Monday, September 18, 2017

Eugenia United Anniversary Sunday: 1895 to Today ...




          Eugenia Anniversary Sunday

          In 1895, ground was broken and work began on the building in which we worship today … history tells us that the foundations were dug by hand with shovel and pick, logs were cut north of the village on various farms and cut into usable lumber in the Wilson mill that stood near the falls, bricks were brought by the wagon load from the Bowler’s brick yard near Markdale, and the foundation stones were comprised of bright shiny rocks donated from the farms and yards of members, friends and neighbours.
          It is interesting to note that local men laid the foundation and brick, including the fancy scroll work around the outside of the building. As the project progressed, the minister of the day Rev. Wells donated the red and blue glass for the windows.
          Reading the description of the work that brought this building into being over three years, one is struck at what a community effort it was. Everyone lent a hand, everyone rolled up their sleeves and took part – it was not a case of hiring a company and waiting for the end results. It was a case of the people of the congregation and community who had for over 25 years worshipped in various houses, the Orange Hall and even the Methodist Church on occasion, were working diligently to create a legacy for their community … a home for the church to reach out into the community and beyond.
          Pretty impressive, for a tiny village perched on in the bush, on the top edge of the Niagara Escrapment.
          But even after the official opening on November 1897 along with a fowl supper, there was still work to be done.
          The first marriage came in 1903.
          A floor was installed in the basement sometime in the 1920’s or 30’s to cover the dirt floor that had been host to numerous fundraising dinners put on by the ladies groups over the years.  
          In 1990, a series of upgrades and renovations were undertaken that saw significant improvements that we continue to enjoy today …
          Long gone are the days of having a caretaker rise in the cold early pre-dawn morning to trudge into the church and light the wood or coal stove to heat the building up before worshippers would start to arrive. Now, programmable thermostats mean that with a push of a button, the building can be warm and cozy on cold winter mornings – a few Sundays in the last few years not with standing …
          Over the last 120 years this building has witnessed many changes, many renovations and celebrations and set backs galore … it has watched the community around it rise and fall … and ebb and change … and here it still stands – a survivor.
          And in this history and heritage of this place is a reminder that with the passing of each day … each week … each month … each year there comes an unrelenting and unstoppable series of change … The church is a dynamic and spirited place where we bring our joys and celebrations and where we seek comfort and peace in times of challenge … on one level the church is timeless and by virtue of our sacraments and our faith, offers a presence that transcends time and space … but because it is truly human, the Church is also an ever changing place, where we grow and change …
          At BC conference a couple of decades ago, Anglican Theologian Herbert O’Driscoll reflected on how subtle AND how profound change in the Church really is … he mused that if you doubt that churches ebb and flow and change, try moving forward or backward in churches … he began by saying that if you took a Byzantine Christian and moved them forward to the Reformation, or took a Lutheran Reformer and moved him forward or backward even 50 years, they would be hopelessly and irretrievably lost …
          There would be bits and pieces that may seem remotely familiar … communion with bread and juice remains universal … but the hymns we sing, the words we speak, the prayers we offer, and even the folks who lead us, would be very very different …
          Think back … in the 1960’s – the golden era so many pine for – clergy were men, they wore collars and gowns, they read from the King James Bible, and prayers were full of Thee’s and Thou’s and other Elizabethean English colloquialisms … then along came the New Curriculum … along came the upheaval of the 70’s … along came The Issue and the gut wrenching machinations we went through over the place of self-professed Gay and Lesbian candidates for ministry … then came the Apology to the First Peoples … same sex marriage … a multi-cultural and multi-coloured society … the revelations of Residential Schools … law suits and more and more …
          In 50 short years, the Church has CHANGED dramatically … we are being called to move beyond that neat and comfortable image of Church we had back in the 1960’s when it seemed that EVERYONE went to Church, and everything was fine …
          I’ve heard blame leveled at Sunday Shopping, hockey and baseball on Sunday’s, the openness to Gays, Lesbians, Bisexual, Queer and Transgendered people, same sex marriage, our relationship with First Nations … we live in an uncomfortable time with changes unfolding around us at a mind-numbing rate, and we yearn – we truly YEARN for a place of peace and quiet, and the church is supposed to be THAT … yet, the church has never been only that …
          The church – this place, is where we are equipped and strengthened for the path ahead … facing a challenge? The church is the place where we can come and name that challenge, where we can find people who understand and have shared that challenge, and THEN with the power of our faith face the challenge KNOWING that we are God’s people, and with God behind us, we need not be afraid …
          Our reading from Romans drives that point home:
          Welcome those who are weak … the church is not about only the strong and the righteous, the church is here for EVERYONE … some eat anything, while others eat only vegetables – those who eat everything are not to judge those who abstain, and those who abstain are not to judge those who eat everything … the bottom line is that there is no place for judgement in the church – we are ALL here as servants of Christ, and we, though different are equally valued …
          Verse 8 underscores who we are to be and what we are to be about:  If we live we live to the Lord, if we die, we die to the Lord, so then whether we live or die we are the Lord’s … why pass judgement on our sisters or brothers, because one day ALL of us will stand before the Lord … and in that moment every knee shall bow and every tongue confess praise to the Lord.
          And at the end of the day, that’s why we are here – to confess our praise to the Lord … to worship God … to share our faith … to support and nurture each other on the pilgrimage we find ourselves walking …
          The constant in the Church when we move forwards and backwards is satiating the spiritual hunger by faith … by celebrating the very presence of God.
          Unfortunately, too often we get waylaid and misdirected by politicking and personal agendas that interfere with the will of the Spirit. But if we step back and remember that moving forwards or backwards even 50 years within this grand tapestry that is the Church, we will find ourselves lost and confused … BECAUSE what is important remains, but everything else passes away …
          In dramatic form, the Exodus reading reminds us to focus on what is important … the fleeing Israelites watched as the Pharoh’s army were swept away by the sea, and they passed safely thru … the WPOG curriculum notes that the story is about the rebirth of the people – it is a story of a second creation – dry land appearing in the midst of the waters to allow a new people to be created. Their jubilation springs from their previous despair. Annihilation has turned to hope; powerlessness to an act of faith …
          A powerless and enslaved people turned to God and everything else was washed (literally) away … the passage from Romans reminds us that we are to not pass judgement on each other, but to be open and accepting of one another just as God through Grace has been open and accepting of us … and Jesus teachings on the breadth and depth of forgiveness is about standing firmly in the Grace of God and trusting always that God is with us …
          And as we say – if God is with us, who can be against us?

          The challenge today is to remember what our faith rests on – what is the foundation on which we stand?
          As beautiful as the sparkly rocks making up our foundation are, they are not the foundation on which our faith rests – this is just a building – a wonderful, beautiful, and very comfortable building – but it is just a building … the Church is the gathered community … the people … you and I … and the foundation on which we stand is NOT rock or concrete or mortar … the foundation on which we stand is faith …
          The faith grounded in the generous gift of grace … faith that guides us through the most troublesome moments and places our feet firmly on dry land even in the midst of a raging sea … faith that fills us with joy and allows us to focus solely on what is important … revelling in the presence of the Holy …
          And as beautiful as this building is – its gift to us as a survivor of 120 since its doors were officially opened – is not its physical presence, but its housing of a community of faith that has shared life’s ups and downs, life’s twists and turns, lifes ebbs and flows, and still finds the ability to fall to our knees in prayer, and to lift our voices in worship and praise to God … and sometimes we do it on Sunday mornings … but we always do it together as a community of faith – the children of God …
          Thanks be to God for the many blessings we enjoy and share … May WE make it to be so, thanks be to God …

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