Valerie Rae Hanneman
Acts 16:5 (The Message) “Day after day the congregations became stronger in faith and larger in size.”
I have been having a very introspective week. All these songs have been winding their way through my head. My mind has been singing Sonny & Cher’s “The Beat Goes On” (And the beat goes on - and the beat goes on) and singing the Byrds’ “Turn, Turn, Turn” (For every thing turn, turn, turn, there is a season, turn, turn, turn, a time to live, a time to die, a time to laugh, a time to cry...) And of course, the classic from Fiddler on the Roof - “Sunrise, Sunset” (Sunrise, Sunset, Sunrise, Sunset, swiftly flow the years, one season following the other, laden with happiness and tears). I can almost hear you asking, “Good grief, Valerie! What’s with all the passage of time songs!” I can answer that. This Saturday, my son, my baby, my Steven, turns eighteen. Legally, he is a man! (Legally maybe, but every mother of an “adult” son is snickering right now at just the thought!) I am now the mother of grown children. What?!? How did that happen?!? Wasn’t it just last week that I was laughing at him trying to walk, and just a few days ago that I was sitting in the elementary school principal’s office because Steven beat the living snot out of that kid who made fun of Andrew, Steven’s best friend (who happened to be mentally challenged). (His punishment was the biggest banana split I could find in Fresno!) And now I see my great big 6'3" son making his plans for college, holding hands with his beautiful girl-friend, looking forward to a future that is not based around my home. Do I sound sad? I am a little bit. But I think that mostly I am just coming to the realization that the rhythm of life goes on. That generation follows generation that follows generation. It is as it should be - as it has been planned by Father since before the beginning.
In my introspective mood, I am looking at the other foundation of my life - the church- and realizing that it also follows the rhythm of life. Do you know that I used to carry Hannah Neuman around on my hip in my first Sonday School class? Now she is as tall as me and as pretty as all get out. The other day I heard Norm Baird talking, and turned around to say hi - only it was Gavin Baird - another child that was in my first Sonday School class. I was a camp counselor for Meghan Dineen and now she is a missionary in Mexico. And Kristin Nolte - my goodness! I watched her grow from a child to a gangly teenager, to a beautiful composed young woman, serving Jesus with her whole heart as the Director of Children’s Ministry (And she’s my BOSS!)(Praise God!)
Isn’t it an amazing thing that we can look back to when the church was born (the day that Holy Spirit descended in tongues of flame and Peter stood up to preach) and follow her rhythm of life until today. We watch as great preachers stand before the people telling them of Jesus, and in the crowd to whom they preach is the next great preacher. A Sonday school teacher teaches, as the next Sonday school teacher listens intently. A missionary at home on furlough sets ablaze the heart of the next missionary. And like all rhythms and melodies the Church ebbs and flows in time - this age strong as great revivals sweep the country, this next year a little weaker as new age thoughts take hold of people’s minds, and following year - who knows? And no matter how her rhythm ebbs and flows, the melody of the life of the Church never changes. From when Adam and Eve were the pre-church, teaching Abel how to build an alter of sacrifice, to Willie’s sermon last Sonday, to the next great evangelist fifty years from now, the melody and the life of the Church always was, always is and always will be Jesus.
I find that to be a great comfort- don’t you?
satan has always been about the destruction of the Church - it is his mission statement. he took his first swipe at her in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve fell from grace and harmed their relationship with God. (Their purpose was supposed to be the same purpose of the Church today - to be in intimate relationship with God) The next swipe came in the garden of death, when satan used a cross, nails and a spear to try to destroy the church by destroying the Head of the Church. Then came the Roman emperors who used Christians as cat chow, then the inquisitions, and into this very day when the persecuted Church struggles to survive in many countries. But no matter how hard he tries satan will never succeed in destroying the Church because to destroy the church, he must first destroy Jesus - and that ain’t happening.
It is part of the rhythm of life that the older generation shakes it’s head at the next generation and wonders what is going to become of civilization. It is part of the rhythm of life for the Church that the older generation shakes it’s head at the next generation of the Church and wonders what’s gong to happen to the Church when guitars and drums replace the organ, and praise choruses replace the hymns and who knows what is coming after that. And the answer simply is that the beat goes on - and on - and on. It goes on through the Church’s ebbs and flows, it goes on through satan’s attacks, it goes on throughout changing times. The Church is eternal because the head and heart of the Church - Jesus Christ - is eternal. And in the end - we win.
In these days when Christianity is increasingly under attack by the secular world - isn’t that good to know?
LORD Jesus, because You are eternal, Your Church is eternal - and I am eternal. Thank You for eternity.
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