July 16, 2006: Happy Birthday to Us (117th)
Ephesians 1:3-10, Psalm 24

Eileen Parfrey, Springwater Presbyterian Church

Today is Springwater's birthday. The PNC gave me a copy of Springwater's centennial history at my first interview. As I stayed up late that night reading the long-ago stories, Springwater history came to life-big Sunday Schools, rebuilding after the fire, surviving the flu epidemic, characters who preached here, the youth group hearse, painting the belfry, adventures and tragedies, joy and grace, the sheer tenacity that has kept this church going for 117 years, more than a century, older than either today's birthday girl or her brother-in-law. We are merely the most recent in a long line of pilgrims, following the footsteps of those who came before.

But this is where metaphors fall apart. I wanted to say, "We're not blazing a new trail," but that's ridiculous. The church has never had to respond to the challenges that face today's church. Did you know that 24% of Oregonians say they don't have close friends? One quarter of Oregonians say they have no one to whom they can unburden their hearts. This isn't because we are the least-churched state in the nation. Americans in general think they have fewer friends than their parents did, fewer than even they themselves had five years ago. This, in the age of instant messaging, blogs, chatrooms, text messaging, cell phones with unlimited minutes and no roaming charges, where people hold hands with one person while chatting to another on their cell phone, where "the Great Divide" refers to the fact that some people have internet access and others do not. All the information and verbiage floating in cybersphere, people carrying their devices everywhere, afraid they might miss out on something, and still feeling isolated. The Information Age has become the Lack of Communication Age.

Ephesians today makes that great Calvinist claim-that we experience what God had planned for us since before the beginning of time. As if those three mothers in the faith who prevailed upon the neighborhood to organize a church to go with their little Sunday School were living into God's intention since forever. But could those women have imagined where we are now? Not likely, but they weren't supposed to. They, like us, were only supposed to take the journey themselves, not resign themselves to details God had worked out before they even had a voice in it. They simply accepted God's provision for the journey. Which is what we are called to do.

What kind of provision? The kind we can only learn from each other. And it's all learned. Like the folks who came out on the Oregon Trail, we've followed trails blazed by others, footsteps and tracks that lead us to where we are now. I grew up on stories told me by my grandmother, my maiden aunts, my father and mother, the kind of stories that were intended to help me know the kind of family I came from, slogans and mottoes easy enough to remember that they could encourage me even when they weren't around. We hear those old warhorse stories about how the church got started-both the ones in the Acts of the Apostles and those of Springwater's history-we hear those stories, and they provide something to draw on, something to give us strength and perspective, when the going gets tough.

Just as we have traveled in the footsteps of others to get to this place, we are the footsteps that others follow. If we don't leave footsteps, if we forget to teach what we value, what's important to us will be gone within a generation. This building, after 117-plus years of worship, nurture, celebration, could be storing antique tractor parts in twenty years, unless we are intentional about leaving footsteps for others. According to Ephesians, salvation was preordained by God since the beginning of time, but who's gonna know if the church keeps it a secret?

The role of the church is to create "place" for rest and healing. One of the ways we do this is by passing on the faith stories-what we call "nurture" in Biblish. Springwater accepted that charge in the Mission Statement we approved this spring. We are a fellowship of God-believers-gathering, worshiping, celebrating, nurturing, serving, reaching out. We're not just talking geography and built environment when we talk about church and "place." When a church provides "place" for rest and healing, geography and building do count, but relationships and intentions count even more.

Mary Kirby and I attended a class at the Franciscan Spiritual Center this week on art and healing. We saw photos of sculptures by a woman who worked out in clay her spiritual journey to wholeness. When viewed in succession, the sculptures depict a progression from violence and oppression, to acknowledgment of the anguish, and then a God pregnant with her, finally arriving at a Grandmother God surrounded by her beloved children, echoing Jesus' lament over Jerusalem: "How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings."

For Springwater, the intention to create a place for rest and healing predated me by a long shot. When I arrived, there was already a sign in fellowship hall that read, "Breast-feeding welcome here." Everyone who enters our sanctuary for the first time sighs, looks out the stained glass window and up to the paper cranes hanging from the ceiling saying, "This is so beautiful, so peaceful." More recently we have taken more ambitious steps with the creation and maintenance of a labyrinth and meditation gardens. We create "place" in our built environment, but more importantly through hospitality, through relationships-warmth to visitors and sitting with someone different during the potluck, praying for each other, offering and accepting help. When we explore faith questions and scripture together without judging. When we invite a friend to come to Worship with the Ramblers or to walk the labyrinth and process the experience over a cup of coffee.

We walk in the footsteps of others, but we are the footsteps others follow. If we don't leave footsteps-if we don't share the stories of how God has been present and faithful to us-how will those who follow after know how to travel? Sure, that means sharing with younger generations, telling them the old Springwater stories, the old Bible stories, our own stories. That is so important that God has commanded it since Deuteronomy. But kids aren't the only ones who need footsteps to follow. Remember that 24% of Oregonians without friends? Remember your "acquaintances"? They might benefit from being invited to this ready-made group of friends we call "church." Of course, that means you'd have to develop enough of a relationship to ask them. You might end up telling them a little about your own journey of faith. You might have to risk their "no." Or worse-their "yes"!

Our own story is the most precious gift we can give another, precious because it shares who we are. But it is also precious to those with whom we share, because it equips them for the surprising and unknown territory they most certainly will have to travel. It equips them, just as we were equipped by hearing and learning from the stories of our parents in the faith. Think what incredible advantages you have had because people cared to share their experiences with you. Do not neglect to pass on this gift to others. For God's sake. Sharing your story, passing on your history, and the history you have learned from others-it's a sacred trust, for God's sake.