Sermon delivered by David Burrow June 16, 2024 - First Congregational Church, Algona, Iowa
Click here for an audio version of this sermon (16 MB - .mp3)
We are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord -- for we walk by faith, not by sight.
Yes, we do have courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.
For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.
From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!
Jesus said to the crowds: “This is how it is
with the kingdom of God;it is as if a farmer were to scatter seed on the land
and would sleep and rise night and day and through it all the seed would sprout
and grow,he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first
the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the
grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.”
He said, “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we
use for it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground,
is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it
springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so
that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.”
With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it. Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.
It was several months ago when I agreed to lead today’s service. At the time I really had no clue what I’d speak on. Then when I checked both the date and the gospel in today’s lectionary, I felt a bit of a sense of déjà vu.
You see, one of the first times I gave a sermon in church—clear back in 2011—I chose the gospel we’re reading today, with the parable of the mustard seed. As a teacher at Garrigan, that’s also a passage we often hear at the beginning of the school year, reminding us that the little things we do as teachers can make a big difference in the lives of students.
I also spoke once before on Fathers’ Day. That was even longer ago, clear back in 2010. I remember talking about my own father, who—in spite of often sleeping through the sermons in church—was still a good model of how to live a Christian life.
I know you’ll be forgiving if I happen to repeat something I’ve said before. But hopefully I can put a new twist on things and come up with something original to say today.
A Bible passage I haven’t talked about before is our first reading today, the well-known lines from Corinthians that say “we walk by faith, not by sight”. The combination of those words and Father’s Day made me think back to one of the darkest times in my life. More than forty years ago, just three weeks after I’d moved to Algona and started working as a teacher, I got word that my father had died in a freak accident. My mother had already died when I was in college, so rather suddenly I felt very much on my own.
My bet is that most of us have been in a similar position at least once in our lives, and there are lots of ways we can deal with finding ourselves suddenly alone. It’s common to feel sorry for ourselves, and I’ve known people who spend much of their lives wallowing in slef-pity. It’s also common for people to replace their sorrow and loneliness with various addictions.
We do better, though, when we follow the advice of an old song from my childhood and “Put Your Hand in the Hand” of the man who stilled the waters. Our readings today remind us that—even in our lowest times—God is with us. We can join hands with God and find the confidence we need to go forward and succeed.
We often avoid taking God’s hand because we want to be in control of things. The problem is that the times we most need help from God are the times we’ve lost control of things. When we do have low points in our lives, we need to stop, take a deep breath, and have the faith and confidence to accept God’s helping hand.
That first reading blends today’s gospel, which talks about sowing and reaping a harvest and the little mustard seed that grows into a towering plant. Reading that gospel made me think of our church here in Algona.
A few weeks ago we had a guest in our church who was a descendent of Chauncey Taylor, the man who came from Vermont and founded Algona’s First Congregational Church 166 years ago. He was one of many New Englanders who started churches in the Midwest in the middle of the 19th Century. When I was a child, I remember reading Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books, and learning of the mission churches her family attended in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and South Dakota. The Reverend Brown she writes of could just as easily have been Father Taylor.
The Home Missionary Society of the Congregational Church sent Chauncey Taylor to Iowa to help pioneers keep the faith. When he gave his first sermon in a log cabin and then in 1858 founded a church with just five members that met in the old town hall on the site where Northwest Bank is today. Those five people were like a mustard seed. They had no clue what the future would bring for that church, but they had faith that God would provide and went forward with confidence.
Before long the little church had grown. They bought the old town hall and moved it a few blocks away to a site that would eventually house a school and today is apartments. Then they built the beautiful building that has been our church home since 1886.
Our church membership has ebbed and flowed in the years since then, but we can certainly say that the little seed Father Taylor planted has grown into a strong and lasting institution that has had a profound influence on our community.
Today’s world is very different than the one where Chauncey Taylor lived. While our church membership isn’t quite as low as it was in 1858, we’re very legitimately worried about our future. We struggle to meet our budget, to keep this lovely old building in repair, and to have the manpower to be as active in our community as we’d like. Almost every church has those same problems, but it’s easy to feel that we’re the only ones. We get to feeling sorry for ourselves and wonder how we’ll ever go on.
Our church is needed today just as much as it was 166 years ago. Today people often portray religion as if the only options are a completely secular world or an extremely conservative, fundamentalist Christianity. Our church provides a different option—a place where we truly believe God is still speaking and he really does welcome everyone. There’s a need for a church like that in our modern world, and God is leading us to continue to fill that need. He’s calling us to continue to tend his field and reap a bountiful harvest.
In the coming year we’re going to be making some important decisions on how we can continue the mission that Father Taylor started all those years ago. It’s important that we not shy away from that mission, that we have the courage to go forward and strengthen our church for the future.
It can seem overwhelming when we look at the future—both in our lives and in our church. But we need to have faith and confidence, seeking God’s help in how to go forward. Just as when things go wrong in our personal lives, we need to remember that God has not abandoned our church either. God calls us to walk with faith and have the confidence to continue our mission. We need to pray for God’s guidance, and look for the ways that he’s leading us.
(C) 2024 davidmburrow@yahoo.com