The spread of Baptists across New York State is often told in tandem with NYS Civic History. The Erie Canal's 200th anniversary is underway in 2017, and among the festivities and retrospectives is the excellent exhibit at the New York State Museum in Albany, NY: Enterprising Waters New York's Erie Canal. The exhibit will run until October 20, 2019. (For more information, click: http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/exhibitions/enterprising-waters-erie-canal)
I was invited to speak at the Sunday morning worship service of FBC Rome, and I noted quickly the connection of FBC Rome's formation a few months after the Canal's section in Rome began excavation and construction. I wove the sermon around the theme Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:4-7, 12-14 along with excerpts from a historian's retelling of the Canal's start in Rome and the memories shared within the church's own historical narrative. My thanks to Rev Cedric Broughton, pastor of FBC Rome, for his work along with the lay leaders serving on the committee for planning a festive celebration in honor of 200 years of ministry and mission!
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Grace and peace be with you this day! I am grateful for the privilege and honor of serving as the preacher for this celebratory Sunday morning, recalling the past and committing anew to the future of this congregation.
To
the congregants and friends of First Baptist gathered here this day, to the
clergy past and present, especially Revs. Broughton and Htee Gay, and to your
former minister and later on our Region’s Executive Minister, the Rev. Dr.
William Carlson, I bring greetings to you in the name of Jesus Christ and on
behalf of the 294 churches of our upstate New York regional family.
With
the words of Paul to the church in Corinth in mind, I begin with a moment taken
from the pages of local history:
On July 4, 1817, a
boisterous throng of citizens paraded out of their small village in central New
York before sunrise. They were armed,
but not for war. Many had been up all
night celebrating the holiday and the impending grand event. They proceeded to a flat, marshy meadow
studded with hemlock and birch a mile south of town. Each carried a shovel.
These
words are from the historian Jack Kelly, who researched the development of the
Erie Canal as well as the changes the Canal project brought to upstate New York
all across its eventual path. Here Kelly
recalls what happened two hundred years ago when the town of Rome, NY, began
its significant contribution to the earliest stages of the Erie Canal’s
excavation and construction. (Quotation
above from Kelly, Heaven’s Ditch: God,
Gold and Murder on the Erie Canal, New York, NY: St Martin’s Press Griffin,
2016, p. 40)
The
year 1817 was a good year also in Rome, as that was the year First Baptist was
founded. Certainly, Baptists had been
around these parts for years before, but this was the time when a church body
was formally established for the purposes of regular worship. On that day in
October 1817, there was no church building to gather in at the time. Certainly, much work had to be done if the
loosely organized group was ever going to become a church that lasted. Small in number, these faithful folks brought
faith, willingness to serve and their differing skills and talents. For those who endeavored against the odds to
found First Baptist, each carried their faith.
From
the church’s history, newly revised for the 200th anniversary, we
read:
In the summer and
autumn of the year of our Lord, 1817, several members of different Baptist
churches residing in Rome and its vicinity became impressed with an idea that
it would promote the declarative glory of God; the honor of the Redeemer’s
kingdom and their own happiness (If God in His providence should so order the
state of things and prepare the hearts of his children for it) to have a church
formed amongst them. Accordingly, after having given notice in the vicinity,
they met to consult upon it at the schoolhouse in Wright Settlement, Rome on
the 23rd day of October, 1817. The meeting was opened by singing and prayer by
Elder Stark. Brother Simeon Hersey was chosen moderator and Brother James H.
Sherman, Clerk.
We come today to celebrate the 200th
anniversary of First Baptist, Rome, even as the State celebrates the same
anniversary year for the Erie Canal. One
cannot understand the history of Rome without the Canal, just as surely as
First Baptist cannot tell its story in isolation from being embedded in that
history as well. Out of the origins of
spirited collaboration, Rome and this congregation faced the future with great
zeal, with the uncertainty and opportunity that accompanied such risk taking. Two hundred years later, with the challenges
and celebrations alike that shape history, we are here looking back with
gratitude and thanksgiving that indeed “God
in His providence so order[ed] the state of things and prepare[d] the hearts of
his children for it.”
Such
splendid language of faith was also needed when the Erie Canal project was
proposed. Jack Kelly recounts the
extreme challenge of designing and engineering a canal when no previous attempt
had been successful or enthusiastically supported in the history (to that
point) of the United States. Indeed, the
canal became known as a gamble on the part of New York State, its chances of
federal funds blocked by President James Madison who vetoed the bill just
before his Presidency ended, citing a disdain for federal funds to be used in
such manner (Heaven’s Ditch, p. 32). New York’s Assembly gave the go-ahead,
entrusting a major project to engineers who were largely self-taught. Coming to Rome in early July 1817, the
dignitaries realized they were staking their good names on the significant work
that loomed ahead with little assurance of future success, let alone project
completion. Reviewing the project’s
scope, one could identify many variables and unknowns, yet these New Yorkers
dared to try anyway. The many talents,
the shared willingness to risk against the odds, that’s how the largest canal
project in American history got underway!
