Our scripture this morning comes from Paul's
letter to the church in Corinth, 1 Corinthians
chapter 3, verses 6 to 11. Let us listen now
for a word from God. Paul writes to the church
saying, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave
the growth. So neither the one who plants nor
the one who waters is anything, but only God
who gives the growth. The one who plants and
the one who waters have a common purpose, and
each will receive wages according to the labor
of each. For we are God's servants working together.
You are God's field, God's building. According
to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled
master builder, I laid a foundation, and someone
else is building on it. Each builder must choose
with care how to build on it, for no one, can
lay any foundation other than the one that has
been laid. And that foundation, friends, is Jesus
Christ. This is the word of God for the people
of God. Thanks be to God. Will you join me in
prayer? Let us pray. Gracious and loving God,
on this day that we set aside to say thank you,
We pray that by the work of your Spirit you would
set aside this time now. That through its working,
O God, you would take the words of my mouth and
the meditations of all of our hearts, O God,
and form them as a bridge from an ancient word
to our present living. We pray these things for
we know that with you and you alone they are
possible. For you and you alone, O God, are our
rock. and our Redeemer. Amen. I gave a state
-of -the -church type talk about a week and a
half ago, looking ahead to what is in front of
us here at First Prez for the next 12 or so months,
and I also looked back to share some highlights
from last year, this year that we have just turned
the calendar page on. One of the things I talked
about as a highlight was our chancel choir's
trip, many of the faces you see here who went
to Scotland for a 10 or so day tour. Now, I was
by far and away the least qualified to be a part
of this group. I have close to zero musical skill,
much less aptitude. And so I was struggling with
what my job, what my role could be on this trip.
And Marsha and Holt Andrews, our esteemed leaders
of the music ministry, they said, we know just
the job for you. They said, you, Alan, you will
be the page turner. Now, before then, I didn't
know about this role, but they assured me it
is one of the most prestigious roles you can
have in a choir. And the job works like this.
It's what it sounds like. My job was to sit next
to Marsha on the bench at the piano for each
of our concerts, and when she emphatically nodded
her head, I was to turn the page on the music.
It is a little bit of a mystery to me that since
returning, Marsha hasn't had much need for page
turners, but apparently over there, there's just,
you know, much more of a need. They were very
gracious. I love sitting at the bench and being
with our choir at each of those performances.
One of the things I noticed, though, by about
the second performance was at the top of almost
each of the pieces of music, by the title of
the score, there was often a word or phrase just
printed there off on its own. Some of these phrases
said things like, with great expression. Another
one said, joy and freedom. Another said, simple
dignity. One of them even was just a single word.
It said, movement. By about the second time,
I asked Marshall, what do these mean? And that's
when I learned the term expression marking. She
said, oftentimes in music, you have these markings,
and historically they have been in Italian, but
contemporary composers have started putting them
there in English, these words or phrases, and
their purpose is to help the musician understand
the ethos, the mood, the spirit with which they
are supposed to play the piece of music in front
of them. When we first started planning for...
and for all the different events around it. It
was decided very early on that we would call
this celebration Sacred Stones and Living Faith.
You've already heard us refer to some of this
or imply it, but the purpose of calling it that
was intentional because we wanted to make clear
that this is not just a celebration about a place,
about the bricks and mortars that make this sanctuary
possible that we're sitting in today, but rather
a celebration of the stories. of the ministry,
of the music, if you will, that this place makes
possible. Those of you who have been in worship
the last week have already heard two musically
themed sermons. You're going to get a third today.
Last Sunday, one of our youth, Wade Neely, preached
an outstanding sermon on the power of God in
music. And then on Ash Wednesday, Pastor Leslie
preached a sermon where she even brought the
flute into the pulpit with her. I'm going to
spare you that. You don't have to hear me attempt
that. But today, I was finding myself reflecting.
on each of those concerts and each of those expression
markings, and I began to wonder to myself, what
is the expression marking? What is the ethos
of our song here at First Press? It's interesting
to me, especially because I think Paul, Paul
seems to be wondering the exact same thing when
he writes to the Corinthians, right? He's writing
to a very young church here. This is literally
not just an early church, but the early church,
one of the handful of early churches. It's only
three or four years old at the time that he's
writing to them. So when he writes to them, they're
not thinking buildings or building campaigns.
They're just trying to figure out what it means
to be a community of disciples. What does it
look like to worship a God who was living and
dead and lives again? What does it look like
to let that gospel creep into our lives and actually
translate into how we go out into the world and
serve and love others? Those are the things they're
wrestling with. And word has reached Paul that
the ethos of this early church in Corinth is
off. They've missed some pretty important notes.
And in some cases, they've just flat out ignored
some important notes. We're not going to get
into all the details today, but suffice it to
say, the thing that troubles Paul the most are
these reports that seem to indicate that the
church in Corinth is going about the song of
the Christian faith in the wrong spirit. They
are not playing the song how Jesus Christ prescribed.
And so he writes to them, he says, remember,
remember church, some plant, some water, but
only God gives the growth. What I hear Paul doing
effectively in that verse is he's pointing them
to the expression marking on their piece of music.
He's pointing them to this place where I think
it must have read something like, with humble
trust. It gets me thinking about our own history
100 years ago here as a church. There's always
a temptation, a danger really, when churches
celebrate days like this to slip into this just
blanket applause for how great we are. Wow, look
at us. We did it. Look at all these other churches.
That's not the point, right? We have missed the
notes, ignored the notes even as much as the
next church. We have played the song wrong probably
about as much as we have played it right. We
are imperfect. We're broken. That's why we confess
our sin every single time we gather for worship.
But it is remarkable to me as I studied the history
of this place and looked back a hundred years
ago to when this space was dreamed up. It strikes
me the humility and the trust of those saints
who have come before us. Church member Frank
Lee put together a remarkable series of videos.
We're going to find a way to share them about
the history of the church. Truly, they are remarkably
well done. They could air on PBS. Incredible.
But one of the things that he talks about in
that history are the challenges. The challenges
that Dr. DuBose and the saints of the church
that he came to minister wrestled with when they
were dreaming up the possibility of a new place.
And even when they overcame those challenges
to then dream up this, this sanctuary can sit
about 1 ,000 people, at least 1926 people. I
didn't say that at the early service. I don't
know where that came from. Not just 1 ,000 people
in this sanctuary. They had a chapel that's now
been broken into a number of different spaces,
but a chapel that could seat about 280 people.
They approach this work with this humility, but
also this trust that if they just planted, and
if the disciples who came after were faithful
in water, and then God, well, God would give
growth. God would give growth to something like
this here today. And of course, that music plays
on. So friends, today we all turn the page. We
turn the page to our next hundred years of ministry
in this place. And my prayer is that those saints
a hundred years from now will look back on us
and they will say, here were people who were
humble, who were trusting, who were bold in their
love of Christ and in their love of one another.
But more than anything, I hope that they will
look back and say, here were people who were
rooted. and the knowledge that some plant and
some water, but it is God, it is God who always
gives the growth. Amen.