Old Brick Reformed Church, Organized 1699

490 Route 520 • P.O. Box 153 • Marlboro, NJ 07746

Office Phone: (732) 946-8860

Secretary's Email: secretary@oldbrickchurch.orgInfo

Sunday Worship: 10:00AM - 11:00AM

Pastor Marie's Sermon Notes for Sunday October 9th, 2024

This morning, I want to focus on some questions that I have come up with, some of them, some of you could be thinking about. I have four.

1. What is world communion Sunday and why do we focus on it?

2. If the installation is next week, why are we focusing on re-covenanting together this week?

3. We wrote our vision and mission statements; do we have to read them ever again?

4. What do any of these three questions have to do with our real issue: we need more people.

So, I’m going to start with number 1. World Communion Sunday is the one Sunday in the entire year where every single Christian church around the globe celebrates the sacrament of communion. With all our differences, we claim that we are in Christ, on this Sunday, we show our unity in a very tangible way. But there’s something deeper going on as well. On this Sunday we remember that there is much more that connects us than divides us. We set aside our differences and see everyone as a brother and sister in Christ. We are also encouraged to see each and every person as our neighbor, as someone whom God has brought into our life for a reason. World Communion Sunday encourages us to look beyond ourselves to see the larger vision God has for us and for the world.

If the installation is next week, why are we focusing on covenanting together as a pastor and congregation this week? Next week is for the Classis. It’s the formal thing. Today is for us. It doesn’t matter what Classis does if we aren’t committed to each other. We have come together at a precarious point in the life of Old Brick Church. I am part time. Membership is down. Expenses keep increasing and revenue decreases. Our nest egg is getting smaller. It could be very easy to be depressed and to think that things here are hopeless. But they are not. As people of faith, we know that God finds ways when we think that there is no way. We know that God uses people and places that other people have written off. We know that God turns things upside down from commonly held truths. Our God is a God of underdogs. Our God is a God who inspires people who refuse to give up. Our God is a God of miracles, love, and compassion. We need to be committed to each other and to God, so that we have the best chance to make Old Brick Shine brighter than it ever has. It’s going to take work and ideas and prayer: lots of them. It will also help to have humor and patience and a forgiving heart.

We wrote the vision and mission statements. Aren’t we done with them? No, they should be our guiding lights. They should be part of our two-minute answer if someone asks about our church. They should guide our actions and how we relate to the world. Every so often we should look at them and ask if they help us do what we need to be doing. And that leads us to, what do we need to do? What is God calling Old Brick Church to do and to be? What can we do that nobody else can do? Together we need to answer those questions. Together we need to plan how we will fulfill our calling right here, right now.

What do these three questions have to do with our real issue? Everything. We need to know who we are, where we want to go, and have some ideas on how we want to get there. These should be large brush strokes so that we can allow God’s spirit into our midst to guide us as we journey forward. Now, here’s the hard part. None of this is going to be easy, nor will we know what will work and what won’t work. We are called to walk in faith, trusting that God will guide and bless us. There will be some signs, however. What I have learned as a spiritual director that if something is blessed by God, it works out. The path just opens up and you easily move through it. That doesn’t mean to say that when something isn’t that easy, it’s wrong, it just means that we need to pay attention to our motives and desires to check if they are aligned with God’s. We also may realize that something that we thought would be a part of our path no longer makes sense. That can be hard as well, because sometimes those things that we need to let go of are the things that are near and dear to our hearts. But everything in balance. Being faithful doesn’t mean turning everything upside down or rejecting the things we always do. Being faithful means that we pay attention to how God leads us now.

God has brought us together to be partners in the divine vision. With faith and hope in that vision we will sow the seeds of love and grace in our community. We will welcome our neighbors. We will follow God’s lead. We will pray and work together so that this community of faith, Old Brick Church will still be here in another 325 years. (Read the Vision and Mission statements.) Amen.

Reformed Church
In America
RCA The Reformed Church in America is a fellowship of congregations called by God and empowered by the Holy Spirit to be the very presence of Jesus Christ in the world.

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