Shiloh Baptist Church

These words are directives in our lives that we probably haven’t heard since we were children. Taught to us by our parents to protect us, we teach them to our children, as a way to protect them. They are meant to be a warning, a heads-up that if we are not careful, there could be danger up a head. They prepare us for danger, even when we cannot see it.

I truly believe that there are life lessons in every situation, if we would just pay attention, and I think we miss very significant warnings because we have no expectation. What have you been waiting for that you may have missed? What have you been looking for that you gave up on too soon? What have you not found, because you didn’t look for it?

My little big boy, Mason, is growing up so fast. Born at the height of these Covid times, he is now two years old, and brilliant beyond his years. I marvel at how smart he is at just two. He pays attention to things that you don’t even know he’s listening to, and he does things that you would not expect from a two year old.

He’s our little big boy, affectionately named by his grandfather, because we now have two grandsons. Terrence, Jr., our older grandson just turned twelve. He’s big boy and is leaving quite a legacy for little big boy; and little big boy is here for the challenge. One day when Mason was home from Philadelphia, we three, my two big boys and I, went out for a walk. We were just about to cross the street, when little big boy stopped immediately, and yelled, “A car is coming!”

I live on a dead-end street and if you come down my block to the end there is no way out, except to turnaround and go back. But we heeded his warning and we stopped, looked, and listened. We saw the cars that he saw were a block away, but even at such a great distance, he knew there was danger, and a warning was necessary. I marveled at the lesson.

What I learned from him that day is that danger is lurking even at a distance, and even if it’s not apparent. A block away he saw cars moving, and although not in our direction, he was on the alert. Sometimes we don’t see the danger because we miss the warning signs, and there is no expectation of what we cannot see, especially when we walk by sight.

Life lessons are all around us if we would just be on the alert, even in the smallest things. A few Sunday mornings ago, my husband and I were on our way to church, and I chose to wear my slides in the car, and bring my dress shoes for the day to change into before entering the service. When we got there, I kicked off my slides and put on my church shoes, and that was that. We had a great morning Worship, like we always do. The Word was rich, the choir was excellent, and when it was over it was time to go. Getting back into the car, I looked to put my slides on for the drive home, and could not find one of them. Looking everywhere, under the seat, behind the seat and everywhere else, I could only find one shoe. “O, well,” is my answer to everything and this was no different. I’d just get another pair.

It made no sense to me, but my husband suggested that the shoe must have fallen out of the car when I got out. Wouldn’t I have seen it? I shrugged it off as one of life’s mysteries and decided it was no great loss and one that I could live with, but he insisted on going back to where he let me out of the car, just to see. Surely by now, after almost two hours, what are the chances that the shoe would be there?

He was determined, and I had no expectation. So we get there and right by the curbside, perhaps run over more than a few times by the traffic, was the shoe. It is still mangled, and I like these shoes. I keep them because I am reminded, by this experience, that when there is no expectation we give up too soon. We stop believing. We stop seeking. We stop trusting. We stop asking.

When we get into the habit of not expecting anything, we lose sight of the One who is protecting us, and providing for us. We lose faith, and we fall away. Pastor has taught us that, “Faith is the intellectual and volitional response of the soul to the truth about God as it is revealed by The Holy Spirit.”

It takes faith to believe in something, and certainly in someone, that you cannot see. Pastor has said, “Mature faith always goes after God Himself; not His stuff.” Living by faith means living life boldly, even blindly and without apology, and with every expectation to believe God, as He has revealed Himself to us. No further evidence is needed.

We can trust that God invites us into His work not because He needs us, but because we need Him. It is through our prayers, and our diligent seeking of Him that we are reminded of how much we need Him, His work around us, and His unlimited guidance over us. Don’t ignore the warning signs. Sometimes they are sent to us by God to test our resolve. Expectation gives birth to our faith.

“…It is a time when You may be found…” Psalm 32 KJV

I’ve finally reached that pinnacle in life that’s on everybody’s bucket-list: Retirement. I cringe now because I’m older, and since retiring from the labor force after more than 50 years in total, including 18 years at the last job, I fear that I won’t have enough to live on. This is a sad truth and an unsettling situation for a lot of “retired” people, but it’s supposed to be a time of rest. I started work at the age of 19, immediately following graduation from high school, and had big plans for my life. I have worked diligently and consistently down through the years to get to this place of retirement.

