June 21, 2009 Third Sunday after Pentecost, Celebrating the 52nd
Anniversary
and 27th General Synod of the United Church of Christ
First Congregational Church in Thetford, Vermont, UCC
Psalm 84; II Corinthians 4:16-18, 5:6-17; John 7:37-39
Readings from General Synod Resolutions
He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do
justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8
Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice;
who makes his neighbors work for nothing, and does not give them their wages. Jeremiah
22:13
Hear this, you that trample on the needy and bring to ruin the poor of the land…. Surely I
will never forget any of [your] deeds. Shall not the land tremble on this account, and
everyone mourn who lives in it? from Amos 8:4-6
The earth dries up and withers…. The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have
transgressed laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. from Isaiah 24:4-
5
Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the
yoke, to let the oppressed go free…? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring
the homeless poor into your house [and] when you see the naked to cover them…? Then
your light shall break forth like the dawn. from Isaiah 58:6-8a
“Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you
something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or
naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and
visited you?” And the king will answer…, ”Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the
least of these…you did it to me.”
from Matthew 25:37-40
You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I
say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Matthew 5:43-44
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21
Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Amos 5:24
Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Isaiah 40:1
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you…. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do
not let them be afraid. John 14:27
I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be
able to separate us from the love of God in Christ. Romans 8:38-39
The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it. Psalm 24:1
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and
female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though
many, are one body, so it is with Christ…. There are many members, yet one body.
from I Corinthians 12:12-20
Then Jesus called the [disciples] together and gave them power and authority over all
demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the realm of God and to heal.
Luke 9:1-2
I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through
their word, that they may all be one. John 17:20-21a
(End of readings)
The scripture passages we just heard strike me as something wondrous. I culled them
from the Biblical and Theological Rationale section of the 23 Resolutions on the agenda at
General Synod this week. They were submitted by different groups of churches or
individuals all over the country. There was no coordination among them. The passages
were not cited in the order that we read them, but what amazes me is that when you read
them this way, you can see that they form a circular narrative that moves from the
proclaiming of the prophets about what is wrong and what is right, to the comforting
assurance of the love and peace of God that is with us and available to us always, to the
truth of the unity and equality in Christ that binds our diversity together, to the closing of
the circle by Christ sending us out to do the prophetic work of proclaiming and healing, the
making whole and making one of all people. What amazes me is not just how this montage
of scriptures from so many different sources actually makes sense as a narrative, but more
than that, how perfectly it portrays the spirit of the United Church of Christ.
If I had to pick one passage to sum up all the others, it would be the next to the last
one, Luke 9:1-2. Jesus sent the disciples out to proclaim the realm of God and to heal.
Proclaim the realm of God is what so many of these scripture passages do. They tell us what
God requires of us, they tell us what happens when we violate the realm of God or live
outside it, they tell us how to live in the realm of God and what actions to do, and they tell
us of the peace and love and oneness that permeate God’s realm.
Proclaim the realm of God is also what many of the Synod resolutions do. They tell
us that God’s realm is a place of economic justice, a place where all races live together in
harmony and equity, a place where God’s creation is not harmed by the forces of greed or
war or carelessness, a place where health is nurtured for all, a place where the nations are at
peace, a place of mercy and a place that respects the rights and needs, the well-being and
dignity of all.
But the resolutions do more than proclaim. They also contain actions that fulfill the
second part of what Jesus sends us to do: they heal. The word heal in English is closely
related to the words whole and holy, and these other meanings are included in what Jesus is
sending the disciples out to do. The realm of God that Jesus is trying to establish on earth is
a place where the sick are healed, those who are broken or separated are made whole, and
all are seen to be holy.
In Jesus’ day, health was a prerequisite for wholeness and holiness—if you were
unhealthy, you were considered to be impure and were excluded from worship and from the
society of the pure. The Hebrew word shalom is often translated as “peace,” but it includes
all these other aspects of what Jesus is sending us out to do. The wisdom of shalom is that
you cannot have peace without the things that make for peace, and they include the health,
wholeness and holiness that come from justice and mercy, and from economic, social and
physical well-being.
Most of the twenty-three Synod Resolutions do this kind of work. Some are directly
related to healing the sick, or preventing sickness—one promotes HIV prevention and
another endorses a single-payer health care reform bill in congress. Some are related to
other forms of wholeness and well-being, working for peace and the things that make for
peace like economic justice and nonviolent conflict resolution. And some are related to
holiness—treating people of all races and all forms of Christianity and even our nation’s
proclaimed enemies as holy.
