October 24, 1999
Psalm 90
Matt 22:34-40

It's a very full day in our congregational life…new members have joined, an important Second Hour is about to take place. Phil's commissioning service is this afternoon. The long and loving life of Harland Hogue, a beloved friend of our congregation, will be celebrated at Orinda Community Church later today. And it is stewardship season…the time of year for us to reflect on our giving and our needs and of course, our mission and ministry. Next Sunday is Seminary Sunday and Bill Mc Kinney; will be preaching; the following Sunday, November 7, Phil Catalfo will join us for a special All Saints day Service; and the following Sunday is Pledge Sunday. So it's not only a full day, it's a full season and I am grateful for all that is taking place among us! I realize that today is just about the only day I have to talk with you seriously about our life and our future at FCCB. So that is what I want to do this morning.

Everyone has a favorite Psalm. Psalm 23 (The Lord is my Shepherd), Psalm 139 (Lord, Thou has searched me and known me), Psalm 121. (I will lift up my eyes unto the hills) I love the Psalms, even though I was forced to memorize at least a hundred of them in my childhood! All in the King James Version!

Psalm 90 is a particular favorite of mine. I memorized it on Sunday afternoons, after dinner, sitting on my Grandfather's lap in the living room. I can still feel the sunlight coming through the window on to the top of my head and Grandpa's hot breath on my hair. The Bible I am holding this morning is my grandfather's Bible. It was his favorite Psalm and was read at his funeral service in 1966. Years and years later, I read it at my mother's memorial service.

"Lord, thou has been our dwelling place…. in all generations." I heard how big God was in those verses. "You sweep us away, we are like a dream, like grass which is renewed in the morning, in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers"…. Even when I was small, I knew just how small I was, and how great was the power of God in all of life. I still get chills when I sing the first song in the Pilgrim Hymnal, which is taken from Psalm 90… "Time like an ever-rolling stream bears all of us away, we fly forgotten as a dream dies at the break of day."

This Psalm and the people I love who taught it to me have shaped and guided my life. I believe I am in the ministry and standing here this morning because those who trusted in the power of the Spirit and the love of God shaped my life. There was sense of the enormous power and love of God in my family. That strong belief shaped our home life, our religious life, our sense of work and vocation and all our relationships. My call to spirit and ministry comes to me as a gift, but oh, how fervently and hopefully my life was shaped and formed by those who loved me and believed in the power of God. My parents knew that if God could make mountains and form the earth and the world, then that God would watch over their family and care for their life, too.

Why I am here this morning? Because I believe in the bigness of God's love and the power of that love to exist through all the generations.

Why are we here this morning? Because we believe in the power and the love of God for us.

Last Thursday night our long range planning committee had an extraordinary experience that I wish to share with you. Katherine Fulton visited with us. She is a member of our congregation, and helps organizations throughout the world think about and live into the future. Katherine described for us the sense of urgency she feels about our congregation and our church. At one point she said to us, "does it matter whether FCCB is here in another 15 years?" Well, my first response was, of course, we are going to be here in fifteen years, we've been here for 125 years, what's another fifteen!?!

But then I started the think–the Baptist church, who shares space with us, worships in our Chapel, used to be huge and now is holding its own at 100 members; the Methodist Church across Durant Avenue was about 1800 members in the early 1950's and now has about 180 members and its sanctuary is permanently closed. Only First Presbyterian Church and our church, FCCB, have been able to maintain a strong ministry in the last 25 years. First Presbyterian is a thriving 1500 member evangelical congregation just about to begin a Capital Campaign. FCCB is thriving too, with about 700 members and a more "traditional liberal Protestant" mission and ministry. Today, we too, will hear from our architects about some new challenges regarding our building and our own dreams for our space.

Our mission is very different from that of First Presbyterian and this is how it should be. Every congregation here in the Sather Gate neighborhood has a different mission. I believe that we give strong witness to a radical, non-judging, inclusive Christianity, which welcomes and seeks to embrace diversity. Diversity of thought, diversity of faith and belief, which include questioners, seekers and doubters; diversity within our membership, which welcomes all sexual orientations, races and people of various economic backgrounds. FCCB has a powerful role to play as a church with a big heart in the heart of the city. Our witness is vitally important to the people of this city and beyond.

As our history book reminds us… "The Future is watching."

Our future is now.

Does it matter whether we are here in fifteen years?

You bet!

