Sermon Preached By: Dr. Larry Corbett, Pinnacle’s former senior pastor
Date: July 22, 2007
Scripture: Colossians 1: 15–28
Sermon Title:

“He Has Now Reconciled”

The formative years of early childhood of this congregation, 1989–1994 were turbulent years of tremendous social, economic, and technological change in the life of the world, and particularly our land.

In early 1990 the Berlin Wall came down…and ushered in the reunification of east and West Germany in Europe. That same year the Hubble space telescope was launched enabling us to see spectacular photographs of galaxies beyond our own, and a reminder that the creator God we worship continues to create life and miracles before our very eyes.

While all of this was occurring Nelson Mandela was released from prison and a whole new political day began in South Africa. Cap Dean, a member of this congregation serving now in Baghdad was an advisor working with Mr. Mandela to bring change to South Africa. Meanwhile, the U. S. Senate was investigating the “Keating Five” and the savings and loan scandal throughout our land. We were personally benefited by this economic collapse as we purchased our home in the spring of 1991 from the “RTC” – a committee of financial experts sitting in Buffalo, N.Y. Unfortunately, the builder had lost it to the RTC, and his ill fortune was our good fortune.

That spring when I told the people at worship in the Glenn Moor Clubhouse that we were putting our house in north Phoenix on the market and would look for a house locally folks broke out in applause. Prior to that announcement there was uncertainty about my personal commitment to being the pastor long term of this church. My decision communicated my commitment, and soon others were signing up as charter members.

In this little fledgling gaggle of people worshipping in the Glenn Moor Clubhouse we looked for any excuse to mold us together as a group, and move us from the Club House to the five acres on Pima Road, then a two–lane–macadam running north and south in front of the church property. Since we had used Earth Day the previous year to plant a Saguaro Cactus on the property near the road, in the spring of ’91 we scattered desert daisy seeds.

But our personal and congregational needs paled to the needs of those around us… so we started Food Bank Sundays as well as the Adopt–a–Family ministry at Christmas. People in Pinnacle Presbyterian Church have always had a keen interest in ministry beyond us. Even when our financial needs were great with the need to build a permanent meeting place we knew there were people nearby whose personal needs far exceeded ours.

Meanwhile in the real world in 1991 there were the painful Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill hearings; the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev in Russia; and the Persian Gulf War with Stormin Norman Schwarzkopf launching an attack of Operation Desert Storm. Many of us sat comfortably in our homes watching much of this on television, while wondering about the impact on the L A Lakers by Magic Johnson’s announcement of having tested positive for HIV.

In November of 1991 Pinnacle was chartered by the Presbytery of Grand Canyon with 109 people; and that same month we held the first Pinnacle Potpourri and home tour, a fund raiser to help us with what we knew would be great expense with the building of a chapel.

1992 brought even more turmoil and tension to the world – it was the year of the birth of the World Wide Web and a whole new information vocabulary for us as we learned the meaning of “Are you going on–line?”

“Will you use e–mail or snail mail?” Cell phones were being literally downsized from the size of a loaf of bread to that of garage door openers.

Social and cultural conflicts wouldn’t go away. A riot broke out in Los Angeles following the acquittal of four white police officers in the beating of Rodney King. Bill Clinton was elected President and before long the nation was listening to a line of women accusing President Clinton of sexual improprieties, and later, sex in the White House. A guy by the name of Shaquille O’Neill entered the NBA and no one much worried about Magic Johnson anymore. Many of us didn’t know how we’d ever let go of all the tensions at the end of the day when Johnny Carson announced his retirement and some young upstart comedian by the name of Jay Leno took over.

Meanwhile, in the spring of 1993 we broke ground for the chapel on April 4th. I had tried my hardest to have all the appropriate representatives of the Presbytery, Synod of the Southwest, Valley Presbyterian Church (our parent church) the architect, representatives of the building committee and the stewardship committee, and the City of Scottsdale present. Even with my sensitivities to equality of the sexes and fair representation unfortunately there was a line of white, male dignitaries with shovels in hand turning the first spade of desert. I’ll never forget Janet Arbesman, the student intern at that time, stepping up to the mike for the closing prayer, and commenting, “The men dig their holes and the women get them out of them.”