Looking at the scriptures and actions included in the Resolutions, we can see that the
United Church of Christ is fulfilling its calling from the Hebrew prophets to work toward
shalom. It is fulfilling Christ’s will, as he continues to send us out to proclaim the realm of
God and to heal and make whole and holy. But it is also fulfilling its historical
commitments. There are five of these, and this year the national church will consider
establishing a sixth that was proposed in one of the Synod resolutions. The five may sound
familiar to you because we have incorporated them into our strategic plan for the next
several years. Some of them this congregation has already fulfilled.
The five existing UCC commitments are to be a United and Uniting church, to be a
Multiracial and Multicultural church, to be Accessible to All, to be Open and Affirming, and
to be a Peace with Justice church. All except the first one of these commitments seem fairly
self-explanatory. For instance, we may wonder how to go about being Multiracial and
Multicultural, but we know what it means.
To fulfill the first commitment, to be United and Uniting, means that we recognize
that we are all truly united as God’s children and God’s creation, and yet at the same time
we acknowledge that it takes the constant work of uniting to bring and hold diverse people
together. Just as to have peace takes the things that make for peace, to be united takes the
things that make for uniting. The things that make for uniting are the work of overcoming
our fears and prejudices so that we accept those who are different and invite them to join us,
and then the never-ending work of loving one another and walking together even when we
disagree or feel threatened or annoyed.
It may be that the most lasting measure to come out of this General Synod is
something that may not even be discussed. It is a resolution proposed for the adoption of a
sixth commitment to join the other five. The sixth is to become an Earthwise Church. The
proposed Earthwise resolution “affirms the United Church of Christ as an environmentally
conscious entity and provides a framework for individual congregations and the UCC as a
whole to show unity and solidarity in mediating climate change and advancing justice
through sustainability.” It would provide suggested guidelines to churches for how to be
environmentally responsible themselves and how to be sources of education and advocacy
in their community and beyond.
This resolution has been referred to agencies within the UCC that are already
working on climate change. I hope that means that it will be enacted sooner rather than
later. It may have been referred because there are other designations, like Green Church,
that are also being used by local UCC congregations, and we need to sort out what terms we
will use. What is encouraging is that our congregation is one of many around the country
that are trying to find ways to be more environmentally responsible.
In part being Earthwise or Green can save us money as we turn out unneeded lights
and increase our energy efficiency, but in some cases it may cost us more in money or time.
We have tried to buy natural, organic and recycled products for the church because we want
to live what we believe, even though they are more expensive. Recycling our bulletins or
composting our coffee grounds or car pooling or riding a bike to church. as some have, cost
us our time.
These things are an important part of our mission, and so they are worth the sacrifice,
although as with all things we need to consider whether we can afford the money or time.
They are part of our mission statement and strategic plan, but also the mission that Jesus
gives us when he sends us out to proclaim the realm of God and to heal. We will be
proclaiming to the world what we believe about God’s realm and how Christ calls us to live
and treat one another and the earth if we become an Earthwise or Green Congregation—
whatever we may call ourselves. Every person who comes here and sees the products we
use or reads signs asking them to close doors to save heat will hear this message proclaimed.
All the children who come here as part of Maple Leaf or piano lessons or to worship will be
hearing Christ’s way proclaimed by seeing how we live. At the same time, we will be
helping heal and restore wholeness to our badly broken planet, and we will be treating it as
something holy, as the miraculous gift from God we believe it is.
One of the great things about the United Church of Christ is that the highest level of
authority is not the national church, not the conference or association of churches, but the
local congregation, run democratically by its individual members. Jesus did not establish a
hierarchy. He did not even found a church. He gave individuals the power and authority to
go out and proclaim and heal in his name. This week as we celebrate the founding of this
large national denomination and as people from all over the country gather by the thousands
in a city far away, it is good to remember that what matters most is not what happens there,
but what happens here. It is not what they do, it is what we do, what you do and I do—it is
our leadership that counts most. The UCC is ultimately only as strong as its churches, only
as effective as its individual members. The UCC is what it is today because of all that the
saints before us have done—the Gladys Boyds and Rod Webbs, the Lillian Vaughans and
Floyd Dexters of every church community.
So if you want to celebrate and honor our denomination this week, maybe the best
thing you can do is reread that powerful litany of scripture that is printed on the insert of the
bulletin, and ask yourself what you could do at home or at work, in the church or in the
community, to proclaim the realm of God and bring healing and shalom where they are
needed around you.
Let us open our hearts now in silent prayer to listen for the Spirit’s movement within
us, guiding and empowering us to take our own risks and make our own sacrifices as so
many have before us for the sake of God’s realm of love…
Sermon 06/21/2009