What is at stake today?

The very Bigness of God.

My friend David Ostendorf is the director of New Community, a faith-based community-organizing organization which tracks hate crimes around the country. He has written about a group of folks who have named themselves "Christian Identity." The group embraces a fundamentalism that is excluding of all "others." Others are people of color, especially blacks, who are deemed "subhuman." Gays and lesbians, according to Christian Identity, should be put to death. There are "Christian Identity" congregations all over the country and in California.

What is at stake today? Even this morning we read of the Ku Klux Klan marching in New York City and of Jerry Falwell's conditional acceptance of gays and lesbians–all around, people are still quarrelling with acceptance and in inclusion of the "other."

The Bigness of God, the generosity of God, the Life of God. We cannot allow narrow–minded, hateful thinking to co-opt our "Christian Identity"–or Jesus Christ's for that matter. When asked to describe "Christian Identity," I would hope that non-Christians and others would think of FCCB as descriptive of Jesus' life and God's love, rather than a group whose organizing principle is hatred and racism.

In 1964, shortly after the death of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King wrote "Why We Can't Wait," a book which called the people of this country into account for their tolerance of violence and hate in all walks of American life. He was a lonely voice crying in the wilderness of a country filled with violence and hate.

We are at another "Why We Can't Wait" moment. In this congregation, in this city and in our nation.

It's Stewardship Sunday so let me tell you why we can't wait and why I believe that our gifts, our tithes and our pledges are so important.

We strive to do the inclusive, redemptive liberating work of God in this place and our time. From our Open and Affirming Statement which welcomes and embraces gay, lesbian and all people, to our support of four high school students from war-ravaged Kosovo; from our Community Organizing Project to secure playing fields for Berkeley, to building houses in Tijuana–I believe this congregation embraces the Bigness of God and the redemptive, liberating God calls us to do for each other and in the world. We want to make a difference in the world, and we have 125 years of history and story to show that it has been this way since our beginning.

This is a huge moment in the life and times of this congregation. It is Big. As Margie Allen, our Stewardship Chair, has reminded us…34% of our giving comes from people in this congregation who are over 75 years old. It's time for us youngsters to examine our giving and pray over our pledges so that, when the future arrives, we will not have survived, but we will be thriving.

It took me until I was forty years old, ten years ago, to enjoy the gift of a tithe. My husband Don and I are both ministers. We both serve local congregations. We believe that the way we can show what matters in our life is by giving to the people, the places and the mission that shape our living. One time Don and I were discussing our different stewardship histories. I described to him my parents' and my grandparents' belief in a powerful, omnipotent God, and how that belief guided their giving. Don began to smile and told me that where he came from, things were pretty simple–"Cough it up, or die!"

It was pretty easy for us to come to an agreement about our giving!

God's love and grace shapes our life. We trust in God's big vision of love and justice for the world and in our life. We know that God is a generous God and we have placed our lives in the Big Body of God.

Do you know what it feels like to place your trust in the Bigness of a God who loves you? I think about Harland Hogue this morning. If he were here, he would be sitting down front with a hearing helper close to his ear. He was in his nineties and all bent over and used a walker to come to church. But the amazing thing about Harland is that he was still almost like a kid about worship. I got the feeling he sat on the edge of his seat and listened with an attitude of awe and wonder each Sunday morning. Harland taught homiletics at PSR, so he must have heard a zillion sermons, but he gave me upbeat, affirming comments every Sunday. Still coming to church, still longing for God in the life of the community, still able to experience awe and wonder and always able to contribute something good and of value to everyone he encountered. "Satisfy us in the morning with your love, make us glad all our days." It is so true about Harland, God's love in him was Big and he was big for us.

I look at our children every Sunday morning with hope and with a little bit of fear. I want each one of them to know how big and loving God is. I want them to live a life in the swale of God's amazing grace. I want this church to be growing new Harland Hogues; young middle-aged and old, strong and gracious, full of the Spirit, believers in love and justice, livers of faith.

I want this place to be here in fifteen years and in another 125 years. I want us to be a thriving Body of Believers, not merely a surviving body of limp Christians, merely hanging on.

It is to this time that you are asked to pledge your talents and your money. We can't wait. We don't have the time. The time to invest in our future is Now.

I return to Psalm 90.

"Let your work be made manifest to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of God rest upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands–O prosper the work of our hands!"

I pray and hope that we will.

Amen.