
Logan, Utah