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Welcome to Alachua First Presbyterian Church!
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Please join us for worship, Sundays at 10:30 a.m.
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First Presbyterian Church of Alachua
14623 NW 140th Street
Alachua, Florida Food 4 Kids - click here
(386) 462-1549
presfirst@hometc.com
Rev. Virginia McDaniel, Pastor
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This week's sermon...
Doing Hope
January 3, 2010 - Second Sunday after Christmas
First Presbyterian Church of Alachua
A Sermon by Paul McDaniel
READ: Romans 8:18-25
I want to share with you this morning some reflections on Christian hope. While there are many facets of Christian hope that can be fruitfully explored—indeed the German theologian Jürgen Moltmann wrote an entire book on the subject entitled The Theology of Hope—I want to limit my comments this morning to the operation of hope in the church and very specifically in the First Presbyterian Church of Alachua.
Let me begin by suggesting that there are three forms of hope that are present in each of us and in this church which are, in fact, false hopes. No one in our congregation that I know totally embraces one or more of these types of false hopes. But if my identification of them is accurate, I expect that each of us does hold or has held on to them in varying degrees and from time to time.
The first form of false hope is manifest in statements such as these: “I hope that we will conduct our worship service the way we used to.” “I hope that people will stop pushing for changes in the way we speak to and about God.” “I hope that the new minister will run the church the way Joyce Rimes or Les Hale or _______________ used to do.” Now these statements, of course, express the hope that First Presbyterian Church will stay the way it is or, even better, go back to what are remembered as better days. And I suspect that if we are completely honest, each of us has thought or does think this way at times. But this hope is a false hope. And the reason it is false is deceptively simple. Hope—Christian hope—is not about the past; it is about the future. As Moltmann writes: “The ‘God of hope’ is a God with ‘future as his essential nature’...” (p. 16).
And what can be the result of holding onto this hope that the past be reborn? The result is despair over the condition and future of the church and a corresponding cutting oneself off, an alienation, from the community of faith which has sustained so many of us for so many years. And these results are the opposite of those produced by Christian hope, the hope that saves.
There is a second kind of false hope and it is really the opposite of the first. This kind of hope is grounded in an idealized view of the church and presses for changes at First Presbyterian Church that will bring it closer to that ideal church. The hope then is that if I can just get the church to correct all the things I see wrong with it and adopt what I know will make it better, we can truly be God’s church in Alachua. This form of false hope is often held by young or new members, but it is not found exclusively there. I do recall my arrival back in Oklahoma City after I completed law school when we joined a large and highly successful church. I cringe with embarrassment as I recall the number and variety of pronouncements I made with respect to how that church should be changed and improved. Now while this form of hope does indeed look to the future, it is false because it is Utopian, because it takes insufficient account of the history, the collective memories of the congregation. So while the first false hope sacrifices the future by hoping in the past, this form of false hope sacrifices the future by an insufficient connection with the reality of how and why this church got to be where it is today.
And what can be the result of holding on to this kind of false hope? The result is frustration and a temptation to give up on the church because it will never change in the ways we know it must. But this too is the opposite result from Paul’s kind of saving hope.
There is a third kind of false hope. This is held by those with enough experience in First Presbyterian Church to know how to get things done. It is the hope that by the realistic use of authority and manipulation of the political economy of the church, the church will meet the needs of all. The hope is then grounded in realism; it recognizes that the church is just a form of social organization like any other and that the techniques employed there in terms of efficiency, financial controls, employee relationships and investments can and should be brought to bear in the church. This hope, too, is a false hope. It is false because in this church true authority does not come from this “realistic” understanding of how the church operates; it comes from realistically making possible the realization of the ideals of the church’s members.
And what can be the results of holding onto this form of hope? It is cynicism. For the path in moving from idealism to realism runs right through this destructive possibility. It was said of Paul Tillich that he helped an entire generation of Christian Americans move from a Utopian idealism to a faithful realism without stopping at cynicism. The hope in power and authority may lead us to stop just there, and cynicism is not the foundation of Christian hope.
