Every first Sunday of the month--when I travel back to the Meadows (site of Calvary's former location)--I am reminded of how God honors past and present faithfulness. From the day that the Meadows opened, Calvary has had a presence in this assisted living community: not only leading a monthly worship service, but also praying for the residents who live there and visiting those in need.
This is no small thing. When Calvary built on this site in 1959, the dedicatory prayer was that the land would always be considered holy ground, and that God would be honored by all who worshipped there. However, times changed, and what was once deemed a large parcel of ground soon became confining. But, although Calvary moved to Northfield Drive six years ago, this faith never left the premises on Tilden Avenue (now The Meadows).
Every time Rakie Huber sits down to play the piano or Joyce Isenhour leads in singing, there is the feeling of "returning home". In fact, I often comment that, although we are worshipping in a dining hall, that same space used to be the Calvary sanctuary. The faith of the past has not been lost. And the faith of the present makes the past all the richer.
Yesterday, at the Meadows worship, we also sang a grand Charles Wesley hymn: "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing". This hymn, like many others that Wesley wrote, now grace the hymnal pages of Protestant and Catholic alike. And I daresay that one would be hard-pressed to find a hymnal produced in English in which one couldn't find at least one Charles Wesley hymn.
This is also part of our extended heritage: our past faith now come full circle to sing in the present hour.
I have always believed that we honor God's His-story whenever we create new paths of faith in our time. We can never live in the past. But we can embrace the future in such a way that past faith is honored and cherished . . . even as the new has come.
Calvary is fast approaching a 200-year anniversary. Think of it: two centuries of faithfulness. The past and present joined. And we are a part of it.
Magnificent when you think about it. And humbling.
This is no small thing. When Calvary built on this site in 1959, the dedicatory prayer was that the land would always be considered holy ground, and that God would be honored by all who worshipped there. However, times changed, and what was once deemed a large parcel of ground soon became confining. But, although Calvary moved to Northfield Drive six years ago, this faith never left the premises on Tilden Avenue (now The Meadows).
Every time Rakie Huber sits down to play the piano or Joyce Isenhour leads in singing, there is the feeling of "returning home". In fact, I often comment that, although we are worshipping in a dining hall, that same space used to be the Calvary sanctuary. The faith of the past has not been lost. And the faith of the present makes the past all the richer.
Yesterday, at the Meadows worship, we also sang a grand Charles Wesley hymn: "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing". This hymn, like many others that Wesley wrote, now grace the hymnal pages of Protestant and Catholic alike. And I daresay that one would be hard-pressed to find a hymnal produced in English in which one couldn't find at least one Charles Wesley hymn.
This is also part of our extended heritage: our past faith now come full circle to sing in the present hour.
I have always believed that we honor God's His-story whenever we create new paths of faith in our time. We can never live in the past. But we can embrace the future in such a way that past faith is honored and cherished . . . even as the new has come.
Calvary is fast approaching a 200-year anniversary. Think of it: two centuries of faithfulness. The past and present joined. And we are a part of it.
Magnificent when you think about it. And humbling.
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