WHEN THE BELL RINGS!

A sermon by the Rev. Dr. James G. Kirk

Harundale Presbyterian Church

Glen Burnie, Maryland

January 21, 2001

Text: "Where he had been brought up." (Luke 4:16)

First Reading: Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

All week long I’ve thought about this bell. My mother used this bell to call my brother and me home for dinner. It was our dinner bell! Our backyard faced Lincoln Park, so all we had to do was to climb over the backyard fence and we were in the park, where we were most every day. As soon as I came home from school, I’d change clothes and be over the fence. It’s where we all gathered. There was a whole gang of us, Judy Sabatini, Wadia Nabhan, Rich Gunn, Arthur Fuller, Carol Torpey. We knew just where to meet each other, since we did the same thing day after day. Usually, sometime around six o’clock we’d hear the bell. Everyone knew it was time for me to get home. My mother seldom had to ring it more than once!

I’ve told Elizabeth about the bell. The other day, when I said I was going to use it in this week’s sermon, she told me she couldn’t go home again. She grew up in the west Bronx and her apartment building is now a bunch of rubble. She said that if you think about what’s happened in East Baltimore it’s pretty similar to the west Bronx. The whole neighborhood’s changed. Last week we buried her Godfather, Uncle Alfred. He was 90 years old and, during the service, all her cousins were remembering the good times they had had growing up in the west Bronx. They all had big apartments, but Elizabeth’s parents had the biggest.

Elizabeth’s mother had a lot of siblings, all of whom had come over from Germany, and Sunday after Sunday they’d gather at her apartment for Sunday dinner. Her mother’s dining room could easily sit 16 people, complete with hutch and serving board. As they talked it reminded me of how similar our families were. My mother also had many siblings, all of whom had come over from Scotland. Sundays we’d gather, just as they did, either at our house or one of the aunt’s or uncles for dinner. Again, the bell would ring and home I’d go.

The last time I went by my house in Alameda it was pretty much the same as when we lived there. The park is still there. The big porch is how I remember it. However, everything seemed much smaller than it did when I was growing up. I thought I lived on the longest block in the city. It’s no longer than any of the others, and is probably shorter than a lot of them. It’s funny how our perceptions change the older we get. What seemed so big to a child’s eyes diminishes in size the longer we live!

Those were the formative years, the years when a lot of what we learned would stay with us the rest of our lives. That’s what Luke wants us to hear as we listen to the Scripture this morning. We hear about Jesus’ formative years. He probably heard the bell ring, because he went home to Nazareth. The synagogue was no doubt familiar ground to him. His parents would have taken him there when he was a child. Now, as he’s beginning his ministry, he goes back to those formative years. He reads from the scroll of Isaiah. Again, it’s familiar territory for him. He knows of what he reads. It’s Isaiah’s message that will be the keystone of his ministry. Isaiah will get him through the tough times. Isaiah will orient his whole being to God’s will for him. Isaiah will provide guidance for him as he seeks to lead the people to new understandings. Isaiah will be there for him when the bell rings!

That’s what the formative years do for us. They guide us when the bell rings. The bell rang for President Clinton yesterday as he confessed that he’d lied when charged with having sex with Monica Lewinsky. It would have been better for him had he just told the truth in the first place. That’s what the formative years would have told him, the guidance they would have given him as to the right thing to do. But somehow, during the scandal, he lost sight of the formative years, and refused to admit what the whole nation knew to be the truth. The bell rang last week for the Reverend Jesse Jackson. He admitted he’d had an affair and was the father of a twenty-month old daughter. People were quick to forgive his wrongdoing and not so quick to throw the first stone. Former President George Bush heard the bell ring as his son was sworn in yesterday as President of the United States. The formative years led his son to seek the presidency and, we’re told those values of discipline and family is what gave him the legacy he now inherits.

That’s what we’re trying to do here this morning as the children came to watch Hayley Goladay’s baptism. They’re learning what baptism means in Sunday school. It’s like they’re reading from the scroll of Isaiah. We want baptism to be the cornerstone of their lives as the children of God. We want baptism to get them through the tough times. We want baptism to orient their whole being to God’s will for them. We want baptism to guide them to God’s will for their lives. As Martin Luther reminds us, each day as he arose from his bed, he put his hand on his head and said to himself, "I am baptized!" We hope their baptism will be there for them when the bell rings. Just as Jesus felt comfortable in the synagogue of his hometown of Nazareth, we want our children to feel comfortable here in the sanctuary and that they always feel welcome.

I always knew about what time my mother would ring the bell for dinner. But no one of knows when the bell will ring for other reasons. It may be when a child is born. We want her or him to have those same formative years that we had as children. It may be when we’re getting married and we need all the help we can garner to make the marriage last. It may be when we’re going through a painful separation and we need the church of baptized brothers and sisters to understand our pain and not make judgments. It may be when we’ve been diagnosed with a very frightening illness, or we’re facing a major surgery. This past week Pat Byerly went through surgery to repair a hole in her heart. You’ll remember Pat was our interim Director of Christian Education when David left and before Amy arrived. At any rate, before her surgery, I was there with her four children and together we surrounded her with the love of Christ as her family and friends. We never know when the bell will ring. But when it does we want to be able to draw on those formative years, pull out Isaiah’s scroll, remember our baptism and find God’s strength to sustain us.

Elizabeth was right, she couldn’t go home again. Her apartment is now rubble. But, the other day, when we were at the service for her Godfather, that wasn’t important. As she and her cousins told the stories of when they used to get together, it was as though they were home again in the west Bronx. They had the stories. They remembered those formative years. It was as though the years that had passed and the people who had passed with them were all there around the casket. The laughter, the tears, those formative years, the bell just kept ringing and ringing!

John and Jamie can’t go home again. Their home in Cresskill, New Jersey is now someone’s in-ground swimming pool. But that doesn’t matter. Someday this bell will be theirs. Hopefully, it will remind them of their formative years and what they learned, the strength they gained that they, too, will draw on when the bell rings. All of you have a bell of some sort. Just like Jesus with Isaiah’s scroll. It’s there when you need it. It’s something you’ll want to pass on to the generations that come after you. Today, it was Hayley’s baptism. Hopefully, our children heard the bell ringing, calling them home!

Thanks be to God,

Amen