Even with the excitement of the construction of the chapel and classrooms the world around us continued in great turmoil. The World Trade Center was bombed, Richard M. Nixon died, and the first peace accord between Israel and Palestine was signed in a ceremony at the White House. Borders and Barnes and Noble book stores popped up across the land driving smaller bookstores out of business.

The year passed quickly and on Palm Sunday in ’94 we held our first worship service in the chapel. It was a dramatic illustration of “you build it, they come” as over 250 people showed up, and without advertising that we were holding the first service in the chapel! And Margaret Ebert started our first choir with less than a dozen singers. Lynne Merkle faithfully accompanied the congregation in hymns on a piano donated by a neighboring family. A little community of faith was growing not only in numbers, but in its identity, purpose and partnership.

Now, let me see if I can tie all of this together to make some sense for us.

Partnerships are formed for many purposes. In marriage, in child rearing; in education in a local school between administration, the teachers, and the parents to achieve the best level of education for the children.

In business, partnerships are formed for financial investments and growth opportunities. In neighborhoods partnerships are formed in homeowners associations.

One can always experience life as an individual or a single self. In the first half decade of the ’90s there was a tension between individuals seeing other individuals having some impact on the world and civilization. And in this growing congregation of people individuals shared a partnership with a mutual hope and a common, communal vision of bringing the gospel of redemption and reconciliation to a neighborhood hungry for meaning beyond new homes, cocktail parties, golf tournaments, and bridge or poker in the clubhouses.

We didn’t really have separate individual hopes but we were one hope, one clear thing that defined us and drew us together into a unit, the kind of unit that shared a common purpose and goal. That purpose was to be a church with a clear identity and integrity bringing a word of reconciliation to a conflicted community and world. Out of this community sprouted new individual perceptions.

As Douglas Hofstadter observes in his book, I Am a Strange Loop, “a self emerges from the…loops and perceptions that have been shared with others.” We see this in our families as we rear children and develop a family unit. The Greeks thought that the individual self has identity in relation to suffering. And I can understand that philosophy. In Christianity, one’s identity may be profoundly influenced by suffering, but always in relation to a community around the individual. As Paul writes elsewhere, “If one member suffers all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together…” (I Corinthians 12:26)

All of this is articulated in a recent article by David Brooks entitled, “A Partnership of Minds.” When there is a common purpose, a shared hope, and a unified sense of vision it exposes the error of thinking that success is achieved by one’s own genius and sheer will power. The old “I–think–I–can mentality of the little engine that could.” I have not created PPC by myself. As partners in Christ we have worked together to create a congregation of faith. The very core of our individual souls has been altered, molded, and strengthened by the formation of small groups and the larger congregation in prayer, Bible study, work and play.

And, as Brooks observes, “it (also) exposes the fallacy of the New Age narcissists who believe they can find their true, authentic self by burrowing down into their inner being.” (Brooks, New York Times, July 20, 2007) There is no real self apart from the community of faith.

There is a piece of Christian music that was popular in the ’90s with the words, “We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord…and they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

Think about this. In the last decade of the 20th century we have experienced the start of the information age with the world wide web and people bonded together by electronic communication. The words of the Renaissance poet, John Donne, “No man is an island” describes us today as it did four hundred years ago. This famous meditation by John Donne puts forth the idea that people are not isolated from one another, but that humanity is interconnected.

Today, there is a vast web of interconnected religions, peoples and nations; and the challenge for the church will be to identify how we as Christians are to relate to it all.

We are connected with people of other religions who do not perceive Christianity as friendly; we are uncertain about the Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist traditions. We are divided in our political views and perceptions of religions in the world. Indeed, we are not sure how to relate to people in Christianity who express their faith quite differently than we. There is this vast web of information “out there.”

Electronic information
Genetic information contained in DNA
Historic information that unites us with our ancestors and genealogy;
Cultural information from the arts.

This entire web of information has an impact on our faith.

It is not only imperative but critically vital today that individuals have a local congregation where they can
worship together,
pray together,
work together,
serve together,
play together,
and support one another in an identity as faithful disciples, redeemed and reconciled with one another and with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The roots which have been planted at Pinnacle Presbyterian Church in these early years are healthy roots of reformed discipleship. With continued faith and nurture they will sustain your life for decades to come. Pinnacle has grown from a commitment of our charter members, and will be sustained with your partnership of commitment to Christ to the future. Thanks be to God!