Leaving a Legacy

David was the second king that God granted Israel. After Moses, led them out of Egypt and through the desert for 40 years, Joshua led them into the Promised Land. The next 350 years, they are governed by a judge. You have probably heard of a few of them – Ehud, Barak, Deborah, Abimelech, Samson, Samuel…. But the Israelites wanted a king, all the countries around them had a king. And kings lead armies; finally, God spoke to Samuel, a prophet and judge, and God appointed Saul the first king of Israel. He was anointed by Samuel and became king. He led the Israelites in battle against their enemies and expanded the boundaries of the nation, successfully fighting against the Philistines, the Ammonites, the Moabites, Edomites, Arameans, and the Amalekites. Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel: “I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.”

God appointed a new king, and Samuel was led to Bethlehem to anoint him, a son of Jesse. Jesse introduced Samuel to his eldest 7 sons, but none was the one God had called. The ten year old was in the field, watching his father’s sheep. They called him in, David. He was the one. Samuel anointed him and he went to be in the service of King Saul. You remember the story of him fighting the Philistine named Goliath? The whole second half of the book of First Samuel tells the stories of Saul and David. After Saul’s death, David, now 30 years old, became king.

Like Saul, he led the Israelites in battle, expanding the boarders of the kingdom. One of the places they conquered was Jerusalem. David had the ark of the covenant – the box that had represented God’s presence with the Israelites and carried the Ten Commandments ever since God gave them to Moses after they escaped Egypt and were wandering in the desert, in need of some rules for living together in community – David had the ark of the covenant brought to Jerusalem. And he had a tent pitched for it. He went and offered sacrifices – burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. The fellowship offering he gave was a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women.

David decided to make his home in Jerusalem. He had cedar brought in by boat to what is now Tel Aviv and then carted over land to Jerusalem to make his grand palace. Then Scripture tells us, “After the king was settled in his palace and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies around him, 2 he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.”

And God tells Nathan in a dream to tell David that he is not the one to build the Temple. “‘The LORD declares,… 12 When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”

David had wanted to build a Temple as his legacy, to be remembered by, but David had been a warrior, and God wanted the Temple to be built by a leader of peace, David’s son, Solomon. His name is from the same Hebrew root as Shalom. There is a whole other sermon in that, yet David left a legacy perhaps greater than building a Temple.

David accepted that his name would not be remembered for building the Temple for the Lord. Yet, he did not sit back in his palace and store up for himself. Knowing he would not see the first stone laid, he hired stone masons to cut the stones for the Temple mount. He ordered cedar to be delivered, so much lumber the tree trunks couldn’t be counted, bronze and iron beyond weighing, 37,750 tons of silver, and 3,775 tons of gold…today that would be in the neighborhood of $175 billion worth of gold. Scholars agree that the numbers are exaggerated to emphasize David’s instruction to his son, “To these you must add more.” Our legacy is to be our striving toward God’s glory, not our accomplishments. The first question of the Westminster Catechism asks, “What is humanity’s chief purpose? To glorify God and enjoy God forever.”

Leaving a legacy is about honoring the past, assessing God’s call in the present, and casting a vision for the future. We are at a threshold time in history. The pandemic has accelerated the rate of societal changes that were already occurring. Work from home was sometimes accommodated prior, now it is being completely renegotiated. Instacart, UberEats, Amazon Prime were ways we sometimes ordered things before, now they are habit. Church attendance was already declining, now nationwide, churches of all sizes report that they have returned to only 40-50% of their pre-pandemic attendance.

We are at a pivotal point in history, a point to honor who we have been, assess who we are, and envision who God is calling us to be. So who have we been? Farmington Presbyterian was founded with a vision to serve the neighborhood. As the church moved into this building in 1976, the founding pastor had a vision for serving the neighborhood through a Boy Scout Troop and a Day School. Who are we now? Those ministries continue today as Farmington continues to be a home for God’s family with a heart for God’s world. Last week 140 or so Day School children attended Vacation Bible School here. Over $1100 was raised at the Spaghetti Dinner for the mission trip to Mexico this week.

Like David, the founding pastor of Farmington built the ministry to a point, and then handed it off along with a legacy gift. Each quarter, Farmington church receives his tithe from the Presbyterian Foundation and will in perpetuity because he chose to establish a permanent endowment fund. We are in the midst of building renovations, and as we are able to the whole building will be painted, new flooring installed, bathrooms upgraded. Who is God calling us to be? We are in the early stages of endowment planning. The endowment funds of Farmington Presbyterian have slowly grown over the years as members have left legacy gifts to the church, and they are now at the $1 million threshold to be able to begin reinvesting the proceeds into mission and ministry. Most recently, Gwynne Gladden named the church as beneficiary of an annuity.

As our society shifts, as being at home for work and for shopping and having conveniences delivered to us at home becomes a new normal, one of the most important roles of the church will be to be a hub for the neighborhood, a place of gathering and fellowship. One of the dreams that was shared with me even before I was called to Farmington as your pastor was a dream for additional space. It was not the time to build then. We didn’t know fully what we needed, where we were headed, how God would use us, or what the neighborhood needed most. I invite you to begin to prayerfully consider our legacy, your legacy, in the coming year. What would it mean for Farmington to have a spacious fellowship hall, a place of gathering for community meals and Bible study, a place for parents to have coffee as they drop off their children in the morning, a place to be gracious hosts? Our neighborhood needs a place to know community.

On Father’s Day, we celebrate the men in our lives who have shaped and formed us. One of my friends shared on Facebook last night, and I asked her permission to share it this morning, a few of her favorite Dad stories.

Her father owned a nursery on South Third. One Christmas season, someone cut the fence wire and stole a Christmas tree. Daddy was mad at first, she said, but then he said (and I’ll always remember this) that he hoped the person who took the tree had a nice Christmas. Daddy could be busy, but he was never too busy to stop and spend time with me. He would put me in his wheelbarrow and push me all over the back yard, going faster and faster. He hated flying, but on my first trip to England, he offered to fly with me to Chicago for the first leg of the trip. On snow days, he’d make chili for me and my friends. He always had fun and could talk to anyone easily. I see so much of him in me, and the older I get, the more I appreciate it.

That is a legacy. What will your legacy be? How will you be remembered? What is our legacy as the Farmington family? How are we being called to bring glory to God? What resources will we leave for the next generation? These questions are not calls to immediate action or immediate response. These are questions for prayer and conversation, for dreaming and envisioning what God’s will is for us that our legacies may glorify God. Amen.