This year, we celebrate our 15oth year of being a community of faith focused on serving our neighbors in mission and ministry. This community of faith whose stated core values include nurturing an inquiring and active faith, being expansively welcoming, and centering ourselves in Christ and his ministry. In other words we look to Jesus to guide us wherever that takes us as a community of faith entering its 151st year.
But we look not only to Jesus; we look to the 
saints that surround us, this cloud of witnesses that the author of Hebrews notes. I’ve always loved this set of verses from Hebrews so I’ll read them using the Common English Bible. First though, let me set the stage for you. Prior to this, the author had written about faith and the way in which the saints acted on and through this faith.
Hear these words from 11:1-2 that explain this faith: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. And then the author eventually launches into a recitation of all that the ancestors – the saints of the past like Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Rahab among others – accomplished by their faith in God. Then we come to our verses for today (11:39-12:2):
All these people didn’t receive what was promised, though they were given approval for their faith. God provided something better for us so they wouldn’t be made perfect without us. So then, with endurance, let’s also run the race that is laid out in front of us, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let’s throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up, and fix our eyes on Jesus, faith’s pioneer and perfecter. He endured the cross, ignoring the shame, for the sake of the joy that was laid out in front of him, and sat down at the right side of God’s throne.
Think about the one who endured such opposition from sinners so that you won’t be discouraged and you won’t give up.
Their faith was active and demanding – think about Abraham leaving the familiar for the unknown, Joseph being sold into slavery but eventually becoming the Pharoah’s right-hand, Moses going up against the Pharoah so that his enslaved people would be let go, and Rahab being a spy at the potential cost of her life. Think about Jesus who endured the cross because of his active and demanding faith in God – to teach us how to love and how to work for justice.
This kind of faith is not for the faint of heart because it demands so much of us – sometimes we suffer, sometimes we don’t get what we thought we would, sometimes our work for love and justice results in disappointment. Yet if we follow the example of these saints – this cloud of witnesses that surrounds us, we keep going, we keep the faith, we don’t give in to despair, we don’t let discouragement have the final say.
As we enter our 151st year, in the uncertainty of where God might be guiding us next, and the abject cruelty we are witnessing in real time in our nation, it might be very tempting to just give up, to stop running the race, to forget the cloud of FPC-Bethlehem witnesses that surround us, to not acknowledge the saints that are sitting in this place at this time. Take a look around – you are all saints – all followers of Jesus – all people of faith. Are you ready to keep running the race from a faithful past into a hopeful future, built by saints who have been and will continue to be called to serve?
Are you ready to dedicate ourselves to this community of faith in our 151st year with praise and gratitude for what has occurred over these 150 years of ministry and mission? Hear the words again from Psalm 30 which were written on the occasion of dedicating the temple:
I exalt you, Lord, because you pulled me up; you didn’t let my enemies celebrate over me. Lord, my God, I cried out to you for help, and you healed me. Lord, you brought me up from the grave, brought me back to life from among those going down to the pit. You who are faithful to the Lord, sing praises to him; give thanks to his holy name! His anger lasts for only a second, but his favor lasts a lifetime. Weeping may stay all night, but by morning, joy!
While this sounds very much like an individual praying – it is actually part of a communal event – it is a community giving thanks to God for God delivering them from hard times. We may weep all night, but by the morning there will be joy! God turns our mourning into joy!
So whatever we may mourn over these last 150 years, whatever we may mourn going forward, God will turn that to joy and hope, and by faith we will imitate and look to Jesus, we will feel the presence of that cloud of witnesses, and we will be the saints that will continue to build this community of faith through an active and inquiring faith. We will continue to build in a way that is expansively welcoming. And we will continue to build centering ourselves in Jesus’ mission and ministry.
We will acknowledge our role as current saints of the church imitating the past saints of this church. Saints like Rev. George W. Musgrave who through faith that God was doing something different in Bethlehem through FPC lent his financial and personal support encouraging the saints to build and serve in mission and ministry in the 1870’s and beyond.
We will reflect on the characteristics of saints over these next four weeks: gratitude even when suffering, persevering even when you feel like giving up, taking risks and exhibiting courage even in the midst of fear, and being generous and loving our neighbor even when the pushback is hard.
And, the truth is we might not see what is promised – God’s kindom here on Earth, or that new garden of life we saw in the Book of Revelation – but that is ok, because we are called to keep building a community of faith that takes that faith seriously.
We are called to not just celebrate 150 years but look with hope to that 151st year. We are called to think of ourselves as saints – as Jesus followers who want to live out his Love commandments, and we are called to serve in this community of faith in whatever way we feel God guiding us communally and individually. Do you feel this call? How might we continue to explore this call together? These next four weeks offer us an opportunity to do just that! May it be so! Amen!