Deuteronomy 6:4-12{4} Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. {5} You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. {6} Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. {7} Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. {8} Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, {9} and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. {10} When the LORD your God has brought you into the land that he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you--a land with fine, large cities that you did not build, {11} houses filled with all sorts of goods that you did not fill, hewn cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant--and when you have eaten your fill, {12} take care that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
I Corinthians 12:4-13
{4} Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; {5} and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; {6} and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. {7} To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. {8} To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, {9} to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, {10} to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. {11} All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. {12} For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. {13} For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
The Sermon
In 1943, on November 7, a pebble was tossed into a pond, to see how far out the ripples could go, and how long they could last.
A commission appointed by what used to be the Presbytery of Wilmington met in the Carolina Beach Town Hall with 23 people who, in a service of worship, formally chartered the Carolina Beach Presbyterian Church.
As the ripples went out over the water, the decades following that day would see hundreds of faithful members join the church; the leadership of fourteen dedicated pastors (in fifteen pastorates or interim pastorates); the construction and then the expansion of the original building on Charlotte Avenue, and the manse, and in 1985, the building we’re in now.
The ripples would carry a tradition of Presbyterian ideals reflected in worship, mission, education, spiritual growth, evangelism, care for members, and community involvement, in the name of Jesus Christ,
all starting with that quiet splash on November 7, 1943. The last of those 23 charter members to take their place at the great banquet table was Mildred Bartlett, whose earthly ministry was completed in February of this year.
In seminary, they tell us that "the clergy are blind to the saints" (Carl Dudley)—that we relate to people who are active while we’re on board; but we don’t have a clue when it comes to knowing the ones whose names echo through the church hallways even when no one is around.
Since Mildred and the rest of the Class of ’43, there have been many saints of the church. You can see them in the photographs in the Fellowship Hall.
You see them smiling in the homes of church members, or around a table in the Fellowship Hall, or behind kids in choir robes or Christmas costumes in the two sanctuaries.
Some look out from behind a thin film of faded light, in pictures taken a generation ago, or two, or three, photographs that have yellowed, or faded, or deteriorated with the years.
Some of those smiling faces I still expect to see in church on a Sunday, or at the next family night supper; but I know they have gone on ahead of the rest of us.
In all the photographs—black and white, or faded colors, or as fresh as last week—if you lean in and listen closely, you can hear the Holy Spirit whispering: There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
Things seem to wither so quickly in this Information Age. The old typewritten bulletins aren’t really that old; even papers we have in the office on early computer print look like ancient history, but it was only 1995 or ’96.
The old files, old papers, trinkets from previous celebrations already appear historical, irrelevant to current life; interesting only for nostalgic or other purposes. The shelf life seems so short.
So it seems like the things we do right now can’t be destined to mean much a year from now, or two. In five years, today’s worship bulletin will also look quaintly "historical."
But the ripples continue quietly rolling on.
The mission that was given by God to those 23 is in your hands, and mine.
And the ripples go on.
Every once in a while, there's a big splash: a bunch of fantastic new members join the church; or a new program connects with a large number of people who were all thirsting for just that thing; or one of the great traditions of the local church—the Children’s Christmas Program, Vacation Bible School—has an exceptionally strong year.
And then, after a while, the new members have either settled in or, in our radically transitive society, have already moved on again within a couple of years.
The program that met so many needs when it was debuted eventually doesn’t require so many chairs to be set up around so many tables.
A month or two after that special event, the decorations have been taken down, and the photographs put into a file drawer somewhere, hopefully to be resurrected in time for the next Homecoming.
If it seems like a hopeless cycle, it’s only because our eyes aren’t trained to see the ripples.
Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
One generation to the next, year by year by year:
every phone call to someone who’s hurting; every invitation to serve on a committee or task force or work crew; every pledge card filled out; every Sunday morning when you make that mysteriously enormous sacrifice to come to worship with the brothers and sisters in Christ:
the ripples roll across the water, rolling out from that first pebble, November 7, 1943;
and from the early settlement of Christians in this area; and from John Knox and the Scottish Presbyterians in 1560; and from the churches of the New Testament; and from the teaching of Jesus Christ, and his healing, and his love, and his crucifixion, and his resurrection—
ripples moving endlessly outward, to cover the whole world with the love that we learned on the night that Jesus said, "Love one another, just as I have loved you."
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