Hebrews
“Standing
on the Shoulders of Giants”
Most mornings, as I get up, I turn off my alarm on my
smart phone, turn on the hall lights, go downstairs and turn on my coffee pot,
turn on the TV, and use my laptop to check my email. On a daily basis I depend on inventions of
others. None of these inventions came
into being over night. The phone has
taken its time to develop and adapt.
Growing up, we had one of those old fashioned phones in our kitchen. It was my mom’s when she was growing up. It was rather large and looked so funny. I remember asking her how it worked and
thinking how strange it was to have to share a phone line with others. Way back before cell phones, we had rotary
dial then push dial then finally, a cordless phone. And as various companies and inventors seek
to make a newer and more advanced phone, they only are where they are today,
because of the work of others before them.
I was trying to explain to my children the other day that
when nana and grandpa were children, TV was in black and white. Andi asked if the world was in black and
white. And I had to explain that the
world has always been in color, but it took time to develop TV to show
color.
In my daily routine, especially my morning routine, I
rarely take the time to think about the people that have come before me,
creating things that are now just a standard part of my life. I don’t stop to think about how it took one
person’s idea, and then another to build upon it, and then another to build
upon that, to get to where we are today.
There are times that I wonder what my children will have when they grow
up, what will phones or TV or computers be like? Will there be some new invention that will be
the next must have device like the ipad or tablet.
Standing on the shoulders of giants. Each and every day, driving our cars, using
electricity, indoor plumbing, it all has happened because of those that have
come before us. We too, sit here today,
because of those that came before us.
For over 250 years, God’s people have gathered here, sharing their
faith, growing together, crying together, worshiping together, learning
together, and transitioning through life together. Just as we benefit from the technological
advances of people building upon those that came before them, we too benefit
from the faith of God’s people that came before us.
Today, we are celebrating those that have been members of
this congregation for fifty years and longer.
As I thought about this celebration, the passage of Hebrews 12 came to
mind. Today, we are award and pay
attention to the cloud of witnesses that are all around us. Whether you have been a member fifty years or
three months, you are a part of this cloud of witnesses, a part of this era of
being God’s people, of being the ones that are building upon those that came
before us and developing and preparing the sharing of faith to the next
generation that is rising up before us.
Our first passage from Hebrews shares this celebration of
how God calls people through time to be a people of faith. God called Abraham and it was through faith
that Abraham and Sara followed God. God
called Moses and it was with self-doubt but also with faith, that Moses
liberated the Hebrew people. These
stories were collected and passed along and used over and over and over again
as the foundation for guiding people in their own faith journeys. None of us come to church this day without
the influence of someone else in our lives.
Someone else exhibited faith, modeled a love for God, that either
planted a seed within us, or nourished that seed to grow. When we really stop and think about it, we
are, each and every day, surrounded by a cloud of witnesses in our lives. Each of us can go into the passage of Hebrews
and rewrite the names of Abraham and Moses to Aunt June or Uncle John. And then write your own name into the
scripture story, for you too are a part of God’s story, a part of this passing
along of faith from one generation to the next.
We may question whether our faith is strong enough, or mature enough, we
may think we have too many unresolved questions or doubts, but so did Moses, so
did King David, so did the Disciples, and yet, they built their lives upon the
shoulders of those that came before them. And others built their live of faith
upon their shoulders. Just as Abraham
had to take a leap of faith to follow God, we too, are called into this faith
journey, trusting that God is calling us, and has a purpose for us. We have a gift to pass along to the next
generation, a gift of sharing God’s love for us and for this world in which we
live. Amen.
