When It S Good Not to Obey Jesus

“A CLANGING BELL" Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time January 31, 2016 Joseph Andrew Slane Southminster Presbyterian Church

Jeremiah 1:4-10 Psalm 71:1-6 I Corinthians 13:1-13 Luke 4:21-30

Grant us, O God, such great love that we will be fully alive to You and to each other; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"Faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love." That last line of our Epistle lesson is the very heart of what it means to be fully alive to God and to each other. Faith, hope and love - the greatest of these is love.

The gift we most need is love. The gift the world most needs is love. O, how I yearn to be a more loving person. That's likely your desire too or you probably would not be here to worship the God of love. But as much as we desire to be more loving, it's so easy to lose our spiritual balance. When we forget what is at the heart of faith and act without love, our words and deeds are of little value. The opening line of our Epistle lesson states it quite vividly: "If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol."

In light of the dedication of a new musical instrument today we can appropriately say that a carillon played or heard without love is only a noisy gong or a clanging bell.

Certainly the new carillon is given out of love. The generosity of the families of the Southminster saints who have joined the Church Triumphant named in the worship folder have given with great love. Today we are called to receive that gift and dedicate it to God with abundant love.

This is a great opportunity to remember why many churches have carillons or bells. In our age most carillons are electronic and digital. But back in the day a manual carillon was the heaviest and largest of all musical instruments.

Housed in a huge church bell tower or steeple the instrument consisted of a minimum of twenty- three cast bronze bells.1 An old manual carillon would not fit in the Southminster steeple and would cover most of the sanctuary roof.

The tradition of ringing church bells dates back to about the year 400. The primary purpose of bells is to call people to worship and prayer.2 For instance, our carillon is programmed to play a Call to Worship a few minutes before the 8:30 and 11:00 prelude.

But any of the day of the week the chiming of the hour is a call to prayer. Just as I forget to act out of love, I'm not very good at remembering this discipline. But if I'm seated at my desk and not talking with someone or not unduly distracted, I try to pause and pray at the chiming of the hour.

Church bells remind us that the way to live with love is to be prayerfully centered in the presence of the One whose cross is on top of the steeple. Of course, praying with love is not only being still; it's also acting and working out of a desire to praise Jesus Christ.

In that regard, I talked and conducted an email interview with Southminster Property Ministry members Bill Christians and Brian Tielking.3 They planned and coordinated the work of many parishioners to prepare the steeple for the new carillon speakers. There's no access to our steeple through the building so there was a need to rent a motorized hydraulic lift to remove the old speakers and install the new ones. 2 Here are three of the questions I asked and Bill Christians' answer, given consent by Brian Tielking.

What was the most challenging part of the work? Bill's immediate reply: "Dealing with the swarm of wasps and hornets that had taken up residence in the church steeple."

What was the funniest experience you had? "The funniest, and sometimes most terrifying experience," Bill said, "was watching Brian try to run away from the wasps and hornets in the lift basket while I was holding on to the controls for dear life."

What was the most satisfying experience in that process? Bill Christians reflects, "The most satisfying experience was working with the many members of the congregation who gave their time during the week we had the lift rented to work on church maintenance projects, including the carillon installation, cleaning and painting the steeple, cleaning the gutters, replacement of all the parking lot and high building lights, and a lot of tree trimming." Bill concluded, "Some of our members had never ridden a lift before that week." That one sentence contains at least a dozen stories. You'll have to ask Bill or Brian to share those accounts. I won't tell those stories since I repeatedly declined an offer to ride in the lift. I'd rather look up at the steeple from solid ground.

For me, this was a most moving and loving event related to the installation of the new carillon. It's shared with the family's permission. Long-time Southminster member Howie Johnson joined the Church Triumphant last month on December 5th. On October 18th Howie and Christian Johnson attended our 8:30 service and sat in the pew with daughter and son-in-law Heather Land and Brian Tielking.

Howie was having unusual discomfort that morning. Because of encouragement from family and friends, Howie went directly to the emergency room at UAB Highlands immediately after the 8:30 service. He was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer. Even though it appeared he may not survive the time in the hospital, Howie maintained his calm, prayerful and loving countenance.

Much to his relief, several weeks later Howie was able to go home with hospice care. But before Howie Johnson went home he did something so simple, but so amazing. He wanted to stop by the church that Friday afternoon in November to see his son-in-law, Brian Tielking, and others ride the lift to work on the steeple in preparation for the new carillon.

When he was younger Howie would likely have been the Property Ministry member leading the way on steeple renovations. But he still had a loving vision in that process. He lived long enough to be able to attend worship again and hear the rich, melodic chimes of the carillon.

I loved Howie Johnson. And I love him even more because of what he did between leaving the hospital and going home with hospice care. When you hear the carillon play see that image of Howie Johnson. See him not only looking up at his son-in-law in the motorized lift, see Howie looking up at the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ that stands on top of the steeple. See that vision of Howie looking at the Celtic cross that points to the heavens reminding us of what it means to be fully alive to God and to each other.

"Faith, hope, and love, abide these three; and the greatest of these is love … Love never ends."

Let the bells chime to the praise of Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the God of love. Amen.4 1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carillon accessed December 2, 2015. 2 http://www.gotquestions.org/church-bells.html accessed same date as above. 3 In addition to talking with Brian and Bill, some of this material comes from an electronic communication received on January 12, 2016. 4 Organist David Renaker chimed the bells three times in the name of the Trinity, followed by silent reflection before the singing of the hymn, "As a Chalice Cast of Gold," No. 336 in the 1990 Presbyterian Hymnal.