August 22 is a significant date for Pickwick Church

On August 22, Pickwick Church will mark its 29th anniversary of worshiping in its current sanctuary. As I look forward to that day, I ponder a couple of truths within the sphere of our faith. The first is that time is important. 29 years is a significant number for this celebration. No one meaningfully refers to this sanctuary as “new” anymore. Even though the church worshiped in its former location for many years, that building is gone, and the current location is a community landmark. A child born at the time of our occupation of this building would be coming to the end of its third decade of life. It would have passed its public schooling and has had enough time to finish graduate education. That person could easily be married and have children of his/her own by now. A lifetime is a long time.

The observance of time is important in our church life
But, even removed from our specifics, we know that time is important in the church. We do not divide our liturgical year into twelve months. Rather, our time is measured by seasons: Advent, Christmas, The Season after Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and the Season after Pentecost. These seasons are uneven in their duration. Advent lasts but four weeks. The Season after Pentecost has the possibility of stretching out over twenty-seven weeks.

In terms of our administration, our congregation functions over the course of a Conference year. Our Southeast Jurisdiction and the General United Methodist Church carries on its business in a quadrennial (four-year) cycle. That means – among other things – that budgets and officeholders and even programming at these various levels follows these time markers as well.

Time is a significant in scripture. When the Book of Genesis tells the story of Creation, it reports that the whole process took six days, and that God then rested on the seventh day. This became the model of one of the basic units of our marking the passage of time – the week. We set aside every seventh day – the Sabbath – for rest and recuperation from a week’s work. The Jewish calendar has a regular cycle of feasts and fasts. The Jews highlight significant events in their history of dealing with God by observing these commemorations.

Certain numbers that mark the passage of time have particular meanings in scripture. Seven recalls the movement of Creation. The number forty emerges in many places in the Bible. The rains of Noah’s flood fell over the course of forty days and forty nights. Moses was on Mt. Sinai receiving the Law from God over a stretch of forty days. God caused the disobedient children of Israel to wander in the wilderness for forty years. Moses and Elijah each undertook fasts of forty days. The reigns of both David and Solomon were forty years in duration. Jonah prophesied to Nineveh that God would destroy the city forty days after the pronouncement of his prophesy. Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness took place over the course of forty days. Jesus was in the tomb forty hours. The number forty can mean exactly or precisely in scripture. But the bible also uses forty as a description of “a long time,” or “an appropriate time.” All of this is to say that time is not inconsequential. It is important. How can we discount Psalm 90:10, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years…” (KJV)

So, it is no insignificant thing that this historical church has endured on this spot three decades. It is still a vital presence in our community and a faithful witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I anticipate that it will continue to be these things for the foreseeable future.

Place is s significant part of much of our church history
I said that there were two important ideas that I connect with this anniversary. If the first is time, the second is place. Specific locales carry great weight in our lives. We speak of “hometown” and “home church” and “our school.” A lot of people have a great sentimental attachment to the location where they grew up, “the old home place.” People can frequently point to a specific spot as the place where they had their first date, first kiss, or first fancy party. Even when the buildings no longer stand, people recollect the church where they received baptism, where they joined the church, where they were married, and where significant funerals were conducted.

People can have fierce loyalties to their town, state, region, or country. The soil upon which noteworthy battles were fought receive particular reverence. Those of us who live in the shadow of the monuments at Shiloh understand that quite well.

“Place” is an important concept in the Bible as well. God placed the first people in a magnificent garden and then expelled them from Eden, never to return. When the waters of the Flood receded, the ark came to rest on Mount Ararat, and people seek to re-discover that lost location to this day. God came to Abram and told him to go to Canaan, and that one day his descendants would occupy that land and be “as numerous as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore…” You remember that when Moses approached the burning bush, God said in part, “the ground upon which you stand is holy ground.” The Book of Psalms describes Mount Zion as “God’s holy hill.” Jerusalem and the Temples of Solomon and Herod hold status as being sacred places. There are many spots in Canaan today that mark significant acts of Jesus or meaningful events in his life and ministry. All of these spots remind us of God’s acts of mercy, and they help us meditate on the grace God extends to us. Now, truth be known, we can think on these things anywhere. But human beings somehow find a connection between a piece of geography and important historical occurrences. A sense of place gives a feeling of connection with what has gone before, and what promises to lie ahead.

So, we’ll mark twenty-nine years at Pickwick Church.

And it is only the beginning.
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On Sunday, August 22, the Gospel Reading for the day will be John 6:51-58.