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    Feb 08, 2015

    For Our Children's Children - Anniversary Sunday 2015

    Passage: Ephesians 3:16-21

    Speaker: Pat Botelle, Lay Speaker

    Category: Special Event

    Keywords: anniversary, history, legacy

    What legacy are we leaving for those who come after us about what life was like for RUMC in 2015?

    As usual, when I prepare a message, I start with one idea and the Holy Spirit turns me upside down before I have the final product. This message is no different. I tried to think how I could make Anniversary Sunday a little different. As you might have guessed from the children’s message, this will be more about the present and future than the past.

    I started out wondering what the Apostle Paul might have written if he were writing to the church at Reisterstown. I was going to use the book of Ephesians as sort of a model for a letter to RUMC. That did not work out so well. But there was one part of the scripture that struck me - Ephesians 3:16-21. I love the line “to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” (I learned the verse as “surpasses all understanding”). But it was the next two verses that really stuck with me: “Now to him, who by the power at work within us, is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen”.

    Then I remembered a book we gave my mother titled “To Our Children’s Children – Journal of Family Memories”. It’s full of questions to spark memories to share with future generations. When we packed up the house after Mom’s passing, I found the book and read the entries she had finished. I took her answers to the questions and compiled a history for her grandchildren: Lauren, Chris and Jason. I learned a lot about my mother compiling that history.

    Seeing our parents as children or teenagers is difficult to imagine. Mom grew up in a little town in southwest Virginia named Cripple Creek and had to travel about 12 miles to high school from 1938 to 1942. I laugh every time I read this story about her high school bus. Here’s what she wrote:

    When I went to high school, I had to ride the school bus. It was probably one of the first school buses built. There was a bench seat along each side and one down the middle. It was showing wear, having traveled over dirt roads in all kinds of weather. The bus driver was a senior [that’s a high school senior], Rivers Davidson, who later married my sister Ruth. Someone named the bus “Ole Misery” and Rivers was called “Scrap” because his father gathered up scrap iron to sell, not knowing it would be shot back at us in WWII. We’d be traveling at a pretty good speed downhill and Scrap would hit the brakes, sending everyone sliding on those bench seats to the front. We were happy travelers, singing to the tune of “The Old Time Religion” – “It will do when Scrap is dying – It will do when Misery is wrecking.” Misery did run off the road once and leaned against a steep bank which kept her upright. We all got off to push her back on the road. The back almost caved in but soon she was on the road and we went merrily on our way.

    Imagine, a high school senior driving the school bus and the kids getting out to push the bus out of a ditch!!

    So the question that came to me is this: What legacy will we, the congregation of RUMC, leave our children’s children?

    To make sure I knew what I was talking about, I looked up the definition of legacy: The first definition is “a gift of property, especially personal property, as money, by will; a bequest”. Many of us leave a legacy to our children and our grandchildren through a will. RUMC has been fortunate to receive several legacies in the form of endowments, some large, some small, but all appreciated. One legacy I will leave is remembering RUMC in my will. As treasurer, I know how difficult it is to figure out how we are going to pay for major repairs and renovations so I’m leaving a portion of my estate to the church for that purpose.

    The second definition is “anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or predecessor”.

    We have been left the legacy of this church in this place for 238 years. Many of the people who worked to preserve this church are no longer known to us; they are just names on our stained glass windows, part of our library name or just names in the membership rolls that we have dating back to the late 1800s.

    There are many names that come to mind of people who have touched my faith journey – George and Marguerite Maynard, Mary Belt, Janet Haines, Judy Ator, Dee Schmidt, Doug Hoffman, Ed and Bea Gies, Vernon Warrington, Winnie Garman, Marion Yohn, to name just a few.

    In 1998, the Older Adult Ministry group compiled a book titled “The ABCs of RUMC – A history of the people, by the people and for the people.” The forward reads:

    The following pages are truly a witness to the faithful worshipers at the Reisterstown United Methodist Church. Their personal and family histories are full of great and outstanding commitments, involvements and love for the Church over many years…..

    In these written accounts, each in the writer’s own words, we find that God truly draws us together in our faith, our worship and our community. Best of all, he brings us closer together in the love of our Lord Jesus.

    I paged through the book again and came to the entry by Winnie Garman. She opens this way “I didn't choose this church – I grew up in it, at least in Asbury ME Church. This is where my parents brought me.” She goes on to talk about her memories from the 30s and 40s at church -- Sunday school, picnics, Ladies Aid (now the UMW), suppers, her marriage to Bud. Winnie also remembers the joining of Grace Southern Methodist and Asbury ME Church to form Reisterstown Methodist Church. Grace Southern Methodist and Asbury ME Church were the two congregations that formed when the Church split over the slavery issue in the mid-1800s. Then she fast forwards to 1980s and 90s and the formation of the Rachel Bruehl Memorial Library. Here’s what she wrote:

    Jenette Ports took on the job of gathering together books that were scattered around the Church to create a library.  With a donation from Eleanor Turnbaugh, the Rachel Bruehl Memorial Library was born.  Rachel Bruehl was Elanor's mother and the "Mrs. Bruehl" of the general store next door. (It stood where our present Sanctuary is now.)  She had been a member of the Adult Bible Class, with perfect attendance, for over 50 years.  Jenette moved the library three times as it grew in size- the last time to its present location.  After serving as librarian for 17 years, Jenette decided to "retire."

