The Mosaic

When are we?

Garrett Vickrey

In 1978 James Baldwin wrote, “All that can save you now is your confrontation with your own history… which is not your past, but your present.” 

Ancient peoples thought of time as cyclical. What has been will be again. That recognition made the past a part of their present. We tend to focus on the novelty of each moment. And then there are moments like this.

The 70th anniversary of a church we love seems to make the past all the more present to us. We start thinking back to when we were first welcomed into this fellowship. Some of us were too young to remember that moment, so we have to rely on the memories of others. We remember baptisms, funerals, Easter breakfasts, and mission trips. We remember garage sales, pumpkin patches, and the high school kid peddling gift wrap at Wednesday night supper to raise money for band. Don’t you wish we could just pay a little more in taxes and not have to be buy gift wrap or $12 bags of popcorn? But, I digress.

In the mundane moments Sunday to Sunday and Wednesday after Wednesday bonds are formed. The ties that bind God’s Spirit to our bones thread us together as the body of Christ. Growth occurs as if overnight. All of a sudden church arrives or maybe grows out of an unseen garden. And it takes moments like this to look back and see how far we’ve come.

But, Royal Lane, you are toying with time. On the Sunday before your 70th Anniversary you called a new pastor. So even as the past is present to us on this anniversary Sunday, the future also charms us with its possibility. What a wonderful opportunity for confrontation with our history as we meet the challenges of our time with great hope for the future God dreams for this church. 

I wonder what those founders would have thought if a woman had submitted her resume to be pastor of Royal Lane in 1952. We would probably be embarrassed of the minutes from such a meeting. This church has never been perfect. But it has erred on the side of grace and sought to be an inclusive fellowship seeking to embody the kinship of God’s beloved community. Royal Lane has been a diverse people united in Christ. In other words: a mosaic of grace.

You called a divorced man to be your pastor in 1981. Probably the first divorced baptist pastor in Texas. And you probably would have called a woman to be your pastor sooner had that divorced guy not stayed so long! And now you have unanimously selected a gifted pastor to walk with you faithfully for the facing of this hour.

Elijah Donald once said, “In the truest sense those who are most faithful to the needs of their own time are those who live ahead of their time.” Too many churches are empowered more by nostalgia than their hope for the future. May you continue, Royal Lane, to meet the needs of our time and continue as a beacon for free, faithful, and inclusive baptists everywhere.