(Offered on April 24 - Based on John 17:11-23 & Ephesians 4:1-6)
I have a confession to make; when I took this job here
with you, I knew absolutely nothing about the United Church of Christ. I’ve
never been a big fan of denominations or paid much attention to what makes one
group Methodist and another one Presbyterian. True story – I was so not into
being Presbyterian, that the Presbytery of Mackinaw actually voted to make me
their Moderator, in hopes that I might actually come to some of the meetings!
But unfortunately, with this job in Gaylord, there’s been
no avoiding the denominational stuff. As part of the agreement in my contract,
I have spent the last 13 weeks spending about 8 hours a week taking a class
entitled “The History and Polity of the United Church of Christ.” (Sounds like
a real thriller, huh?) But surprisingly, it’s been a great opportunity and I’ve
learned a lot. So today, as a part of our April series on Identity – Who are
we? - I’d like to share the coolest three things I took away from this class,
things that are now a part of my Identity, and, I hope, yours too.
First, the UCC has a fierce commitment to unifying
people, even people who are about as far apart as you can imagine. The first
thing you read about when you’re learning about the UCC is the fact that four
distinct groups from four distinct parts of the world somehow managed to set
aside their differences to form the United Church of Christ in 1957. Those
groups, in case you ever want to impress your UCC friends, were the
Congregationalist Church, the Reformed Church, The Christian Church, and the
German Evangelical Church. I have no idea how these four distinct groups pulled
this off, but they did. And the truth is there are even more groups and threads
than just these four that flowed into this relatively new and young
denomination. In an era that has been and continues to be all about splintering
and dividing up (did you know there are over 2200 Christian denominations in
America now?), the emerging United Church of Christ pulled four very different
groups together.
The UCC understands itself as a “united and uniting church.”
Why, do you suppose we would use both these words – united and uniting? Are we
being redundant? No! What we’re saying is that we have already united four
major threads in forming our denomination AND we aren’t finished yet! The UCC
is still out there, trying to unite with more and more people – uniting in mission,
uniting in peace and justice efforts, uniting across national and even
international boundaries. Why? Because the UCC believes that God calls us – as
our very top priority - to pull people together, to seek and celebrate
similarities rather than differences, even when that’s an incredibly hard thing
to do. It’s quite a concept to me. How refreshing, in a world so full of
divisions, so full of religious conflict and bickering, to have a denomination
that truly believes in Christian unity AND works to bring it about! Count me
in!
I’ve grown so tired of Christians and supposed followers
of Jesus adopting what I call the “take your ball and go home” approach to
life. You know that expression, right? A few kids are playing kickball in the
street. They start arguing over who gets to go first or whether somebody was
safe or out. And, instead of working things out, the kid just takes his ball
and goes home. This is what Christians so often do when we disagree. We take
our ball and go home. We find another church or maybe even start a brand new church
or denomination, where people will agree with “me” 100% of the time. (Good luck
with that!)
But the UCC is
committed to doing the opposite – to bringing people together – different,
differing, and even disagreeing people. The UCC is trying – against incredible
odds – to live out Jesus’ prayer for unity in John 17: “My prayer for them is
not for them alone, but for ALL who hear my message…that ALL of them may be
one.” Folks, John 17:21 is the single most important scripture passage in the
UCC, Jesus prayer that we all may be one. Can you think of anything – ANYTHING
– more important than that in today’s world? I can’t. The UCC is a united and
uniting church, and I like that.
A second thing that really excited me in learning about
the UCC is that it is not a doctrinal or dogmatic denomination. The United
Church of Christ doesn’t have a list of doctrines or beliefs that we all need
to bow down to in order to be accepted into the UCC. The denomination did seek
to draft a statement of faith at two or three points in our short history, and
do you know what they called it? I love this – they called “A Statement of
Faith,” with the emphasis on A.
Cause that’s all it is; it’s just a statement of faith, one among many. It’s not
“THEE” statement. It’s not even “The UCC’s Statement of faith.” Do you hear the
humility in that? Do you sense the resistance to drafting some sort of
definitive creedal statement?
