The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

November 3, 2013

Cloud Communion

Ephesians 4:1-6

In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do.

While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master,

I want you to get out there and walk—

better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel.

I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands.

I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere.

And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—

not in fits and starts, but steadily,

pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love,

alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.

You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction,

so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly.

You have one Master, one faith, one baptism,

one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all,

and is present in all.

Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.

This is the Word of the Lord.

Jesse Ketchum is a man for whom I am deeply grateful.

He had a profound influence on me, on my life.

In fact, it is likely that I would not be up here preaching,

that I would not have responded to God’s call to ministry

without Jesse Ketchum.

I have never had the opportunity to thank him, though.

You see, I never met Jesse Ketchum.

In fact, he died long before I was born.

Jesse Ketchum was the man who provided the land

and led the group that established

the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Buffalo,

the church where I grew up,

the church where my faith was formed.

Ketchum came to Buffalo from Canada in the 1830s

and was a very successful businessman.

The city was growing rapidly in

those years before the Civil War

and Ketchum and others saw a need for

an additional Presbyterian Church;

there was already one in the central downtown

but Ketchum saw a need for a church

on the outer edge of the city.

So Ketchum donated land for the church,

land that back then was outside the city limits,

but today is very much in the thick of the city.

He then organized a group of 40 friends and neighbors

as founding members of the church in 1854.

Ketchum was one of the many saints who has touched my life,

touched my life by his life, his faith,

even though he died almost 100 years before I was born.

Ketchum was one of those whom the letter to the Hebrews

refers to as part of the great “cloud of witnesses”

(12:1)

those who lived their faith

and now are part of the Church Triumphant,

those who know the promise of life eternal,

the life of light and love in the presence of God.

Ketchum was and is part of the communion of saints.

In the Reformed tradition that we are part of,

we consider everyone a saint:

we are all part of the community of saints,

communion of saints.

You, me, everyone here,

--yes, everyone! –

and all those who came before us,

all those who built this church,

in the same way Jesse Ketchum and his 40 friends

built Westminster.

It is at this time of year

that we remember the saints who’ve gone before us.

All Saints Day falls on November 1^st

and has been part of the liturgical calendar

for more than a thousand years.

All Saints Day is,

“a time to rejoice in all who through the ages

have faithfully served the Lord.

It is a day that reminds us that we are part of

one continuing, living communion of saints.

It is a time to claim our kinship with

the glorious company of apostles, prophets, and martyrs.

It is a time to express our gratitude for all who

in ages of darkness kept the faith;

for those who have taken the gospel

to the ends of the earth;

for prophetic voices who have called the church

to be faithful in life and service;

for all who have witnessed to God’s justice and peace

in every nation.”

(Book of Common Worship)

In our Reformed tradition

we don’t select a handful of men and women

and beatify them,

calling them “Saint This” or “Saint That,”

building statues in their honor

“as holy people set apart in glory”;

rather we give glory to God for the ordinary, holy lives

of believers in this and every age.”

The “cloud of witnesses”,

the “communion of saints who’ve gone before…”

they are pioneers,

veterans we should hold in honor:

those who built churches,

who taught Sunday School classes,

who preached the Word,

who delivered hot soup to the sick,

who comforted the grieving,

who protected the weak,

who supported mission work around the world,

who worked for peace and righteousness,

all those who showed us how to

“do justice,

…love kindness,

and …walk humbly with …God.”

(Micah 6:8).

A church like ours, with a history that spans 146 years,

is church rich with saints,

every man, woman and child who has been

part of this community,

who helped build it,

who helped build not just bricks and mortar,

but more important, the body of Christ

that for us is the church.

All those saints lead us, teach us,

nurture and inspire us still

by their work,

by their faith,

by their very lives.

And they remind us of our responsibilities

to those who will follow us,

those who will one day refer to us

as the communion of saints who came before them.

As the letter to the Hebrews teaches us,

in Eugene Peterson’s energetic paraphrasing:

“Do you see what this means—

all these pioneers who blazed the way,

all these veterans cheering us on?

It means we’d better get on with it.

…start running—and never quit!

…Keep your eyes on Jesus,

who both began and finished this race we’re in.

Study how he did it.

Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—

that exhilarating finish in and with God—

he could put up with anything along the way:

Cross, shame, whatever.

And now he’s there, in the place of honor,

right alongside God.

When you find yourselves flagging in your faith,

go over that story again, item by item,

that long litany of hostility he plowed through.

That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!”

(Hebrews 12:1-3)

We come to this Table as saints, all of us,

We come to this Table in the company of

the communion of saints,

the communion that stretches over time and distance,

that knows no boundary of language or culture or skin color,

all of us called by our Lord Jesus Christ,

bound together in one faith,

through one baptism

to one Lord.

You and I stand on the shoulders of all those saints,

all those pioneers and veterans who’ve gone before us

and encourage us still,

encourage us by their lives, their work,

their faith, their examples…

and their voices, whispering to us through the clouds

every saint reinforcing the words of our lesson: