Gordon E. Ellis
May 14, 2006
GOD IS STILL SPEAKING
As most of you know, our denomination, The United Church of Christ, has recently been engaged in a national IDENTITY campaign, centered around the phrase: God is Still Speaking! That phrase is derived from a SAYING by Gracie Allen: Never place a PERIOD where God has placed a COMMA. And we’re using TV ads, SIGNS on churches, and OTHER methods of advertising to let people know that WE believe that God IS still speaking. You MIGHT say that WE are a people of the COMMA -- NOT a people of the COMA, not God’s FROZEN people -- but a people of the COMMA, a people who CONTINUE to LISTEN for God’s UNFOLDING Word in our LIVES and WORLD. And this BELIEF is based on our Scripture Lesson for TODAY, when Jesus says to His disciples: I STILL have MANY things to SAY to you, but you cannot BEAR them NOW. When the Spirit of TRUTH comes, HE will GUIDE you into ALL the truth. And what this means to ME is that there is NOT just one final revelation that is COMPLETE and CLOSED, but that God and God’s truth CONTINUE to be revealed to us.
Now, CERTAINLY that’s TRUE in the NATURAL world. As Episcopal Bishop, Frank Griswold, said in the New Yorker recently: When we look at how we have come to understand the COSMOS over the centuries, how we’ve come to understand the complexities of our physicality, and have seen advances in surgery and medicine and all the rest of it, we SAY to ourselves: WHY didn’t God simply plant the FULLNESS of this knowledge IN us at the BEGINNING? WHY has it taken us CENTURIES to be able to cure FATAL diseases that existed in the MIDDLE Ages? How UNKIND and thoughtless of God NOT to give us ALL the information at the ONSET. And yet, we’ve been structured in a universe in such a way that truth is PROGRESSIVE.[1] And that’s TRUE, isn’t it? And our denomination has been SAYING this ever since it BEGAN! It was summed up POIGNANTLY by our Pilgrim ANCESTOR, Pastor John Robinson, when he said to the Pilgrims, who were departing for THESE very shores: … the Lord hath yet more TRUTH and LIGHT to break forth from OUT His holy Word. You see: our life in FAITH is a journey of understanding, and a journey that we undertake TOGETHER. WE are a PILGRIM people, EAGER to find NEW ways of being FAITHFUL. And from the PILGRIMS, who anticipated MORE truth and light… to the PURITANS, who founded institutions like Harvard and Yale, EMBRACING the search for TRUTH as a RELIGIOUS value… to those Congregationalists in 1853, who were the FIRST to ordain WOMEN… to the early Congregational ABOLITIONISTS, who condemned SLAVERY when it was being defended on BIBLICAL grounds… to all those pastors and lay people in the 1960’s, who felt COMPELLED by their faith to JUMP into the struggle for Civil RIGHTS, and ON and ON throughout our history, WE have understood that God IS still speaking. And therefore, what SEEMS true in ONE day and age may NOT necessarily be true in ANOTHER. The great poet, James Russell Lowell, wrote THESE words, which are captured in a WONDERFUL old hymn called, Once to Every Man and Nation. He wrote: New occasions teach new duties. Time makes ancient GOOD uncouth. They must upward, still, and onward, who would keep abreast of TRUTH. Yes, it’s ALWAYS been our conviction that God IS still speaking! And our ADVERTISING campaign is a GREAT way to SAY so!
And the FACT that God IS still speaking is PRECISELY why we DON’T all AGREE on the issues of the day. You see: we ALL read and interpret the scriptures a little bit DIFFERENTLY. And MORE than that: God’s VOICE isn’t always CLEAR! The great Christian writer, Frederick Buechner, has observed that when God SPEAKS to us, God tends to do so ENIGMATICALLY -- through EVENTS -- and in MESSAGES that can be DIFFICULT to get just RIGHT sometimes.[2] And I know that’s been true for ME. It’s ONE thing to have an EXPERIENCE. It’s entirely DIFFERENT to figure out WHAT that experience MEANS. And therefore, I tend to think that the more DEFINITE the claim is ABOUT what God is SAYING, the more SUSPICIOUS we should BE of that claim. I’ll tell you: NEVER trust a human being who claims to KNOW with CERTAINTY the mind of GOD. And SO, we OFTEN disagree on the issues of the day.
