A Heritage Is Not All It Is Cracked Up To Be

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      I have a friend who was raised in a family of “real money.” His mother and father were the toast of the town. My friend always drove great cars that he did not have to pay for, on gas he did not work for, and on tires and insurance that he used up like they were as free as acorns to the squirrels. This friend always assumed that, because of his family name, he would be blessed above and beyond the standard of common laborers. His life would always be as sweet as a peach soda and an oatmeal cookie. He and I continue to be friends, but today he works (hard) for what he has. Somehow, the great amount of money was used up and all-too-soon gone, lost to poor investments and a free and happy style of life. My friend’s presumed great inheritance from his deceased parents was, as it came to pass, merely a piddly share of not much. The heritage he had assumed would continue forever had come to a screeching halt.
      The hard realities of my friend’s life teach important truths for young people who are proud of the lifestyle they live on the coattails of their parents. Most youth erroneously assume that the way they are living is the way life will always be, simply because their family name and heritage have made it so. These youth tragically miss one of the great truths of life: just because a person’s family may hold great treasures of honor, integrity, wealth, prosperity, prestige, and influence, there are no guarantees of the same attributes extending to the next generation. So little of what makes a parent great can be passed along, free of charge, to the next generation. Any child who is oblivious to the truth of his or her treasure can, in short order, work through an inheritance, good name, and heritage from his or her parents and have nothing left of it. All these people are ultimately left with is a great story of where they came from.
      I encourage youth to mindfully work to become who they will be, whether they work in spite of their parents or instead of their parents. The great name, integrity, and inheritance of parents say so little about who their children are or will be. Each new generation has to establish who they will become as a great family, nation, church, or individual by the course they take and the set of their sail, given the winds that blow in their time.
      Now I have told you all of this in order to get at something else. I have come to believe that heritage is not all it is cracked up to be. So often, heritage is a story of who our ancestors were. We can be proud of their story that we, hold it, cherish it, and reenact it, but this story ultimately says so little about who we really are. A person, church, family, or community can have a rich and glorious heritage and, yet, be as dysfunctional as a cat living on concrete, (a lot of business to take care of and no place to scratch).
      Every church you see is the realized dream of a people who were faithfully and boldly led by God to establish a church home for people to meet God. Every church came at great cost and required great sacrifice and faithfulness. Every church began with a great heritage extended to a group of disciples.
      The great sin of many churches, like the sin of many young people relying on the prosperity and honor of their parents, is that their buildings have outlived their movement. The great heritage that “got them there” was not taken up and passed on, and the church life of making disciples, teaching good news by word and deed, and witnessing of the saving grace of Jesus Christ has been replaced with stories of who we were, how we got here, and “Oh, what a great heritage we have.”
      The death knell of any great church is very surely ringing when the leaders in a church begin to say, “We have to get some young people in here or we will die.” This is an attitude that screams of self-preservation and of feeding the “heritage” to keep it alive. Churches that only operate to self-preserve and maintain a heritage have forgotten that their mission is to make new Disciples of Jesus Christ and not to only exist.
      I never forget the pivotal point in the life of the Church when Jesus had died: the disciples were afraid; some wanted to go back home and fish or do whatever it was they were doing before Jesus called them. It was a dark day in the Body of Christ, the disciples were accused of being only drunk. The church was ready to fall totally apart. Some were ready to just rock on the porch and remember who they had been. But in Acts 2:14, something amazing happened. It was at this moment in time that Peter “stood up among the brethren” and delivered a speech that would set the course of the Church even to this day. Peter’s sermon said in no uncertain terms, “If you think what has happened with the living Jesus is something, just wait until you see what is going to happen with the risen Jesus!”
      The stunning faith declared by Peter’s speech conveys the stature of a living church. If you think our past is great, just wait ‘til you see what we will do in Jesus’ name in the future. Faithful, bold, and courageous disciples are what make a church heritage great and are what will transform a building with people into the Church.

Rev. Dan Martin is pastor of First UMC, Hendersonville. He can be reached at moose1953@hotmail.com