Celebrating Our Presbyterian Heritage

For them, God was real.
Their faith was important.
It informed their whole way of life.
Life outside of faith was no life.

Today, Presbyterian Churches are encouraged to give some consideration to our heritage.

As you may know, Presbyterians were among the earliest immigrants to America.
They settled up and down the east coast, and began to push westward into the American wilderness, founding congregations as early as the 1630s.

For the most part, these folks came from Scotland – some of whom stopped in Ireland first.
These folks from Scotland were a hardy lot – and they, as we might say, had been through the wars.

Maybe it is ingrained into their nature, but Scotsmen don’t like to be told to do things.
And when they heard about the teachings of this new Christianity that was being taught in Switzerland that seemed to empower individuals and their local congregations with unique authority – it was Katie, bar the door.

The Scotsmen resented England.
The Scotsmen resented Frenchmen.
The Scotsmen resented all attempts by the King of England to exert control over their local churches.
Their stubbornness and refusal to take orders from outside authority resulted in periodic excommunication of all the churches in Scotland by the pope.
(This would happen with some regularity through the years.)

The history of Britain and Scotland and their troubles with the church in Rome is the subject for another day, but by the time John Knox was born in Scotland around 1514, church troubles were brewing all around the countryside.

John Knox got caught in an early upheaval –
a demonstration by the common folks turned ugly when a group of them stormed a castle occupied by a bishop of Rome.

In the heat of the demonstration, the bishop was killed.
The demonstrators, for some reason, holed themselves up in the castle.
And there they were, kind of like the Alamo.
Isolated and out of touch with any outside suppliers of food and water.

The king appealed to his French family, and they came and stormed the castle in short order.

And this young Scottish firebrand, John Knox was taken prisoner.

As luck would have it, after a few years in captivity, he found himself in Geneva where he became a star pupil of John Calvin and observed first hand John Calvin’s vision of a theocratic government in the city of Geneva.

Through a series of improbable circumstances,
John Calvin found himself again in Scotland on a mission to rally the troops – the Christian churches of Scotland.

He almost singlehandedly organized them into an indigenous organization that would refuse to submit to outside authority.

Queen Mary was observed to say that of all the armies of Europe, she feared this one man, John Knox, more than any of them.

Because of the most profound theological understandings, John Knox argued, no earthly power could come between the Creator of the Universe, and Power of all that is,
the Great I Am of all that will be,
and the believer.
I gave them the same glory you gave me,
so that they may be one, just as you and I are one:
I in them and you in me, so that they may be completely one.

By 1560, all the congregations in Scotland became the Church of Scotland and organized itself according to a book of order that acknowledged God-granted power to individual believers and the collective body when they gathered.

The Scotsman and the Church of Scotland, the Presbyterians, became so focused, and were so dedicated that they gave the British fits for at least 200 years – some say, it still goes on after some 450 years!

By the time Presbyterians came to the new world they were so embedded with the ideas of individual self-worth and value, that much of the revolutionary ferment was endorsed and encouraged from the Presbyterian pulpits.

King George and others in parliament often referred to the American Revolution as the Presbyterian Rebellion.

It is not easy for us to understand what was going on in the sixteenth and seventeenth century in Scotland, England, and Europe.

Religious folk were engaged in very heady stuff.

Time and time again, people were seeing their religious beliefs as being more important than almost any thing else in their lives.

Time and time again, we see folks coming together to pledge their solidarity to one another because of their religious beliefs.

In 1560 this Scottish Confession of Faith was read to the Parliament of Scotland – line by line.

It is hard for us imagine such a thing, but in the end, all of the clan leaders,
all of the elected officials,
all of the church leaders,
adopted it and it became the basis for what was to become known as the Church of Scotland.

The adoption of this statement of beliefs by the government was taken very seriously.

Wars were fought to protect what they believed.
They were so empowered that they were never again to be subdued again in matters of faith.

People would rather be martyred than renege their faith statement.

For them, God was real.
Their faith was important.
It informed their whole way of life.
Life outside of faith was no life.

When I read this history, I wonder what happened?
I really don’t know if my faith is as strong as theirs.

I wonder if I would be so sure – as they were.
And yet, the history is there –
for us to read and ponder and wonder –
and provide inspiration.

Today's Gospel Lesson is part of a long prayer which Jesus prayed to the Father on the night before He died.
He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said ...

Father, I want everyone you have given me to be with me, wherever I am.
Then they will see the glory that you have given me, because you loved me before the world was created.
Then the love that you have for me will become part of them, and I will be one with them.
(Jn. 17:24,26).

