“NIFTY AT FIFTY”

A sermon at the 50^th anniversary of the UCC

In June, 1957 I was a preschooler near Detroit trailing my big brother to a store to buy baseball cards. I still recall how excited the big kids were as a Mickey Mantle surfaced in my pack of five. I wish I had that card today!  Little did I know, far on the other side of Lake Erie, events were occurring that would shape my life big time. A drama was unfolding out of which my life’s calling would find its context.  In Cleveland, Ohio, four Protestant traditions united to form a whole new church.

The Congregational and Christian Churches, which had merged in 1931, and the German Evangelical and German Reformed churches, which had merged in 1934, became a new denomination.  The four streams became a Christian river.  They didn’t want to use the name of any of the predecessor churches, so they came up with a fresh name for a new denomination: the United Church of Christ.  This new church paraded through the streets of Cleveland, sang and celebrated, elected a new President, and wrote a Statement of Faith we shall use later today.

Next Sunday I’ll be at the General Synod of the United Church of Christ in Hartford as we celebrate our 50^th anniversary.  So today seems ideal to celebrate who we are and what things God has ventured through us. It’s true, the North American church isn’t doing so well. And mainstream churches like ours particularly struggle. Still, I want to lift up what I love about the UCC.  I mean, hey, after all, it’s a birthday, right?  What do you do at a birthday party?  You celebrate.

The first thing that I love about the United Church of Christ at its best comes from my friend Tony Robinson.  He describes us as having a strong center and porous boundaries.  Ponder that with me for a moment, will you?  What does it mean for a church to have a strong center and porous boundaries? Our strong center is the reconciling and redeeming work of Jesus through his death and resurrection.

Our strong center is the life we find in Jesus Christ, whom evil could not subdue and death could not hold. It is our center because we look to and lift up this truth before every personal ideology or lifestyle, every economic system, and every political agenda. By lifting up this truth first and last, we seek something more than human ideas about what it means to love, to forgive, to offer compassion, to offer mercy and kindness, to effect reconciliation, and to bring understanding.

And slowly, over time, it begins to sink into our bones that God means many more and much different things than our meager human ideas about love, forgiveness, compassion, kindness, reconciliation, and under-standing.  So much of our spiritual growth occurs in that gap of trading our natural human understanding of what it means to be human and taking on what God meant by creating us human.

This is our spiritual center.  While we will always be in dialogue about what all of these things mean, that the life and death,  the teaching and example of Jesus  is at the heart of it is non-negotiable.  It cannot be compromised. It is not optional.

At the same time, we have porous boundaries.  What I mean by that is we bring a radical inclusiveness of inviting all types of people to join us in our spiritual journey. And we have a specific interest in counting among ourselves as belonging to the people of God those who might count as something less in the world.   Just look at the history of the United Church of Christ and its predecessor Christian bodies: in the 1630s the Congregationalists were the first to experiment with democracy as the way to run a church by vesting the power in the grass roots of the people. In 1700 the Rev. Samuel Sewell wrote the first anti-slavery tract in America, laying the foundation for the abolitionist movement.  In 1785 we were the first denomination to ordain an African-American, the splendid Rev. Lemuel Haynes. In 1853 we were the first to ordain a woman pastor since New Testament times, the Rev. Antoinette Brown. In 1972 we were the first to ordain an openly gay man, the Rev. Bill Johnson. And then in 2005 we affirmed same-gender marriage equality.  You get the drift here.  The radical inclusiveness of our porous boundaries means there are no second-class or lesser individuals or peoples in God’s eyes.

This same dynamic is still at work among us. On Thursday we will gather another new member class to be received in July. The first thing we do at our meetings is go around and give a brief spiritual history.

 

Every time I’m amazed. For its both Dennis Union Church and the UCC that has a genius for attracting people from diverse backgrounds. In every class are those who were raised in the main-stream churches. But we also find those seeking spiritual sanctuary from other churches where they felt shut out because of who they are or something that happened in their life.  The UCC has a genius for attracting people from various religious backgrounds and with no background. We are a safe spiritual haven, like those shores sought by the Pilgrims of old, journeying here way back when.

