Between History and Hope

The Rev. Neale L. Miller

Sermon for April 20, 2008

Texts: Psalm 31:1-5,15-16/John 14:1-14

Title: “Between History and Hope”

“Between history and hope.” The title for this sermon is borrowed from a little book Anne and Robert Gowdy, former members of this church, prepared on the occasion of the church’s seventy-fifth anniversary. In the forward to the book they write, “It is appropriate that as we celebrate an anniversary we should pause to recall our time spent in the Lord’s work in this place. As we plan for the future and look for the leading of the Holy Spirit, we at Lakeview find ourselves truly “between history and hope.”

There is something about special occasions such as anniversaries or other such milestones that inspire our profounder insights and eloquence. Jim Collier, Lakeview’s pastor at the time of Lakeview’s seventy-fifth anniversary, did not disappoint. Jim composed the following “call to worship” to open the August 30, 1987 anniversary service: “As a people we remember the past, live in the present, and hope for the future. [Continuing]Those who live only in the past inhabit a futile world of nostalgia; those who exist solely in the present lead an empty existence; those who dwell in future possibilities alone are deceived by fantasy. As God’s people, we are charged with the responsibility to live in the present, enriching our existence with a full sense of our history and of our hope.”

Let’s isolate that last line for just a minute, “As God’s people we are charged with the responsibility to live in the present, enriching our existence with a full sense of our history and of our hope.” Thanks to Anne and Bob Gowdy the Lakeview congregation of 1987 had a wonderful resource to access this church’s history. With the Gowdy’s help, let’s take a brief trip down memory lane.

This church was effectively started on what the Gowdy’s note as a “cold, disagreeably Sunday, November 12, 1911, in the home of attorney William A. Porteous, 6745 West End Boulevard. [The house still stands.] Though the church would not be chartered until 1912, among the twenty people who gathered in the Porteous home in November, 1911 was a visionary, or visionaries, whose intent it was to establish a Presbyterian presence in a newly forming Lakeview community busily establishing itself on the northern tier of New Orleans.

Almost one year to the day of the meeting in William Porteous’ home, November 10, 1912, “an overflow crowd estimated at eight hundred to one thousand people were present for the dedication” of the first church the congregation would call home. That church, at the corner of Polk and Catina streets, currently serving as a Christian Science meeting place was constructed at a cost of $5000, the land purchased earlier for $1000, with a $333.33 down payment.

In identifying the period of time from the church’s founding in 1911 to 1920, the Gowdy’s chose the title, “Tentative Beginnings at Lakeview.” Tentative those beginnings were. The church was no “If you build it, they will come,” enterprise, but a congregation very much seeking to establish itself under pastoral leadership, the tenure of neither of the first three ministers to serve the church exceeding three years.

If 1911-20 could be termed “tentative beginnings,” the “tentative” label would still apply in the period 1920-30, a period the Gowdy’s chose to entitle “Getting Reorganized.” How Presbyterian. When we Presbyterians are struggling, what do we do? We reorganize. The reorganizing occurred under the leadership of no less than six, mostly part-time, ministers. Reorganizing would include authorizing a loan to raise the building to two stories. The building fund was set at $4,350, with “pledges coming in slowly,” we are told. An annual budget of only $605, “it was still necessary for the Presbytery to help support the minister’s salary.”

So what did the decade 1930-1940 bring? Having concluded the period of “Getting Reorganized,” Lakeview entered a period the Gowdys label “Searching for Continuity.” After the previous reorganizing, we can well image that continuity would be highly valued. Continuity was not easily had for anyone made vulnerable by the Great Depression of 1929. This church struggled throughout the thirties, the pulpit occupied by two ministerial students and four part-time ministers over the course of the decade. As the ministry entered its fourth decade nothing was certain around Lakeview Presbyterian Church except uncertainty.

There were, however, signs of hope on the horizon. The Gowdys quote a document from the 1930’s, “Our church in common with most churches suffered greatly by reason of the depression but with the coming of an experienced resident, married minister, with a wife who is like an associate minister, the work and worship in our church has looked up in a pronounced way. By the blessing of the Lord, the cooperation of the people and the Home Mission Committee, we have had the joy of seeing the church attendance and church membership doubled within the past two years and today we are very confident that the same will double again in less than two years.”

The lively spirit attested to as the thirties closed opened a period, 1940-1950, of “Consolidating Gains.” Even as gains were consolidated, the session of the church received a letter from the presbytery asking the session to PLEASE [capital letters] become self-supporting. This goal, the Gowdy’s write was not attained for several years. Things were looking up, however, for Lakeview would benefit from continuity in church leadership, the Reverend F. Ray Riddle, Jr., serving from 1943-1960. Incidentally, the longest serving Lakeview pastor.