Arriving on time, staying late, losing sick-days, and giving back vacation days, it mostly all seemed to go unappreciated, but I had a plan. When I look back now, and consider my status, I recognize that we, who are Baby-Boomers, complain about today’s work ethic of Gen-Zers, Gen Xers, and Millennials. I’m not sure if they get it right, or if we did. They don’t seem to view their work experience the way we did.

Some retired people I know boast about never having taken a sick day off, in 30-something years. I think that’s a good thing because maybe it means he was not sick enough to stay home, or it means he never got sick. Either way, what a blessing. The work-life of “Boomers” was and is so different from today’s work force. We set the standards for hard work. We recognized what it would take to buy a home, provide a college education for your children’s future, and even to save a little something for our own future. Our parents did it all on much less than we do, and our children with three times the income that we make find it very hard to do.

When my husband and I married back in 1973, we rented a basement apartment for $100.00 a month. We had one bedroom, a bathroom, kitchen, closets and a living-room. Our plans were in motion and we were on our way. Just the two of us heading into the future. When our family started to grow a couple of years later it became necessary to move to a larger apartment. We needed a bedroom for the baby. We found a nice 2-Bedroom apartment in a 2-Family house in an upscale neighborhood. It was a stretch for us, but we did it. The rent was $125.00.

When the baby came, we had the added expense of hiring a baby-sitter since we both worked. Those days and hours of commuting, getting to and from work, paying the baby-sitter and all that came with maintaining our life-style demanded that we put our time in. So we did. Six years later, the second baby was coming, and on top of that the landlady decided that she was going to increase the rent to $150.00. How dare her!?

Everything was going up except our salaries. This change required another change in our plans so we decided we would not stand for the increase. We would buy our own house instead. We had some savings and with $5,000 we put a down-payment on our current home, and moved in to where we have now lived for more than 30 years. Down through the years, we did what every family does. We put the kids through school, celebrated graduations, birthdays, marriages, and anniversaries, and helped them pack as they have moved on and out. They both got jobs, and rented their own place, and built their own lives. They now have the responsibility of taking care of themselves, in addition to their children, and maybe someday, us.

We all work hard trusting that we are making the best plans to secure our future so that we don’t have to worry. I don’t know if aging was ever a concern for our parents, and if it were, they never voiced it. I don’t know if my parents ever worried about not having enough in their old age; or what would happen to us kids if the time came where they could not take care of us. Certainly as kids we never thought about it. Life was good and our parents did a great job providing for us and themselves.

Both my parents, and my in-laws, have gone home to be with the Lord, and miraculously, we are still standing. Between them they raised 12 children. They did something right. But I fear the weariness of growing old, and the loss of vitality that comes with old age, when the weekly paycheck stops coming. In addition to raising our family, ‘retirement’ is something we work toward for many years: a time to rest; when we would not have to commute to work; not have to worry about calling out sick, or getting to work late; the time when we would not have to worry about the demands and restrictions of the job.

While we come up with the best plan we can for our lives, working lo these many years, squirreling away a few pennies for our future, and putting things in place for those days that have now come, I sometimes worry how we’re going to make it. But I’ve come to the conclusion that my parents likely came to, and David the Psalmist before them, in Psalm 37:22-25. This is a time for rest, not worry. Carol Antrom has said, “Worry is for the unsaved.”

Therefore, freedom from worry can only come through confession and forgiveness.

I’ve had to confess to God, and admit to Him that I have been trying real hard to make my own way, and I realize that no amount of money or planning can secure my future outside of Him.  Pastor often says, ‘Confession is good for the soul but bad for the reputation.’ I agree. “Confession of sin is like a long hot shower in the grace of God.” I didn’t see it as Sin, but I had been trying to make sure that all those years on the job, the planning, and strategic planning would guarantee my security. Growing older means our limitations are growing stronger. In those moments we tend to forget about God’s plan, and set forth our own. But our times are in His hands.

After reading Psalm 32 I realized that I had to confess my sin of disobedience and independence to God and ask for His forgiveness. At first I didn’t see it, but the more I thought about it, I realized that as long as I placed my plan before His, I wasn’t trusting Him. I was trusting me. Throughout the years of my life God had given me the wisdom of His plan for my life, but somewhere along the way I had substituted my plan for His.

I can rest, knowing what my parents must have known; His plan of substitution is the best plan. God encourages us to make plans, but we must forever be aware that He has plans of His own. Our plans may or may not fit into His; and regardless His will and His purpose will be established. With far less than what we had, generations before us trusted God, and they believed His Word.

