New Year...Same God Manuscript

Text: Isaiah 63:7-9

I love this time of year. A time to look back on the past twelve months and a time to look forward to the next twelve months. I am a self-confessing new year's resolution junkie. I have bought many of the books and have gotten lots of people excited and on board. I had in mind that we would work through together a new year's resolution sermon, but I thought better of it. You probably are very happy about that! Instead, I want to take the next two weeks to celebrate where we have come and explore where God is calling us in my view. This week we will be looking back and celebrating what God has done in our lives and next week take some time to lay out where I see God might be moving us in 2008.

Let' s begin with a passage as a framework for our time together today. Isaiah 63:7-9 says,

NLT Isaiah 63:7 I will tell of the LORD's unfailing love. I will praise the LORD for all he has done. I will rejoice in his great goodness to Israel, which he has granted according to his mercy and love. 8 He said, "They are my very own people. Surely they will not be false again." And he became their Savior. 9 In all their suffering he also suffered, and he personally rescued them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them through all the years.

This passage describes for us God's covenantal character. Unfailing love, "chesed" in the Hebrew, paints an image of God as steadfast, long-suffering, and faithful. God does not simply sit on high and wait for us to mess up in order to strike us down. God works in our lives. His goodness toward his people can be counted upon as can his mercy and love. He calls us, his people, by name as His very own. We are not distant neighbors for whom good fences are needed, rather we are the closest of family. And God's hope in us goes without saying. God would not be willing to wait on us if it were hopeless would he? Why would he create us in the first place if we were not able to be capable and productive people? He would not, he did not. I have seen it with my own eyes.

I too, like the writer of Isaiah want to tell of the LORD's unfailing love. There were a people who began meeting in the Masterson's home North of town under the direction of Francis Asbury in 1789. Asbury was ordained Bishop by John Wesley and sent to America to start new congregations and to offer leadership, sacraments, and spiritual guidance to those already meeting together. Many conclude this to be the first gathering of Methodist west of the Alleghenies and therefore the mother of Kentucky methodism. For 218 years this people, sometimes a church, sometimes a Sunday School station, met and forged ahead bringing the good news of Christ to the people of Lexington and beyond. In 1908, now called First UMC because there were other church's established by then, moved into its current sanctuary on the corner of High and Mill. This congregation, already responsible for several church starts, either by split or intention, was a leader in the region and continued to be blessed as it had its hand in starting most of the churches in Lexington directly or indirectly. Three words can best describe First Church, in my view, evangelical, foreword thinking, planters.

But not since the 1960s had First Church begun anything new away from its downtown location. Not until this past October at least. We are part of the first new expansion of ministry off the downtown campus in 40 years. How this place came about is another story in itself, but I want to focus on the past 3 years. Three years ago this February, Susan and I came to Lexington to talk to Paul Brunstetter and the staff about an Associate Position. I still had approximately a year and a half of seminary left. Part of our time in Lexington was a trip to this place. I remember praying with Paul in the back of what is now the sanctuary that God would reveal his will for us and the church. Susan and I left that day and got to about Georgetown when one of us finally spoke up. I said, "we are going to Lexington aren't we?" And she said, "yes." I am not sure if the Staff Parrish Relations committee knew at this point that we were coming, but we did. Susan looked at me and said that the only thing she was worried about was her Mom who had been sick for an extended number of years. Her quality of life had gotten so very bad that our prayers had turned from healing to mercy.

That was on Wednesday. On Thursday morning, Susan's mother's doctor called saying that he had run out of tricks. There was nothing else he could do for her mom and that it might be time to call in hospice. On Friday hospice was called in. On Monday, after a wonderful weekend of saying good-bye, she went home to be with the Lord. Answered prayer? God at work? I do believe so.

We moved to Lexington in June of that year and began settling into a time of ministry within the church downtown. Approximately 18 months ago, discussion about Andover and its future heated up and it was decided that we should plan for a new service to begin sometime in 2007 or 2008. But where to start? Who would want to be involved? The Lord led person after person right to my door who wanted, and were most capable of helping.

On a Tuesday evening last April, there was a group of us out here meeting and beginning to put together a plan of attack. Before we left, I was assigned the task of getting someone to help us decorate this place by picking out color schemes and textures and lighting and so one. And oh, by the way, I did not have formal approval or any money. The following evening on my way to preach the Wednesday evening chapel service I got a phone message to call someone named Christy. When I called her back, she said that she and her sister were looking for a place to do some cooking out of and wanted to know if our kitchen would be available for rent. She said that this was a second business for her and that her main business was….any guesses? Yes, she was an interior designer who worked with LCA; had decorated many professional offices around town, and had finished the local synagogue. Answered prayer? God at work? I do believe so.

Early on, we knew that we wanted to do a traditional style service. Everyone told us that we were crazy and that no one wanted it anymore. Even if we did it, we would never find someone who could pull it off musically. In June, a man in the downtown church called me and asked if I was still looking for someone to lead music. I said yes, and he suggested I call Richard Dwyer. It did not take me long to realize Richard's impeccable credentials and gifts and I spent the first 15 minutes of our first time together trying to talk him out of it. I can't pay you what you are worth? I can't guarantee you that anyone will be there? To which he answered, "sounds like a great adventure" and quickly agreed to lead us in music. Answered prayer? God at work? I do believe so.

Direct mail doesn't work they told us. Too many churches are starting in that neighborhood they screamed. No matter, we forged ahead and drew 300+ that first Sunday. You have to have a full complement of programs before you start or they won't come back they said. The first Sunday was a fluke, they were all from Downtown. No matter, we have averaged 140 for our first three months excluding the first Sunday. They will all be coming from other churches. This will just be a swapping sheep exercise they said. I have met some of you who had not found a church home in 3, 5, 10, 20+ years until you walked through those back doors and said you were "home". Answered prayer? God at work? I do believe so. For that is the only way I can describe what has happened over the past three months.

Has everything been perfect? Hardly. Have we had our starts and stops? Yes. But every week I stand at the back door and someone comes out and you can see God's fingerprints all over their countenance. God is here and has been working in your lives. You are the reason for this thing called Andover being talked about throughout our community. You are the reason. I give thanks for you.

I do not know what the next year holds, but I do know who holds next year. And it is in God that we place our trust and focus.