Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
(2 Timothy 2:22), I Corinthians 15:57-58
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
I was pleasantly surprised by this week’s cover story in the Religious Herald: “A Missionary Love Story”. The picture is of Uncle John and Aunt Edith Parker, both retired missionaries, who served for 38 and 35 years, respectively, but in different countries: He in Chile, and she in Brazil.
If you had a chance to read the story, and I hope you did, you’ll know that Uncle John’s first wife, Aunt Ruby, passed away in February of 1997, after 54 years of marriage, and he and Aunt Edith, who’d never been married, were wed on October 25th of the same year.
Aunt Ruby and I had a special relationship. Not only was her youngest son also named Kenny, but also she and I shared the same birthday, July 13th. As it happened, we usually celebrated our birthday together, and she would always make her famous peanut brittle.
I always thought it was interesting, the way Uncle John and Aunt Ruby met. They were each appointed as single missionaries to Chile in 1941. Once there, they met and fell in love. Their courtship was carried out in Chile, and when they decided to marry, they had to resign and return to the States. If I’m not mistaken, I think they had the wedding ceremony IN Chile and even went on their honeymoon there before coming back here to resign as single missionaries and be reappointed as a couple back to Chile, where they spent the next nearly 4 decades serving as missionaries through the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.
We are following the outline of II Timothy 2:22, and are on Faithfulness today. There is no doubt as to the faithfulness of all of the people in the story: John, Ruby, and Edith, and so many others like them who’ve given their lives for the cause of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Their combined years of service speak to an aspect of faithfulness that is essential – longevity. There is a reason marital vows include the phrase “’til death us do part”.
In the late 1820’s, when Elder Thomas Braxton and the group of folks who came with him and began to meet and finally decided to establish ‘Royal Oaks Baptist Church”, and later changed that name to “Jerusalem”, the decision to constitute a church was one that was made with no ‘expiration date’ in mind. Faithfulness means open-ended commitment. Their decision was to BE CHURCH to each other. That commitment, that faithfulness, has continued since then, ultimately by all of us here today.
Our faithfulness to each other is, first and foremost, a reflection of our commitment to Christ. It is not the same as that commitment, but it goes hand in hand with it. In James we read ‘faith without works is dead’. In a way, that is saying ‘faithfulness in word alone is not faithfulness at all’. We must live out that faithfulness in our actions. Simply put, being faithful in church means being COMMITTED TO church.
I need to clarify something here. A corporate trainer I heard once differentiated involvement from commitment this way: a chicken is involved in breakfast; a pig, on the other hand, is committed to breakfast.
In the interest of general health and well-being, not to mention emotional and spiritual well-being, there is a difference between our commitment to Christ and our commitment to church. Being actively involved in the life of the church takes time and energy, as any activity would. In that aspect, it falls under the ‘on the 7th day God rested’ clause. Our commitment to Christ is of the heart and of the spirit. Our commitment to church is not ONLY of the heart and the spirit, but the body as well.
Therefore: your activity, commitment and involvement in the life of the church should go in cycles.
The human body is built to work in cycles. Circadian rythms, I think is what they are called. (If there is a biology major here today, perhaps they could help me out). The body has an active cycle, and a cycle of rest. That rest cycle is used to replenish and restore the body for the active cycle.
In that the church is the body of Christ, and we are part of that body, we also need to rest and alternatively, be active. It is reflected in the rotations we set up for deacons, for committees, and most other organizations within the church.
Faithfulness is reflected in the care we give each other, and the community around us. My sense since I’ve been here is that we don’t need to worry about that too much. Being a polling place at election time, participating in meals on wheels in January, providing for the needy through the food pantry, those are all evidence of faithfulness to the community. In the care we give each other, it would be reflected in how we arrange ourselves internally. In the meetings of the nominating committee over the last few weeks, that has come to mind. One thing that is taken for granted in a small congregation is that those who are active and involved wear many hats. One person with whom I spoke is involved in … at least 5 committees or organizations, and I don’t think that is terribly unusual within the congregation. That is why it is important to be intentional about resting from our labors. I’m not sure what that is going to look like for Jerusalem, but it does need to BE.
In academic circles, there is what is called a sabbatical. Every so often, a professor will take a hiatus from his duties in lecturing and will spend either a year or several months away from them – to study, to write, to reflect on what his or her work means, or find a new direction that he or she has not had time to explore previously because of those standing commitments.
Yes, there are lots of jobs to do, many responsibilities, even in a church this size. And there are people who step up to the challenge.
It has been encouraging to see the number and variety of names that are already in the nominating committee’s lists. As with any congregation, there are those names that show up repeatedly, but there are a solid number of other names that only appear once or twice. That is good in that it reflects a widely involved congregation. Be that as it may, perhaps it is time to reflect on what you have been doing for Jerusalem, or maybe, what you COULD be doing WITH Jerusalem.
In the end, our faithfulness begins with God’s faithfulness. Just as we love because he first loved us, we are faithful because he was first faithful to us. What we see time and time again in scripture is call and response. God calls, and we respond. God acts, and we react. God moves, and we move with God.
How is God moving in your life? Are you open to what comes next? Are you willing to step out of involvement and into commitment?
As Paul says, your labor is not in vain. What you do for the kingdom, whether it is as a missionary, as a minister, deacon, Sunday school teacher, committee chair, has significance, has meaning, has a place in the inbreaking of the Kingdom of God.
If you are here today and have been involved, but know that somehow, someway you need to be committed, your invitation is to first commit your life to Christ, to respond in faith to the author and finisher of our faith.
If you are looking for a place where you CAN commit, your invitation is to join with us in committing our lives, minds, and hearts to the furthering of the Kingdom of God.
If you are here, and are or have been committed and active, your invitation is to examine that, and search your heart, and find if it is time to rest, or time to reengage in this community of faith, rested, and ready to bring renewed energies to the task at hand.
Let’s pray.
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