 “For the body is not one member, but many.”  1 Cor. 12:14 KJV

These days, it looks like the urgency and the influence of the church is disappearing, and as we approach our Church’s 115^th Anniversary I wonder how do we get back to the fire and desire to build a church like we did 115 years ago? What is it that makes the need to establish a church so important? If it takes people, what kind of people? If it takes money, then where is it going to come from? If it takes commitment what does that mean?

In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled that separate but equal is constitutional through the Plessy v Ferguson Case. Immediately following, local and state laws were created and in some cases enhanced, to prohibit Black people from participating fully in American Society. The Church has always had impact, and it is no secret that the Black Church is a staple in our community. When we could depend on no one else we knew we could depend on God. We knew the power of prayer and worship, so we had to build our own churches.

We persisted through faith, and all these many years later it’s hard to imagine what the world was like in the 1900s when Shiloh Baptist Church was established. Against all odds, time marched on, and there were many accomplishments and many set-backs, but our Church history tells us that in July 1907, a small group of concerned citizens came together to formulate this church. And here we stand; 115 years later.

The 1900s were depressing times. It was an era filled with strenuous hard work and did not offer much of a future for the family. Theodore Roosevelt was POTUS. If you could afford it, you could go to the movies for a nickel. If you were an average worker, you earned $3,000 annually, and you virtually would be stuck in the same job for the rest of your life. If you could get one.

At the time that the vision of Shiloh was evolving Major League Baseball, America’s favorite past time, was played by the Chicago Cubs and the Detroit Tigers. The Cubs won the series four games to none. In 1907, the paper towel was invented. A Philadelphia school teacher found a way to keep her students from perpetuating a cold epidemic by cutting separate pieces of paper to avoid the sharing the same cloth towel. That was great, but the founders of Shiloh were on a bigger mission.

In 1907, Americans had a life-expectancy of just 45.6 years for men, and 49.9 for women. This was also the year that typhoid fever, an abdominal disease which was spread through water and food supplies, ravaged the nation. Public health officials discovered that 47 people that had been stricken with the disease were all from families that employed a cook named Mary from which the disease originated. Finally getting a hold on it, “Typhoid Mary” was safely quarantined, and the world marched on.

Like in these Pandemic times, there was much need for prayer in those days, and I can imagine that the founding members of Shiloh huddled together and prayed for survival, and the day that they would assemble together as one body in their own place. They called on the Name of Jesus, and He responded.

In those days, there was no indoor plumbing, no telephone, and no cars. Most teenagers did not attend school. If you were white you labored in factories, or fields, if you were Black. About 60% of the population were farmers. Men went out to work and women stayed home and took care of the house and the children. If people had means, they would travel by railroad or by sea, otherwise they walked. Most people generally lived within a small circle of friends, neighbors and relatives.

And it was that small circle of family, friends and neighbors to whom we pay homage today, as we celebrate the existence of their vision, which has stood for 115 years. It was their commitment, their faith, and their love for Christ that fostered this Black Church in a predominantly White community here in Rockville Centre, New York. Chosen and elected by God, they came together, and with overwhelming support, and determination, Shiloh is what it was meant to be- their answered prayer, and our place of worship.

These times are much like the times of our past. They are difficult times, and there is so much to pray about. The Church has endured, and we have lived through years of slavery, racism, bigotry, and genocide. We have had to fight many battles- the right to vote; the right to make a living; the right to own property or a business; and the right to education, even the right to worship. And we have fought with our hands up in total surrender to our God, and bowed on our knees, in total submission to His will for HIS Church. These times are indicative of all times, and through it all prayer still works. This House of Prayer has remained, and will continue through future generations.

In concert with His redemptive act Jesus established the framework of His Church. He chose humans to carry out His work, and we understand that this building is not the Church. We are. And we are overcomers, because Christ overcame – for us. He has been our strength in every battle, and we have been fortified by His Word, “…I will build my church.”  (Matthew 16:18).  In celebration of our 115^th Anniversary, we recognize that we stand because we are built on a strong foundation. We have come this far by faith, leaning on the Lord.

What is it that makes the need to establish a church so important? It’s the message of the Cross. If it takes people, what kind of people? If it takes money, then where is it going to come from? If it takes commitment, what does that mean? Selah.

We are the redeemed people of God who seek His face and declare His Word. We stand and understand that The Message of the Cross is still urgent, and by the grace of God we all have a part to play in it. We recognize, and are grateful for Shiloh’s rich history, including Pastor Washington’s 32 years of obedience.