I am SO excited and, yes, relieved, to finally be a part
of a religious group that understands that, when it comes to following Jesus,
our actions are FAR more important than our words, than our creeds, than our
doctrines, and than our statements of faith!
Now I want to take a moment here to make sure you
understand the important connection between the first thing I said I love about
my new denomination and this second thing, because the two go hand-in-hand.
There is no way those four strands – the Congregational, Christian, Reformed,
and Evangelical churches ever could have united if they first had to hammer out
some sort of common doctrine or dogma. If they said they first needed to
compose a creed or a statement of faith together before they could unite, that
unification never would have happened. So instead, they focused on their
missions, their actions of love, mercy, and justice in the world. That’s what
brought them together, and that is SO brilliant! I can’t tell you how long I’ve
been seeking that very thing in a denomination.
There
is a great song by an amazing rock star named John Mayer called “Belief.” One
of the verses says: Everyone believes something… And belief is the beautiful
armor that makes for the heaviest sword…it’s the chemical weapon of the wars
that we wage, Yes everyone believes.” And the chorus goes as follows: “We’re
never going to win the world, we’re never going to stop the war, we’re never
going to beat this if belief is what
we’re fighting for.” John Mayer’s implication is clear and dead-on accurate:
everyone’s beliefs are held strongly. Everyone believes what he/she believes
for good reason. So if we think that by fighting, arguing, or even preaching,
we can change someone’s beliefs, we’re deluding ourselves and actually
torpedoing any chance for real unity.
The UCC is a denomination that seems to grasp that our
beliefs are NOT what we should be fighting for. The United Church of Christ is
far more concerned about feeding the hungry, taking care of the poor, working
toward justice for all people, regardless of their beliefs, their religion, or
their nationality. You see, folks, we cannot be a united and uniting church,
and, at the same time, be pushing for uniformity of belief. You can’t have it
both ways. So the UCC has said, let’s emphasize Jesus as our guiding Lord and
seek to live out the teachings he lived out. We don’t need to get bogged down
in doctrine and statements of faith. Wow! I can’t tell you how psyched I am to
be a part of a denomination that has learned to put actions above beliefs and
causes above creeds.
Third and finally, the United Church of Christ emphasizes
that God is still speaking. That’s even what our t-shirts say, right? We place
a comma after everything we say about God – not a period – because God is still
speaking! And I’m sure glad God is still speaking, because if She’s not, what
are we all doing here, anyway? I mean, if everything God ever had to say was
already said and recorded in the Bible, then let’s all lock ourselves up in a
library or a monastery and read for the rest of our lives. Jesus was incredibly
clear, when he was preparing to leave the disciples, and said, “It is good that
I am going away, for then the Comforter will come, the Holy Spirit, who will
lead you into all truth.” Jesus was going away, but he wanted his followers to
know that his departure isn’t even close to being the end of God’s story! And
as long as people are being born with hearts and minds that are open to God and
that Holy Spirit, God is still going to be speaking, Amen?
Pope Francis put it this way:
"If one already
has the answers to all the questions, that is the proof that God is not with him. It means that he is a
false prophet using religion for himself. The
great leaders of the people of God, like Moses, have always left room for doubt. You must leave room for the
Lord, not for our certainties; we must be humble."
Are you leaving room? Am I leaving room for doubt, for
questions, for the living God to continue to speak? Certainty is no friend of
the UCC, but humility sure is, and I like that. How dreary and mundane life
would be as a Christian, if we didn’t get to go through it with our eyes wide
open and our ears tuned into the Spirit of the LIVING God! God IS still
speaking. God IS still at work! God ISN’T finished – not with you, not with me,
not with anyone, and certainly not with the world!
Today, I celebrate with you our common identity as a part
of The United Church of Christ – a united and uniting church, an
action-oriented church rather than a doctrinal one, and a church in which God
is still speaking. I am so grateful for all that God has already done here at 1st
Congregational UCC Church. I am equally grateful for all the God is currently
doing here, and I’m especially excited to see what God is going to do next!
Thank you for letting me be a part of the living journey of The 1st
Congregational UCC Church of Gaylord, Michigan! Amen.
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