Old Bricks and New Bricks

[Prelude. This message was given in my church, Covenant Moravian Church, Wilmington, NC in June, 2007. Our church has recently completed a building program to provide a new fellowship hall for our congregation. We also were between pastors and my fellow board members and I were taking turns giving the Sunday message.]


Today I want to talk about Unity in our church. I intend to do this by talking about old bricks and new bricks.

When our church was in the early stages of our last building project, I came over here one afternoon with a hammer and a chisel and removed some of the bricks which had been the steps to our old fellowship hall which was scheduled from removal. I removed these bricks because they have sentimental meaning to me.

Now about a dozen of those bricks occupy an honorable place in our garden. They hold up garden pots and provide a foundation for various planters. I like the fact that these old bricks are around our house.

I want to tell you what makes these bricks important to me. These are the same bricks that my parents trod across thousands of times coming to church, to Sunday school, to dinners and chores around the church. I carried my own children as babies into the church up those steps and across these bricks and years later followed them down those steps as young people stepping out into the world.

I walked across these bricks one day in April of 2000 and met my lovely wife Patty. That happened in our old fellowship hall which a few years ago; was disassembled, had wheels re-installed under it and was hauled away. Some of our members bid farewell to that old fellowship hall with joy and some of us bid farewell to it with tears.

It wasn’t just an old building; it was a structure of our church’s history and to me represented memories of the members who over the years have passed through it. Many of the members who helped bring that building into a reality have passed on to their eternal reward. Many have moved on to other churches in other towns and states. The congregation which started that building is no more and that congregation was replaced by another congregation which built the original version of the building we are in now. A good portion of the congregation which built this original building has also moved on to their reward or moved to other churches.

Now we have another group of people here today who are new to Covenant. They (in a sense) are the new bricks and represented by the bricks from the batch which encloses this newly renovated building. This new group of members and the ones yet to come will be a part of this new congregation for which our most recent building project was intended to provide.

So here we have two kinds of bricks; the old bricks and the new bricks. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I am an old brick. Recent members to our congregation and those yet to come would be the new bricks. Now here is the question, “How do we get the old bricks and the new bricks to bond together to be the church God wants us to be?” That’s the question isn’t it? How do we embrace one another and stick together?

Fortunately, the scripture can help us.
Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:
1Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
4There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;”
Paul tells us to act in a manner worthy of being followers of God. To be humble, gentle, patient, tolerant and show love for one another.
In Matthew 7, the gospels says,
24"Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.
25"And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.
26"Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
27"The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell--and great was its fall."
If we follow Matthew’s advice, we should act in unity so that our church’s foundation built on love can withstand the pressures of storms and remain whole, remain one.
In Colossians 3: 12-17 we hear;
12”So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;
13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.
14Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
15Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.”
Here Paul is reminding us we were chosen to be God’s people and of our responsibility to be compassionate, kind, humble, gentle and patient. He goes on to instruct us to forgive one another “just as the Lord forgave you”. Finally Paul says to put on love “which is the perfect bond of unity.”
There are perhaps many mixtures for old bricks to be bonded to the new bricks. I am not a brick mason so I don’t know the compounds used but bonding mixtures can cement the old to the new so the foundation will be strong.

For us as Christians, we are called to stick together, to be united, to love one another, to forgive one another and to let the “peace of Christ rule in our hearts”.

Over the next few months our church faces great change. We will be getting an interim minister to work with the church board and minister to us as a congregation. The board will be talking to congregation members to listen and take note of your concerns, your needs and your desires for our church.

Our new building project has been completed.

The bricks and mortar of the building are set fast.

Now we must set the bond between of our fellow brothers and sisters.

We must hold fast to one another in a bond of unity.

The mortar we will need to use to bond to one another is love.
Amen. Thanks be to God.