Swept Up In the Stream (MPLS)

Amos 1: 1-2; 5: 14-15, 21-24

The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of King Uzziah of Judah and in the days of King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

And he said: The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds wither, and the top of Carmel dries up.

Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, just as you have said. Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt-offerings and grain-offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

John 7:37-44

On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.” ’ Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

When they heard these words, some in the crowd said, ‘This is really the prophet.’ Others said, ‘This is the Messiah.’ But some asked, ‘Surely the Messiah does not come from Galilee, does he? Has not the scripture said that the Messiah is descended from David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?’ So there was a division in the crowd because of him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

Dear Beloved of God, grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus, who is the Christ. Amen.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about legacy. I have been thinking about what has been entrusted to us, by God, from previous generations. I’ve been thinking about what God has done through the church, this church over its 125+ year history. 

At the same time I’ve been thinking about the future. About what the church will look like 10, 20, 30 years from now. I wonder if we will recognize it. As I’ve been talking with my colleagues in churches both locally and nationally there is a growing sense that whatever trends and challenges that were confronting the church in 2019, the last two years have only served to accelerate them. Questions about the function of the church in people’s day to day lives have only intensified as habits have shifted, patterns changed, and people are reevaluating where they want to put their time, energy and resources.

The uncertainty of the future makes me want to cling even more tightly to the past. Because everything feels up for grabs in this moment that we’re living through, I have this strong pull to preservation and protection. If we can just get our feet under us then, then we can start building and growing and thriving again.

This past week I spent some time in Bethlehem’s Heritage Room. It’s functionally our archives, on the second floor of the Minneapolis Campus. I went digging through old newsletters, we went through a pretty aggressive clip art phase in the late nineties. I read some annual reports from the 60’s, because I’m cool like that. Then I came across a booklet that was book together to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the congregation, in 1969.

I read a lot of little fascinating nuggets, some stories were familiar, some were new, some I’d forgotten, but there was one that jumped out. It read, 

New Year’s Eve, 1907, was a festive occasion. It was 14 years since the congregation was organized. But the real occasion for festivity was that the mortgage that had rested so heavily on the congregation could now be burned. The chairman of the Board of Trustees and the president of the Ladies’ Aid stepped to the platform and lighted the document, and as the last spark was dying joyous voices of the congregation rang out singing, “Thanks to thee and adoration.” 

Until this time most of the effort had been directed to work within the congregation; now it could turn toward other activities. Contributions to mission work increased, annual contributions to the treasury of the synod grew, and more attention was given to the welfare work of the congregation. 

In today’s first reading from the prophet Amos, God is pretty upset with God’s people. God’s frustration is a consistent theme in the book of Amos, but here it is dialed up a notch (Amos 5:21-23):

I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt-offerings and grain-offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. 

God says look, the worship you do, it stinks. It is so separate from the way you live the rest of your lives. You’ve compartmentalized. You have your God box here. You have your business dealings here. You have your family life here. They don’t speak to one another. So your worship, while it may be good and right and proper, is dead. So take it away from me. I won’t listen, I won’t look, I won’t smell. I won’t take what you offer because how you live doesn’t look anything like how you worship. You’re just going through the motions but they’re empty, because you’re empty.

Now look, I’m not going to cast aspersions on our foremother and forefathers. But I was surprised to read that in its infancy, Bethlehem took care of itself first. It was surprising to read that first this congregation focused on its needs first, then addressed the needs of others.

In my relatively short tenure here, I’ve come to know this congregation as one that both stewards the needs of this community, its facilities, its people and the community and world of which Bethlehem is a part. I have known this congregation as one that is strengthened in worship, in its gathering so that it can go out and share in the fullness of life with others.

In each of the capital campaigns that I’ve been blessed to be a part of, we’ve paid our debts, and given generously to our neighbors in need. We’ve invested and strengthened our infrastructure, fostered new ministries, started new churches and built housing, schools, libraries, bridges and so much more.

Each year our operating budget gives more than $200,000.00 away in support of mission and ministry outside of this congregation.

We’ve been swept up in God’s stream of justice, God’s righteousness has washed over us and nourished the world around us. It’s been incredible to witness, to be a part of, to celebrate.

Then I started thinking. Maybe that shift, inaugurated on New Year’s Eve in 1907 was tributary to God’s righteous river. Maybe that night was the beginning of a new way of thinking that would impact this congregation ever since. What if in 1907 we stopped protecting what was ours and started participating in what God was doing, and we’ve never stopped.

In the 60s this congregation voted to spend 20 cents for outreach for each dollar spent on our own facilities.

In our previous capital campaign, Opening New Doors, we gave one-third of all the money that was raised to outreach work. In our current appeal, Building a Future with Hope, we will be giving 20 percent away again. We continue to be swept up in the stream of God’s generous mercy and grace.

Some of you might not remember or know that shortly after his diagnosis with cancer, Tim Johnson and I did an interview session with Pastor Chris Nelson who was the senior pastor here for 27 years before his death in 2017. You’re going to see a brief snippet of that video in just a second. Chris was a student of history, and he loved the stories of this congregation, he loved to tell the stories of this congregation. In that interview session I asked him, why are they important? What does our past tell us about who we are and what we will become? Here’s what he had to say:

“The stories that we tell about Bethlehem’s past, which have so shaped who we are, really can help us navigate our way into what can be a very difficult future, because it’s in our DNA. These are stories we need to hear over and over again. For myself, when I think about all of the stuff that we’ve done at Bethlehem over the last 27 years, all I have to do is get out the history book and say, this is just the way Bethlehem is. It’s not about how wonderful I might be, it’s who we are. 

“We tell these stories, they shape us, they prepare us for the future. You see that incredible continuity between the people who founded the congregation, the people who move the congregation, the people who built up the church over the years, and where we’re headed today. This is what Bethlehem is. This is what we do.”

Jesus said, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” 

There’s a promise there for us today. Through us God’s justice and righteousness will flow. Through Christ’s church rivers of living water will flow. We don’t know exactly what the church of the future will look like. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. But we do know that through us, through the church, God will pour healing, mercy and life into this world. This is what we get to invest in. This is what we get to get ourselves to. This is who we are.

Today I want to close with a prayer from another one of Bethlehem’s pastors, Pastor Maynard Iverson, who served this church from the early 50s to the early 80s:

Gracious God,
you who are our dwelling place in all generations:
we praise you for the touch of your Spirit
upon this congregation in past generations . .
for calling together a group of believers into this spiritual family . .
for equipping them by Word and Sacrament
to be your
“house of living stones.”
Gratefully we draw inspiration and direction from these
“wells dug by others”; the music of their devotion,
vision, and unity still echoes in the heart of Bethlehem.
We pray now for the grace to be worthy of such legacy.
As they were enabled to be your Church in their time,
we seek to be effective channels of your will in ours.
Grant steadfastness in the face of turbulence.
Bestow wisdom equal to the issues at hand.
Instill courage to venture in faith, so that we embrace the
present as opportunity
and welcome the future unafraid.
In the name of him who is Lord of the church,
the Alpha and the Omega, we offer this prayer.
Amen.