However, that DOESN’T mean that we shouldn’t DIALOGUE on the issues and work TOWARD a consensus. I mean: Jesus’ original DISCIPLES certainly didn’t agree on EVERYTHING. In fact, HAD it not been for their common love for JESUS, several of them would have literally KILLED each other. And therefore, WE don’t have to agree either. BUT, it’s important to TALK about the issues of the day and work TOWARD a consensus -- AND to do it for Christ, because DIDN’T Jesus PRAY to God at His Last Supper for His disciples, asking: that they ALL may be ONE. Well, the challenge for all of us is NOT just to LOVE one another, and NOT just to fight for justice and help for the oppressed. It’s ALSO to build consensus and community among ourselves, that they may all be one.
Well, if GOD is still SPEAKING, then WHAT is God’s MESSAGE to us today? Well, certainly ONE message OUGHT to be the realization that any GOD who ALWAYS takes OUR position on the issues of the day -- and whether we’re liberal or conservative doesn’t really MATTER -- but ANY God who takes OUR side on every issue is a God that is MUCH too SMALL. And that’s why THOSE people today who BOLDLY claim to know GOD’S position on ISSUES that BIBLICAL writers never even HEARD of -- issues like abortion, stem cell research and others -- THEY are the IDEOLOGICAL descendants of those who ONCE argued for the divine right of kings, and defended SLAVERY, on BIBLICAL grounds. And of course, we NOW believe -- liberals and conservatives ALIKE -- that they were WRONG: absolute monarchs do NOT rule by divine RIGHT, even though Romans 13 says that they DO; and SLAVERY is a moral ABOMINATION, even though Ephesians 6 provides a framework for its CONTINUATION. You see: GOD was NOT done SPEAKING on those issues. LIKEWISE, discrimination against WOMEN in church and society was argued on BIBLICAL grounds for centuries, but we NOW know BETTER! You see: God was NOT done SPEAKING on THAT issue either.
Well of course, the BIG issue TODAY is HOMOSEXUALITY! And ABOUT this issue, people are beating each other over the HEAD with the BIBLE! But it’s just NOT that SIMPLE an issue that people can QUOTE a line here, and a phrase there, out of the Bible, and THINK that they’re DONE with it. In fact, I’d like to show you a brief VIDEO clip from the TV show, West Wing, which REMINDS us powerfully that God IS still speaking on THIS issue TOO. It’s very BRIEF, so let’s watch it….
Video Clip: from West Wing (from Season 2, DVD #1: the episode called Midterms)
You see, friends: it’s NOT as SIMPLE as those who read the Bible LITERALLY would have us BELIEVE. And I MAY be WRONG about this, because I don’t CLAIM to know the mind of GOD, but I believe that THOSE who condemn homosexuality on BIBLICAL grounds, and seek to DENY gays and lesbians the right to socially-recognized, committed relationships, are just plain WRONG. Furthermore, I believe that, ONE day, our CONSENSUS on this issue will be JUST as clear as our consensus TODAY is on the issue of SLAVERY, because God has NOT finished speaking on THIS topic yet. And furthermore, I believe that, ONE day, as we NOW do with SLAVERY, we will wonder HOW people could have been SO unclear because, IN the Bible, LOVE is the SUPREME moral value. The love of God and the love of neighbor are of UTMOST importance. And IF we model OUR love on the love of JESUS, then OUR love will be RADICALLY-INCLUSIVE! As our U.C.C. television AD says: JESUS didn’t turn people away… and NEITHER do WE!
Yes friends, God IS still speaking! We DON’T have ALL the absolute and final answers, but we CAN seek them TOGETHER in this wonderful community, where we can COMFORT one another, CHALLENGE one another and SUPPORT one another AS we keep on SEARCHING for God’s TRUTH. Yes, God IS still speaking! And OUR job is to keep on LISTENING -- listening TOGETHER! Amen.
[1] Peter J. Boyer: A Church Asunder, in The New Yorker, April 17, 2006. P. 54 & following.
[2] See Now and Then, the second volume of Buechner's spiritual autobiography.