There is, in this passage from Paul's letter to the Philippians, an incredible forward-leaning energy. Did you hear it? "I can't rest on my past," says Paul. "No matter how faithful and righteous I may have been, blameless even, now Christ Jesus has claimed me as his own and I must press on, press on, straining forward to what lies ahead."

What an important word for us on this beautiful October Sunday morning, World Communion Sunday and the day we dedicate our newest stained glass windows. This holy imperative to press on, strain forward. Leaning into the wind of the Holy Spirit. What a word for our congregation to hear on our 127th birthday, which comes this month. Could it be that we, an old 127 year-old church such as ourselves, are today being called by God to strain forward? To press on? To reach into the future? Us? At this ripe old age? Yes! Absolutely positively.

Strange behavior for a 100+-year-old? Not really. There's a new book out by Neenah Ellis of NPR radio entitled "If I Live to Be 100: Lessons from the Centenarians." Ellis spent a year travelling the country interviewing people a hundred years old and above, and she discovered several very interesting traits among them. She doesn't romanticize life at 100 and up. In fact, she says these are very tough people. And here are a few of the things she discovered.

First, she said that she had to change her interview techniques. She had to slow down, speak more clearly. She had to enunciate and listen more carefully. And sometimes she just needed to sit and hold someone's hand for a time and let their story unfold.

But more importantly, she found that she asked these old folks way too many questions about the past. She said that they would talk about the old days if she pressed them, but what they were really excited about was their plans for the future, what they're going to be tomorrow. One said to her very clearly, "I know that the best is yet to be."

Ellis identified several common traits among all these centenarians that give us much to think about for our own personal lives and for our church here at the ripe old age of 127. She reports that they all stressed the importance of maintaining and keeping human connections-relationships, family, new friends, and neighbors. That's a big part of what keeps them going. Next she concludes that optimism is their most notable character trait. And thirdly, she observed that all these 100+ folks are passionate about something larger than themselves.

Maybe that shouldn't surprise us at all, given the 90-somethings of you, who are among the most life-loving, enthusiastic, positive folks in our congregation. In the midst of all kinds of change and transition, it is you, as a group, who are among the most flexible, the most enthusiastic and the most willing to posit that "the best is yet to be." But, in spite of all this lively evidence around us, now documented in Ellis' book, our stereotypes of age are quite the opposite-old, boring, stuck in the past, over the hill, one foot in the grave. The truth couldn't be more different. You and we and they and this congregation are in fact straining forward, pressing on to what lies ahead in Christ Jesus, just like the apostle Paul said.

That's why it's so marvelous to be dedicating four new stained glass windows this day, given through the love and generosity of saints among us, who first had the inspiration during our anniversary celebration to complete the windows for our sanctuary that had been originally designed but never funded.

You see, stained glass windows are not just decoration in a church. To be sure, they are beautiful and they add a great deal to the feel of this place. But more than that, these windows are designed to invite each new generation of Christians into the church's story. Remember, stained glass windows were first created in churches in Europe, the first in the 7th century for a church near Ravenna in Italy. The windows were created for a people who could not read and so learned in picture form the stories of Bible, and the life of Christ, and the lives of the saints. The images of the windows told the story of faith. Here in this sanctuary, the images in the windows here in the nave, the two new transom windows, and the new parable windows invite us into relationship with Christ and the world and nature. And the new history window invites us into relationship with our distinct Methodist heritage. These windows are perfect for visual people.

Oh, but you might say, "Aren't stained glass windows old-fashioned? " Yes. "And don't even these brand new ones tell more of the stories of our past?" Yes. "Aren't they putting the finishing touches on a plan that was designed decades ago, completing the project, bringing a dream to its end?"

Oh, no. These beautiful new windows are a clear indication, a lasting, powerful witness, that this church is still pressing forward, straining ahead. These new windows are a testimony to all who will see them that the faith we cherish is alive and worthy of contemplation. These new windows will testify to every future generation that walks by on the sidewalk outside or comes in through these doors, that stand in the narthex or come to sit in these pews, these new windows will testify going forward, generation after generation, that this people of God looked ahead and knew that they would be coming. People whose names we cannot yet know, they will be coming. Young and old, alone, in families, they will be coming.

And they will look and they will see that an old 127-year-old church looked ahead in 2002, leaned into the wind of the Holy Spirit, and invested in the future.

The art of stained glass is a particular art form that depends on light, the light that shines through it. That is a fact of photoreception and color saturation. It is also a deeply theological statement. Dr. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross once wrote that "people are like stained glass windows: they sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is light within."

For the apostle Paul, that light was Jesus Christ, light of the world. And Paul knew that Christ had already made him his own. That is God's promise to us as well, now and to every future generation of Christians. And so, like Paul, we, too, reach forward into God's future, illumined from within, eager to see and know and feel and experience for ourselves the liberating energy of that forward-leaning power.

As the modern hymn-writer, Natalie Sleeth, wrote: "In our end is our beginning, in our time, infinity; in our doubt, there is believing; in our life, eternity... From our past will come the future; what it holds, a mystery. Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see."

May we, like the true centenarians we are here at Santa Monica First, know the passion of being connected to something larger than ourselves. May optimism be our hallmark. And may we always cherish the relationships that bind us one to another and to God.

And let us take to heart what the apostle Paul is saying to the church today, so that we find ourselves in this our anniversary month standing on the forward bow of a boat, the ship of the church, leaning into the wind, shining bright with the light from within, reaching out to arrive first in the future God has prepared for us in Christ Jesus.

NOTES:

1. Murray. The Oxford Companion to Christian Art and Architecture.

2. Neenah Ellis interviewed in NPR's "Morning Edition," October 2, 2002.

© Patricia E. Farris, 2002. Permission is given for brief quotation with attribution. All other rights reserved.