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Mystic
Congregational Church, UCC Sermon from August 22, 2004“Binding in
Covenant Faithful People” (Exploring Our Faith, Part III) Rev.
Thomas Ratmeyer Scripture: We’re
on the homestretch—the third and final week of looking at our United Church of
Christ Statement of Faith. Again,
as in the previous weeks, you’ll find it printed in your bulletin, with the
part that we are talking about printed in bold print.
So, if you look at that, you’ll see that we may be on the homestretch
but we still have about half of the whole statement to look at.
We have a lot to do. In
Week 1, we spoke about creation, about people being formed in God’s image. We described God as loving, and God as a judge at the same
time. We pointed out that the
statement is formulated as a prayer making it an interaction with God, rather
than a description. In
Week 2, we spoke about Jesus Christ, and pointed out how this very short line,
“our crucified and risen Savior”, encompasses so much of what we believe in
a powerful testimony of faith. We also pointed out that the statement is
formulated in the present tense. So
we pray to a God who is very present with us.
This is not a past history. In
fact, nothing that we proclaim, that we give witness to in this prayer and this
statement of faith, is abandoned to the past.
It’s happening right now. Today,
we talk about the Holy Spirit and the Church.
We will find out that our Statement of Faith not only includes a
description of what we believe but a description of who we are and what we are
supposed to do. Who
are we? Let’s read.
“You bestow upon us your Holy Spirit, creating and renewing the church
of Jesus Christ.” When was the
church founded? The sign outside
says, “1852”. Well, that’s
just our congregation. The United
Church of Christ, of which we are a part is even younger—1957.
So, let’s look a little back. We
are a congregational church. Now,
there’s a tradition that reaches back to the Mayflower, and beyond, to
England. But, then, we are
Protestants. So, the church was
founded in 1517 when Martin Luther in Germany nailed 95 theses to a church door
in Wittenberg. Let’s
do a little “Jeopardy”. The
church sold these as a means of repenting your sins and making your way into
heaven. What
are indulgences? Very true. I
want to read one of these 95 theses to you—number 37, from the time of the
founding of our Protestant church: “Any
true Christian, whether living or dead, participates in all the blessings of
Christ and the Church, and this is granted him by God even without indulgence
letters.” Our Protestant faith is
based on the idea that we live in the grace of God, and the Church has no
business giving that to us or taking it away from us, and, especially, not
selling it to us. But, then, is
that the founding of the Church? No,
the Church is obviously founded at the even of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit
was poured out on the gathered believers. It
was founded in Jesus Christ’s sitting at the table, and offering the Last
Supper to the disciples: “Do this
as often as you do it in remembrance of me.” It
goes on: “binding in covenant
faithful people of all ages, tongues, and races”.
Covenant is a big word in our United Church of Christ.
What is it? What is a
covenant versus a contract? A
covenant describes a relationship. A
contract creates equal footing: I
give you a certain amount of money; you give me a certain amount of your work
and your time. That creates an equal basis.
As for covenant—if you think of Noah and the rainbow and God entering
into a covenant with Noah on behalf of all humanity, there is nothing equal
about that. Covenant describes a
relationship of mutual commitment. We
are in covenant with all the other settings of the United Church of Christ.
We are in covenant with people in Cleveland in the national offices.
We are in covenant with (our really quite marvelous) Conference Minister
Davida Foy Crabtree in Hartford. But
we are not in a hierarchical relationship.
We’re in a relationship of partnership, of mutual support, of reaching
out to one another. They can give
us advise and support but they cannot tell us what to do.
We’re in covenant with congregations in Florida who are reeling from
the hurricane, and, because of that, the national offices are spending some of
the money there to support church members and people in need in Florida right
now. We are in covenant, and that
is a rich relationship. “You
call us into your church to accept the cost and joy of discipleship.” It’s a call for you as well as for me. Church membership is not exhausted in our decision to belong
to a group of people. That is only
a small part of it. It is the
decision to follow God’s call into the body of Christ.
How does God call us? We
believe that it is through the work of the Holy Spirit. We are more than a group of people. We are the body of Christ called together by God. “To
be your servants in the service of others.”
I love that. Have you ever
asked yourself, “How can meek little me serve God?”
Well, you can, by serving others. We
are God’s servants by serving others. We
do a good job of that but there is always more to do.
How can you serve God? Serve
one another. Serve those on the
outside. I believe that full
Christian life is never isolated, but needs a community of faith where we can
serve one another, and it needs service to those on the outside.
Some people say, “I don’t need a church to have a relationship with
God.” That’s very true, but I
think the fullness of experience of what it means to lead a Christian life
requires that you have a community of faith and are able to reach out.
We reach out, in deed and in word, because we are to proclaim the Gospel
to all the world, and resist the powers of evil.
Those come close together in this Statement of Faith:
to proclaim the Gospel to all the world, and resist the powers of evil.
