Making a Name for Ourselves

Legacy 1 - Making a Name for Ourselves

Today we are beginning a sermon series called LEGACY. A legacy is something that is passed on from generation to generation. It is what you are known for because of those who came before you. Over these four weeks, we are going to look at the Legacy of Lebanon FUMC and what we are called to do with it, and how we ourselves are called to leave a legacy for generations that come after us. 

One of the things I want to point out before I get into the sermon is that we have a legacy endowment at this church. This Endowment Fund has over a million dollars in it, and the principal cannot be touched but the interest can be used for projects that help move the church forward as approved by the endowment committee. Some recent projects our endowment has supported are purchasing a house on Hammond Ave. strategically located next to the church that is huge for us to allow for future expansion and not be landlocked. It has also helped with a major steeple repair project to ensure it’s structurally sound for the next 50 years, and it has helped with projects such as some upgrades in the gym we needed to be able to switch back and forth between basketball and pickleball. It also helped with our sanctuary upgrades from a couple of years ago. What a legacy from people who loved their church and included the church in their WILL and now are continuing to have an impact on the future of the church they loved so much! We have information out in the narthex about our endowment fund and have people willing to help you if you would like to include the church in your estate planning. Eddie Callis is the chair of that committee. 

Another cool legacy is the natural gas well that JOSEPHENE BENTLEY gave in her will to the church, with the proceeds to be used to ensure we had vehicles for the church to go on trips, especially senior trips, because she loved the senior trips so much. Since 2020 we have purchased a cargo van, a small SUV, a passenger van, and a bus, and all are used greatly to carry out the work and mission of the church. What a legacy!

I want to talk a bit today about the origins of Lebanon FUMC. Our church was started in 1827. It wasn’t called First Methodist (or even First Methodist Episcopal Church, as was the name at the time). It was simply called the Methodist Episcopal church. It was the culmination of Methodist circuit riders moving into Wilson County in the early 1800s and beginning home meeting groups. In fact, a cool piece of Methodist history still resides in Lebanon behind our sister church Bethlehem UMC on West Main. It is called the Asbury Babb House. It was owned by the Babb family, and they had a home meeting group in it. They hosted famous Methodist Circuit rider, Francis Asbury there in 1815 as he was coming through to ordain Methodist pastors to do the work of the church in this area. He was supposed to do that at Bethlehem Church but was too sick to make it there, so they held the conference in the upstairs bedroom where Asbury was staying. He ordained 15 persons in that room. It was the last conference Asbury held before he passed away. That house was later given to the UMC and was moved to this location behind Bethlehem. Asbury traveled over 270,000 miles by horseback in his lifetime starting and overseeing churches. His faithfulness and sacrifice are part of our legacy, bringing a Wesleyan understanding of Christianity to Lebanon.

In 1827, the first official Methodist structure was built. It was built over on E Market Street, just northeast of the Square. We know that building as Pickett Chapel. These are bricks from the original building made in 1827. They were made by slaves of the members of the church. Those slaves are part of our legacy, too. In fact, they were part of our church. Once the church opened, the white members of the church worshiped on the floor of the chapel and the slaves would worship in the balcony. That is part of our legacy as well. In 1853, the white church decided it wanted its own space so it moved away from this location and built a new church. We’ll talk more about where they went next Sunday. The slaves continued to worship in the Market Street church. After Emancipation, they bought that church from the white church. They worshiped there until the 1970s when they moved out to the east side. That church is now called Pickett Rucker UMC. They are our sister church. We used to worship together and be one church. We were both birthed out of that original Methodist structure built in 1827. That means our bicentennial (200 year anniversary) will be in 2027 and we should celebrate . . . together. Pickett Chapel is now owned by the Wilson County Black History Committee and it is being restored to be opened as a museum of African American History of Wilson County. Phil Hodge, who is our state archeologist, told me a cool fact about our connectedness of churches. If you were to put a pin on a map at this exact spot where we are sitting now and then put a pin on a map where Pickett Rucker is and drew a straight line between those two pins, then that line would run directly over Pickett Chapel and it would be within a FOOT of being equidistant of the the two. I believe there is an important message in that for us. Pickett Chapel is that place where if the white church starts walking toward the black church and the black church starts walking to the white church, then we will meet in the middle. God does amazing things when we meet in the middle. I can envision big celebrations in 2027 there. 

I want to finish today by looking at our text from Genesis. This is an odd story that no one usually wants to mess with. It is about the tower of Babel. The story says that all of God’s people were gathered in one accord and decided they wanted to make a tower that stretched to the heavens so they could be like God. THEY SAID THEY WANTED TO MAKE A NAME FOR THEMSELVES. The problem with that was they wanted to make a name to establish their own legacy - a legacy apart from God. God saw what they were doing and knew that if they came together in one accord THEN NOTHING WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE FOR THEM. God knew they would succeed in trying to make a name for themselves apart from God, but that would ultimately lead to their destruction. If that wording sounds familiar, in Acts chapter 2 all of God’s people were gathered together in one accord and the Holy Spirit descended upon them and the church was born on that day of Pentecost. They were making a name for themselves then, too, but that name was under the Lordship of Jesus. 

We know God scattered the people across the globe and scrambled their language because they weren’t ready for the power that happens when they come together in one accord. The very next chapter of Genesis, chapter 12, begins with God calling a man we know as Abraham and when Abraham says he will go then God says I WILL MAKE YOUR NAME GREAT. God says to him, I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you and through you ALL THE WORLD will be blessed. Jesus is the fulfillment of that covenant for all the world. 

The rebelliousness of Babel and the faithfulness of Abraham are both part of our legacy. 

Ultimately, this is our struggle in life as we seek to build a legacy. Do we want to make a name for ourselves apart from God or in conjunction with God; TO LIFT UP OUR NAME AND TRY AND MAKE IT GREAT OR TO LIFT UP THE NAME OF JESUS AND MAKE HIS NAME GREAT. TO MAKE A LEGACY OF ME OR A LEGACY OF FAITHFULNESS TO GOD. 

There are pieces of our legacy both individually and as a church that we are not as proud of as others, but it is our legacy. And our job as the church today is to learn from the past and allow it to form the legacy that we leave for the generations to come.

Thanks be to God
AMEN