The era of “Consolidating Gains,” would become an era, 1950-1960, of “Building and Growing.” The education building was dedicated on February 1, 1951. Membership was 250, with; get this, average attendance in Sunday School of 100. Worshiping with old pews and folding chairs in what is today Fellowship Hall---no air conditioning. It was during the mid fifties that a sanctuary was envisioned, that vision becoming a reality with the dedication of this sanctuary on May 22, 1960.

Ray Riddle having concluded his ministry in 1960---building programs have a way of concluding ministries---the Lakeview congregation entered a period the Gowdy’s refer to a “Serving in a time of change,” an appropriate enough title considering the decade 1960-1970 would be consumed by Viet Nam, Civil Rights, and to top it off Hurricane Betsy which blew through in 1965.

If the rapid change and upheaval experienced in the decade of the sixties disturbed our nation’s peace, the decade of the seventies saw the nation attempt to reclaim it. This was an era at Lakeview the Gowdys label, “Families in Fellowship.” The lively tandem of Pastor Rich Boyd and Pastor Dan Wilkers, served a congregation bustling with energy.

The decade of the eighties, the last decade covered by the Gowdys, saw a congregation “shaping our future” under Jim Collier’s leadership. Consistent with that title, the Gowdys concluded their narrative with these thoughts, “There are certainly more chapters to our story, but they have not yet been told. It is at this point that we at Lakeview pause, celebrate, and give glory to God in whom we find our hope.

“Between history and hope.” Many of us have contributed, and will continue to contribute to those unwritten chapters to which the Gowdys alluded. Considering the early uncertain history of our church, to claim that we are living through the most challenging period in the history of our church---as I have frequently done--- might be off the mark, but only slightly so.

On this date in 2008 we find ourselves with facilities, church and weekday school that are really improved and more functional versions of the facilities we had before the storm. Moreover, we incurred no indebtedness in the restoration of our facilities, and we still have money in the bank, though substantially less than we had before the storm. We are meeting our budget, however, are able to do so only because my salary, Amelie’s, and Dale Davis’ are being paid by funds from the national church for the rest of this year, and likely the next.

Life is lived between history and hope. I have offered a very brief sketch of history as it relates to this church, but what about the hope part? Hope, of course, is a staple in the Christian diet. And why is that so? Simply because the God who created us is a God of hope, a God who through the Scriptures teaches us to live in hope, came to earth in human flesh to himself embody the hope to which we have been taught to aspire. The hope he embodies is summarized in the last extraordinary verse in the lesson I earlier read. “If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do.”

But first some brief background that led to that statement. We know that the disciples were very undone by any suggestion on Jesus’ part that his days on earth were coming to an end, and for good reason. Crudely put, Jesus was their meal ticket. So long as Jesus was around he could do the heavy lifting. If they got in a jam, of failed to measure up, Jesus would bail them out. Can you imagine Jesus firing anyone or cutting someone loose? Neither could they. They enjoyed job security, and all the perks that came with associating with the healer, teacher, and preacher who was guaranteed to draw large crowds wherever he went. No, it wasn’t all a bed of roses. They knew that Jesus had his enemies, and by extension they had the same enemies, but he had clearly proven to be the match for his enemies.

Picture the scene. Jesus has told the disciples that he will soon be moving on. Look into the eyes of Peter, James, Philip, and Thomas. What do you see? That’s exactly what Jesus saw. “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.” Belief is easy to muster when the evidence supporting belief is standing right in front of you. But Jesus wouldn’t be standing there long. What then? What, indeed?

To what, or to whom, would the disciples turn? The disciples made a decision for faith. “Faith [the author of the book wrote] is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith was the platform upon which the disciples’ hope for the future must rest. Faith, Jesus assured them, made literally anything possible. “If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”

If life is truly lived between history and hope, the disciples had the history part down, history representing the traditions of Israel in which they and Jesus had been nurtured, but they could also draw upon their history with Jesus in anchoring their lives. What, however, would be their source of hope after Jesus left? We must conclude that after Jesus’ left his disciples were able to find hope somewhere. How else to explain the confidence that saw them lay the foundation for a movement that has reached to every corner of the globe, enlisting literally billions of people.

We share in the history that has seen Christianity grow and flourish, we share in the hope that sustains the growth and vitality of Christianity. Most of us also share in the history of this particular Christian community, a history I so briefly reviewed.

It took a great deal of effort from some committed people to get this ministry off the ground. It took the continuing support of the greater church, represented by the presbytery, to make this church viable through some very rocky beginnings.

It has taken a great deal of effort from some very committed people in the storm’s wake, to restore this ministry to what it is today, yet we remain vulnerable. As things stand right now we are only viable so long as the greater church supports us, and after that support ends, viable as long as our diminished reserves hold out. Considering salary support received, pension dues waivers, financial assistance from the denomination to rebuild church and day school, and the numerous contributions made by individual churches and individuals across the church, I doubt that there is a single congregation in the history of the Presbyterian Church (USA) that has been as heavily subsidized as we have been.

