September 12, 1999

Douglas S. Long

North Raleigh United Church

I have received a number of phone calls since we began this adventure called North Raleigh United from the publicity we have circulated. (By the way, if you didn't notice on page three of the News and Observer's Faith section this past Friday our little babies were placed directly beside the imposing Moses that is in the paper every week. The Moses ad has a list of traditional "sins" , murder, adultery , lying, homosexuality, etc. and asks "Which of the following sins would most likely send a person to hell?." Our babies say "When it comes to teaching tolerance, do you think the church is a little behind."

Now I love the fact that our ad is beside the Moses… because just about everything I think that is wrong and right with the church of today is encapsulated in those two ads. If we had the money, I'd lobby to put our ad right beside theirs every week… they run it every week, and have done so for months and months. It's high time that the God of love and not the god that joyfully damns people to hell was in the paper.)

Strange, but last week I spoke on our commonality with people of other faith. We may indeed have more in common with some Buddhists and Muslims than some who claim the name Christian. I do not mean this arrogantly, it's just true. (What's the key to the commonality? … a religious experience founded in love. But this is a thread for another sermon on another day…)

Anyway, back to where I started, people call me… and it's not unusual for someone who has read our publicity to say… "so you're a non-denominational church, right?"

"Well, no," I explain… "We do belong to a denomination." I always hesitate here because most people don't really care a lot about denominations…. and it is rare that someone knows enough about the differences reflected in them to carry on a meaningful conversation. I know plenty of good, intelligent people who would just as soon do away with denominations.

I met someone about ten years ago while we were both working in Burlington, NC on a Habitat for Humanity house. We were framing a wall. "So what do you do, Doug?" he asked.

"I'm a minister."

"Oh Lord," he replied, "which brand are you?"

Most people don't want to hear a long, involved denominational story.

…and how do you succinctly describe the UCC? Well, we’re Christians…

Yeah, but what makes us different than the Methodists or the Baptists?

...which reminds me of a story… a story that comes from A River Runs Through It. If you read the book or more likely, as in my case, saw the movie, you may remember the father of the two sons who are the central characters in the poignant story. The father was a Presbyterian minister. One of the sons began to date a Methodist girl and the displeasure of the father was obvious. "A Methodist," he said, "is just a Baptist who can read."

Actually, from my own personal history as a former Baptist I know that not to be the case... Why, I’ve met several Methodists who can’t read. (...just teasing!)

Kidding aside… as different as denominations might be, we need to realize that all whom claim the God of love, the God of Jesus, are all a part of the body of Christ.

The UCC, the United Church of Christ, does not have a corner on the gospel…. BUT, it does have very special spin, a unique embrace, if you will, and that particular nuance, that particular embrace and expression of the church is what I want to hone in on a bit this morning.

What I do want to take a stab at this morning is what is at the heart of the UCC.

Not the history of the United Church of Christ, though that is interesting and informative, but practically, what is at it's center.

Now… back to the phone call…. concerning North Raleigh United and trying to explain our denominational ties.

After we go through the inevitable… "no, not Church of Christ but United Church of Christ, they are very different denominations even though the names are almost identical. Somewhere early in the conversation I tell them were a progressive body, a free church, with no denominational hierarchy.

Depending on their background, these people are sometimes amazed at what I say.

"You mean," they ...‘amaze’ at me, "you mean there is no Bishop who presides over several of your churches? How do you get a minister (or get rid of one?)?"

"The congregation votes on it," I explain.

"You mean," they continue, "there is not a set amount for you to give financially to your hierarchical bodies?"

"Well, we really don’t have hierarchical bodies," I try to explain. "There are larger associations, and Conferences, and the National Church...but they exist in covenant, more or less on an equal level with each other and the local church."

They press on.... "What if the National Church tells you to do something you don’t want to do?"

"We don’t do it?"

"Don’t they kick you out?"

This is where, at this point in the conversation, I try to make a little speech... and it goes something like this.

"Every church, every congregation within the UCC, is radically free to follow the spirit of God in its own unique setting. Each church is autonomous.

You see, in the UCC, we hold two ideals in tension....... freedom and unity. You'd notice on our denominational symbol..."

If it's a face to face conversation, I point to it on the UCC brochure or bulletin I’m sometimes holding.

"You'd notice on our logo there is the saying. ‘...that they may all be one.’ That’s the unity described in the prayer of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of John. ...Indeed, it’s a prayer prayed repetitiously by Jesus.

as Jesus said it in John 17:23, speaking of the gathered community who would follow him... may they be so completely one that the world will realize that it was you who sent me and that I have loved them as much as you loved me.

In the UCC we take that unity seriously enough that in 1957 four traditions within the church that had become distinct, merged back together.' (That’s the Evangelical and Reformed, Congregational and Christian part of the story that few want to hear about at this point in the conversation.)

"So, one of the two ideals," I continue, " that is central to the UCC is unity...."

"...And what’s the other, again?" they inquire.

"The other ideal... is freedom. We are free in Christ, we are free from the restrictions of race and class and culture, all the 'isms' of society, …we are free to live as children of God."

Now if the person I’m talking to is reflective enough, they may remark...

