Sermon: Though Many, We are One

A few weeks ago, on the Saturday of the Washington state presidential caucuses, I was just leaving the church after a morning long meeting with our visioning committee. We had spent several hours exploring our calling as a congregation. Who are we? What is our ministry?

Though Many, We are One 

Text: Romans 12: 5,2 and 9-21 

Introduction 

A few weeks ago, on the Saturday of the Washington state presidential caucuses, I was just leaving the church after a morning long meeting with our visioning committee. We had spent several hours exploring our calling as a congregation. Who are we? What is our ministry? 

            As I left the building the doors were wide open and literally hundreds of people were streaming down the sidewalks, coming to attend their local precinct caucus. The fellowship hall and the parlor were packed with neighbors. I was struck by the number of young people in the crowd. People carried hand lettered signs and wore badges and tags designating their candidate. As I stood at the door, I spontaneously began greeting and welcoming people. “Glad you could come to day … Thank you for coming… Glad you are here… welcome.” As folks passed by with their Obama signs, I wanted to say. “He’s part of this church. This is a UCC congregation.”  

I’d heard Barack Obama speak last summer at our national meeting in Hartford. Barack Obama is a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. We are part of the same branch of the Christian family. For me the link is more personal. I was preparing for the ministry at the Chicago Theological Seminary, in the late 1960’s. I lived and worked in the Black community on the South Side. I learned the nuts and bolts of ministry sharing in the life of churches and grass roots community organizations rebuilding Kenwood-Oakland, a South Side neighborhoods that had been ravaged by racism, terrorized by organized crime, exploited by the local political machine, cruelly impoverished by slum profiteers, robbed of educational resources and routinely brutalized by elements of the Chicago police force.  

I remember vividly a night when I was dragged out of my apartment by a plainclothes police squad, taken to an anonymous interrogation station, and held incommunicado, while five young black men taken from the same building were beaten. I asked to make a phone call and talk to a lawyer. A naïve 23 year old white seminary student, I said, “This is America; people have rights.” I will never forget what the police squad leader said in reply. “This is our America. No phone calls, no lawyers for you. This no TV show. This is the real world you’re in.  

Out of such profound oppression, Trinity United Church of Christ has grown. Trinity Church gives rise now, to a Barack and Michelle Obama and their children, part of our family of faith,  following a call to realize this country’s highest aspirations as a nation reconciled, with justice and dignity for all, a nation whose great and good resources are well and wisely used for peace and good will in our troubled and challenging world.  

It was of these deep concerns of the heart and soul that Barack Obama spoke in Hartford to members of the United Church of Christ, gathered from across the country. 

I.        The United Church of Christ 

Many of us received an email this past week from John Thomas, the coordinating minister, if you will, of the United Church of Christ. He alerted us that the IRS had sent a letter announcing an investigation into the United Church of Christ for inviting Barack Obama to speak at our General Synod last summer. The US government is looking into the UCC. 

Before we speak further about that, permit me to say a few words about John Thomas and who we are as a family of faith.  

John sits in a unique position. He is in dialogue with the nearly 6,000 local congregations of our denomination and in regular conversation with the church’s wider ministries – 

the work of some 40 state and regional conferences,support for a wide range of local church and community missiona strong peace and social justice witness and            service around the world in partnership with a rich array of ecumenical efforts. 

            John has the title of President, but we are not a hierarchical organization. No one speaks in any absolute sense for the whole body. We don’t have a single creed or set of beliefs which serve as a test of faith. We live by covenant,  

            by intentionally forming, in each generation                        new moments of faithful commitment                                    with God and one another. 

            Day by day, week after week, down through the years, we become the body of Christ                        again and again and again, and once more again,                                    informed by the gifts and guidance of the Holy Spirit. 

            In gatherings large and small, we express our faith. In meeting with one another, we share God’s infinite love. Together we take up the challenges of our day. 

