In 1956, Dwight David Eisenhower was President of the United States, and Richard Milhous Nixon was Vice-President. The population of the nation was 168,903,031 and the population of the world was 2.833 billion. In 1956 Egypt took control of the Suez Canal, Morocco gained independence from France and Spain, and the U. S. tested its first aerial hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll. In that same year the New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 4 games to 3 to take the World Series, a horse named “Needles” won the Kentucky Derby, and a first-class stamp cost 3 cents. In 1956 Elvis Presley had a hit called Heartbreak Hotel and he appeared on the television shows of Milton Berle, Steve Allen, and Ed Sullivan. The Academy Award for Best Picture went to a show called Marty, the neutrino was first observed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the DNA molecule was first photographed. In 1956 Tommy Dorsey, Connie Mack, and Jackson Pollock all died. In the 1956 Winter Olympics at Cortina d’Ampezzo in northern Italy, Toni Sailer of Austria became the first skier to win gold in all three Alpine events, and the women’s and men’s figure skating golds were won by Americans Tenley Albright and Hayes Jenkins.

On February 19, 1956, under the leadership of the Rev. Dr. George C. Culbertson, recently retired from the pulpit of the La Jolla Presbyterian Church, a public worship service was held at the Garden Club of Rancho Santa Fe. The worshipping community was chartered as a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in May of that year, and then in July of 1959, the church moved to its first home. That first building was initially financed through the gifts of twelve members who each pledged $5,000, and eventually over $250,000 was spent, but the church was very proud of the fact that it never accepted financial help from the Presbytery of Los Angeles or the Board of National Missions of the Presbyterian Church. In October of that same year, Dr. Culbertson had to resign due to ill health. But The Village Community Presbyterian Church was barely getting started, and here we are today, exactly 50 years to the day since that first worship service.

It must have been part of God’s plan from the beginning, because last summer, when this date was chosen as the kickoff date for the most significant capital stewardship campaign since the first one, we didn’t really realize that it was such an important date in our church’s history. But now here we are, a congregation of over 1100 members, poised to take another huge step forward in our life together as a church, with the same kind of faith and commitment and vision as those faithful disciples had half a century ago. The ministry demands of our large and growing congregation have led our Session to conclude that we must expand and enhance our church campus in order to faithfully and effectively fulfill our mission as a church of Jesus Christ, both in the immediate and the long-term future. As we take this step, we do so in the tradition of our faith that goes all the way back to the beginning of our history as the people of God, to the time of our forefathers, to the time of Abraham.

Scholars all agree that the actual history of the Judeo-Christian faith begins with the story of God’s call to Abraham as recorded in the opening verses of the twelfth chapter of Genesis. “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.’” Abraham is the prototypical person of faith. He listened to the voice of God. He actually did what God commanded. He left his homeland and set off on a journey that had no guarantees except the faithfulness of God. He accepted God’s plan for him, that he would indeed be blessed and that he would then become a blessing. How can we summarize Abraham’s life? Here’s one way: he was blessed to be a blessing.

That is not a bad way to summarize the meaning of Christian faith. You can argue that either Abraham or Moses was the greatest figure of the Old Testament. There is no argument about who the greatest figure of the New Testament is. You can argue that Jesus’ essential message was the exact same message that Abraham heard from God. And that should come as no surprise, since we believe that Jesus is God. As he taught the disciples that he was like a divine shepherd who had come to earth to care for his sheep, he uttered one of his memorable and profound sayings: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” That simple statement is such a good summary of the meaning and message of Jesus’ life that we use it as the theme of our weekly newsletter that tells about the life and ministry of this church. We quote Jesus on the cover of every issue of Abundant Living. Just as God promised to bless Abraham and to make Abraham’s life a blessing to others, so Jesus promised to bless us with eternal life and abundant life here and now. You might say that God’s vision for his creation was all about blessing. From sheer love, God made us for his enjoyment and for ours. The Master’s master plan, if you will, was all about blessing. God’s vision for our village, here at the Village Church, is all about blessing. We have been blessed and we have been a blessing for 50 years. We have been living out the reality of God’s vision. We have been fulfilling the master plan. And now, our calling is to continue in that great tradition of who God is and who we are, as we take the next great step forward in our life and ministry together.

God had a vision for Abraham’s life. He has one for yours and mine. Jesus offered his first disciples an eternal and abundant life. He offers the same to you and me. The master plan for your life and mine includes this key principle: that we would share our life of faith together, and that we would seek not just our own blessing but also the blessing of others. And so today we begin a season of prayer and commitment, a season of remembering our past and of looking to the future, a season of listening to God’s voice. Will we respond in faith as Abraham did? Do we understand the ways in which God has blessed us and the ways in which God is calling us to bless others? Do we believe that God’s Son Jesus is leading us into abundant life, and if so, how are we responding to Jesus to reach out and make the abundant life our own?

In the February 10th reading of the Prayer Guide of our Blessed to Be a Blessing campaign, one of our newer members who has already seen lots of life reflects on his sixty years of marriage and on the ups and downs of his life, and he concludes his thoughts with this statement: “This capital campaign is not for sissies, but for Christians whom God has blessed. None of us have accomplished much in life on our own—everything we have comes from God.” May God give us the vision and the courage not to be sissies, but to answer his call, to receive his blessing, and to make our lives a blessing to others, not just in this pivotal moment in the life of our church, but in every moment and in very place of our lives. May God bless us so that, 50 years from now, the members of this church will be celebrating a great past, and then, inspired by the faithfulness of we who have come before, and may they be looking forward still, to a great future of abundant life in Christ.

Amen.

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