1 Corinthians 12:4-13
John 14:15-20

March 8, 2009
Rev. Dr. Michael Penn-Strah
Regional Minister, South Central Area
Ct. Conference of the United Church of Christ

People of the Covenant

As I said few minutes ago, you part of oldest Protestant Denomination in Ct.  And that, of course, is only part of the story, because we are part of a religious tradition that literally goes back to founding of nation—arrival of pilgrims at Plymouth and up through the founding of Congregational church, which in 1957 became the United Church of Christ.  This morning I want to talk with you for few minutes, about the heart of that religious heritage; the idea that we are a people united around a common covenant.  I want to talk about covenant not just because it is part of our heritage, but cause understanding and reclaiming our identity as covenant people can guide us through difficult decisions we face, as individuals, as cong in this complex time of rapid change in wh living.

As you might expect, the understanding of the covenant that united and sustained the 1^st Congregationalists came from their understanding of scripture.  One of the places we see that covenant most clearly is in the gospel lesson. You’ll recall this was part of Jesus’ conversation with the disciples at the last supper.  Jesus just told the disciples the time had come for him to die.  The disciples were understandably, filled with great anxiety at hearing this.  They begin to ask all kinds of questions: what’s going to happen to us, who will lead us, what will we do without you?  We can understand those feelings, can’t we?  I imagine Gordon’s decision to answer the call to another congregation raised similar feelings of anxiety among many of you.  Jesus calms their anxiety with a great promise: (I like the Good News translation) “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you forever.  He is the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God. ..... When I go, you will not be left all alone; I will come back to you.”(vss 14:16,17a,18). 

Jesus promised the first disciples and us, we not alone.  In times of difficulty and crisis, as we face hard decisions, we have a helper, the NRSV translates “an advocate”, God’s Holy Spirit, who will guide us, reveal God’s truth to us, God’s will for us, what it is that God needs, and what God wants us to do.

That’s the covenant!  And that promise, that’s God’s Holy Spirit is always present to support, guide us, that promise lies at heart of our congregational tradition.  In a little book called  “The Congregational Way of Life” written in 1972  by Arthur Rouner, who at the time was serving as pastor of one of our congregational churches in Western Mass asks, “What is the Congregational Way?”  What is the one unique feature about our church life, our way of being church,  that sets us apart from other denominations?  The answer is not, as many believe, that we are free believe whatever want, or that no one can tell us what to do,  we have no bishops, no hierarchical governing authority, or even that each local cong is autonomous.  All those are important principles, but one principle that is unique to congregationalism, says Rouner, is our commitment to discern God’s will together, our commitment to discern God’s will together. Congregationalists, argues Rouner, are people united around covenant and the promise by Jesus that “where 2-3 come together in my name, I am there with them” (Matt 18:20), the promise, that I will not leave you alone, I will be with you, as your helper, your advocate.  Congregationalists, are, as I noted in sermon title people of the covenant, people whose primary focus is to discern God’s will together, to discern how the Holy Spirit is speaking to and through them.

We know Congregational forefathers and foremothers recognized that discerning God’s will was their primary task because they wrote in the Salem Covenant of 1629, “We Covenant with the Lord and with one another and doe bynd our selves in the presence of God, to walk together in all his waies, according as he is pleased to reveal himself unto us in his blessed word.”  

379 years later, we are still a denomination united around covenant, a promise that together we will seek to discern God’s will.  The current constitution of UCC states: “Within the United Church of Christ, the various expressions of the church relate to each other in a covenantal manner …. to the end that the whole church will seek God’s will and be faithful to God’s mission.”  This is our primary respons, to discern God’s will for us, to discern how God’s calling us into min together.  That is the covenant that unites us.

But what, specifically, does that mean?  How doo we live out our tradition as covenant people?  How do we draw on Jesus’ great promise, how do we rely on God’s Holy Spirit, how do we discern God’s will for us?  Our Biblical foundation Jesus’ promise to the disciples, Paul’s words to the young church in Corinth, the history of our own religious tradition as Congregationalists and as the UCC remind us that the process of discerning God’s will together, as congregations, assiations, conference and as a denomination, requires humility and patience.

