The Downtown Presbyterian Church

Sermons

Newness

John 1:10-18

Rev. Kenneth M. Locke

January 4, 2004

A few weeks ago I was giving a tour of our facility to Dr. Robin Jensen, who teaches Christian Art and Worship at Vanderbilt Divinity School, and we were standing here in the sanctuary when she jokingly said “Well Ken, how does it feel to preach in a monument?”

Honestly I had never thought about it because to me monuments are moldy, musty, dead places, full of artifacts of the past that have no bearing on the present. But I think of our church as being alive. Not only is the sanctuary vibrant, look at the movement in the painting and the stained glass, but our ministry is vibrant. Look at what we’re doing – Bible studies and homeless luncheons and Sunday School and Sunday Breakfast and Tuesday services and special services like we had last Sunday. Nothing dead about that. We’re alive. We’re living.

How tempting it is to become a monument. How tempting to keep singing the same old hymns, doing the same old ministries, holding the same parties, celebrating the same holidays, holding the same special services in the same way without any regard to whether they are making any difference in anyone’s lives and above all keep having the same people doing the same things in the same ways over and over and over. So tempting, so easy, quietly leaning back and slowly but surely fossilizing into a dead monument rather than a living church.

Being a monument would be nice. We would all appreciate it if sometimes, like Peter Pan, evolving, changing and growing were put aside. How nice if our church were a dead little ‘Never Land’ that we could always depend on to be always the same.

Many churches do become monuments. It’s not that they never repaint the fellowship hall or update the lighting – it’s that they never grow their ministry, never expand their worship, never challenge their members into growing in faith and love and ministry.

But Christianity is not about monuments.

The writer of our Scripture Lesson tells us Jesus came to give us a new way of becoming children of God. We don’t have to be born Jewish any more. We don’t have to be circumcised any more. We don’t have to follow all the dietary and holiness laws of the old age. Jesus gave us something new. We can be children of God just because God wills it. That is enough. So where laws and tradition and heredity had ruled before now we have grace, grace and truth.

You see Christianity at its heart is about newness.

Yes, our faith draws on the past and builds on the past but it never stops with the past. Christianity is about constant, ongoing, never ending change: newness.

Even communion is about newness. Yes, it remembers the story of the plagues of Egypt and God saving the people but in communion Jesus does a new thing – giving himself for our sins instead of the sacrificial animal. And celebrating communion not only remembers Jesus’ love, it enables us to live in the present and look forward to Jesus coming again.

At its heart, Christianity is about ongoing, never ending, always happening newness. It’s about change.

2003 was not a static year for The Downtown Presbyterian Church. No fear of turning into a monument those last 12 months. 2003 was a year of change. So will 2004, and 2005, and 2006, 2007, 2008 and every year we are a living, vibrant, forceful voice witnessing to the love of God. Some change will be pleasant, some will be hard. Some change will be successful, some will be less so. Sometimes we’ll argue about the direction of the change. Sometimes we’ll miraculously agree.

But most important is not becoming a monument. The truth of God’s love is always out there, way out in front, as new and nouveau as you can get. And so must we. Believe it or not, when this building was built it was radical, it was way new, it was as out there as you could get. It drew from the past, but there was nothing ‘ancient’ about it. Like the inclusive love of Jesus it was staggering in its newness.

In 2004, will The Downtown Presbyterian Church be true to its heritage? Will our ministry be vibrant and alive, will it make people sit up and pay attention? Will our ministry honor the radical vision of the men and women who commissioned this living sanctuary? Will our commitment match the commitment of those who refused to abandon downtown, who refused the easy seduction of the suburbs? Will our ministry turn away from the easy path of monuments, and instead embrace the good news of life Jesus offers us?

My prayer for this church in 2004 is that we will be as radical, as new, as life-giving, as these words from Scripture, “To all who received Jesus, who believed in him, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood, or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Thanks be to God. Amen.