In 1971 a United Methodist pastor
living in a small town in Kansas had a couple of teen-aged daughters. If you
recall in 1971 you know the times they were a changin’. A year before at a University
not far from here in Kent, Ohio, four students were killed by members of the
National Guard. Protests such as these were common during the Vietnam War era.
Pastors like this one got caught up in politics. The doctor in his church said,
“People want their preacher to be old fashioned and conservative and their
doctor to be modern and liberal.” But the pastor was neither old fashioned nor
conservative. Though the roots of his childhood family were very conservative,
he was becoming a liberal.
He hired a youth director who was
inviting the teens from the local black church to come to events at their
church youth center with his white church youth group. As you recall, racial
tensions were high in 1971. One father said to the pastor, “You had better not
let my daughter dance with any of those black kids.” The pastor said to the
father, “It’s none of my business who your daughter dances with. If you want to
keep her from dancing with anyone you can come be a chaperone for the party.”
The thing that really got the pastor in
hot water with the Church Council was this. His two daughters, along with their
friends, decided to produce an underground newspaper. They would distribute it
afterschool, across the street from school property. The pastor’s eldest
daughter wrote an excellent essay on the front page about contraceptives, all
the various kinds that were available and how they worked. It was an
informative piece aimed to educate young people and prevent teen pregnancy.
“The pill” had only become widely
available in the previous decade but in small towns like this one, there were
no clinics where high school girls could get “the pill” without her parents’
permission. The preacher’s daughter wrote that contraceptives needed to be more
widely available to prevent girls from getting “knocked up.” That phrase was a
bit “over the top.” But the thing that really got the pastor in trouble was
this. The church trustees found out that the pastor let the kids use the church
mimeograph machine to produce the newspaper. When that was discovered, the
inevitable you know what hit the fan.
As you may have guessed, the preacher
was my father, and the daughter was my oldest sister. No, not me, I was only 8
in 1971. (Just in training to be who she
was chimed in Cheri’s Mom).
This is one of our proud family stories
of my father living his values: free speech, racial equality, and justice for all.
When the church had a meeting to discuss my father’s actions he said to them:
“If you’re not going to let these kids use the mimeograph machine, then you are
going to have to stop letting the Boy Scouts and the Knights of Columbus borrow
it too. Fair is fair.” My father was standing his ground for free speech and
for equality.
You wonder how I turned out the way I
did? Just look at my parents. They taught me to stand up for what I believe, to
speak the truth even when it is unpopular. They taught me that everyone is a
beloved child of God no matter what the color of our skin or who they love or
where we were born. This is my legacy. My journey to adulthood was a journey
where my parents walked alongside me and taught me these values. My father died
in 1989. He is one of the saints in heaven now. But his values live on through
me and my sisters and now I am passing on those values to my children.
Today is the day on the Church calendar
that we celebrate as All Saint’s Day. Well technically it was Nov 1, but we celebrate
it on Nov 1, or the first Sunday after that. In the United Methodist Church we believe that all Christians
are saints. We are all part of a
spiritual union of those on earth and those in heaven called the communion of
saints. It is a mystical body. Christ is the head and we all contribute
something to the good for the welfare of everyone. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communion_of_saints). On all Saints Day, in particular, we
remember and give thanks for the saints in our lives who have died. We remember
what they taught us, and the blessings they brought to our lives.
As
some of you know from stories I have told, there were some tensions in my
relationship with my father, but there were also some wonderful things. For the
most part, I have let go of the negative, and I choose to focus on the
positive. I have forgiven him for his brokenness. On All Saints Day, I give
thanks for the part of my father that makes me who I am: his commitment to
inclusion, his willingness to stand up to the oppressor, and his desire for joy
for all people. These are things I live
in my life.
So
that brings me to our story from Joshua for today (for those following along on
the internet - Joshua 3:7-17
from The Message paraphrase). You see, the people of Israel had a tumultuous
relationship with God (putting it mildly). God promised them descendants and
land. God brought them out of slavery in Egypt. Remember? There was that
dramatic scene where Moses raised his staff and the waters parted and they were
saved from the Egyptian army.
But
then as they journeyed together through the wilderness, the people showed how
quickly they lost trust in God. They got hungry and asked to go back to Egypt
to be slaves rather than journey forward to the Promised Land that God had
promised. Then there was the time when Moses was up on the mountain talking to
God on their behalf and they formed a golden calf as an idol to worship. Just
like that, they forgot about God.
What
were these people teaching their children about God and about putting their
trust in the one Creator who gave them life and saved them from a life of
slavery? Somehow this whole generation forgot and lost their ability to love
God. I think it broke God’s heart. So God chose to have them wander in the
wilderness for 40 years – basically for an entire generation. They wandered
until those who had been slaves in Egypt had died and their children were the
ones on the journey with God.
Then,
God gave them a new leader, Joshua. And God said to Joshua: “Okay, now it’s
time. It is time to fulfill the promise. These are the descendants of Abraham
and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca. I want you to have the priests lead them. Take
the Ark of the Covenant.” (That was a big fancy chest holding the tablets with
the Ten Commandments.) “Lead them to the edge of the Jordan River. And when the
priests step to the edge of the water, the water will recede and you will be
able to cross.”
That
is just what happened. It was just like when they were saved from the
Egyptians, once again, the waters parted, and God’s people walked on dry land
in a river bed. They crossed over the River Jordan into the Promised Land, land
flowing with milk and honey. This would be their home.
Now
I have got to believe that the parents of that generation told their children:
Our God is mighty and wonderful. Our God keeps God’s promises and we will put
our trust in God. And so the relationship between God and God’s people was
restored for that generation and for generations to come. They were saints for
their children. They taught their children to trust God. We’re not going to complain, and whine and
moan. They were the Saints for their
children.
And
so the question for us today is this: what legacy are we giving our children?
Even if you do not have your own children biologically. We all have a
responsibility to the next generation, including James & Owen, newborn
twins who joined us today for the first time at the Village. We are on a
journey together. Are we living our lives in such a way, that people who see us
as role models, are seeing something that we want them to pattern their lives
after?
This
is what it means to be a follower of Jesus: to live like him so that others
will see Jesus in us and want to be more like him. When my father stood up for
young people and their right to free speech, he showed them, and the church
elders, that he valued free speech, and that he valued the voice of young
people. What do you think it would have done to those young people and their
view of God if the pastor had crumbled in the face of the church elders? Oh my,
that would have set back their faith in God. They would have seen a leader who
backed down to small mindedness. But instead they saw courage. And it didn’t need to just be a pastor, any
Christian who stands up is being Jesus.
What
values do people see in you? What values do you want people to see in you? When
you think about the saints of your life, what did they teach you? What did they
model for you? Are you living those values now, for other people in a public
way? Are you living them out in your community, in
your workplace, in your home?
Today,
we celebrate all saints day. A little later in the service, I will give you a
chance to come light a candle and give thanks for a saint in your life. As you
do, remember what your saints taught you, and ask God to give you the strength
to live out that value in the world. Let us all be saints for future
generations. Let us follow Jesus and change the world. Amen.
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