Past Sermon

Sermon Title: "So Great A Cloud of Witnesses"
Date: August 19, 2007
Minister: Rev. Charles E. Ensley, Jr.

Lesson:  Hebrews 11:29-12:2

I almost did a cut-and-paste job on today’s epistle lesson before Asia read it.  The middle portion has some pretty gruesome stuff:  some first-century Christians “were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword…” (Heb. 11:37)  I’m thinking, at that point in the service our children are in to hear this; who of them in the future will want to be confirmed in the Christian faith if that were ahead for them?

Yet, strangely enough, our editorials and news stories in both the print and television media today echo those same fates:  torture . . . persecution . . . imprisonment . . . death.  It seems to be only bad news that is reported.  It isn’t that way in all the Old Testament.  Although bad news is fully represented, the Hebrews also have good news.  In today’s reading from the epistle to the Hebrews—now first-century, first-generation Christians—the writer has some good news.  Persons of faith from Israel’s history are presented as forerunners of Jesus and as examples of faithful living.  This is the memory of the people of God, shaped by an account of their previous experiences.  By faith these ancestors acted in response to horrendous evil, hopeless circumstances, heart-wrenching realities—all those things I wanted to sanitize out of the lesson and keep our children’s ears safe from hearing.

Yet the writer also included a who’s who of Old Testament persons of faith.  In last Sunday’s portion of the letter we read of Abraham and Sarah.  Today he speaks of Moses, Gideon, Samson, David, Samuel.  Yes, some of these witnesses to the faith were flawed characters.  Not all of God’s warriors are perfect.  But each made their contribution, each moved the body of faithful followers one step closer to the reign God wishes to have upon this earth. 

Our hymn reminded us:  “They lived not only in ages past, There are hundred of thousands still…”  Last Sunday, I spoke of the influence upon me in ninth grade of my confirmation teacher.  Already this morning I have spoken of the Rev. Milton Gabrielson, without whose faith and vision most of what we see around us and utilize today would not exist.

I would like to share with you stories of people of faith from our church whom we might include in that great cloud of witnesses. 

Not long after I came to Bay Shore Church over twenty years ago, I identified five families who have been active for fifty years or more:  the Fleeks, Hayters, Henrys, Watts, and Williams.  They are all dear friends, with similarly-aged children and grandchildren, now even great-grandchildren.  I chose to call these people the pillars of our church, all of whom stayed through up-times and down.  Members of each of these five pillar families served as moderators, commission chairs, Director of Christian Education Louise Henry , Sunday School teachers, Scoutmaster Al Watts, Mr. and Mrs. and Prime-Timers Club officers, Women’s Fellowship leaders, reception coordinators, dishwasher and punch maker (we named the new dishwasher Freddie II after Fred Fleek hand-washed dishes for decades!), cabinet cleaner-outers, and a host of other positions I do not know they filled because I was not here at the time—but I know they did them!  They inspire us all for the example and legacy they leave for our church’s past, its present, and its future.

Some members of these pillar families have spouses who have died:  Elmer Henry, Georgene and Morrie Hayter, Bill Williams and Fred Fleek.  Some are no longer able to worship with us every week or have moved away:  Al and Esther Watts, Louise Henry, Vera Fleek.  But those still living all continue to maintain a fierce dedication and closeness to this church that we do not always find in newer generations who join.

They are not the only ones who leave a legacy.  For years, Odette Gulley was treasurer of our church.  When she died in 1989, she left us a quarter interest in her apartment building two blocks down.  After it was sold, her will instructed us to use the proceeds “for building restoration, which may include the Youth Center and Sky Forest.”  We used her bequest over seven years to restore the sanctuary after a 1989 fire, reroof the Christian education wing and Concert Hall, refurbish the nursery and add a handcap-accessible and children’s restroom, and, finally, remodel a much larger room into what we dedicated as the Odette Gulley Library.

Another long-time member was Alice Titus, who died in 1992.  Alice was always concerned that the church be able to pay on-going general budget expenses, so she left us one-quarter of her estate, with the stipulation that it be invested for a period of ten years, and at least yearly the interest be put into the general budget.  Complying with her direction, the Board of Stewards continued beyond the stipulated ten years, to this day, putting the earnings of her bequest into the church budget.

Isolda McDonald died in 1998.  Like her friends Odette and Alice, she too was a faithful church member and regular worshipper and contributor.  She left the church the “residual” of her estate to be used for youth and the organ.  I learned that “residual” is a relative term, for after her specific bequests to individuals were made, the “residual” of her estate left to her church amounted to 70% of the total!  We completely gutted and remodeled the Youth Center and renamed it after this woman who had no children of her own, but understood them to be the future of this, or any, church.  We did the same for our Sky Forest Retreat Center, used by many youth in our church over the years.  We made the very visible movement of the principal ranks of organ pipes into these exposed chests in honor and memory of this long-time choir member.  And, nine years after her death, we still have portions of her money invested for the purposes she designated.

I do not wish to imply that you must be a person of means to be counted among that great cloud of witnesses who have gone before, for these were all committed persons of faith who were dedicated to this church, and what it stood for in our community, and in the lives of individuals.  By their presence and influence here in the past, we benefit not only from their largesse, but from the faithful lives they lived.  Like the persons listed in Hebrews today, they were not without their own failings or criticisms, yet we can still hold them up as examples.

John Buchanan of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago uses a metaphor for the “communion of saints” that he believes “ought to be told at least once a year.”  The metaphor originated with Southern Baptist preacher Carlyle Marney (1917-1978), who used the image of “balcony.”  Since we have a balcony, a favorite place to sit for some of our worshippers, perhaps we can relate to this metaphor.

“Marney used to say that your personhood, your personality, persona, is like a house, and it’s a fairly elaborate and complex structure.  Some are fancy.  Some are sophisticated.  Some are simple and functional.  Some are ostentatious.  Some are modest.  Each has a number of rooms:  a formal parlor for greeting guests, a family room, bedroom, kitchen.  Marney said each of us has in the structure of our persona a basement where the plumbing is [located] and the trash is stored.  NO need to spend your life down there, Marney used to say.  Everybody has a basement.  Come on up into the sunshine.  Sometimes we act as if the plumbing and trash bin are all there is to us, Marney observed.

“And if you come upstairs and step outside onto the lawn and look up, you will see that the house that is you has a spacious, gracious balcony.  There are people up there on your balcony.

“Marney was a Southerner, so his balcony was white wrought iron with wicker rocking chairs.  There are people in the rocking chairs on your balcony sipping iced tea or bourbon, depending on whether you are a Baptist or Presbyterian, Marney used to say.  The people on your balcony are the strong, positive influences in your life.  Your heroes and heroines.  Your models and mentors.  Your parents are probably up there ... your grandparents.  There are some folk up there you never met but they influenced and helped shape you and there are some really big names up there:  people whose lives inspired you from afar and called deeper faith out of you and courage and stamina and love and discipline.

“The people on your balcony are your saints.  The way to observe [that great cloud of witness by which we are surrounded] is to walk out onto your lawn, look up and greet them.  Call the roll.  Name them.  Wave to them.  Your saints—your dear ones—the great ones and small ones:  your mother and father maybe, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, your old coach, your piano teacher.”  (John M. Buchanan, “For All the Saints,” Chicago, Ill., November 2, 1997.)

These are the prophets, the saints, the mentors and models, the witnesses, the faithful who have gone before us, and in whose footsteps, in life and in this church and in our faith, we tread.  And, then, we become the prophets, saints, mentors and models others will follow in the faith.