We believe that biblical hope offers a better way. But we have to be careful. There is danger in breaking down false hopes. You remember the old saw: “Halitosis is better than no breath at all.” Or, more seriously, Rudyard Kipling’s warning that if you are to destroy a person’s beliefs—even if seen to be false—you must be prepared to replace them with something of value. Even false hopes give us something to lean on and we must be cautious as we remove those crutches.
We come to the question then: What is a biblical hope? I suggest it has two characteristics. First, biblical hope is paradoxical. Second, it involves hard work, substantial effort.
Biblical hope is paradoxical because in the situations I have outlined earlier, the source of hope is precisely in what is thought to be feared or condemned. That is to say that for those who hope for a return to a better past, our real hope is precisely in those who push us to change, who challenge our set ways, who insist that we consider the different. For it is a fact that if these newcomers, these disturbers, are not brought in and kept in our church, then First Presbyterian Church has no future at all and all that so many have done to make this a wonderful church will end. Or, for those of us who put our hope in change and challenge, our real hope is in those who embody the tradition of this church, who know its ways and how we got to where we are today. For without the benefit of that wisdom and experience our idealism will remain Utopian and our ideals will never be realized in First Presbyterian Church. And for those of us who seek to direct the church and have the technical skills to chart the course of the church, our hope is both in the idealists (who can help keep our works those of God) and in those holding the tradition who have themselves passed from idealism to realism in faith. So, the ones who we believe are the causes of our problems are in fact the ones who provide a real basis for hope in First Presbyterian Church.
What does “doing hope” involve? First of all, it involves an active commitment to those within this church in whom lie, if I am correct, our real hope for this church and our life in it. There are several aspects of this commitment: John the Baptist waited for the Messiah in hope. But if you will pardon the pun, if we do that kind of waiting and hoping, we can all lose our heads!
As some of you know, I am an avid Celtics fan. Part of the enjoyment of being a fan is reading the stories about the team and its members that appear in the newspaper. In stories about the championship series, I have been struck by two types of comments that players make. The most common is to the effect that “I hope the team plays well and wins the championship.” But a few will say something to the effect that “I want to be sure that I leave everything on the floor.” In other words, when the game ends, these players want to be sure they have no more to give. This is the type of active hope of which I speak so that when our time comes to leave this church—for whatever reason—we can say, “We had nothing left to give.” In my short time here I have seen a lot of hope being done in First Presbyterian Church: the personal and financial commitments to Food4Kids; faithful members who call on and remember in prayer those in our congregation who are housebound; the choir venturing into the perilous waters of multi-part harmony; the incredible arrangements that Rebecca brings to us each Sunday; the faithfulness of long-time members who keep on giving hope even under difficult circumstances. There is a lot of hope that is carried on here in First Presbyterian Church!
I am going to ask each of us to start doing some hope today. I am going to ask that each of us expect something from someone you may have given up on. There is a print in our house by Sister Mary Corita that depicts two masses of color linked together by these words of Gabriel Marcel:
· To love somebody is to expect something from him...
· Yes, paradoxical as it may seem, to expect is in some way to give; but the opposite is nonetheless true; no longer to expect is to strike with sterility the being from whom no more is expected...
· Everything looks as though we can only speak of hope where the interaction exists between the one who gives and the one who receives.
So I want those of you who are frustrated by the difficulty of getting change in First Presbyterian Church to look for one whom you believe is resistant to change and ask yourself if you have expected anything from that person recently. Have you asked this person for the benefit of skills or experience or knowledge of the church’s history and traditions? And I want to ask those of you who don’t want change to identify someone who is constantly pushing you to make changes you don’t think you want to make and ask yourself how long it has been since you asked that person for the benefit of his or her energy and enthusiasm and asked of yourself what you might have to contribute to help changes take place within the spirit and tradition of First Presbyterian Church. I guarantee you that if you will do this and follow up with concrete actions, your hope in First Presbyterian Church will be renewed.
