One of our longtime leaders taught me something new about our church recently. We celebrated our 100th anniversary in 2013 with a massive granite plaque you can see on the east side of our sanctuary wall. That 4x8’ piece weighs some 1800 pounds, and required a special mounting system and removal of pews to put it in place. Not to worry, it’s not going to fall down—each of six iron bolts can hold up to 1000 lbs. That thing is steady and secure.
It brought to mind for me all that’s been given to us as a church. That part of our wall looks eternal, but we can date its placement and talk to those who helped install it. 1800lbs is a lot, but how much does our whole church weigh? Someone expert did the work to plan, pay for, build, and upkeep it. We walk in on Sundays into a room prepared for us by those long gone and little remembered. It’s a sobering thought.
On that same occasion of our 100th anniversary we had a time capsule to go uncover. Problem is: where is the thing precisely?! We knew it was buried under the cornerstone from historical photographs, but where precisely? X-ray equipment didn’t tell us precisely. So our sexton at the time suggested digging under the cornerstone without disturbing it. We did, and voila. The cornerstone, and the building it holds up, was not even moved.
We live in a time of political churn and consternation. Classically, to be liberal meant to stand for change and progress; to be conservative meant to defend the ways of our forebears. Now I’m not sure what either word means. From US goings-on one would think “conservative” meant wrecking ball and liberal meant constant hand-wringing. But let’s go back to the origins, shall we? To be liberal means to be generous—to expand the scope of those who benefit from the gifts of our ancestors. To be conservative means to treasure what we’ve received and plan to hand it on to a generation yet unborn.
The time capsule and the plaque call to mind both responsibilities. Who would have thought to put a neo-gothic castle well north of where Toronto then ended in the mid 19-teens? To build a church in 1915 that looks like it’s from 1215? That’s conservative and liberal both, treasuring heritage while doing something new with it. That’s worth commemorating at the 100th anniversary and every day. Thank God for those who come before us. Now, let’s get to work meeting the challenges of the gospel in our time.