            The record of the United Church of Christ is not an account of doctrines and dogma.Our history is the story of faithful gatherings with each person speaking sensitively, from the heart, with minds ever open to renewal and transformation.  

We are not conformedTo this world as it is. 

            Our gathering together seeks the “will” of God; the Spirit’s leading in the ways of healing, peace and justice. Each time we come together, we are part of a movement stretching back through history to the earliest of earth’s people. 

            Our ancestry roots in the journeys of the first human beings, finding their way with God. 

            As with Adam and Eve, we struggle to realize our gifts and potential. We know the temptations and the terrible forces which work to break us apart from one another and from God. 

Our eyes are open to the very real power of evil in the world, even as we hold the high vision of salvation, of wholeness, of plenty and well being for all. 

            With Abraham and Sarah, we live into unknown futures. We are never fully settled, faced with ever changing challenges and conditions, but trusting deeply in God’s abiding promises as we stand up and step forth. 

            With Miriam and Moses, we are part of the long struggle for human liberation, the deliverance from captivities, the release from bondage in its many forms.                         We are heirs to Joshua and Deborah and the tradition of the judges, judicious, thoughtful leaders raised up in times of collective threat and crisis, to help chart a path to common good  and an enduring peace. 

            We are descendents of the prophets, wary of overreaching monarchy, walking with the last and the lost and the left behind, willing to speak uncomfortable and eye opening truth to power. 

            Our model for ministry is the community of Christ. 

            We shape ourselves, as did Mary and Martha, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the companions and followers of Jesus. We too are disciples, students of the way. We too walk with the teacher, sharing the good news of new life, the ultimate promise of resurrection, the invitation to participate now, in the commonwealth of God.  

            We say in a million and more varied voices: our salvation, our wholeness as persons, rests in God’s gracious holding. Our souls are constantly renewed by God’s loving touch. Our life together in the church and in the world is formed in God’s constant presence.  

II.      Let Us Answer the Question            It may come as a bit of a surprise, when John Thomas, our general minister, alerts us that the UCC is being investigated by the IRS for misbehavior as a church. We certainly don’t claim to be perfect or flawless in practice of faith. But what have we done that might be considered a violation of the law.  

            The allegation? Senator Obama’s presentation at the Synod in Hartford was a campign event, the church sponsorship of a political speech – a violation of the church’s responsibility as a tax exempt religious organization. That’s what I understand. 

            The lawyers and the courts will address the legal questions raised here.  

            Our task in the face of this investigation is to know and affirm, to be as clear as we can be about who we are as a church, beginning at the level of the local congregation.  

            Have no doubt about it. The questions are just beginning. It is not just the IRS. The media too are beginning to nose around. Let the IRS investigate us. Let people ask questions about what manner of God’s people we are and how we live Christ’s life in our time across this land.  

 

Let us be clear also from the beginning that in this church we are many. We speak with varied voices, come from some vastly different backgrounds. We are made one, through the movement of the Spirit in our lives, slowly weaving a shared and common fabric from the torn scraps, the diverse threads and the manifold patterns among us. We are not some neat, machine loomed tapestry, hung on the wall. We are a patchwork quilt, constantly worn and being used, continually being repaired and re-stitched. 

Senator Obama came to the Synod, came to our national gathering in Hartford, came to speak before 15,000 people to share his faith and tell his story. I was at Hartford last summer and in the large meeting hall when  Barack Obama spoke. He was introduced as a member of the body, one of the many, one of us, a twenty year member of Trinity in Chicago. Senator Obama was invited to speak about the intersection of his faith and his life as a politician, just as Charles Townes, a member of First Congregational Church in Berkley was invited to speak about the intersection of his faith and his life as a Nobel laureate physicist. 

            Barack Obama spoke, as all of us spoke that week, some of us in the great hall, most of us in much smaller gatherings, about our soul lives, the deepest and fullest movement of the Spirit in our stories. This was not an academic symposium. Participants were not presenting theoretical discussions about God and the world. We talked about the communities we live in and the needs of our neighbors, our calling to serve and our responsibility as citizens. We talked about our faith and our work. 