That’s one breath, as if it’s suggesting that if you proclaim the
Gospel, you are well-protected against the powers of evil.
If you live with an awareness that your life is in Christ, and that what
we say and do to one another is, in some form, always a testimony to our faith
in Christ, then, maybe you are somewhat armored against the forces that are out
there, the less than good things. Maybe,
if we forget that our life is in Christ, we are somewhat more vulnerable to
whatever wants to pull us in. “To
share in Christ’s baptism and eat at his table.”
These are the two sacraments that make up the church in our tradition.
The Catholic Church has more but those are the two events which, when we
celebrate them, renew and give new birth to the church.
I love baptisms because when we baptize a child here, with everyone of
you there and everyone of you committing to support this journey of faith in
this little one, our church is reborn. It’s
a direct reminder of Jesus’ baptism. You’re my beloved Son, my beloved Child. In you I am well pleased.
When we come together at this table, we are again at Jesus’ table.
We say, “Do this in remembrance of me.”
This re-creates the very founding moment of the Church.
Remember the two disciples on their journey to Emmaeus after Jesus’
death. They didn’t knowing yet
that He was resurrected when they encountered and told Him about their agony and
grief. He laid out the Scriptures
for them. It was then, after a long
conversation, in the breaking of the bread that they would recognize Him as
Jesus. When we break the bread, we
become the Body of Christ. “To
join Him in His passion and victory.” That’s
a tough one. How do we join Jesus
in His passion? I want to say just
this—no one is ever to decide for someone else that his or her suffering is
redemptive. Let me say that again.
No one ever decides for somebody else that their suffering somehow brings
them closer to God, or that it means taking up their cross as Jesus has told us.
This has been used to allow for violence and oppression for so long.
People have risen over other people and have somehow tried to tell them
that they were just taking up their cross and that their suffering in being
oppressed was redemptive. Well, it’s not. It’s
not when somebody else decides that for you.
Women, wives have been beaten by their husbands and the culture has
suggested that that was somehow redemptive and they just had to take up their
cross. Well, it’s not.
It’s not, as long as somebody else decides it for you.
The only way that we can encounter suffering and find it redemptive is
because we decide it to be on our own. Nelson
Mandela somehow learned to make 27 years in prison a redemptive experience and
come out of that with his soul intact. I
don’t know how but he decided that for himself that that would be redemptive.
When William Sloan Coffin’s son died in a car accident, his father had
to preach the next day. He said, “Don’t let anyone say that this was God’s
plan. God’s heart is the first to
break.” “Courage
in the struggle for justice and peace.” There’s
no question that being part of the Christian faith means struggling for justice
and peace. We will have courage for
that. “We are members of one
another” is a phrase that Paul uses in Ephesians.
If one of us suffers, all of us suffer.
If one of us is being persecuted, all of us are being persecuted.
We are not free until all of us are free.
If Christians in Indonesia are being persecuted and harassed, all
Christians are being persecuted and harassed.
Martin Luther King, Jr. talks about the Beloved Community and that is one
idea that we are all members of one another.
“Your
presence in trial and rejoicing.” Both
are part of life that all of us know. We
know trial, and we know rejoicing. How
good to know that God is a part of both. I
believe God likes to have fun alongside us, frankly, but I also believe that if
we encounter suffering, God is there with us. “And
eternal life in Your realm which has no end.”
Do we know God’s realm or is God’s realm something that is yet to be
revealed, maybe when we die? I had
a image as a teenager that still works for me.
Imagine a mountain top, and a little cabin on that mountaintop. But imagine a cabin that has no windows.
So, if you close the door, and that door is closed right now, it’s
completely and utterly dark in there. Outside
is this bright, gorgeous, sunny day. You
manage, as you grow in your faith, to open this door just an inch.
Do you know, if you are in a completely dark space, and you open a little
door, how the light comes in? Very
powerfully. You can see the beams
of light, and it’s amazing how much it lightens up the entire space.
In fact, so much so, that if you were to knock down all four walls, and
somehow hold up the roof, at once, you would not be able to stand how bright it
is. So, what we do in our journey
of faith in discovering the realm of God, is gradually open that door, and have
our whole life filled with that light, gradually.
Then I believe the full knowing of what it means to live in the realm of
God will eventually be that there are no walls and there is no roof and nothing
separates us from God. Imagine that
that will be. It is gradual and it
happens right now, in my opinion. “Blessing
and honor, glory and power be unto You.”
Can we state our faith without giving God glory?
I don’t think so. I asked
earlier who we are. We are the
church. Ecclesia,
it is called; those who are called out. I
used to think that you are called out from the community to be sort of special,
an elect few. I used to envy the
Jesuits because I thought of them as spiritual Marines, the proud and the few.