Hope. What can we hope for right now? Friends, that will not be decided in Louisville at our national church offices, or in Baton Rouge, in the offices of the presbytery. What we can hope for will be decided by those of us in this sanctuary right now, and those persons who are not here today but who can be counted on to support this ministry with time, talent and treasure.

I would suspect that what you hope for is what I hope for. I hope for people to fill all these empty seats. I hope for children in such numbers that we have to remove a row of chairs to accommodate them when we call them up front. I hope for a choir so large that we have to at last do the long discussed choir loft remodel we have talked about to accommodate it. I hope for a budget large enough to bring on more staff. I hope for signs of life in outreach into the community, and mission efforts that make a difference. I hope that this church can become a place to which people will want to come so fervently that they willingly forsake Sunday football and soccer games, birthday parties, mardi gras parades, and festivals in order to be here.

But, then, what does it matter what I hope? What does it matter what I hope if my hope is not supported by a vision that can turn my hopes into reality? What does it matter what I hope if I lack the faith to believe that God is a God of unlimited possibilities, a God of unlimited hope? It doesn’t matter at all, if the hope that sustains me isn’t grounded in a vision that truly inspires me.

Many of us have come to the realization that we at Lakeview lack a compelling vision for ministry, that our mission remains undefined. Some of you look to me, the session, to provide those things. We are equipped to do some of that, but the session and I are not the custodians of the hopes of the entire congregation, nor are we the congregation’s designated visionaries. We need the help of each of you, and we have set aside time today after worship today to investigate the hopes and visions we collectively bring here.

If it is true that life is lived between history and hope, hope can only be realized if there is some vision upon which hope is grounded. One insightful person observed that “a sailor without a destination cannot hope for favorable wind.” You and I, with a substantial portion of God’s help, can and will identify that destination, that vision, but only in making a concerted effort to do it. Today, friends, is perfect day to take up that work. AMEN

PRAYER

O God, our counselor, source of wisdom and truth, guide our feet in the ways of wisdom and truth. You know, and we know, that other voices beckon us, voices to tempt us, voices to control us, voices to enslave us. We hear the voices offering their false promises that life will be so much better, so much more complete, if we would only indulge ourselves. Prone to stumble, O Lord, grant us wisdom to see reality for what it is, and not as the distorted lens of the world’s values would present it.

Lord, life is lived between history and hope. This day we are privileged to live is lived against a backdrop, a history, that has shaped and molded our perception of the world. We participate in the history of the Lakeview Presbyterian faith community, but also in the history of salvation datable to Abraham the great Jewish patriarch. We are shaped and molded by our history, but through the actions we take and the decisions we make we are creating history, a legacy we will pass on to others.

O God, may the legacy we leave be one to which future generations in this church look for direction and encouragement. Even as we accept responsibility for the future of this ministry, we do so, O God, knowing that the hope that will sustain us amid the challenges we shall face in our ministry has its origins in you. You place hope on our hearts, and guide us to the vision that will realize it. Open our minds and hearts to the wonders you are prepared to accomplish through us.

Lord, grant peace to those who find no peace, the stressed, the lonely, the over worked, and all those who struggle to meet the mundane challenges of life. In your mercy strengthen those who are battling addiction. Abide with those who are being mentally or physically abused. Support those who are unprepared to make major life decisions, who pass their days in aimless and unfruitful toil that offers no satisfaction.

We pray for Christian unity as the pope concludes his visit in our country. May the suspicion and animosity that has marked so much of the history of the church yield to the vision that Christ created for the church, a vision of oneness, where word and sacrament shape our common Christian identity.

We pray for those who live in peril today, those threatened by guns and terrorist devices, those who lack sufficient food to sustain themselves, and those who face threats as a result of their religious beliefs. We pray for those who patrol our city streets and fight fires. We pray for those who monitor our nation’s borders and shipping. We pray for those engaged in covert intelligence gathering, and those who serve in our nation’s embassies in hostile lands.

O Lord, we lift up once again the candidates for the presidency. A grueling schedule to maintain, their every word or gesture examined, and every detail of their lives placed under the microscope, the candidates press on. Grant them fortitude and stamina, O God, and good humor, as they continue their quest.

Abide, Father, with each one who has come here to worship today. May your Spirit reveal new possibilities to those whose faith has grown cold or lapsed. Be with those struggling to believe, those who feel you have abandoned them.

O Lord, bestow your special blessings on those who have particular needs. We pray for…

Hear our prayers, O God, both those spoken, but also those yet to put into words, for we pray in the confidence Jesus gives us.…