            I met a colleague from almost thirty years ago, whom I had not seen for a long while. I did not know that he too struggled with depression. During a quiet lunch we found ourselves sharing with each other our experience of healing and our determination to insure that the care we had experienced would be available to all. We talked of our life and our faith and our work and of our sisters and brothers in the church and in the world. This is the UCC in Hartford and here and in Chicago and across this country. 

            I spent a good deal of my time at Synod at a table displaying resources for ministry with those of us who face disabling conditions in our life – mental illness, brain injury, hearing impairment, challenges in sight or mobility, the journey with a developmental disability. Next to me was a young Latino man from Texas with Downs Syndrome, who played an exquisite classical guitar. Several young adults in their wheel chairs carried on a lively and laughter filled conversation. We were kept company by several gentle and skilled service dogs. An interpreter helped us understand the vivid sign language of a colleague. The speaker was a man both hearing impaired and wheel chair bound, who was telling us how he had piloted a single engine plane from Ohio to Connecticut to attend Synod. Think about that. This is the UCC in Hartford and here and in Chicago and across this country.  

            Many members, one body, coming together from the most diverse and unexpected places and against what might seem insurmountable obstacles.  

            A few tables down in the display and resource hall, the Council on Health and Human Service Ministries celebrated the work of hospitals, homes for youth at risk and elders in retirement, and centers of community renewal which have been started and grown up over the years with UCC roots. Across the way Synod participants shared information about disaster relief and international development efforts supported by our churches, At one end of the room, representatives from the colleges and universities and seminaries founded by the UCC from coast to coast, shared their stories. A few steps away sat our colleagues Barbara Baylor and her team who work on the health justice and wellness project. And next to them were the UCC parish nurse organization and a table at which chaplains – hospital, college and military – shared their ministries. Barack Obama was part of this UCC in Hartford, a UCC made up of more than a million, six hundred thousand members, here and in Chicago and across this country.  

Many members, one body – engaged in the world  

            We are not the largest part of the body of Christ, but we are among the most open and diverse of God’s people. Men and women in ministry, a rich procession of culture and communities, young and old, the able bodied and those of us physically and emotionally vulnerable, a great “maniedness” of gender and race, sexual orientation and social status, composed the UCC in meeting in Hartford, and makes up our membership here and in Trinity, Chicago, and across this country.  

            Read the stories of Jesus walk and work. Who was in the crowd?  Blind Bartimeus yelling from his tree, the poor, the widowed, the sick, the elderly, the cast offs and left behinds of the time. Who was that Matthew?  – a reviled tax collector. Who did Jesus reach out to? – the woman officials had condemned and were about to stone. Who did Jesus sit down at table with? – the most unpopular and least in society. How did Jesus describe the realm of God? – a great feast whose guests are homeless souls gathered in from the bushes and people ill, the unwashed, the suffering and forgotten.  

This is our church – modeled after that first and original body of Christ, the disciples, the early Christian communities from scattered from Jerusalem over into Africa and around the Mediterranean and on to the great city of Rome. 

Many members, one body – engaged in the world, a countersign of inclusiveness, humility and compassion. The church was, as we are, mostly small congregations, with no large organization, peoples gathered seeking the passionate guidance and encouragement of the Spirit in a too brutal and dangerous world. 

Listen. This is the Apostle Paul, writing to the little mission congregation in Rome. Paul is encouraging one of the earliest Christian communities, a fledgling church, forming itself in the heart of the empire with the greatest military force on the globe.  

The church in Rome meets in member’s homes, at least in the homes of the few members who had enough space. The church in Rome meets in a city filled with temples of religion and government, towering monuments and vast arenas dedicated to cruel entertainment and violent glory. 