Jesus' prayer is that we may become one with Him in His intimate union with the Father.
Jesus' prayer is that our intellectual assent to the existence of God be transformed into a deep personal experience of God.
Jesus' prayer is that our "I know there is a God"
be transformed into "I know God."

Jesus prayer is for us to know the Power of God's Love that is always working to transform darkness into light,
sorrow into joy,
turmoil into peace,
alienation into affection,
death into New Life.

I’ve told this story before – about being at the airport:
It was late afternoon and the main corridor was crowded with people going to and from their planes . . . .
Many were tired, and their faces reflected the tensions of a long day.
Tempers were edgy as they hurried along, trying to make connections or get to taxis.
An elderly woman, on her way to one of the gates, was being pushed along in a wheel-chair by one of the skycaps.
Suddenly, in a voice that boomed through the corridor, she cried out, "Good work, God!"
Nearly everyone within hearing distance turned toward the woman and saw that she was looking out the massive window lining one side of the corridor.
Their eyes followed her gaze and they saw a majestic sunset lighting up the sky.
And everything changed.
Smiles broke out on everyone’s faces.
Shoulders were squared and thrown back.
Steps were lighter.
The atmosphere of the entire place was transformed by the woman's observation:
"Good work, God!"

We can say "I know there is a God."
We can say "I know God."
We can even say, in response to a glorious sunset, "Good work, God!"

But if we are serious about wanting to become one with Christ in His intimate union with the Father,
if we are open to Him in this way,
surely we can almost hear Him saying,
"Move over everybody, I want to tell you more about God.
I want to tell you more about how pleased He was to bring you into being.
I want to tell you how He created each and every one of you in His own image and He saw that it was good."

If we are serious about wanting to become one with Christ, we must identify, heart and soul, with His ministry of reconciliation.
Without exception, we must relate to each other in a way that says,
"You are my brother in Christ;
you are my sister in Christ.
God created you in His own image and saw that it was good.
Good work, God!"

If we are serious about wanting to become one with Christ, we must relate to each other in a way that says, "I want to help bring out the best in you."

Robert Mitchum was asked on his thirtieth wedding anniversary, why his marriage had endured so long when those of so many of his show-business colleagues had failed.
Robert Mitchum answered, "Mutual forbearance. We have continued to believe that the other will do better tomorrow."

We know there is a God.
We know God.
We have experienced the Power of God's Love to bring out the best in us.
We know that by the forbearance and forgiveness of God,
we can do better today than we did yesterday.
We know that God is always working in our lives to bring out the best in us.
Good work, God!

Maybe you read about this eighty-eight-year-old woman, who went on a trip to Europe.
She said she "Wanted to have a last look around." When she returned home, she went to a seminary near her home and announced that she wanted to study Hebrew.
Now, Hebrew is kind of a tough language, and one of the Hebrew professors pointed out to her that she might not be capable of the tremendous effort it would take for a woman of her age to learn the Hebrew language.
She said, "Well, it's something I've been wanting to do for a long time. And now I know I've got to get at it quickly because I wish to be able to converse with the Creator in His native tongue."

Well, thank goodness, we don't need to learn Hebrew in order to converse with the Creator in His native tongue because God speaks to all of us in a universal language of love.

And that is the language we need to learn in order to converse with God in His native tongue.

And we need to converse with one another in the language of love if we are serious about becoming one with Christ in the ministry of calling forth the best from one another.

That’s what Presbyterians have been proclaiming for some 450 years.
That’s what this church has been proclaiming for over 85 years.
This informs everything we do here.
We are engaged in the ministry of calling forth the best from one another –
and the language we use is the language of love,
which, of course is a language not of words at all,
but a language of actions.

For in the end, if we are not feeding the hungry,
if we are not taking care of the infirm,
if we are not visiting the lonely,
if we are not making people whole,
if we are not meeting the needs of others, –
if we are not doing these things,
we have yet to get the truth of Jesus’ message and the Kingdom of God.

Again, we do these things not to gain favor with Jesus,
or to pass entrance exams into the Kingdom of God,
but because we get it –
we understand the message of Jesus –
we know our place in the universe and how we are so interconnected with others –
so that’s what we do.
It’s the Presbyterian way.
It’s the Christian way.
It’s Jesus’ way.
Let us again be known as people of the way.
Amen.

This sermon was a part of a worship service at Christ Presbyterian Church in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, USA, Sunday, May 29, 2011, by Clyde E. Griffith.