Culture can do much damage to religion, and religion can do much damage to culture. Too many nineteenth-century missionaries in too many parts of the world were more concerned with cultural norms from back home than with the essence of Christianity for the peoples they were sent to convert. They believed it was necessary first to put sufficient amounts of cloth over the bodies of people who lived in the tropics and only after that to expose them to what they saw to be the eternal truths of what they saw to be the unalterable Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Although the human race had a very spotty record as creation custodians up until this century, there really were not enough of us around completely to botch our responsibility, nor did we have the technological or demographic capability of destroying the planet. Now, by means of excessive consumption and overpopulation, we do. We have acquired this odious ability only in the last fifty years or so. No generation has had the awesome burden on their shoulders which our generation has.

Listen very carefully, Christian people: God does not operate on the basis of popularity polls.  He goes on being God whatever we may think of Him.  But God rarely if ever magically straightens anything out. He doesn’t have an option to do that.  To be God is to be cosmically in charge, to exercise universal authority, but it is our responsibility to do whatever we can to improve the world.

The Chapel Without Walls held its first service on January 5, 2004. Today is January 7, 2024, and thus we are celebrating our twentieth anniversary as a congregation. In this sermon I want to refer to what my thoughts were regarding our future before we held our first service, what the realities turned out to be, and then to address a goal I have for our future from now on.