“Looking Back, Gazing Forward,” Genesis 9:8-17
Introduction
One of the very special memories I have from my first trip to the Holy Land last year was that of swimming in the Dead Sea. It is a real adventure. First you head to pit which is filled with sticky and smelly mud. Against ever natural inclination of cleanliness and good hygiene, you cover yourself in this nasty black mud. Then you take a bath in the buoyant Dead Sea. It is amazing that because of the very high mineral content of the Dead Sea, your body simply will not sink. You float with most of your body above the water. I was actually able to stand straight up in the water and float with my body in a completely vertical position.
While I was floating with the group of pastors that I was traveling with, several of us noticed that there was a perfect rainbow which had developed. It had been raining lightly for much of the day prior to this time. It had stopped just before we entered the Dead Sea and as we swam in this ancient sea, which due to its high mineral content is said to provide medicinal properties to bathers and is completely devoid of life, the Lord provided for us the splendor of His promise which is wrapped up in the rainbow. The beauty of the rainbow, though, is not just something for us to enjoy today. To fully enjoy its beauty we must consider from where it came.
The origin of the rainbow, according to the Australian aborigines is this: The Rainbow stole two wives from the Bat. This made the Bat angry. He waited until the Rainbow was asleep and attacked him with a spear. The Rainbow roared with pain and the blood ran down his side. The Bat took back his wives while the Rainbow rolled into a creek and sank. He lives there now and sometimes when it rains he rises from the creek and arches his bloodstained body across the sky. How utterly different, how infinitely superior, is the biblical account of the rainbow as the sign of God’s Care.
Transition
In Genesis 9:8-17 we read that the rainbow is a sign of the everlasting covenant between God and man. When we look at the rainbow we are looking back into history at the establishment of God’s covenant with His creation. As we look back at the rainbow, the sign of God’s covenant, we are also looking forward to the promise of His ultimate fulfillment of that covenant. Hallelujah!
Application
There is an awful lot of conversation these days in circles of Christian leadership. The buzz word of this era of leadership is “vision” and the vision is most often encapsulated in a vision statement. The vision statement typically encapsulates the core beliefs, purpose, and goals of a church or organization.
I have spent a significant amount of energy, thought, and prayer into considering what the core values, beliefs, and purpose of this Church is. Upon examining the Covenant of the Church I found that our purpose is clear. We really don’t need a new vision in the conventional sense.
We need merely to be the people of God that we have always been. As a Church body, as a Covenant Community of Faith, we need simply to live in accordance with faith in God and fellowship with one another.
It occurs to me that we are already living out the “vision” of this church in practical ways; Thanksgiving Dinners, Comedy Benefits, Local Outreach, support of foreign missions. These are nothing new. They are mere restatements of the driving ethos of this covenant community of faith.
In the time I have been here in this church we have done some new things to be sure. But while methods may change the driving principals never do.
Recitation of the Covenant
In your bulletin you will find a copy of the covenant of the Church. I would ask that you join me in reading it aloud, together, the family of God, the covenant community of faith, here complete in faith, under the headship of Christ our Lord.
“Through Christ strengthening us, without whom we can do nothing, we here in the presence of God, and of this assembly give up ourselves, soul and body, and all that we have, are and shall be, unto God, through Jesus Christ to serve Him forever, and to be His, and at His disposal in all things. We propose to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, to be his disciples, to be taught and governed by Him in all our relations and conversations in this world, declaring Him to be our Supreme Lord and Redeemer. And we do further bind ourselves, in the strength of Christ to walk with this Church in all His ordinances, and with the members thereof in all member-like love and submission.”
I want to introduce you to what I believe well summarizes who we are as a Church and gives plain language, from our Covenant, in terms well characterized by biblical truth, in simple and easily remembered language.
I have extrapolated a key point from the church covenant and shaped that into something of a “vision statement” which is really little more than a synopsis of the covenant; a pill-size version of the covenant of this church.
From the Church Covenant: “… We propose to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, to be his disciples…”
“The Purpose of First Congregational Church of Peru is to follow Jesus and to share His love.”
“Following Jesus and sharing His love.”
This vision statement captures the core beliefs of the Church. A vision which reflects our core beliefs and goals aides us in shaping the future…
What is the purpose of First Congregational Church? It is to follow after Jesus as pilgrim sojourners on the grandest of adventures; life with God! I am amazed at people’s willingness to travel this journey apart from its designer, when He is so readily and easily available to us. God pours out His love along the way.
As we follow after Jesus Christ along this journey, our mission is to receive the love of God, share it with one another according to the covenant of our church and the mandates of Scripture, and then to share that love further by offering it freely to those in our lives, in our community, and beyond.
It’s almost impossible to see a rainbow and not point it out to someone else. It’s the kind of thing that just must be shared. You see one and you want to tell someone about it. If you are by yourself and see one, it’s frustrating. Likewise, the gospel is such a beautiful expression of God’s love that it just must be shared.
The vision of a church is so much more than a statement. The vision of a Church is the future that God brings into our lives. We can’t see the future. However living faithfully we shape the future.
To move forward we need merely look back and continue to follow Christ and to share His love; faithful today is what faith is about; trusting God for the future.
Conclusion
In John 1:5 the Bible says that “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all”. Light is a synonym of all that is beautiful and glorious in the universe of God, whether in the material or in the spiritual realm. Perhaps the most magnificent declaration ever uttered is that recorded in the book of Genesis by Moses: “God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (Genesis 1:3).
Light is the most perfect emblem of purity we can imagine. We cannot conceive of the possibility of its defilement. Light is the source of beauty; we could have no concept of beauty without it. The colors of the rainbow, the endlessly varied and pleasing pictures portrayed before us in the flowers, the ever-changing shades in sky or forest, the delicate tints in the plumage of the bird, the flush of health on the human cheek, the glory of the sunrise, the splendor of the sunset—all these and ten thousand other manifestations of beauty are creatures of the light.
As we gaze forward into the future of this Church, I am filled with hope for what God will continue to do in this place. As I consider the past, I am humbled by the legacy of faithful, faith-filled followers of Jesus Christ who have gone before me.
They left and we have inherited a great legacy at First Congregational Church. As we go forward this year and in the years to come, we will no doubt do some new things. Everything was new once. But the driving principals never change.
This is a church with a history and a future. This is a church with character and hope. Let us remain steadfast in allowing the light of God’s Word to guide us.
Just as the rainbow is the glow of God’s covenant to provide salvation for His people in Jesus Christ, our lives are to be glowing reflections of the promise of God which is manifest in Jesus Christ.
As we gaze into the future, let us look back to the promise of the covenant of God, knowing that if He has made a promise He is sure to keep it. As we look to the covenant of our family of faith, let be reminded today that our purpose, our mission, indeed central to the character of our church and close to the heart of God is the purpose of First Congregational Church of Peru. “To follow Jesus and share His love.” Amen.
