Stories

The Rev. Dr. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
November 22, 2009

Stories
Colossians 3:12-17

Churches are filled with stories.
Churches are filled with stories,
because churches are filled with people
and every one of us has a story.
Every one of us is a story,
a story we add to each day,
sentence by sentence,
page by page.

Churches are filled with funny stories,
the anecdotes we all love to share.
My favorite is the time an overly zealous elder
tore up an entire loaf of bread for communion,
and showed me with great pride
the plate he was about to put on the Lord’s Table.
I responded that the plate looked perfect,
but I then asked where the whole piece was
that we put on top of the smaller pieces,
the large piece that I would break
as I said the words of Institution,
reminding us that Christ’s body was broken for us.

He looked at me, looked down at the plate,
and then said, “Uh oh”.

Just as quickly he said,
“I’ll take care of it”,
and raced back to the kitchen.
I went back to my office,
quite sure that he would indeed take care of it.
A few minutes later I went out to the Sanctuary
to put my Bible and sermon on the pulpit.
I looked at the Lord’s Table
and saw that the Elder had indeed taken care of the problem,
but I wasn’t quite so sure of his solution:
He’d gone downstairs to our food pantry,
found a box of frozen waffles
and placed a firmly frozen Eggo
on the top of the communion bread!

Walk down the hall over in the other wing
and look at all the pictures
that tell the story of this church,
stories that go back decade after decade.
Many pictures are sure to evoke memories and anecdotes:
“Do you remember the time…”
It might have been at Sherando, or
Vacation Bible School, or
a Christmas pageant,
or a wedding or even a funeral.

But the stories that matter are not the funny ones;
the stories that matter are the personal stories,
the stories that each of us has
about our lives in church,
how we found our way to church in the first place,
how our faith has grown in our lives at church,
or perhaps not grown:
we Christians can often be amazingly
self-righteous, self centered,
and just plain mean.

My own story is reflected in this certificate:
my baptism in December 1954 at
Westminster Presbyterian Church in Buffalo,
the church, as you have heard me talk about before,
where my grandmother occupied the same pew
for more than 60 years,
where my parents met,
where my grandfather served as an elder,
my father as a deacon.

I went to church regularly
but my pattern was to walk in abut two minutes before the service,
and walk out two minutes after the service.
I can remember
when the Nominating Committee called in 1986
and again in 1987
to ask if I would consider serving as a Deacon.
Both times I responded with words
that many of us have said,
“It’s just not a good time…”

It was the pastor who finally pulled me in,
in 1988 when he asked me to help with Stewardship.
I said yes to him, and yes to the request:
raising money – that I could handle:
I had been doing it for my college, graduate school,
other charitable organizations in town.
From there I agreed to serve as a Trustee,
responsible for the buildings and grounds,
and the church’s investment account.
I also served on the budget committee,
and on the capital campaign committee.

But then in 1990 I said yes to the “Space Planning Committee.”
It sounded simple, but it wasn’t.
Our job required us to focus on the various ministries in the church
and assess whether and how our space
helped or hindered our ministries.
Our task wasn’t to examine the ministries,
only whether they needed more space, less space,
or different space.

For the first time I really looked at the ministries of the church,
what we were doing in the name of Jesus Christ.
My eyes were opened.
I began to see what church was all about,
how we served, nurtured, and cared for one another,
people within the church,
and people in the larger community.

It was this group that helped me see
that even though I had been coming to church,
I had not been growing spiritually,
had not been growing as a disciple of Jesus Christ.
For the first time I understood the teaching
in the letter from James:
“Draw near to God,
and he will draw near to you.”
(James 4:8)
I had kept my distance from God,
coming to church,
but never fully embracing my identity
as a disciple of Jesus Christ,
never fully embracing my call to ministry,
even as a lay member of the congregation.

At the same time I was re-examining my faith
my life was in turmoil,
all at “sixes and sevens”, in that wonderful British phrase.
The woman to whom I was married at the time
was sinking deeper and deeper
into the depths of alcoholism.
Alcohol would soon claim our marriage,
and eventually claim her life.

The consulting company I was working for was struggling,
a number of international ventures
our partners had launched were not paying off,
and draining money from the firm.
It was foundering and would soon sink.

But even in the midst of the turmoil
my faith was growing,
largely due to the small group of people
on the Space Planning Committee,
men and women who understood Paul’s instructions
to the Colossians, who lived them,
and just by their very lives,
their own faith, helped me to deeper faith.
This small group of men and women,
just six of us,
people I had not known at all before,
they helped me learn to
“let the word of Christ dwell richly in me”,
they helped me to "let go and let God",
to trust and fall back
into the everlasting, everloving arms of God.

That’s my story.
What’s your story?

As you chat with one another at lunch today,
I know you will share anecdotes and funny stories.
But I encourage you to share personal stories,
your personal stories,
your faith journey:
what this church means to you,
how it has helped nurture and nourish your faith.

And don’t just share stories today,
share them in other settings:
Men’s breakfast group,
Women’s Circles,
Knitters…

Was there a turning point for you in your faith journey?
Perhaps not a “road to Damascus” experience,
but it could have been
that you felt called to take,
in Robert Frost’s words,
the road less traveled by,
the road of faith,
the road that led you here,
the road that “made all the difference.”

Does the word of Christ dwell richly in you?
Are you filled with the peace of Christ?
How well do you share Christ’s grace and love with others?
How has this church helped your faith grow?
How has this church hindered your faith?

The story of this church is nothing more
than the sum of our individual stories;
our stories all wrapped together
as we worship together, pray together,
work together,
follow Christ together.

We are the body of Christ,
a wonderful book, filled with life,
every one of us a page in the book.
What’s your story?
AMEN