Prayer:

Inheritances are something we are well aware of today.

It is a fact of life that one generation hands on its treasures and its wealth to the next.

In a money-oriented society like ours, we are inclined to think about inheritances mainly in financial terms.

For good reason: there is a lot of money to be passed on.

Economists tell us about the trillions of dollars, which are going to be handed on to the next generation.

Wills and testaments are, of course, key in passing on money and things. If you don’t have a will, this is your prod to get one soon!

Our life partners, if we have one, normally take first priority in our wills.

But after that, we routinely leave the bulk of our estate to our children, or if childless, to our nieces and nephews.

I personally think we tend to overdo it for our children.

If they are secure and comfortable and after they receive personal effects that carry sentimental meaning, we would be better stewards of God’s generosity to identify in our wills recipients of our estates which will make a positive difference in God’s world.

I’m sure anyone of us could identify 20 organizations, including this congregation, which would make far better use of a substantial bequest than simply passing on our money to our children.

For sure, our will is more than a piece of paper. And money is not the only asset we pass on to the next generation.

We all know that a personal history, along with values and a developed conscience, knowledge, social skills are the real treasures we want our children to inherit from us.

We don’t want them to be carbon copies of us.

But we do pray that our parenting will have positive effect.

We would like them to be people who love life and are committed to substance – especially substantial qualities like compassion, justice, generosity, and healthy love – gifts of the Spirit of Christ.

In the letter to the Ephesians – the church in Ephesus – St. Paul reminds his friends that because of Christ they too have inherited.

They are the inheritors of the Word of truth about God – and

that truth is Good News:

• Good News that God loves them no matter their race or culture;

• Good News that God comes into their lives with the Spirit, marking them as belonging to God.

The Spirit both prods people to deeper faithfulness and gives the faithful strength to continue in the Way of Christ.

But there is more to this divine inheritance.

This Spirit – the same Spirit we talk about when we say our anniversary motto: "people making a difference in the Spirit of Christ" – this Spirit is the pledge, the deposit, the down payment of something much larger.

The Greek word here is arrabon. And it means an advance payment serving as a surety and as guarantee that the remainder of the money will be paid in due time.

So what Paul is saying is that our current experience of the Spirit is the guarantee that some day we will enter the fulness of knowledge, of joy, and of peace.

Moments now when we are deeply moved and share joy and experience communion are mere foretastes to whet our appetites for more. >>

That more is, of course, the fullness of God’s presence.

So in Christ, we inherit directly from the Divine Parent the grace and Spirit for now, with the assurance of the full inheritance in God’s presence.

But there is another way we inherit the faith.

The faith heritage is received from those who have gone before us.

I’m talking about the 2000 years of Christian history and the 2 to 3000 years of faith history before that.

Visionaries like Abraham and Sarah, Moses and Miriam; David and Samuel; prophets like Isaiah and Anna;

Disciples like Peter and Mary Magdalene; risk takers like Paul and Lydia and others - all recorded in the Bible. I’m talking about them.

And beyond them there are generations of major and minor saints who not only kept the faith in their lifetimes, but shared the faith and made the love of God real for others around them.

Throughout the centuries of the Christian era, friends and companions of Christ sought to share that good news and to live by God’s grace.

Each generation handed on their treasure of faith.

I think of people in town and cities wherever Christian gathered to worship and learn. People like Sheila who made it her ministry in the congregation to get to know a new child well every month.

Or Lance who changed the message board in front of the church every Monday.

I’m thinking of countless women and men who felt ill-equipped but nevertheless taught church school knowing they would learn as much as the children did.

I’m thinking of teachers in schools and seminaries, leaders of various groups and organizations promoting personal faith and public witness. Mr. Lavooy who was principal of a church day school. Or William Carey who taught stories of Jesus in Serampore near Calcutta. Or Nellie McClung who taught young and older church folks that God calls women to ordained ministry no less than men.

I’m also thinking of people, who, like Abraham and Sarah, were willing to leave behind family and friends to share the Gospel in various parts of the world.

Some of you will be aware of the amazing story of Attie Muller’s parents, Anthony and Alida van de Loosdrecht who left Holland in 1912 for Indonesia as missionaries.

There, they worked with head hunting peoples of Sulawesi to make the Gospel of Christ real for the people. The cost was excruciatingly high. Attie’s father was murdered by a deranged native, then her 3 year old son died suddenly. Attie’s mother was left alone with two little girls and an immense burden of grief. But also with a faith that was tested and made persistent by God’s grace. The Christian community in that part of Indonesia was founded on the work and witness of these witnesses to Christ.

You can read the moving story in a little booklet Attie has published – copies on the table outside the church office.

There are countless stories of people intentionally handing on the faith and helping others discover the grace of God.

It seems only natural that people of faith share what gives them hope and joy.

We have been celebrating 75 years of Shaughnessy Heights congregation. In the larger scheme of things, 75 years is just a blip on the divine time graph.

But for us this is a substantial history.

During these years, congregational groups and individuals worked hard in church, in homes, and in the community to ensure that the next generation too would receive the inheritance of grace God intends for all.

Each of us will have someone who helped us sense that we are all heirs of this Gospel.

It may be spouse, parents, or a mentor, or an older friend, a minister or elder – someone who passed on the tradition to us, helped us believe that we too are heirs of God’s grace.

I invite you to think about one or more of these people. Who helped you in the past to know and who still inspires you with the Gospel that you are a beloved child of God, a sister or brother, and companion of Christ?

Who among saints departed was there for you in the past, and mystically continues to join with us in this sanctuary as part of that "cloud of witnesses" comforting and strengthening us today for our journey of faith?

Every time I walk through the Memorial Garden beside the church I take heart from those hundreds of people whose remains are interred there. I feel strongly that they are cheering us on, praying in the Spirit for us to remain faithful as Shaughnessy Heights Church. We have a trust to keep with them, with our God.

So please take some time to think about persons who made you an heir, an inheritor of God’s promises, so that when we pray together before communion, you can name aloud the saints in light.

We want them with us as we take part in communion at this table today. We need to remember that we are part of a long, long parade of saints who have gone before. We need to join their parade in the Spirit anticipating God’s great final heavenly banquet.

Our communion here today is again simply an inherited foretaste, an arrabon of what is to come.

But that final banquet will be the fulfillment of the partial.

On that great day, God will gather all creation round the table to revel and rejoice in God’s wonderful love.

We hold fast to the conviction that one day in the fullness of God’s time, we will be reunited with all those who have gone before, who now dwell in the heart of God. We believe we will share the blessed wonder and joy, and the uninterrupted love of the Holy God.

This is a real inheritance – an inheritance worth longing for because it can change our lives, enrich our living, and draw us closer to God.

May God hasten the day when all the earth inherits Christ’s shalom. AMEN