Three years from now our congregation will be on the threshold of its 200^th birthday.  We are one of the oldest continuing congregations west of the Ohio River, not counting a couple of churches in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico, and a few others in California founded by Roman Catholic Spaniards coming up from Mexico well before the Pilgrims set foot on Plymouth Rock.  Other than those, ours is about as old as Christian congregations get from here to the Pacific.

One of the dangers of being around for a long time is the tendency to go stale.  Open up a bag of potato chips and they really hit the spot if you are hungry.  But let that bag sit around opened a day or two and the chips get stale and lose their appeal.  That is unless you take a chip clip like the one I am holding and use it to keep the bag sealed tight.  Then you can expect the chips to remain as fresh a the day you opened them. Today we will be handing out these chip clips with our congregation’s theme for the next 12 months printed in "Aurora Green."

Since our theme is usually the title of our sermon on Rally Day, I thought I was being clever printing a decoy title, "Back to the Future," to maintain secrecy until the proper moment of unveiling.  But then I noticed that Patti Jaeger, our Church Secretary, went ahead and printed it on the back of our bulletin.  So I might as well confess that the actual title of our message, and our theme for the next 12 months, is "Respecting the Past, Envisioning the Future."

Like a chip clip that preserves freshness and protects against staleness, so respecting the past while envisioning the future can preserve and protect an historic congregation such as ours in terms of maintaining a well-balanced present.  The Church in Aurora maintains an amazing balance between old and new.  This stately edifice in which we worship is balanced by several modern additions (complete with plumbing and everything).  Our traditional style of worship is balanced by cutting edge programming in the Christian Education Department.  The ancient practice of preaching from God’s Holy Word is balanced by a web site where these very words will very shortly be archived for your downloading pleasure.

Some folks are challenged when it comes to respecting the past and envisioning the future.  The past includes traumatic memories that can be painful to remember.  Some take the attitude "What’s past is past and is better forgotten."  I have heard that attitude expressed about the Holocaust, for instance.  Others, like the Maltz Museum of Jewish History would counter, "Those who forget the past are bound to repeat it."  Some are equally concerned about so living for the future that living in the present is no longer possible.  Others would counter, "Those who fail to plan are planning to fail."

Once again we find that balance is the key to excess—balance between past and future in our present-day focus, and balance between too little and too much focus.  In our text for this morning we find a psalmist by the name of Asaph striking a balance between respecting the past and envisioning the future—between learning from the timeless spiritual truths handed down through generations from an ancient past, and preserving that sacred history for succeeding generations.

He writes: O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth.  I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old—what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us (Verses 1-3).  Here Asaph is referring to the ancient truths hidden in parables, proverbs and other poetic forms of language.  And why are such truths communicated in such figurative and imaginative ways?  Because that is the way God, in his wisdom, keeps truth fresh for each generation.  By causing us to struggle to find the truth hidden in the old stories, we discover it anew, claim it for ourselves and apply it to our present lives just as in days gone by.

But it is not enough to respect the past in this way.  It is not enough to learn the old, old story and uncover its hidden truths, or even to apply them to our lives.  To do these things we come to a church that was not built by our hands.  Somebody else’s hands built this church, just like somebody else took pains to preserve the old, old story and pass it on to us.  We must likewise preserve the timeless spiritual truths of the Bible for our succeeding generations, and that requires envisioning the future.

Asaph continues, We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done.  He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.  Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands (Verses 4-7).

When Toni Harris was thinking about applying for our Director of Christian Education position, she came to me and admitted that she had no specialized education or experience in the field.  But she did have a heart for children and a desire to share the Gospel with them.  She wanted me to explain to her, in simple terms, what the job required. I answered, "Tell them the story.  Tell them about David and the giant Goliath.  Tell them parables of Jesus.  Tell them about Saul and how he became Paul on the road to Damascus."

Toni said that she wanted to make learning fun—that she wanted our children to want to come to Church School.  I said that was a great goal.  She said that it might require doing some things differently.  I said that was probably needful.  She said that she would like to give the job a try, and I said, "Throw your hat into the ring."  She did, she got the job and she began to research what was working elsewhere.  She came across this cutting edge methodology called "The Rotational Method of Christian Education."

In short, Toni was envisioning the future of Christian Education.  She also instituted the Promise Land Drive-In and created a climate where another innovative program called "Godly Play" could get its start.  Guess what?  Our children like coming to church to hear the old, old story in fresh new ways.  This is one way we remain fresh and keep from getting stale as a congregation with a 200 year old history. T his is one illustration of how we go about respecting the past while envisioning the future.  This is one way we maintain our present balance as a Christian congregation.