    Our newsletters asked and asked for someone to take over.  Finally they begged for people to serve on a "library committee."  That I figured I could do.  Unfortunately, most of the committee worked during the day.  A new librarian was finally found, but she too worked and found it was more than she could handle.  Meanwhile, Bud and I had started trying to keep things "caught up" during the week.  Somebody had to take care of what Jenette had worked so long for.  In October, 1986, Joanne Ditto, then head of the C.O.E., asked me to take the job of librarian.  Bud said, "You might as well.  you're doing everything but buying books now!"

    With the committee's help, Sue Wright, as Treasurer, paying my bills, the UMW giving us a monthly check, and Eleanor Turnbaugh's yearly donation, I found that buying books was the best part.  No, I'll take that back.  The best part is seeing members of our congregation reading those books.

    From that simple start, we have a legacy left by the Turnbaughs that will be part of RUMC for many generations to come.

    Here’s a portion of the entry I wrote for the “ABCs of RUMC” in the fall of 1997: 

    Teaching has always been a love of mine.  I wanted to teach while I was growing up, but by the time it came to choosing a career, teachers were a dime a dozen.  I've been able to "satisfy" part of my teaching desire by teaching small groups and Sunday School.  I taught adult Vacation Bible School when VBS was at night.  I taught two small groups, one on parenting and one on women in the Bible.  I've been teaching Adult Sunday School for about three years now.  I also acted as Sunday School Superintendent for three years.

    As part of RUMC, I've watched the congregation reach out to those in need.  Volunteers in Mission was another challenge we took and met.  When the Baltimore Conference formed a team to travel to Alaska to help build a church, I said, "I want to do that."  What a wonderful experience.  I got to know Bea and Ed Gies; Bea and I had served the same tables at one of the dinners and I was glad I got to know her much better.  Sue T. Wright and I roomed together and that friendship has lasted over the years, too.  I asked Jim and the kids what they remembered about the past 13 years at RUMC.  They all mentioned the time I was in Alaska and Deanne Callegary brought a basket holding a little teddy bear and Hershey kisses to our home to show support for the family whose member was away with VIM.  It's the little things!

    Lauren and Chris don’t attend church at this point in their lives, but I know that the foundation they received while attending Sunday school and youth group will stay with them for the rest of their lives. They are both caring, responsible young adults. That’s a legacy that the members of RUMC have passed on to my children.

    Then I started thinking about what I will be remembered for. Will I be remembered by someone who attended the adult Sunday school class I led? The bible studies I attended or facilitated? Will someone remember something I said in a sermon or during a prayer? Will I be remembered with smiles and fond memories or not at all? Does the light of Christ shine in me and is it seen by others? Have I ignited a spark in someone that has or will grow into the light of Christ in them?

    I have a study guide on spiritual gifts titled “Each One A Minister”. In it the author, William J. Carter, defines the body of Christ this way:

    [the body of Christ] is actually the sum of its member gifts. God has placed the gifts within the members of the church because God has ministries that the Body needs to accomplish. Each church is unique. None has the exact same purpose as any others.

    Not only is each church unique, but each generation of a church is unique. It is through the use of our spiritual gifts that we leave our legacy of faith. In this day and age, the church is not the center of social as well as spiritual life. Church is not the only place you can go now to see friends, share a meal and discuss events of the day. We live in an age with constant and diverse demands for our time. We have to decide that faith sharing and passing on our legacy is important.

    So what we are really talking about here is two legacies. One is the legacy we each leave as individuals and one is the legacy we leave, as a congregation. So what legacy will you leave and how will you leave it? AND what legacy will we, as a congregation, leave?

    In Winnie’s story, she said that “Our newsletters asked and asked for someone to take over…” as librarian and finally they formed a committee. Things are no different today. Our lay leadership team asks and asks for people to serve on committees, we always need people to help serve communion or provide the communion elements. We need ushers and greeters, Sunday school teachers and helpers, we need people to help maintain our buildings and help with our youth. We need creative people to help with bulletin boards and our web site. If there is something you think you can help with, put it on your connection card. We can use your help in whatever capacity you are willing to serve.

    I want RUMC to be here another 238 years; God wants us to be here for another 238 years. But not just exist; we need to be a presence in the community. We need to make a difference. The light of Christ needs to shine from each of us to everyone we encounter. I want someone to stand up on Anniversary Sunday in the future and say “Look at what they did back in 2015. Look at the light they kept burning. If they had not passed on their legacy, we would not be here today.”

    As Pastor Vivian has mentioned, we are doing a Lenten study using the book by Jacob Armstrong titled “The God Story”. It is a devotional that you can do at home, but there will also be groups using the book as a study guide to help us understand where we fit in God’s story. I hope you take the time to work through the devotional even if you don’t attend a study so that you know where God wants you in his story. Couple this with the spiritual gift assessment we did last summer and you may begin to understand what your legacy will be.

    Remember the prayer at the beginning of the service? “Now to him who, by the power at work within us, is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” By the power at work within us, God is able to accomplish far more than we can imagine… and to him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.