This post, by Doreen Raymer, is a reflection on the “God’s Faithfulness (Even When Things Go Wonky)” sermon as part of the “Unraveled” sermon series.
Jeremiah urged his people to forget the past in favour of committing to today. He wrote: Have children, make gardens, put your energies into building up the place you are in today (Jer. 29:5–7). I sensed that Elaine was bidding us to stop dwelling on Walmer’s past and instead concentrate on making something of what faces us today.
I have recently been purging my files, many of which are related to the memories we sought from Walmer members and former members as we prepared to celebrate our 100th year as a church back in the early 1990s. These members and former members recalled some amazing years. They recalled our sanctuary filled on Sunday mornings, standing-room-only Sunday evenings, a succession of superb musicians serving us as organists and choirmasters, and Walmer with the money and desire to support a number of missionaries sent out from our membership.
Looking back may inspire us, but it may also leave us feeling inadequate, or like failures because of our inability to be self-sufficient, let alone support others. Feeling like this may result in us standing still instead of moving forward as a church.
In today’s sermon I heard the suggestion that it is time to concentrate on today. It is time to focus on today’s culture, today’s attitudes, and today’s choices. In concentrating on today, maybe we’ll discover that our cultural value of self-sufficiency has resulted in an increased population of people struggling with mental illness. We may realize our potential effectiveness in entering people’s lives in a personal way, giving them a message of love and hope. Our message is from the past – thousands of years in the past – but it hasn’t outgrown its relevance. The problem isn’t that the message is from the past. The question is how we share that message today.