We are mindful of a common sad thread of heritage uniting us with those who have come before. In the sanctuaries built on this site every generation of MRC’s members have sought refuge from the tumult of war. In this place our founders prayerfully knelt before you a mere three generations after the Revolutionary War and on the threshold of the Civil War that threatened to tear this new nation apart; and succeeding generations have sought your grace, your peace and your healing through the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean conflict, the Vietnam War and in this generation through the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. With hope that future generations will be spared this brutal agony, and for the ways in which you have sustained us in these troubled times, Our God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come:
We thank you for your steadfast love and care.
Like us, our predecessors knelt in prayer not only in concern for the world, but also for the struggles of their own lives. Our founders knew nothing of X-rays, CAT scans, and MRI’s, much less automobiles, computers and I-Pods. They would be amazed at the technology that we take for granted. It was enough for them to humbly bow and pray for healing from disease, or for rain to nourish the crops. In your faithfulness you answered those prayers, and in the generations since you have also guided us into new knowledge, insight and wisdom. Your gifts of advanced medicine and medical treatments make us different kinds of partners with you in the work of healing. Our God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come,
We thank you for your steadfast love and care.
You have watched your children peer through the microscope to discover the hidden world of the atom and the molecule, and gaze through the telescope to explore the outer world of stars and planets; and throughout all generations you have waited patiently and loving for us to attend to the inner world of our souls. We confess the power you have placed in our hands tempts our generation with unwarranted confidence, as if we heal and make whole and control our destiny through our own strength and wisdom. It is good to be reminded of our dependence upon you as we pray, Our God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come,
We thank you for your steadfast love and care.
You placed this congregation in “In het midden van den bosch” – in the middle of the bush; in the wilderness, as it were; and you from the very beginning called us to be a light in that dark wilderness. Saints before us answered that call – serving one another with ministries of worship and fellowship, of discipleship and Christian nurture. In this place your people have upheld one another as babies were baptized, youths confirmed, marriage vows spoken, educational goals achieved, jobs begun and changed, and loved ones laid to rest. You have been a constant presence, an abiding place in the stream of time: Our God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come:
We thank you for your steadfast love and care.
Leaders have risen from within this flock to serve as Elders and Deacons, Sunday School teachers, youth group leaders, committee members and committee chairs, including the Living Memorial and the Endowment Trust Fund; other members have stepped forward to sing in choirs, to play their musical instruments and for the last dozen years to play handbells; yet others have volunteered their time and talents to meet specific needs, preferring not the limelight of leadership but behind the scenes still faithfully serving you by serving your church; and you have called others to serve on the staff of the church – office administrators, organists, choir directors, seminary interns, and pastors; For the contributions of all who have helped us growth in faith, serve one another and serve you, Our God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come,
We thank you for your steadfast love and care.
You have kept us from vain selfishness, impressing upon our hearts the need to serve others in the wilderness of life. Responding to that call members of MRC have served the community around us – being instrumental in the founding of the Middlebush Volunteer Fire Department; forming the Franklin Township Food Bank; serving as Trustees for the Cedar Grove Cemetery; providing tutoring services for local elementary school students; assisting in the start-up of the Somerset Community Action Program with its services of Head Start education; building homes for Habitat for Humanity; serving the homeless through Interfaith Hospitality Network and in countless other gestures of support for ministries and services through which to love our neighbor. In all of these you have provided the people and raised the resources to serve; Our God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come:
We thank you for your steadfast love and care.
So Lord, tonight we pay tribute to the heritage of those who have come before us – we thank you for their lives, their sacrifices, their witness, and their faith. You placed within them a courage to thrive while facing the hardships of those colonial days, a courage passed along to the next generations that inspired some to run into a burning building to preserve something of the legacy of our founders. And as we are able to look back with grateful recognition for the courage and faith of those who have come before us, we pray, O Lord, that future generations will look at the legacy we have added to this congregation’s history, and with our generation clearly in mind, that they also will pray, “Our God, Our help in ages past, our hope for years to come,
We thank you for your steadfast love and care.”
Written by Pastor George Montanari
for the 175th Anniversary of Middlebush Reformed Church
March 19, 2009