That They All May Be One

Transcript of Sermon October 27, 2013 by Rev. Anna Humble

I want to start out this morning by reading to you the United Church of Christ's Still Speaking Devotional from August 30, 2011, a post that went absolutely viral on the internet and ended in a book deal.  It's written by Rev. Lillian Daniel and is entitled,"Spiritual but not religious? Stop boring me."  Here goes:

 On airplanes, I dread the conversation with the person who finds out I am a minister and wants to use the flight time to explain to me that he is "spiritual but not religious." Such a person will always share this as if it is some kind of daring insight, unique to him, bold in its rebellion against the religious status quo.

Next thing you know, he's telling me that he finds God in the sunsets. These people always find God in the sunsets. And in walks on the beach. Sometimes I think these people never leave the beach or the mountains, what with all the communing with God they do on hilltops, hiking trails and ... did I mention the beach at sunset yet?

Like people who go to church don't see God in the sunset! Like we are these monastic little hermits who never leave the church building. How lucky we are to have these geniuses inform us that God is in nature. As if we don't hear that in the psalms, the creation stories, and throughout our deep tradition.

Being privately spiritual but not religious just doesn't interest me. There is nothing challenging about having deep thoughts all by oneself. What is interesting is doing this work in community, where other people might call you on stuff, or heaven forbid, disagree with you. Where life with God gets rich and provocative is when you dig deeply into a tradition that you did not invent all for yourself.

Thank you for sharing, spiritual-but-not-religious sunset person. You are now comfortably in the norm for self-centered American culture, right smack in the bland majority of people who find ancient religions dull but find themselves uniquely fascinating. Can I switch seats now and sit next to someone who has been shaped by a mighty cloud of witnesses instead? Can I spend my time talking to someone brave enough to encounter God in a real human community? Because when this flight gets choppy, that's who I want by my side, holding my hand, saying a prayer and simply putting up with me, just like we try to do in church.

Now while I think the tone of Rev. Daniel's rant is a bit harsh, I totally understand her annoyance with spiritual-but-not-religious sunset person. 

It's frustrating that we live in a self-centered culture that finds rich, ancient religions and traditions dull, but finds themselves – and Duck Dynasty I might add – uniquely interesting. It's sad that rather than bravely taking up the challenge of living and growing in real human community, on Sunday mornings most people would rather go jogging solo or read the New York Times at Starbucks by themselves.

But I would like to respond to Rev. Daniel by saying, it's not just spiritual-but-not-religious sunset person who needs a refresher course on the importance of religious community. Many of our Christian brothers and sisters who attend a megachurch or watch church on TV will tell you the ONLY thing that REALLY matters is your PERSONAL relationship with your PERSONAL Lord and Savior Jesus Christ… and that community is a nonessential side, like gravy on Thanksgiving.  

And still many of us here in the mainline church have our confidential top-secret relationship with our Creator God down pat... but our relationships with the Body of Christ sitting next to us in the pews…. Now that’s a bit messier, isn't that right? Because you see, grand Creator God in the clouds, he’s easy to love. She's all-perfect and all-loving and all-knowing... and strangely seems to agree with me about pretty much everything.  The Body of Christ sitting next to you on the other hand – now he ain't so all-perfect and all-loving! Sometimes these people here – they’ll disagree with you, sometimes they annoy you with their incessant demands on your time and money, sometimes they call you out on your stuff, sometimes they hurt your feelings, and sometimes they let you down.  Christ’s Church has so many stories of human failure, that sometimes it seems downright embarrassing just to be associated with it.

So I feel you spiritual-but-not-religious sunset person.  And I get you anonymous-megachurch-watcher.  It’s so much easier to love God vertically, up in the clouds, than to love God horizontally, in the community of people around us.  Not to mention that it’s way more exciting – and not to mention less demanding on your time and money – to just stay home and watch “real housewives of xyz” duke it out on your tivo, than to listen to someone like me drone on and on about an ancient book on your day off.

And while I’m talking about that big exciting book called the Bible, let me read it to you again. In our scripture reading this morning, Jesus prays at the last supper: “”I ask not only on behalf of these,but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word (that’s you and me), that they may all be one.” Jesus is praying for you and me there, praying that we may be one.

