If These Walls Could Talk

If These Walls Could Talk
Luke 19: 28 – 40

Have you ever visited one of our many national historic sites, only to gaze around in wonder, and contemplate the words “If these walls could talk…”

Most recently, this past summer I had the privilege of attending our National Association’s Annual Meeting in Plymouth. I remember walking from the Conference Center to Memorial Hall that Sunday Morning and just gazing over the waterfront at Plymouth Harbor, and imagining what it must have been like Three Hundred and Eighty Eight years ago, in the year 1620. Certainly the shops and buildings that I walked past were not there at that time… nor was the young man who was trying to sell me a souvenir Pilgrim Hat…

I tried valiantly to put myself into the mindset of imagining what the Pilgrims must have endured that first winter in the new world, just as my Del’s Frozen Lemonade started melting… And it was very humbling to realize that there were things right in my vicinity which were here when the Pilgrim Fathers disembarked into what is now Plymouth…

While the Mayflower II, now docked at the State Pier in Plymouth, was built in the 1950s as a replica of the original Mayflower which was dismantled in England in the latter 1620s, it serves as a conversation starter, and it evokes vivid imagination of what life might have been life during the Pilgrims’ crossing from Southampton, England. If only those walls could talk…

Our text for this morning deals with one of the most fascinating stories in the New Testament. We join Jesus as he is starting the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, one week prior to his crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection. His disciples are surrounding him, and generally making a ruckus as they are praising him… And this really gets under the skin of the religious leader in Jerusalem, and so a couple of the Pharisees try to get him to tell his disciples to keep it down.

Jesus’ answer really takes the Pharisees by surprise… But he said, "If they kept quiet, the stones would do it for them, shouting praise."

I have a very dear friend who really gets into praise and worship. Every so often he will say “I don’t want any stones to do my praising for me…”

It makes me wonder every so often, would we have to have the stones do our praising for us? Will our legacy be that we were so caught up in worship and praise that we knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that we experienced God’s presence in church this morning? If only these walls could talk…

The whole idea of wondering what they would say if only they could talk is nothing new… Paul the Apostle raised the idea when he encourages us in Hebrews 12: 1 – 3 (I like the way this reads in the Message Translation) “Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!”

Paul is telling us to listen for that massive throng of people who had gone before us, who are cheering us on from the Grandstands of Heaven, as we press on toward the finish line! Notice how he encourages us to study what Jesus did, and focus on the things that Jesus focused on…

That brings us to this morning. This morning is Rally Sunday, the official kickoff for the Sunday School. This is also the official kickoff for the fall season, and the crisp, cool air brings back many memories of homecomings, and of new beginnings.

There are those among us this morning who have been students in the Sunday School here at First Congregational Church, going back twenty, thirty, forty, fifty and even sixty years… These people are here today to encourage each of our Sunday School Students, and Sunday School Teachers to study to show yourself approved by God. These people stand today because they are not ashamed of the Gospel… because they know that it is the Power of God for Salvation. These people stand as testimony to the fact that God’s hand was moving among these people then… he is moving among us today… and for generations to come, until the day of Christ’s return, his hand will still move among his children.

Years from today, the lessons that you are going to be learning in Sunday School will continue to be with you. The Bible Memory Verses that your teachers will be sharing with you are filled with wisdom which will serve you as you make decisions, and as you seek to know the Will of God for your lives. These teachers are making an investment into your future because they love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind and strength.

I wonder what these walls would tell us if they could talk. I can only imagine what they would tell us about the faithfulness of the saints who have come through this place before, echoing back to the first days of this church… back in 1696. I also wonder what these walls would say 100 years from now, if they could bear witness to the things that we have said and done here.




Let it be said of us that the Lord was our passion
That with gladness we bore every cross we were given
That we fought the good fight, that we finished the course
Knowing within us the power of the risen Lord
Let it be said of us: we were marked by forgivness
We were known by our love, and delighted in meekness
We were ruled by His peace, heeding unity's call
Joined as one body that Christ would be seen by all
Let the cross be our glory and the Lord be our song, by mercy made holy, by the spirit made strong,
Let the cross be our glory and the Lord be our song til' the likeness of Jesus be through us made known,
Let the cross be our glory and the Lord be our song.

I Bid You Peace,
Dr. Ken+