Read this section of Paul and it almost seems like he's a geologist. It seems to ring with images of tectonic plates shifting, landscape being rearranged and reformed, the earth changing and transforming itself. Go to the Morton Arboretum and you can read about the ice ages that shaped Illinois and deposited rich soil on the northern plains. And we tend to look at that history and presume it all occurred to bring us to this point, today, and to the world we enjoy. But if past is prelude and that past brought us here, we are living in the past for someone else's future. I think that's what Paul is saying. Creation is still in progress. It's not finished. It hasn't yet reached the fulfillment for which God is aiming, and it's still yearning, hoping for what is still to be. And then he goes on to suggest that even we ourselves have this same sense of incompleteness. We're not yet all that God means us to be either. And you hear Paul, in this passage, kind of being a cheer leader for us...to strive forward, to keep going, to look at the larger picture and see what's out ahead. After all, we don't hope for what is already seen, he says. Hope is about striving forward.
Well, with that as prelude, I'd like to pick up a bit from where I left off last week...talking about intergenerational perceptions...and misperceptions...
Some years back on Saturday Night Live there was a Dana Carvey skit, the Grumpy Old Man. He talked about walking twelve miles to school, up hill, both ways. And we liked it! He talked about when no one paid for anything on credit. We put our money in sox, and paid cash...musty smelling bills. And we liked it!
And the irony about that illustration is that no one under 20 is probably even going to have an experience of that reference...which is part of my point. We're so generationally bounded by the culture as we experienced it...even to the point that perhaps we believe, in our ego-centeredness, that this our time and this is the end point! And all that geology that went before was preparation for our world now.
I thought of that when I ran across this description...
The seminar inviting people to take a look at the generational perceptions began by referring to a resource called Death of the Church. In it adults in their 20's and 30's are described as "Survivors." "...The leader of the seminar introduced the term, "Survivors," and then braced himself as if he were driving into a predicted storm. And sure enough, the sky began to thunder as the familiar outrage began, "'Survivors? Did you say 'Survivors? What have they had to survive?'"
"They didn't have World War II or Vietnam."
"They didn't go through the civil rights movement."
"They're recipients of unprecedented wealth!"...
"And they're so materialistic."
"You know my nephew is still living with his parents. He's twenty-five years old."
The leader of the seminar calmly keeps his mouth closed during these rants. When the storm subsides, he gently, quietly says, "That's why we're called Survivors!" (Tribal Church, by Carol Howard Merritt, p. 5-6).
And here we are in the one institution that has the most potential for intergenerational connection and we fail to fully lay hold of that potential. Can you sense the tectonic plates creaking and groaning? We bring the social barriers with us into the church rather than letting our faith be the bridge across those barriers.
So let me press this a little further, and meddle a bit. Sometimes it's the job of preachers to meddle. We've had an active and engaged and lively Long Range Planning Committee that's done a lot of visioning. This is getting a little personal, I know, but do you know the average age of our Long Range Planning Committee? I didn't do the math, but I think a fair guess would be upper 50's or even 60 - late middle-age is how I optimistically like to think of it. And for the most part, most probably fall within a 10 or 12-year age span, within the same generational cohort. Maybe one is slightly younger. I won't get personal and mention her name.... But for the most part, we would qualify for a Del Webb community. So for whom are we planning, long range? For ourselves when we're in our 60's and 70's? Now please know I'm not blaming anyone for this. I haven't exactly pressed this issue forward myself either. The Committee has done good work, and we're well served. And in defense it might be said that all have been invited to participate in focus groups, and so on. What do "they" need, an engraved invitation? Well, maybe they do....it just may be that they do. Because for that generation the church doors don't exactly swing open very easily - and maybe especially when it comes to affording some respect in regard to leadership.
It almost seems at times that we believe the Church and the world along with it was meant for us and us alone...that we're the generation for which all that came before was intended, and we're the generation that is moving toward fulfillment. And after? Well, one more meddling question: What good is anything we leave them if we only did it "for" them when we could have done it "with" them?
So the point is that it's not all about us and our generation until it's not about us and our generation. We share this time, this earth, and this Christian calling with others at the same time. It's more like a 4x4 race. You know those races in track meets where the baton is passed from one runner to the next. The running itself is important. But you know what those runners really practice. They practice the hand-offs. That's the crucial point. That's where the real skill is involved.
And friends, it's not that we're not doing anything in this regard. We've got committed adults and youth who will representing Bethel Church in the summer heat of Mississippi, leaving next Sunday. That's something to celebrate. And our BLC program touches many, many young families. But there's still room to grow, to keep on working and empowering, to practice passing off those batons until it's smooth and effortless, and we see the race as a whole where we all participate, to the glory of God.
As a student at Elmhurst College I remember a teacher suggesting to us students that adulthood meant supporting schools that you will never attend yourself. Saying that to students? What were we to do with that piece of information? I guess we were to carry it forward...
Now to be honest, I don't know if that's exactly what Paul was thinking about when he wrote those lines. I know I'm taking his words and putting them in our context. But I do know that the words challenge us...challenge us to see it more whole, challenge us to see where it's moving, to get outside of our narrowness and carry forward a vision of what God intends, so that we fulfill our calling - a calling that's not just about self-fulfillment but a calling that fulfills a larger purpose beyond us. There's an invitation here for us to be a part of this unfolding process, and to participate in this great enterprise we know as church, to move it along, to fulfill its hope.
May we not drop the baton.
Children: I have lots of cards in my wallet that say I'ms a member....of Blockbuster, the Y, Border's, etc. I don't carry a membership card for Bethel Church. How do I know I'm a member? I was baptized, like this child in our service. And I know God loves me.