St. Andrew’s Pictou, January 15^th 2006

 

Where Past and Future Meet

 

1 Samuel 3:1-10

John 1:43-51

 

Every single moment of our lives is pivotal between our past and our future.

 

Every moment is like “a hinge” between the past and future: we swing from the past into the future: the past is the wall, the present is the hinge and the future is that door that swings on the hinge. It could swing wide open, partially open, or even slam shut.

 

It often looks like our future is totally determined by our past, but this is wrong. All we have to do to change the future is to exercise our power in the decision making process.

 

One of the most essential aspects of being human is that process of making choices along the way. Sometimes in retrospect, we might look at the past not being aware that a choice was to be made; we find that we were “asleep at the switch.”

 

Long ago, we find a moment when it looked like almost everyone was “asleep at the switch.”

 

The whole country was in a funk: “The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.”

 

Way back then, the spiritual pulse of the nation was flatline; they were “hibernating,” they were in a “maintenance mode,” not dead but not really going anywhere either. They were almost in the dark, but “the lamp of God had not yet gone out.”

 

The young boy Samuel was being mentored by the old priest and prophet, Eli. He was old, obese, going blind, and had lost the respect of many. He was lying down in his room.

 

Young Samuel was sleeping in the temple close to the ark of God.

 

Remember the text says that “The Word of the Lord was rare in those days;”

 

Three times the young Samuel heard a voice calling him, “Samuel! Samuel!” and three times he ran to Eli’s bed to find that Eli had not called him.

 

What was happening here was that God was trying to activate the hinge of the present in order to form the future; to raise the people from their slumber.

 

As the text said, “the lamp of God had not yet gone out” and the former greatness of the old man finally resurfaced and then he knew what was going on. He was able to perceive that the Lord was calling the boy and told Samuel, “Go lie down and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak Lord for your servant is listening.’”

 

The young boy Samuel had to learn how to be aware and listening for the Word of God so that he could take his place in the line of succession so that he would be able to replace Eli. We can see that Eli knew that the present was evolving into the future and he actively helped that transition to happen, even as he was sliding into the past, himself.

 

What we are talking about here is the call of God; God calling them (and us) forwards into the future, just as he was calling Eli to let go of his position and pass the mantle on to the new replacement. All this was to happen so that the new leader could lead the people into the future.

 

We have exactly the same scenario in the reading from John where (instead of God calling Samuel to the priesthood,) we have Jesus calling Phillip and Nathanael as disciples in his new church.

 

It seems from the text that Jesus had no difficulty in calling Philip. Jesus called and Philip responded without hesitation.

 

Nathanael was another case in point. Where we had old Eli having trouble understanding that God was calling Samuel, in the Gospel we have Nathanael with the hearing problem.

 

Philip was clear and concise as to what we going on. He told Nathanael clearly: “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

 

Philip tells Nathanael that he has found the Messiah, son of Joseph from Nazareth.

 

What does Nathanael say? He gives that typical negative, cynical come back: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

 

You hear the same comment today when you excitedly tell someone something and they say, “Can anything good come out of Pictou?” Can anything good come out of River John?”

 

Back then people would have thought that great things come out of Rome, like today it would be “Torono,” New York or Washington. Can anything good really come out of Pictou?

 

Gert Holton redid her Musical “Christie” for a performance here for the building fund: a story about a local Pictou girl who went on to be a world famous Broadway star. Gert wanted the price to be $5.00 so that everyone could come: even for a family it would be cheap.

 

I was shocked that not one parent in Pictou brought one child to show them what good and (even fantastically great) could come from a child of Pictou!

 

Nathanael needed to be greatly impressed. He was an unwilling participant in being called as Jesus’ disciple, but Philip said, “Come and see.”

 

As soon as Jesus saw Nathanael, he said, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!”

 

Nathanael was shocked that Jesus seemed to know his inner self; “Where did you get to know me?” he asked.

 

Using his divine gifts, Jesus shocks him again: “I saw you under the fig tree before Phillip called you.”

 

It is now a done deal; Nathanael was now “sold” on who Jesus is and he says, “Rabbi, you are the son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

 

In these two scriptures you have seen the recipe for church growth that works to this very day: people of known integrity invite others who follow, who do so because of the value they have for the people who are inviting them to participate.

 

We have three pivotal moments in these two readings where choices were made that advance the people of God and the disciples in the new church onward.

 

You, the people of St. Andrew’s Kirk will have another pivotal moment on February 12^th to listen to the voice of God in how this church can move on for the next 100 years.

 

We have a proposal to make changes at the back of the building that would include:

-accessibility to the lower level of our building for all people, (Elevator)

-a staircase that would be open and safe for people to move between church and hall,

-an accessible washroom facility, (Which we now do not posses)

-an attractive and inviting foyer to highlight the rest of our facility for multi-purpose use,

-a much needed additional meeting room for educational and small group use,

-all of this could be accomplished without diminishing the size of the space that we have now and would highlight the church in our community.

 

Over 110 years ago, you were asked to completely rebuild what you see around you; the entire thing: a building of beauty and quality that still serves us 110 years later. They did it “so well” in 1895 that it has done us well for all these years.

 

We are asking for a much smaller project in 2006.

 

We are at another pivotal moment in our history that could take our church forward.

 

What are the changes we going to make to take this church on for the next 110 years?

 

What are the needs for Christian ministry in Pictou today? How do we expand to meet the needs of the future? Those needs are different than they were 110 years ago. Are we listening to the voice of God in how we are going to continue the journey taking our church forward?

 

These five factors of improvement can be accomplished by enhancing our church ministry while maintaining the architectural integrity of the building: an amazing legacy that was passed on to us.

 

The future hinges on the choices we make at this present moment: to a great extent what we will choose at our annual meeting in February will determine our long term future.

 

May God bless us all and guide us in our discernment for his will in how we are to move into the future.

AMEN                      Rev. Alan Stewart