November 6, 2005

Emperor penguins in Antarctica walk 70 miles every year—a journey that takes 20 exhausting days, day and night—to get to the place where they were born. They do this every year, on a path that constantly changes as the ice mass under their feet shifts and cracks. Why do they do that?

They go for months without food, enduring temperatures of 80 degrees below zero, winds of more than 100 miles per hour, and weeks of pitch-black darkness with no sunshine whatsoever. Why do they do that?

If you’ve seen last summer’s documentary film The March of the Penguins,[1] you know that what I’ve described is the mating ritual of the emperor penguin, nearly the only creature that can survive the brutal conditions at the bottom of the world. The process of finding a mate, laying an egg, hatching an egg, and raising a chick takes ten months of every twelve. Only two months remain for “play,” for hunting and eating to build up the body fat that will be required to undergo the whole grueling routine once again the next year. Why do they do that?

The people of Trinity United Church of Christ in Mormon Coulee come to church week after week, worship God, and drop into the offering plate a portion of their hard-earned money. They give of their time beyond one hour on Sundays, attending meetings and workdays and conferences and planning sessions. Why do they do that?

The people of Trinity United Church of Christ in Mormon Coulee work for days—even weeks—twice each year, to prepare for the Potato Pancake Supper. And they plan for weeks to host a successful Vacation Bible School program and their Country Christmas celebration. Why do they do that?

For all the saints who have gone before, who have given of their time and their treasure to build this lasting work on this corner of the world.

Who are those saints? Sue Strehl has begun the work of organizing and preserving the historical records of this congregation. On Friday morning, we found this book—a record book from the 1920s, handwritten in German. As far as we can tell, it may be a list of the Council members that year. Here are their names:

Did you notice what I noticed? Many of those surnames are the same as those of current members of this congregation. We are living their legacy! These people had a vision of a place where families could come and learn about and experience the wonderful news of the gospel of Jesus Christ—and we have reaped the benefits of their labors.

Maybe that explains it for the penguins, too. Why do they do that? They do it for the survival of the species, true. But they’re also “hard-wired” to know that this is what their ancestors did. This is how they lived—these are the sacrifices they made—and there is something sacred in that.

For all the saints, who from their labors rest. Those who have gone before. Those whose names we will read in a few minutes, as we light a candle in honor of each of them. They are those described in today’s Gospel reading. Which of the Beatitudes describes the loved one you lost this year? Listen, as we read of their rewards. Because of Christ:

· Those who were persecuted for their righteousness are walking the streets of heaven.[2]

We know how they lived—we’ve witnessed the sacrifices they made—and we see something sacred in that. Something sacred that has earned them great reward. We can rest assured in this. As Dylan read from our Revelations text:

“The one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”[3]

A colleague in my Thursday morning text-study group told of something he had read recently. He said the measure of the success of a church is not its numbers or its growth. He said the measure of the success of a church is this: “If your church closed its doors forever—ceased to exist as an entity—would your community mourn?” Would your community mourn?

I believe ours would. This congregation is a gift to Mormon Coulee. Through this congregation and how we do what we do, Christ can hold the past, the present, and the future of so many families, gently, tenderly, in the palm of his hand. Whether they are directly involved with us or not, they see this place as a piece of their own personal history, and they would mourn if we were not here.

For all the saints. Those who have gone before, those who are here now, and those who are to come. They are coming. A new generation of Mormon Coulee Christians. Some will have the same last names as the previous generations; some will not.

Here’s how I know: A fellow pastor told me a story the other day. She said she went to an Association event a few weeks ago, and when she got there, she introduced herself to someone as a pastor from the La Crosse area. The person with whom she was speaking said, “Oh! It that the church that’s having revival?” My colleague thought about that, and she said, “No, you must be thinking of Trinity.”

And the other person agreed—she must be talking about Trinity, because Trinity is having revival! Do you know what that means? Whether or not what we have here looks like revival to us, it’s how others see it, and that, my friend, gets us halfway there. If our neighbors hear that God is doing good things in this place, they will come. And it’s our job to so genuinely show them the love of Christ that they come back. That part is up to us.

For all the saints. Those who have gone before, those who are here now, and those who are to come. A verse of the hymn we will sing in a few minutes reads:

Let’s do it. Let’s do it for them. For all of them. For all the saints. Amen.

[1] Warner Brothers, 2005.

[2] Paraphrase of Matthew 5.3-10.

[3] Revelation 7.15b-17.

[4] Verse 4 of “For All the Saints,” hymn #299 in The New Century Hymnal.

Copyright © 2005 Trinity United Church of Christ Last modified: 05/30/07

Copyright © 2005 Trinity United Church of Christ
Last modified: 05/30/07