"You know... if you are completely free... what is it that binds you together in unity?"

Granted, this is a quick person I’m dealing with because they have zeroed in on the fragile genius of our polity.

You see... absolute freedom, being completely free, can have no limits placed on it.... and absolute unity, all things the same, absolute unity is ...conformity.

So to say we are free (no limits) and united (conformed) ... is to confess a bit of a dilemma. We have to quickly qualify that phrase in some way by stating what we are free in and what unifies us.

Which I will attempt… But before I do... I want to try to make this point a bit more clear.

Freedom.

A few years back there was a group of militants in the western part of the US who called themselves the Freemen of Montana. Now, I admit I never had all the facts in the case... but it appears that what the men in Montana were declaring themselves free of was any law that bound them to something they didn’t find convenient.

Freedom is all well and good... I’m all for it.... until your freedom starts infringing on mine... and that is the very stuff of feuds and fights and all out wars.

Freedom must be grounded in something that binds the community together.

There is the correlating issue for unity. Unity, for the sake of unity, will not work. Unity grounded in the wrong unifier is doomed. Who were the folks waiting for the comet a few years back? Remember, they were going to catch a portal into the realm of the eternal that the comet would open up? Now there was plenty of unity in that group… but no freedom.

There is a Biblical text, several actually, but a fascinating story that touches on these issues.

We all know the story of the Tower of Babel. You remember the story. You just heard Denise read it.

The world unified to build a tower to the heavens… to make a name for themselves.

Here there was unity.... unity beyond our comprehension. Everyone spoke the same language. They were on the same page, but it was the wrong page...it was a page centered on pride.

‘Look what we can do to show off our importance.’

The text actually says...

‘Come, let us build ourselves a town and a tower with its top reaching heaven. Let us make a name for ourselves, so that we may not be scattered about the whole earth.’

May I translate this?

‘Let us make a name for ourselves.’

There is a rabbinical tradition that claims the builders of the tower were so entranced with the building, that they paid no attention to the condition of the laborers who were doing the building. In fact, this story chronicles the death of one of the laborers, one who fell from the heights, and whose limp body was hardly noticed. Later, however, when one of the stones was inadvertently dropped and broken, there was much consternation because their endeavor, and its loftiness, was being delayed.

The Tower of Babel... Unity, but at what cost?

…the loss of freedom, the loss of love for the other.

...Unity but with what purpose?

The glorification of self. (Let us make a name for ourselves!!)

The unity loving, ego-centered, Babel builders sentence, their punishment, was to be cast into absolute freedom.... which is to say, chaos. There was no unity.

Babel fell apart because the builders were focused on themselves. There was unity but it was grounded in self-absorption.

It was C.S. Lewis from whom I first gained the insight that you’d better be careful if you think too much about yourself... because before you know it, that’s all you’ll have.... just yourself.

Scary.

This too is one of the lessons of Genesis 11.

The Church of today cannot put all its effort into unity. Our tower would tumble.

Freedom, on the other hand as I said, is wonderful ...if you are by yourself, but as soon as you get with others it becomes a little more ticklish. Two completely free people... are two completely separate people.

Was it Will Rogers or Mark Twain, one of the two I believe who said, if two people always agree, well, one of them ain’t doing much thinking.

Freedom, in community, now there's the genius of the United Church of Christ… but we cannot stop there... unless we are trying to describe an ideal secular government. What is it that bonds our community?

For our community, the community of the Church, as we express it in the UCC, that bond is the God made clearly manifest in the life of Jesus of Nazareth... one who lived, not as the Babel builders, for himself, but for others.

a God who is love above of all else. ... a God who is with us... a God who will not leave us to our divisions and divisive ways... but who calls us all children.

Are there absolutes in the UCC? Experientially, I can point to a couple…

I would say that one absolute is that if an action is not grounded in love it is not grounded in God. We believe we ought to be liberal in love.

I would say that another absolute is that the voice of God has to be the highest voice of all the voices that we obey... which is to say that culture and country, nationalism and clan must always be subservient to what we understand to be the purposes of God.

A few years back I heard Elizabeth Nordbeck, Professor of Church History at Andover Newton. Her sermon was instrumental in helping me formulate another short list which resonates with what I believe to be at our center in the United Church...

This is not going to sound unfamiliar to any of you who have been around here for the past few weeks or more, especially those of you who spent most of yesterday hammering out the first drafts of our covenant .. but here is Nordbeck's short list.

In the UCC... we believe that God calls the church to a visible unity, but it is a unity grounded in discipleship.

In the UCC... we believe that God calls the Church to practical applications of justice.

In the UCC... we believe that God calls the church to embrace the full diversity of human gifts, that folks on the fringe should be invited to be a part of the mainstream... and not because it is PC... but because it is JC.

In the UCC... we attempt to not exclude anyone.

In the UCC... we believe God’s truth is multi-cultural. We believe our truth is truth... but we also believe that it is partial, and we seek others stories to help make our truths more whole.

If we are not free, we have lost ourselves. If we are not united, we have only ourselves… but if we are free and united in the love of God made manifest in the Christ… then we have discovered a peace and part of the whole.

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