Time Was…

WED., JUNE 8, 1988, 5:50 AM
FARM, STUDY

A fascinating exercise in human imagination is that of going back in time and seeing life as it was remembered and also how it might have been different. It can be even more interesting if you can imagine that time is the illusion and that you can be in that past instance as well as in any future one. And, yes, this can be proper practice for life after earth death when you can move, by will, without the restraints of time and space.

Now I grant that this is pretty weird stuff for a middle class American Presbyterian, but if I suggest that such is possible, even desirable, in faith you must accept. Your Christian life commenced, so you remember, in the big, old Methodist Church in Long Beach, Fifth and Pacific. That was a fine old building, and I surely was an active force there. Remember particularly Don Baker’s corner classroom, his emphasis on the real and seamy side of the Bible stories, and his willingness to reward anyone who came forth with a sentence prayer with a quarter.

Know that I still am urging you to know the stories from the Scriptures, building on that start when… time was. Also I am pleased that you can now pray quite spontaneously, and many people recognize this… without the monetary reward.

You felt natural and “at home” in that church building, and you do, likewise, in your home church now. Consider the other buildings in which you have felt “at home.” Yours has been a stable faith.

Recall the basement junior high room and your willingness to join the Loyal Temperance Legion on any Temperance Sunday. You remember clearly the portion that you have kept faithfully and purposely. Have that many years really passed?

The picture of Central Union comes easily to your mind, both in its present form and that of forty years back. That was your prime choir experience, and you still can feel the zeal of certain magnificent anthems. Your marriage had its official start in that smaller replica chapel, and that is a clear, vivid picture in your mind. The building stands as it did, and your marriage has moved through several important stages, but continues strong.

Recall now that back classroom at Menlo Park where the noon-time group of men met. From this you trace your born again status, an evolution rather than a revolution, but toward a Christian life more directly related to Me. You had no clear idea of doing anything like this active meditation, but know that it would have been most unlikely without that “crossover” experience. Recall also the basically barren corner room in Palo Alto where you taught the class on Romans, with a wild, young attempt to get adult Presbyterians to prepare for their Sunday class. You have continued to urge this preparation, and it started these many years back.

Project now into the future. Given the minimal changes over these past 50 years in the church buildings you need not expect changes that will make the buildings unrecognizable. You shall go into churches as you did this last Sunday, as a visitor or as one for whom this will be a new “home.” Even this Fall you shall be a worshipper in some variety of buildings, for I support that inner urge that, fortunately, you have to become part of a congregation, on any Sunday. You did well this past Sunday and deserved the elation you felt.