What does strong center, porous boundaries really mean?  In my former church in Connecticut, we once received a couple with six children. Emmit, the husband and father, had always been a Roman Catholic.  In fact, he loved his church every bit as much as he adored his beloved New York Mets, and that was considerable. Alas, Emmit had been divorced, and so he was persona non grata. Tearfully, he went to a boyhood friend who had become a Jesuit priest.  “What am I to do?  Where do I turn now?  I love the church.”  The priest whispered that he should find a United Church of Christ.  That we have Jesus in ways like they do, but we also offer what that Jesuit priest called “the wide arms of Jesus Christ.” And that was how they found us and became members of our local congregation. 

The other thing I want to say about what I love about the United Church of Christ is maybe saying the same thing with different words. But the point is so important I will say it in as many ways as make sense of and enliven that point. At its best, the United Church of Christ is a church of personal faith and social possibility.

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to feel as though we must choose between two different types of church?  And neither is altogether satisfying or right? On one side are churches where scripture is taken seriously, where our life in prayer matters and where we sense God’s presence at worship on Sunday. And all of that is good.  Except, too often, you get the feeling from these churches of something pinched about them. Something narrow and brittle, something tribal about protecting the status quo of the little slice of life they live within. It makes something inside of you churn.  It feels claustrophobic.  It is a low-ceilinged existence.

And then on the other side are churches that are plenty open-minded enough.  They know all of the fashionable causes of the age, all of the politically correct postures of the day.   But there is something missing at their center.  And that something missing has everything to do with God and sensing God’s presence. It feels like a vital spiritual nerve was somewhere cut. Often they are so extremely open-minded you feel like there are moments when their brains have fallen out.

Right now I am working with a couple planning their wedding.  As with all couples who are un-churched, I require them to visit churches to seek out a spiritual home  where  they  can  live out the Christian blessing I pronounce upon their union.  So they’ve been visiting churches, and I asked for a report.  They described such a church to me.  They liked the sense of enlightenment, but could find nothing holy.

Is it too much to seek a church of personal faith where the God’s Word is bigger than our opinions and the sacraments transmit the sacred?  Yet this same church also takes us out of our comfort zones to be with people unlike ourselves and face issues that don’t yet have answers, giving the Gospel a social dimension? Is it too much to expect Christ’s church to walk and chew gum at the same time?

Having grown up in Mennonite and Lutheran churches, as I looked to ordination I sought a church of personal faith and social possibility.  When I looked to the UCC, I saw it in pastors, laypersons, churches, and national leaders.  I didn’t see it in all of them.  I didn’t even see it in most of them. Expecting all of heaven on earth right would be selfish and greedy. But I did see this light in enough persons and churches that I was blessed to be led here. This same light shines still as we find our way together into a new millennium. It is the light of a strong center and porous boundaries.  It is the light of personal faith and social possibility.

To close, I could say other things that I love about the UCC. It is a church where you don’t have to check you mind at the door when you enter.  It is a church with a cultivated appreciation of culture, the arts and history.

 

It is a church that ministers to you wherever you are right now in the hope of taking you beyond where God dwells. The United Church of Christ is a church that has occasioned social transformation and brought an impact for good in ways that far exceed our size.

But that’s enough for now. Parties are best not overly belabored by too much talk.  I invite you to share your gratitude and profess your love for this church where God has brought us together and put us in line with the faithful who have died and who are not yet born.  Praise God from whom all blessings flow.  Amen.

“NIFTY AT FIFTY”

A Sermon at the 50^th Anniversary

of the UCC

Text:  John 17.1-5, 21-24

Rev. Dale B. Rosenberger

Third Sunday after Pentecost

June 17, 2007

Holy God, from you we learn what a father is meant to be: strong, loving, wise. And so we honor all men who helped give us life, and all the other men whose love and strength have helped us grow. Thank you for the men who held and played with us, and so helped us discover your joyous love. Thank you for the trustworthy men who taught us your faithfulness. Thank you for the men who challenged us to make something of ourselves, who wouldn't let us stop with crawling when they knew we could walk. Thank you for the men who taught us to play fair and men who encouraged us to give our best. Thank you for the men who worked hard and sacrificed much so we could have it better than they did. Thank you for men who showed us that gentleness is the proof of real strength.

Lord, we also pray for family as we experience it within this spiritual community.  We pray for Beverly Billings recovering from shoulder surgery, Dot Murray as she battles arthritis and Don Parker as he anticipates surgery in early July. We pray for our youth group as they learn about global mission at a Heifer Project Int’l weekend retreat and for those adults leaders who sleep with them on the ground.