A new chapter begins

Today was my first official day as the pastor of Mt. Carmel United Methodist Church in Henderson, NC. This wonderful little congregation was organized in 1857, and the church they built that year was the very church I preached in this morning. The patched-up hole where the pipe for the pot belly stove used to extend up to the chimney is still visible in the ceiling of the sanctuary. The original deed to the property still hangs on the wall next to the pulpit, listing the names of the 7 women and men who founded the church. (Interestingly, it was a part of the Granville Circuit of the Methodist Protestant Church back then, not the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. I would love to know more of the history of that.)

I have no doubt that the same loving spirit the folks showed Emily and me today was the spirit that has passed down from the original 7 members. They fed us at a 'Dinner on the Grounds' following worship until I thought they were going to have to roll me out to the car.

I went off lectionary this morning to preach on the renewal of the Covenant at Shechem in Joshua 24. The reason for that had to do with story and what it means as the primary constituting factor in our lives and our faith. What strikes me about this chapter is that, when Joshua prepared the people to renew their covenant with God, he didn't start off by telling them what an all-powerful and almighty God they had who would strike them down if they went astray. Such an approach would only cause Israel to cower in fear at the power of a distant and frightening deity.

Instead, Joshua retold them their story with this God, beginning with Abraham and going right down to that very day. Joshua reasoned with the people, reminding them that God had saved them from the Egyptians, led them through the Wilderness, and carried them into the Promised Land - where they were given cities that they did not build and vineyards that they did not plant. They were called to respond to this God in faithfulness because of their history with this God - the story of their lives and the lives of their ancestors sustained through good times and bad by this God. This is a kind of prophetic leadership that happens all over the Bible, from Moses in Deuteronomy to Stephen in Acts. Here, of course, it climaxes when Joshua utters the famous words, "Choose this day who you will serve ... But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

The passage from Joshua kept coming back to my mind after Emily and I went with the district superintendent up to Henderson to meet with the P/PR Committee at the church in June. When our D.S., Gray Southern, asked the members of the committee to talk to us a little bit about the church's life and hopes for the future, they came back and kept sharing bits of their story with us. It was a story of a people whose faith had sustained them for over 150 years, expressing a deep desire to live in covenant faithfulness with God here in the present. I don't know that there is anything more awe-inspiring on this earth than that.

So I went home, worked at the Duke Youth Academy during June, and thought about Joshua and Mt. Carmel. It seemed like they were giving me the answer the Israelites gave to Joshua - they were wanting to renew their faith and follow God. This is something Emily and I deeply want for our own lives as well, such that I felt like the desire of this prospective new congregation was the deepest desire of my own heart as well. As I meditated on what my first sermon would be, I kept connecting Joshua 24 with 1 Peter 2 in my mind, where we are told that whereas once we were no people, now we are God's people.

And why? Because God has written us into the story. We have been claimed, and we have been redeemed. The stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, and we have all been incorporated as living stones into that great spiritual house that God is building. Thanks be to Jesus Christ for his indescribable gift.

So the sermon pretty much wrote itself. And preaching it before that congregation this morning, I was filled with a great joy.

For Emily and me, the story continues. The same is true for the congregation at Mt. Carmel. But at least for this present chapter, our stories will be written together. May God grant us all faith.