Yesterday afternoon I sat down and re-read the history of St. Andrew’s that was compiled for the 100th birthday of St. Andrew’s in 1991. I had read it before, when I first came to St. Andrew’s, but it seemed like good – almost prayerful - preparation for the celebration today to read it again. Since a gala birthday celebration and capital campaign kickoff are what we are about today, I re-read the history with the whole notion of continuity and change in mind.

I learned some really interesting things. As near as I can tell, in 115 years, the parish family of St. Andrew’s has worshipped in a room over a grocery store, in a wood frame building on Lee and Arlington Street, in that same wood frame building disassembled and reassembled (literally numbered board by numbered board) on Ashe and Sycamore Street, in the chapel on Tremont Street, and now in the beautiful space in which we are all gathered. Of course the space we are now in was originally meant to be a gothic stone building. Now that must have been a wild Vestry meeting – the night the decision was made to build a Colonial style church instead!

Reading the history one gets the idea that life for St. Andrew’s has rarely been easy. There was a time that the church on Ashe and Sycamore Street was literally falling down around the parishioners and the building actually was condemned by the city. Every time the parish family of St. Andrew’s has anticipated a change, a move or expansion there have been money worries. Money was an issue in the late 1800’s, during the World War I, the Depression, World War II and beyond. But you know what? Here we are, 115 years later still going strong. God has been so faithful! God has richly provided what St. Andrew’s needed, at the right time and place, always. We wouldn’t be here today if that were not so.

The Vestry purchased a piece of property on the corner of West Market and Tremont Street in 1941. Now there’s another Vestry meeting that must have been pretty exciting! Some thought it a foolhardy decision because the lot was, quite literally, out of town. It’s hard to even imagine that now. But the people of St. Andrew’s were envisioning the city growing out this way, and what may have seemed foolhardy at the time turns out to be a faithful discernment of God’s intentions and the future God had in mind.

St. Andrew’s is the oldest continuing Episcopal congregation in Greensboro, and has continuously been a leader in the Episcopal community of Greensboro. Various members of St. Andrew’s have played a part in the forming of St. Mary’s House, and later, Holy Trinity. St. Andrew’s has had an amazing commitment to children, youth, music, and outreach throughout its history with a citywide reputation to match. We have good reason to be proud of our church!

St. Andrew’s was first founded as a religious day school for children. It had one of the first kindergartens in the city, and it led the way in providing programs for youth from across the city. St. Andrew’s had the first pipe organ and vested choir in the city of Greensboro – that dates back to 1903. It was a hot topic of conversation in the city back then, as the newspaper archives show. Most of us know that St. Andrew’s has the oldest continually held Bazaar in the city of Greensboro, but you may not know that St. Andrew’s sponsored a church service for the deaf from 1914 into the 1950’s.

What I so wish we knew more about were all the thousands of people who have been members of St. Andrew’s from 1891 to the present time. So many baptisms, weddings, and funerals have taken place in the various downtown locations of St. Andrew’s and now here. So many children grew up at St. Andrew’s and were confirmed here, and moved on to other cities and other places. There are so many people now, of all ages, living all across the country, who have a “piece” of St. Andrew’s in their hearts.

I look at the beautiful vessels we use for communion and the lovely memorial inscriptions on them and wish I knew more about the people in whose memory they were given. I wish I knew the stories of all the people who have taught Sunday School over the years, worked in the kitchen for a church supper, or made crafts for the Bazaar.

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, in 115 years, has provided a space and a place (even as those spaces and places have changed) for people to worship God, for children to grow in faith, for teenagers to enjoy community and service projects, and for people of all ages to live out lives of faith and love in Christ.

When we speak in our Eucharistic prayer of “angels and archangels and all the company of heaven,” there are thousands of people who are a part of the St. Andrew’s “branch” of the company in heaven.

Rarely do we think about the cumulative effect that one worshipping community can have over the course of 115 years. I’m thankful we have this day to try and get our hearts and minds around that.

In our epistle reading today, we hear a continuing conversation about the need to match what we believe with what we do. “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works?” In my own reading of the history of St. Andrew’s and in the knowledge I have of the members of this church, this church community consistently and faithfully seeks to match what we believe with what we do. We treat others as we want to be treated, we seek to love God and our neighbor in the same way, and we open our hearts and the doors of this church to all who wish to be here. That’s never changed, nor will it. It is completely central to who we are as a community of Christian believers in the Episcopal tradition. It is our awesome and God-given vocation.

For 115 years, all the members of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church have loved God with abandon, served Christ with faithfulness, and allowed the Holy Spirit to transform their lives. We have much to be grateful to for those who have gone before us. And now a particular thank you, today, for those of you who grew up here, and for your parents and grandparents. There are a few people here who helped design, build, and finance this church building at this location. We owe you our special thanks. We hope our capital campaign plans will strengthen the firm foundation you laid for us here. We feel sure that you would say it is “high time” we repair and renovate that which you so faithfully completed and consecrated fifty years ago.

My friend and colleague, Bob Hamilton, will agree when I say that the history of any congregation is never about the clergy of that congregation. It is always about the people whom the clergy serve. Bob and I, in unison with all the priests over these past 115 years who have been blessed to serve the parish family of St. Andrew’s, would simply like to say, “Thank you” for the privilege of allowing us to be a part of your lives.

And if there is a motto for St. Andrew’s; a summing up of faith lived out through faith and works; through word and deed over these 115 years, it is surely this: “Glory to God, whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine: Glory to him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever.”

AMEN!