Biblical hope then is giving and receiving, it is expecting and responding. Doing this kind of hope reveals the truth of Paul’s words: “We are saved by hope.” 1 cannot promise that if each of us does hope in this way, we no longer will experience despair, frustration or cynicism in First Presbyterian Church. But what I can promise is that now and again, there will be moments of such hope that it will seem as if we and the God who is the ground of all our hope are saying with one voice: “This is my church.”
A sermon preached at the First Presbyterian Church of Alachua
by the Rev. Virginia Ann McDaniel
Who we are...
We nourish spirits:
In addition to inspiring services every Sunday we offer several special services throughout the year… Thanksgiving eve, candlelight Christmas Eve, Maundy Thursday supper, Good Friday and others. Adult education takes place on Sundays before worship and Thursdays at noon.
We nourish our local community:
Following in the small town tradition of the church as community center, our buildings are used for Girl Scout meetings, support groups for Alzheimers Caregivers, Alcoholics Anonymous, and others. More importantly, we have been the catalyst for bringing together the community to help children in need through our Food4Kids program.
We nourish our wider community:
Whether through special offerings or as part of our annual budget, we support disaster relief and development projects around the world as well as providing food and clothing for needy families right here in Alachua.
We nourish bodies:
Of course, we could be the most loving and food-oriented community of faith you’ll find. In addition to delicious Fellowship Hour repasts each Sunday, we enjoy frequent luncheons and covered dish suppers, picnics, pie socials…and let’s not overlook the annual Easter egg toss!
Food 4 Kids of Alachua
Hunger and under-nutrition contribute to a number of negative health issues and can seriously impact a child's ability to learn.
Food 4 Kids of Alachua is a pilot program during 2008-2009, in partnership with Alachua Elementary School, to provide hungry children with food each weekend during the school year.
Every Friday, children who participate in the program will take a home a backpack on wheels with food for the children in that family. Every Monday they return the backpack to the school empty.
Contact Rev. McDaniel to learn how you can help.
Remember...
- You can sponsor one child for $6 a week
- You can sponsor a family for a contribution of $20 a week
What goes into a backpack:
- canned meat (tuna, chicken, etc.)
- canned pasta
- canned soup
- canned vegetables or beans
- milk (shelf-stable)
- juice boxes
- macaroni and cheese (boxed)
- pudding cups
- fruit cups
- peanut butter
- cereal (single-serving boxes)
- snack bars
- cheese or peanut butter crackers
Newsletter
JANUARY 2010
The Session has been considering how our church can best respond to the challenge laid down by the Office of Church Growth for individual congregations to reassess their commitment to transformational ministry.
Philip Lotspeich, national coordinator for the “New Church Development and Church Transformation Network” asserts that the future of the church will hinge on the ability of its current congregations to transform. “The Presbyterian Church must once again understand itself as ‘sent’ by God to do God’s mission in the world.” He continues, “We are not seeking to transform the church so that we can once again revel at our place in the culture, nor are we transforming so that our beloved institution will survive. We transform so that others might come to know the saving grace of Jesus Christ as we have.”
The Session believes there is a lot to be gained by committing to a year-long discernment process. Our goal is to break ground to prepare for a new season of fruitfulness. When we plant seeds or annuals in our gardens each spring, we first need to break up the soil that has been hardened through a winter of cold and rain. Applying this image to the church, it is a regular part of our seasonal “flow” that we need to break up what has become hardened and tired for new life to be born and to bear fruit.
At its December meeting, however, the Session decided that the whole congregation should be involved in the discernment process. It was determined that the best way to achieve this objective was to hold each “Gathering” session (as we are calling them) during the sermon time on the last Sunday of each month for the next year. (“The Word” will include all our individual words as we reflect together on scripture and what it means for us.)
Discussion materials will be provided to the congregation in advance of each Gathering. Pastor Ginny or one of the elders will lead the conversation. The first Gathering, on January 31, will look at John 15, “Bearing Fruit.”
The Session hopes that we will emerge from this process a stronger, more faithful congregation as we seek to do Christ’s work in our midst and in our community.
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