Now, I tend to think that if you are called out to
a community rather than from a
community. Ever since I’ve been a
church member, and especially since I’ve been a pastor, I think we are called
to be together, not to be apart from anything but to be a community of faith, a
family of faith. What are we
supposed to do as that? This text
from Ephesians that Marge read offers a list of virtues that are the virtues of
being a community of faith, a community of believers.
It calls us to truthful speech because we are all members of one another.
We should speak the truth to each other.
It also says, “Speak the truth in love.”
I spoke about that a few weeks ago.
Truth, in itself, is neutral. You
could wield it like a weapon. So,
ask yourself. Are you speaking the
truth to serve another or to put another down.
What’s your usage of the truth? Are
you using it to lift another up? It
says not to be a thief but to work with your hands so to share what is gained
with those in need. In those days,
especially in the Greek world, there was an option of living off somebody
else’s wealth, of being kept, in some sense, by somebody richer than you.
Paul, who favors working with your own hands—as I’m sure we do, too,
here—says that is really not how you should do it. You should earn your own income in order for you to be able
to share something with those in need. That
is the rationale. You ought to be
able to share. What are thieves
now? Is there any equivalent in the
community of Christ for this thievery? Obviously,
we don’t live off somebody else’s money.
But there maybe those who think in the life of the church that the work
will get done because the same few always rise up to the occasion and do it.
To think that and then not do the work, maybe, that’s a form of
thievery—relying on some to do the work of all.
Then
there’s the cynic—one who steals the glory of God out from under the pew. That’s another form of thievery.
Somebody said to me, just a few days ago, “It must be exhausting to
attend to people’s needs and illnesses and disasters if, in the end, you have
nothing to offer to them.” That’s
pretty harsh, isn’t it? It took
me a while to swallow that. Well,
if that was my job description, then I wouldn’t last very long as a pastor.
I believe what we have to offer is a symbol for God’s presence.
I believe what we have to offer is a reminder that God is there, and,
sometimes, a very physical link to the whole congregation.
When I visited Russ yesterday in the hospital, he said, “I feel the
prayers of all of you.” I felt
that I was a symbol for the congregation, being there with him. Speaking
words of forgiveness is another charge of Ephesians.
Every time we do something together as human beings, we need to know how
to speak words of forgiveness and reconciliation. Paul in Ephesians is very worried about anger.
Anger can take over, ruling over how we interact with one another, and
opening the door to the devil. It’s
the words of forgiveness and reconciliation that we have to know in order to be
together. I
want to conclude these three weeks that we have looked at the Statement of Faith
with a personal letter to the church. Please
indulge me here, for it is a personal letter: Dearly
beloved church of God in Jesus Christ, Christians, Protestants, United Church of
Christ, church as I know it, I
am in awe of your age and your youth alike.
You are so much older than me, and, yet, every time a person sticks their
head in the door for the first time, you are reborn.
You are a human endeavor. You
make mistakes and you learn from hindsight.
You are in the need of grace like all of us, and, yet, you embody that
grace more powerfully than anything I know.
Your scriptures can speak to the core of who we are, and your music can
reach us on a level deeper than we can express.
You are divine, so when we engage in your proceedings, whether it is ice
cream socials, coffee hours or committee meetings, we tend to get caught
off-guard by sacred moments—when someone drops his guard and cries, when
someone shares the story of her faith, or when we share with one another in a
circle of prayer, and enter, in the process, into a new of depth of
relationship. Some discredit you as
institutionalized religion. Others
feel that you have changed so much that you have lost your soul.
In spite of both, you have prevailed over hundreds and thousands of
years, a symbol of God’s presence, and a home for the family of faith.
You change, but in your sacred core, you stay the same.
You put demands on us, and, in that, you set us free. You
are home, vocation, and life. You
are mine. Amen.
Let us join together once more in the words of our UCC Statement of
Faith: “We
believe in you, O God, Eternal Spirit, God of our Savior, Jesus Christ and our
God, and to your deeds we testify: You call the worlds into being, create
persons in your own image and set before each one the ways of life and death. You seek in holy love to save all people from aimlessness and
sin. You judge people and nations
by your righteous will declared through prophets and apostles.
In Jesus Christ, the man from Nazareth, our crucified and risen Savior,
you have come to us and shared our common lot, conquering sin and death and
reconciling the world to yourself. You
bestow upon us your Holy Spirit, creating and renewing the church of Jesus
Christ, binding in covenant faithful people of all ages, tongues, and races. You call us into your church to accept the cost and joy of
discipleship, to be your servants in the service of others, to proclaim the
gospel to all the world and resist the powers of evil, to share in Christ’s
baptism and eat at his table, to join him in his passion and victory. You promise to all who trust you forgiveness of sins
and fullness of grace, courage in the struggle for justice and peace, your
presence in trial and rejoicing, and eternal life in your realm which has no
end. Blessing and honor, glory and
power be unto you. Amen.” |