Now if you ask anyone in the UCC what our motto is, they’ll probably tell you it’s “God is Still Speaking” right?  Now that is a wonderful line that our denomination has come up to market who we are, but when our denomination was formed by uniting the Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Churches in 1957, they chose THIS scripture passage, “that they all be one,” as our motto.  This verse is so important to us in our denomination that it is inscribed on our very logo. The vision was that we would all just keep uniting and uniting until the whole world became one, just like Jesus prayed in this scripture passage.  And here in the UCC, we’re still dreaming the dream of unity, today striving to be a more inclusive church, uniting all people no matter who they are or where they are on life’s journey.

But what does unity mean in our church? If you hang on with me, now that I’ve thrown a little history at you, I’m going to throw a little theology your way: in the United Church of Christ, we believe that the UNITY in COMmunity is defined by two things: autonomy and covenant. 

First, autonomy means that you and I are free to read the Bible and decide what we believe for ourselves.  No one is going to tell you what you have to believe here.  We believe that each person – not just pastors – are endowed by their creator with free will and with an ability to hear for themselves a god who is still speaking.  And because we value autonomy, we have no creeds, no authoritative denominational hierarchy telling each church what to do, rather each congregation democratically votes on their minister and any other matters of substance -- like we do at our quarterly meetings.  Our decisions, therefore, are guided by the Holy Spirit, rather than dictated by human authorities.  The only thing that we must agree upon is our common commitment to follow Christ together.

At the same time we believe in autonomy, we also believe in covenant.   Covenant is what binds us together as a church. Covenant means that we commit to live together despite the differences autonomy brings out – to support each other with our prayers and gifts, to work together, and to hold each other accountable.  When I first joined the UCC, a lot of people were quick to highlight the principle of autonomy, saying “you can believe whatever you want in the UCC!”  Maybe.  Covenant, however, has always held a higher rung.  For every time autonomy is mentioned in our constitution, covenant is mentioned 18 times more. 

So every time someone walks out of a UCC church because of a disagreement, every time a church leaves our fold because Synod doesn’t exactly mirror their own beliefs, every time someone pulls their money out of their church because they’ve been offended, they’ve misunderstood what unity really means.  Or as our friend Paul Nickerson likes to say, "That's not covenantal behavior!"  You see Christ didn’t pray for us all to be the same; Christ prayed for us to be one in Him.  So that doesn’t mean that we always agree, but it does mean that we commit to live together in covenant despite the differences autonomy allows.  In most churches, there are creeds or tests of faith and dissenters are sent away. We in this church have the freedom to disagree under the safe umbrella of knowing we’re here for each other, for better or worse, through thick and thin.  And this life together, where we can be true to our authentic selves and beliefs without the fear of rejection, is where the Kingdom of God is revealed on this earth.

My favorite theologian – yes I have a favorite theologian because I’m a nerd – my favorite theologian Deitrich Bonhoeffer says that the Christian community most of us expect from church is not only impossible, it’s a wish-dream.  I love the translation of that word: a wish-dream. And if we are lucky, by God’s grace, that wish-dream will be shattered.  Let me say that again, if we’re LUCKY, by GOD’S GRACE, our wish-dream of Christian community will be SHATTERED.  And on the day it is shattered, when we stand before God utterly disillusioned about ourselves and others, we finally see clearly our complete and utter dependence upon God’s grace.  Bonhoeffer says God injects imperfection among our communities so that we can be stretched and can grow in forgiveness, love, patience, and fidelity, thereby revealing God’s Kingdom on Earth.

So I want to thank you this morning. I especially want to thank our new members this morning Who have covenanted to walk together with us in love. I pray that you stick with us, even if your wish-dream is shattered.

And for our longer standing members: I’m sure you haven’t agreed with everything that I’ve said from this pulpit, and that’s great – that means you’re listening and thinking!  I’m sure you haven’t agreed with every decision that’s been made at this church, and that’s great – it shows you care.  I’m sure someone here in these pews today has ticked you off or let you down at some point, and that’s great – because it means you’re putting yourself out there! And I’m SURE someone here this morning would rather be reading the New York Times at Starbucks, rather than hearing me drone on about covenant and autonomy, but you’re here.  You’re here!  We’re so glad you’re here.  Thank you for showing up.  Thank you for giving of yourself, your time, and in this very important season, your tithes.  Thank you for pitching in and being part of this family.  Because you belong here,

here in God’s house, with us.  We’re the flawed folk who love you exactly as God created you, who will take care of you when times get hard, who will grow alongside you, who will pray for you, and who will put up with you when you’re being a pill.  And THAT is what unity’s all about.  Amen.