Listen; listen to what Paul writes to the diverse sisters and brothers, those early and far distant followers of Christ. These are the practices, the spiritual exercises, by which the many became one. 

“Let love be genuine” 

“Love one another with mutual affection.” 

“Outdo one another in showing honor.” 

“Be aglow with the Spirit, serve God.” 

            “Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” 

            “Contribute to the needs of the community.” 

            “Practice hospitality.”

            “Bless those who persecute you.” 

            “Live in harmony with one another; do not be arrogant, but associate with the lowly.” 

            “If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all.” 

            “Beloved, never avenge yourselves.” 

            “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink.” 

            “Do not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” 

            Paul is calling upon this little local congregation at the heart of the greatest power on earth, to be a seed of profound transformation.   

            This is not a ready made, tightly knit community of like minded folk who have known each other for generations, who all basically grew up the same way and agree on most everything. The church in Rome is a hodge-podge of new members, people with differences in background and class and education, life experience, vocations, needs and gifts.             Paul is nudging this small diverse band to learn how to live a shared and supportive life together, being many, but becoming one – through daily acts of love, respect, inspiration, service, hopefulness, patience, prayer, reconciliation, compassion, humility and consensus building, noble vision, peacemaking, forbearance, and a divine gracefulness in the face of evil and destruction.  

            Paul knows that to be a community unified in the life and teachings of Christ is a process, a learning and a growing into something quite different, radically different.  

            Don’t be conformed to the world around you, says Paul. Form yourselves in a new way of being human, of being neighbors, of being citizens. Practice new ways of seeing and understanding yourself and others. Be part of a world rooted in God’s infinite love and care.  

            Perhaps it should be no surprise that someone in government is investigating the United Church of Christ. At our best, like that early small church in Rome, who we are, how we act, our meetings together don’t easily fit the usual mold, or conform neatly to worldly political practice and policy.  

            We recognize and honor different gifts. We don’t expect everyone to be the same. We seek to build community through genuine love and affection. We are called to bee humble, let go of conceit, the need to be the first or the greatest. We hear a call to associate with the lowly, the despised, the unlovely and outcast. We take up this seemingly impossible task, to love our enemies. Share with them your food and drink. Repay no one evil for evil. Live so far as it depends upon you, peaceably with all.  

            This is a remarkable description of what it means to be God’s people, to be the church. 

            We are far from perfect in finding our way as congregations in the UCC. We have far to go in realizing the Christian vision. It is an unfinished work in every generation.  

            Indeed precisely because we know we are finite and flawed, we work together, seeking to share power, encouraging dialogue and discussion and making decisions, carefully, prayerfully, thoughtfully, beginning at the most local level. We are always in this church, learning and growing and growing into our souls, never fully arrived. We are none of us yet whole or complete.  

            Flawed we may be, nevertheless, let us welcome any investigation. Let us invite scrutiny into the United Church of Christ. Let us encourage questions about who we are as local congregations and as a national body. Let us be prepared to tell our stories of faith and life and work.  

            We have nothing to hide and much that is good to share.                        Let us say to the world, look well into the United Church of Christ. Look into its many congregations and into its many members and into its many preachers, and into its many ministries.             You will find that we are an extraordinarily diverse people, with a fair number of differences among us. We question our pastors and our pastors raise challenging questions for us. We are not easily defined on the world’s terms. We are Republicans and Democrats, independents, conservatives, liberals and progressives. We are of many hues and backgrounds, workers in many fields, traditionalists and creators. Our beliefs, interpretations of scripture, passions and practice may differ dramatically from person to person and from congregation to congregation. We may debate long and hard. We may not in fact agree on how to meet the difficult challenges of our day or how best to do justice or dwell in peace.  

            But we are one in Christian companionship,                        One, in the Spirit’s touch upon our lives                                     One in daily covenant with one another, and with God.  

Rev. Craig RennebohmProspect Congregational United Church of ChristSeattle, WashingtonMarch 9, 2008