God is Still Speaking to Compton Heights Christian Church

This powerful sermon was preached by Ms. Kathy Mead, Co-Chair of the Elders of Compton Heights Christian Church (DOC).  A deep testament and call for us to listen to God in this time of our life and ministry. 

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 40: 27-31
Hebrews 11
Our brothers and sisters in the United Church of Christ have a wonderfully inspirational statement of faith. Have you seen the banner that’s in front of a lot of UCC churches?
It says “Never place a period where God has placed a comma” God is still speaking,
In Daniel Quinn’s novel “Ishmael”, a teacher is trying to make a point with his student
about the ongoing work of creation. Ishmael, the teacher, asks his student to explain
how the world came to be. The student goes through the formation of the seas, the
millennia passing, the appearance of life and its evolution and finishes with, “..and finally man appeared.”
“Is that it?” Ishmael asks his student. The student basically says yes. And then Ishmael,
says, “Alright, well let me tell you a story of my own”
Ishmael proceeds to tell a story that took place ½ a billon years ago, when an
anthropologist interviewed a jellyfish and asked the jellyfish to explain how the world
came to be, the jellyfish talks about the formation of the seas, the millennia passing, the
appearance of life, and its evolution and finishes his story with “…but finally, jellyfish
appeared.” Ishmael turns to his student and says “And why doesn’t your account of
creation end with the appearance of jellyfish?” The student is a bit flustered but he
answers, “Because there was more to come beyond jellyfish.”
Ishmael’s point is made, God’s work of creation continues, the student had put a period, where God had placed a comma.
I was baptized when I was 13 years old; actually right in this church, right in that
baptistery. And one thing I remember about that day after I came up out of the water was that I had a very real sense of a new beginning. In my classes in preparation for baptism, we had talked about how baptism was like being born anew, about God’s love and forgiveness, about turning over a new leaf.
And I remember thinking something along the lines of …:”okay, now I am starting with
a clean slate” – sort of like when Jesus gives absolution to the woman who was being
stoned – “go and sin no more”
I don’t remember exactly, but it was probably later that evening, certainly no later than
the next day, that I did something human – argued with my brother, smarted off to my
mom, ignored one of the little kids who wanted to tag along me …something… and I do
remember thinking “well, darn – I blew that.” My 13 year old faith, putting a period,
where God had placed a coma. Or perhaps, typing, “the End” when God was simply
starting a new paragraph.
This church and the people of this church have been an incredible blessing to me all
through my life. In this place, and with the guidance of so many teachers and pastors and friends I have been able to grow spiritually and to begin to understand that with God, there is always another chance, there is always forgiveness, that God is an active
participant in my life and in the life of this church, there is never a time when God is not talking to us. And that being human is expected, we are going to screw up, there are
going to be times of trial and tribulation and if we listen for God’s voice in our lives,
especially during times of adversity — God will lead us through.
When things get tough is when think the story is over, that God is done. When we give
up on God or we push God to the side, when we don’t let him in on our conversation.
In our reading from Hebrews, the writer reminded us of the faith of the Israelites, about
the people passing through the Red Sea as if it were dry land. But do you remember how the story goes on from there? The Israelites end up in the wilderness. God has called Moses up to the Mount Sinai and while Moses is gone, the people become fearful and anxious, and they give up on God, they want something tangible to worship, so Aaron takes the gold rings offered up by the people and forms them into a golden calf.
Ironically, while Aaron and the Israelites busy creating their own earthly symbols to
worship, Moses is on Mount Sinai and God is instructing him on how to worship. The
Israelites had stopped listening for God’s voice, they were scared and instead of turning
to God, they looked to their own resources and turned to something familiar, something
tangible.
Again in Hebrews, the writer reminds us of the story of Abraham and Sarah – “By faith
Abraham received the power of procreation, even though he was too old and Sarah was
barren”
Do you remember the rest of that story? God had come to Abram in a vision and said
“look toward the heaven and count the stars, …; so shall your descendents be.”