The first process requires humility; discerning God’s will is something we cannot do alone.  We need one another.  It’s why Jesus reminds the disciples, it’s not when you go off by yourself to pray, but rather where 2 or 3 come together, that discernment process helps illuminate the will of the living Christ.  It’s why Paul reminds the young church in Corinth that each person is given some unique special gift, to use for the common good. Each one of us brings to the task of discerning God’s will, our own particular life expertise, including our experience of God, unique interpretations of scripture, the particular set of beliefs we have developed. 

All this forms a lens which both enables and limits our ability to discern God’s will.  Why need each other: because you can discern part of God’s revelation that I cannot see and vice versa.  But if we only listen to our own heart and to the hearts and minds of those who think and believe exactly as I do our discernment is limited.

And as I say that it that raises question of what to do when confronted with radically different beliefs, interpretations of scripture, and even interpretations and beliefs we believe are false?  Ans here is where a covenant is different from a contract.  A covenant is not a legal agreement, a quid pro quo, i.e., you paint my house and I’ll pay you twenty thousand dollars. Or, I’ll continue to talk to you at coffee hour, be in ministry with you if you believe as I do.   Covenant is a broader promise to continue to walk together in all God’s ways.  It is a prom to continue to talk, pray and struggle together even when the way seems mired in confusion and disharmony. 

Barbara Wheeler, President of Auburn Seminary in NYC notes: the church is not a voluntary arrangement that we can abandon just because we find some of the people with whom we are associating irritating, or because we disagree w them.  Indeed, Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his classic work Life Together notes “True Christian community is found in the place where the person you like least to be with always is.”  The UCC Statement of Faith affirms: God calls us into the church.  God calls us into the church.  That means God requires us to hang in there with one another even if that goes against our natural inclination.

Wheeler’s and Bonhoeffer’s comments remind that discerning God’s will together also requires patience, often great patience.  God’s will is often discerned in the midst of dialogue that continues over time.  When Pastor John Robinson sent the first Pilgrims off from Leyden, Holland in 1620, he warned and reminded them “that there is yet more light and truth to break forth from God’s Holy word.” 

Signers of Salem cov recognized God alone chooses how and when to reveal God’s wisdom to God’s people.  Our task is to remain open to God’s continuing revelation.  Or, as we’ve expressed it in our current identity campaign, our task, is to listen to God who still spking.  I believe the most important way we can do that is by hanging in with each other, continuing to listen and talk with one another. In practical terms it may mean instead of making quick decisions by voting–a process which often leaves people feeling hurt and alienated, instead of becoming angry, withdrawing, or withholding financial support when a decision is made or an action taken with which you do not agree, or even instead of trying to argue others into agreeing with your position you commit selves to “hanging in there,” spending time which means, months or perhaps years in prayer, bible study and deep careful compassionate listening to one another as together we do the hard work of discerning God’s will.  

I encourage you to think about, I’d be interested to hear during our conversation over coffee following worship, where some of those “hanging in there” moments have been for this congregation.  Around what particular issues and decisions, have you as a congregation or in boards committees or as individuals needed to spend time discerning God’s will together? Are there issues, concerns you’re facing now that need that kind of discernment?  If so can you see how you might build that time for that kind of discernment into decision-making process? 

For example, many churches begin meetings of every church committee with 30 min’s of Bible Study, which puts the meeting in the larger context of asking, how is our God, who has led us in past, leading us in this meeting tonight?  At our Annual Meeting in October a woman in a small group I was part of told how the  mission committee began each meeting with Bible Study and it had become so meaningful they were reluctant to admit to the nominating committee when their time was up and there was a waiting list to get on the committee!

Others have developed a practice of stopping discussion when it gets heated or stuck and have 5-10-15 minutes of prayer, discerning what God is saying to the group in that moment.  Perhaps you do, as well.  If not, might one, both of these pracs be helpful in critical moments of decision-making?

Asking that question, reminding selves that our still spking God does speak to through, and through us when we come together truly seeking to discern God’s will for us, that, my friends, is one reason I love the UCC: it is a denomination in which people with incredibly diverse beliefs continue to talk together and be in ministry together.  Indeed it is really the only Christian Church in the country in which congregations ministers and individual church members have real freedom to develop own theologies, create their own unique ministries, while continuing to discern God’s will for larger church.  As challenging, frustrating as that sometimes is, I believe it is also exhilarating.  More importantly, it is the way we can most fully discover the truth of Jesus’ promise and honor the covenant into which he calls us.  Amen.