But there are two ways we can lose our balance as a Christian congregation and that is by neglecting the past and/or future in our present.  When I was ordained into the Christian ministry, my mentor preached a message entitled, "Remember Who You Are."  At the time, I wondered why he was preaching that message on that occasion.  But later, after encountering enormous pressure to become something other than what God created me to be, I understood the wisdom in that message.

Churches can likewise be pressured to forget who they are and the special part God has given them to perform in the larger body of Christ.  Community Churches are particularly susceptible to movements designed to change them into something they are not and never have been.  Community churches tend to draw their congregants from a wide variety of religious backgrounds, unlike, say, the Catholic Church, or the Mennonite Church or the Southern Baptist Convention.  There are exceptions, of course, but the exceptions prove the rule.

Because the membership of a Catholic Church is more homogenous, there is a strong sense of who they are and what they are about.  Nobody would think of going into a Catholic Church and saying: "You know, I like this church.  I like its architecture and liturgy.  I like everything about it but this papal infallibility business.  Do you suppose we could vote on whether or not the pope should have any influence over us?"  Nobody would think of going into a Baptist Church and saying: "You know, I love this congregation.  All my friends go here.  But this baptism of adults by immersion bugs me.  It bugs me that my infant daughter can’t be baptized like I was when I was her age.  Could we take a vote to change that?

Nobody would think of suggesting such things in a Baptist or Catholic Church.  But people will come into a Community Church and say, "You know, I like this church.  It’s a beautiful church and the people are really great.  But this statement about following the Word of God according to the dictates of conscience really bugs me.  Can we have a vote on that? " By the way, that question has actually come up about this defining statement of our historical identity printed on most every bulletin and specifically recited by the congregation every time new members are received (a statement to which new members must give their verbal assent by the way).

Remember who you are and what you have been for the past 197+ years, back when you were the Aurora Congregational Church, back when your Pilgrim forbearers refused to follow the word of God according to the dictates of a pope, bishop, king or any human authority, back when Congregational Churches were owned by the congregation and not by a synod or presbytery or diocese, back when the congregation called and released its pastors, back when no denominational hierarchy imposed upon the local church any doctrinal pronouncements, creedal formulations, stances on social issues or thinly veiled political persuasions.

Now Community Churches are okay with Catholics having their pope, Orthodox having their patriarch, Methodists having their bishops, Presbyterians having their presbyteries, Fundamentalists have their fundamentals—all that is fine with us.  But it is not who we are or ever have been.  We are big on Christian freedom and Christian unity among the rich variety of religious expression within the body of Christ.  We are big on religious toleration.  We are big on agreeing to disagree agreeably.  Remember who you are.  Not to remember is a recipe for disaster—for misunderstanding, hurt feelings, contention and strife.

This is what respecting the past means for member churches of the International Council of Community Churches.  But what about envisioning the future?  If we were relevant in the days of the Pilgrims, are we still relevant today?  Are we still fresh, or have we grown stale?  Okay, maybe the other churches do not agree with one another or accept one another, but at least they stand for something.  If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything right?

First of all, this church stands for something.  As previously stated it stands for Christian freedom, Christian unity and Christian love.  Second, this church has been standing on these principles far longer than most churches in this land without falling.  Third, as we envision a future for this world that is presently so torn by religiously fueled hatred, bigotry and terrorism, I can think of no more relevant and needful spiritual message than that of the religious toleration we strive to embody.  As the world grows smaller and increasingly pluralistic, we offer a viable alternative to destroying each other over our differences.  We are proof positive that it is possible to agree to disagree agreeably.  We need to envision ways of sharing that relevant religious orientation with this world.  It is our obligation to the future.

Tomorrow is September 11, 2006.  Five years ago tomorrow morning the twin towers of the World Trade Center came crashing down, the Pentagon was severely damaged and a similar attack on the nation’s capitol was nearly averted by an uncommonly heroic intervention of common citizens.  One investment firm lost 67 employees in their Trade Center office.  Among the lost was the son of the CEO, John Duffy.  From the devastating loss of human resources, obliterated offices, and lingering survivor guilt and depression, the firm has not only come back stronger than it was before, it has raised more than 16 million dollars for the surviving families of those killed -- funds that are now paying insurance premiums and college bills.