In the New Testament, we learn of
the great strength of the Christian church comes from the Spirit gifting each
believer with their own abilities for ministry.
Many congregations today struggle to remember this truth faced with
challenges of attendance, building issues and cash flow struggles. The greatest asset of a church is its
willingness to take up the call to follow Jesus and empower each and every
person in the membership to bring what God has given them uniquely and
blessedly for the good of the whole Body.
Paul
writes to the Corinthian Christians, a group that deals with a lot of internal
division and dissension. Calling the
fragmented factions back together, Paul proclaims,
4 Now there are
varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are
varieties of services, but the
same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is
the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To each
is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To
one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the
utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to
another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one
Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another
prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of
tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these
are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually
just as the Spirit chooses.
As
Paul tries to sort out the issues afflicting the Corinthians, he wisely works
toward the healing of the whole gathered people. He speaks of gifts for good
reasons. Each Christian is gifted with some talent or ability that contributes
to the furtherance of the work of the Gospel. No one is without usefulness to
the community of faith. No one is “less than” another. It is a remarkable thing
in this world to be told that you have something to offer. The Church may struggle to say that
consistently, graciously and intentionally.
We have our good days and our not so good days, but when we are at our
best, we welcome the diversity of gifts rather than narrow it down. For without God and one another, do we really
have a chance of being something greater than an individual or alone?
Meanwhile
back in July 1817, the dignitaries would finish their speaking. The cannons boomed aloud to mark the
moment. And then the contractor was
handed a spade to turn the earth. After
he did, “the gesture touched off a frenzy of flying dirt. Everyone in attendance began to dig, ‘each
vying with the other’ said the Utica Gazette,
in the pure joy of participating in history”(Kelly, p. 41).
Likewise,
great joy fueled the desire to form a Baptist church in Rome that would come to
be known as “First Baptist, Rome.”
Certainly, we tell the story of a congregation sometimes by the litany
of pastors who served and what happened during their tenure. Yet, in the midst of the “official narrative”,
it is not just the leaders (ordained and lay) who have made a congregation’s
history all alone. To understand a
church’s history, we recall our origins not in 1817, but in the early decades
of the first century, when at the Day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God stirred
up the women and men following Jesus, and the Gospel spread with not frenzy,
but evangelical fervor!
Indeed,
the best parts of a congregation’s history are when you see evidence that the “many
members” of “the Whole Body” become engaged in the ministry of the church. It’s not meant to be just about the
decisions, committee meetings and official minutes of the Church that tell the
history. I look especially at
congregational histories to see evidence of when the grit, determination,
cooperation and “pure joy of participating” can be discerned in the midst of
yellowing pages of old minutes, financial ledgers, newsletters, and other
ephemera that collect as a church’s history slowly unfolds.
The story of First Baptist, Rome,
continues to be written. Even in the
past twenty five years since your 175th anniversary observance, your
church has encountered challenges (building issues, changing community and its
effect on church attendance). Yet,
you’ve been blessed like other parts of the Mohawk Valley with the influx of
new settlers, coming not from places like Wales and other European contexts two
hundred years ago, but from Myanmar and Thailand. Welcoming the Karen as part of your
fellowship and Htee Gay to your pastoral staff likely was not something you
would have predicted in 1992 when the church gathered for its last “big
anniversary”.
Celebrating today, First Baptist,
Rome, can count its blessings while acknowledging the challenges that come
inevitably with time’s passage and a community’s economic and social
changes. Your church has been the
spiritual home of canal diggers, foundry workers, military families stationed
nearby, merchants, homemakers, students and people starting life anew from
other places far beyond the Erie Canal’s path. Blessings upon blessings upon blessings!
Can
we just let that wonderful word soak in for a moment? Imagine with me what has come before:
All
of those wonderful folks who loved the Lord, who loved this congregation and
what the church could do for Christ and the world, we remember the two hundred
years now coming to a close
And
then can we look to the future, seeing challenge and opportunity alike,
realizing that God has gifted this church with the great potential of each and
every member who chooses to share their gifts and open up possibilities for
others to exercise their own individual gift for the greater good. In such moments, we look to the future just
like those folks in October 1817, knowing that God continues providentially to
“order the state of things and prepare
the hearts of [all God’s] children for it.”
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Recommended resources:
Recommended resources:
A
short history of the NY State Canals: https://www.canals.ny.gov/history/history.html
Kelly,
Jack. Heaven’s Ditch: God, Gold and Murder on the Erie Canal. (New York,
NY: St Martin’s Press Griffin, 2016).
A
website related to Heaven’s Ditch: https://heavensditch.com/