And yet, time passes Abram and Sarai have no children. Sarai is barren and proposes that Abram have a child with her slave Hagar. Abram agrees –
And yet when Abram now known as Abraham is 99 and Sarai, now known as Sarah, is 90 – God comes to them and fulfills his promise – Sarah, is pregnant with Abraham’s child, and through their son Isaac, God continues his convenant. Abraham and Sarah could not see any practical way that God’s promise was going to come true – they were getting old, she was barren – so they came up with their own plan. “Don’t worry God, we have this covered.” Instead of listening for God’s voice they looked to their own resources.
I was asked to preach today, because our church is facing some financially challenging
times. As many of you may know, we run at deficit each year – our expenses exceed our
income. We have been blessed by gifts from faithful members who have passed before
us Grace Denner, Marjorie Ford, Louise Snider, Ethel Payne. And through gifts from the estates of each of these faithful witnesses, we have been able to do the work of God in this place, with funds from these gifts making up the difference between our expenses and our income.
Over the years we had been slowly bridging the gap between our income and our
expenses but due to a combination of unexpected expenses and the economic down turn which affected the income of our members as well as our investments, we project we will have about a $35,000 deficit for 2013 and the money in savings dwindling. And so we are being asked to turn to God, to listen for God’s voice and discern what we are being called to do.
This is a place that this church is very familiar with. Compton has faced many
challenging times and we have come through to continue to do God’s work.
In 1896, two years after Compton Height Christian Church was formed, a tornado struck St. Louis and the church bldg was destroyed. The congregation was faced with a $5500 debt on building that no longer existed. By faith the congregation paid the debt and found a new church home at St. Vincent and California.
In 1925, the church had purchased the land here at Grand and Flora, the construction of the new building was blocked for 13 years while the courts deliberated on issues
regarding the church building and Flora Place restrictive covenants.
During that time, by faith, the congregation rented space at the Jewish Synagogue at the corner of Flad and Spring while the courts deliberated. It was during that time, that Rev. James Coil, the pastor of the church wrote: “We have discovered this past year that
nothing touching our earthly existence is absolutely secure. We cannot depend upon our money, our business, our health, our plans with absolute certainty. We have that
certainty that belongs to faith…It is faith alone that achieves. Despair is never creative.
Despair crushes. Civilization without faith would destroy itself.”
In the 1950’s and early 60’s when Compton began to lose members as people moved
from the City to the suburbs and many city churches were relocating to the suburbs to
follow their members, by faith Compton Heights made a conscious decision to stay in the City. In 1961, the then pastor Rev Hugh Wilson, wrote, “We can be a living
demonstration that Christian love can bind people of different backgrounds and interests together”
This community of faith has overcome our fears, turned to God and listened for his voice to see us though. And God has led us, not just through times of adversity, he has led us on some amazing adventures.
I remember at an Elders meeting when Paul Bardelmeier, a saint of this church, said he
had been praying and he felt that our church was being called by God to become an open and affirming congregation and after 3 years of prayer and study this congregation adopted our Open and Affirming statement, affirming that our ministry extends to all people, that we are God’s people of differing races, cultures, abilities, sexual orientations and stages of life and health.
God has asked us to do some crazy things. In 2004, our congregation discerned that we
were called by God to remove the accessibility barriers to our church and we embarked
on a $160,000 capital campaign. Not only did we make our church building handicap
accessible, we were able to pay off the $160,000 debt and within 5 years.
During the week of October 6th, you will be asked to participate in a small group meeting to prayerful consider how we move forward, what God is calling us to do. We are planning 5 small group meetings, each on a different day, so hopefully everyone who wants to participate will be able to find a meeting that will fit in with their schedule. If you feel called to help lead one of the small groups, each group will have two facilitators, please talk to Jacque, or our Moderator Leslie Latham or me. We will have a leader training session.
Over the next few weeks I challenge you to overcome your fears, listen for God’s voice
and ask, where are we being led, what is God calling us to do. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way at the beginning of Chapter 12. “Therefore, sincewe are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so   closely and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us”
The great cloud of witnesses did not end with Noah, or Abraham and Sarah, it didn’t end with Moses, or Samson or David. It didn’t end with Rev Coil or Rev. Wilson, it didn’t end with Grace Denner, or Marjorie Ford, or Louise Snider or Ethel Payne or Paul Bardelmeier – God is still speaking, we just need to listen.