Sacred Stones, Living Faith

Our scripture this morning comes from Paul's

letter to the church in Corinth, 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 3:6–11

chapter 3, verses 6 to 11. Let us listen now

for a word from God. Paul writes to the church

saying, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave

the growth. So neither the one who plants nor

the one who waters is anything, but only God

who gives the growth. The one who plants and

the one who waters have a common purpose, and

each will receive wages according to the labor

of each. For we are God's servants working together.

You are God's field, God's building. According

to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled

master builder, I laid a foundation, and someone

else is building on it. Each builder must choose

with care how to build on it, for no one, can

lay any foundation other than the one that has

been laid. And that foundation, friends, is Jesus

Christ. This is the word of God for the people

of God. Thanks be to God. Will you join me in

prayer? Let us pray. Gracious and loving God,

on this day that we set aside to say thank you,

We pray that by the work of your Spirit you would

set aside this time now. That through its working,

O God, you would take the words of my mouth and

the meditations of all of our hearts, O God,

and form them as a bridge from an ancient word

to our present living. We pray these things for

we know that with you and you alone they are

possible. For you and you alone, O God, are our

rock. and our Redeemer. Amen. I gave a state

-of -the -church type talk about a week and a

half ago, looking ahead to what is in front of

us here at First Prez for the next 12 or so months,

and I also looked back to share some highlights

from last year, this year that we have just turned

the calendar page on. One of the things I talked

about as a highlight was our chancel choir's

trip, many of the faces you see here who went

to Scotland for a 10 or so day tour. Now, I was

by far and away the least qualified to be a part

of this group. I have close to zero musical skill,

much less aptitude. And so I was struggling with

what my job, what my role could be on this trip.

And Marsha and Holt Andrews, our esteemed leaders

of the music ministry, they said, we know just

the job for you. They said, you, Alan, you will

be the page turner. Now, before then, I didn't

know about this role, but they assured me it

is one of the most prestigious roles you can

have in a choir. And the job works like this.

It's what it sounds like. My job was to sit next

to Marsha on the bench at the piano for each

of our concerts, and when she emphatically nodded

her head, I was to turn the page on the music.

It is a little bit of a mystery to me that since

returning, Marsha hasn't had much need for page

turners, but apparently over there, there's just,

you know, much more of a need. They were very

gracious. I love sitting at the bench and being

with our choir at each of those performances.

One of the things I noticed, though, by about

the second performance was at the top of almost

each of the pieces of music, by the title of

the score, there was often a word or phrase just

printed there off on its own. Some of these phrases

said things like, with great expression. Another

one said, joy and freedom. Another said, simple

dignity. One of them even was just a single word.

It said, movement. By about the second time,

I asked Marshall, what do these mean? And that's

when I learned the term expression marking. She

said, oftentimes in music, you have these markings,

and historically they have been in Italian, but

contemporary composers have started putting them

there in English, these words or phrases, and

their purpose is to help the musician understand

the ethos, the mood, the spirit with which they

are supposed to play the piece of music in front

of them. When we first started planning for...

and for all the different events around it. It

was decided very early on that we would call

this celebration Sacred Stones and Living Faith.

You've already heard us refer to some of this

or imply it, but the purpose of calling it that

was intentional because we wanted to make clear

that this is not just a celebration about a place,

about the bricks and mortars that make this sanctuary

possible that we're sitting in today, but rather

a celebration of the stories. of the ministry,

of the music, if you will, that this place makes

possible. Those of you who have been in worship

the last week have already heard two musically

themed sermons. You're going to get a third today.

Last Sunday, one of our youth, Wade Neely, preached

an outstanding sermon on the power of God in

music. And then on Ash Wednesday, Pastor Leslie

preached a sermon where she even brought the

flute into the pulpit with her. I'm going to

spare you that. You don't have to hear me attempt

that. But today, I was finding myself reflecting.

on each of those concerts and each of those expression

markings, and I began to wonder to myself, what

is the expression marking? What is the ethos

of our song here at First Press? It's interesting

to me, especially because I think Paul, Paul

seems to be wondering the exact same thing when

he writes to the Corinthians, right? He's writing

to a very young church here. This is literally

not just an early church, but the early church,

one of the handful of early churches. It's only

three or four years old at the time that he's

writing to them. So when he writes to them, they're

not thinking buildings or building campaigns.

They're just trying to figure out what it means

to be a community of disciples. What does it

look like to worship a God who was living and

dead and lives again? What does it look like

to let that gospel creep into our lives and actually

translate into how we go out into the world and

serve and love others? Those are the things they're

wrestling with. And word has reached Paul that

the ethos of this early church in Corinth is

off. They've missed some pretty important notes.

And in some cases, they've just flat out ignored

some important notes. We're not going to get

into all the details today, but suffice it to

say, the thing that troubles Paul the most are

these reports that seem to indicate that the

church in Corinth is going about the song of

the Christian faith in the wrong spirit. They

are not playing the song how Jesus Christ prescribed.

And so he writes to them, he says, remember,

remember church, some plant, some water, but

only God gives the growth. What I hear Paul doing

effectively in that verse is he's pointing them

to the expression marking on their piece of music.

He's pointing them to this place where I think

it must have read something like, with humble

trust. It gets me thinking about our own history

100 years ago here as a church. There's always

a temptation, a danger really, when churches

celebrate days like this to slip into this just

blanket applause for how great we are. Wow, look

at us. We did it. Look at all these other churches.

That's not the point, right? We have missed the

notes, ignored the notes even as much as the

next church. We have played the song wrong probably

about as much as we have played it right. We

are imperfect. We're broken. That's why we confess

our sin every single time we gather for worship.

But it is remarkable to me as I studied the history

of this place and looked back a hundred years

ago to when this space was dreamed up. It strikes

me the humility and the trust of those saints

who have come before us. Church member Frank

Lee put together a remarkable series of videos.

We're going to find a way to share them about

the history of the church. Truly, they are remarkably

well done. They could air on PBS. Incredible.

But one of the things that he talks about in

that history are the challenges. The challenges

that Dr. DuBose and the saints of the church

that he came to minister wrestled with when they

were dreaming up the possibility of a new place.

And even when they overcame those challenges

to then dream up this, this sanctuary can sit

about 1 ,000 people, at least 1926 people. I

didn't say that at the early service. I don't

know where that came from. Not just 1 ,000 people

in this sanctuary. They had a chapel that's now

been broken into a number of different spaces,

but a chapel that could seat about 280 people.

They approach this work with this humility, but

also this trust that if they just planted, and

if the disciples who came after were faithful

in water, and then God, well, God would give

growth. God would give growth to something like

this here today. And of course, that music plays

on. So friends, today we all turn the page. We

turn the page to our next hundred years of ministry

in this place. And my prayer is that those saints

a hundred years from now will look back on us

and they will say, here were people who were

humble, who were trusting, who were bold in their

love of Christ and in their love of one another.

But more than anything, I hope that they will

look back and say, here were people who were

rooted. and the knowledge that some plant and

some water, but it is God, it is God who always

gives the growth. Amen.