Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] May 21, 2023 “No Ordinary Love” John 17: 1-5, 11 – Common English Bible When Jesus finished saying these things, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that the Son can glorify you. 2 You gave him authority over everyone so that he could give eternal life to everyone you gave him. 3 This is eternal life: to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent. 4 I have glorified you on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 Now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I shared with you before the world was created. 11 I’m no longer in the world, but they are in the world, even as I’m coming to you. Holy Father, watch over them in your name, the name you gave me, that they will be one just as we are one. (NRSV – That they may all be one) When the United Church of Christ was formed 66 years ago, it was with the express purpose in today’s text: That They May All Be One. That was our motto. Officially, it might still be, but if I asked you what our motto is, what would you say? Probably, “God is Still Speaking.” Or you might quote, “Don’t place a period where God has placed a comma,” which is actually Gracie Allen and not scripture. “That they may all be one” was part an ecumenical zeal at the turn of the 20th century that talked of denominationalism as a “sin.” Into that spirit, our history began with the Congregational Churches and the Christian Churches uniting in 1931. And in 1934, two German immigrant denominations in our family tree came together to form the Evangelical and Reformed Church, which we call the E and R. There other denominations reuniting. For example, pro-slavery Methodists broke off and created the Methodist Church South in 1845. Northern and southern Methodists were reunited in 1939; however, only if all African Americans were segregated into a separate conference. That changed in 1968, but just four years later, a new division began when a rule was adopted in their Book of Discipline stating that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. Sadly, after 50 years of fighting over that line, the church has started splitting again, often in the same lines as slavery. In the past year, 3,000, mostly southern, churches have broken away, with more to come before the end of the year. Most of them joining a new anti-LGBTQ denomination. Presbyterians split over slavery too. Their reunion came in 1983. It was supposed to happen in 1954, but after the Supreme Court decision about school desegregation, southern Presbyterians pulled back. But since 1983, new divisions have formed, largely over LGBTQ inclusion. Today there are multiple Presbyterian denominations. Baptists also split in 1845 over slavery. The north and south have not reunited. And Southern Baptists are dealing with another issue dividing them – women pastors. Except they are not splitting. They’re simply expelling churches who advocate for women, ensuring that Southern Baptist pulpits will forever remain closed to women. The denominations that formed the UCC were almost exclusively northern and so there was no big split over slavery. In fact, Congregationalists were often at the forefront of abolition. Much of the uniting was reuniting or bringing together churches with a shared ethnic heritage, a shared theology or creed, or a shared way of being church, such as their autonomy. The United Church of Canada was one of the first in the world to bring together Christians across theological and significant organizational differences, uniting Methodists, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians in 1925 – the first was in The Philippines in 1901. Attempts to do something on the same scale in the US failed to go anywhere, although there were plenty of conversations and proposals. That’s around the time our UCC forebears began conversations about a larger union or merger that could result in upwards of 8,000 churches. But it wouldn’t be easy. Why? Congregationalists are fiercely dedicated to each church’s autonomy but the E&R operated more like a group with some hierarchy. The practices and theologies of the two were quite diverse. Would they be coerced into some kind of conformity for the sake of unity? Despite these questions, Jesus had prayed to his Father: That they may all be one. And that was the driving force. It appeared to be working. In the late 1940s, with the horrors of a divided world in World War II very much in mind, a union of these very different traditions was successfully moving forward. But there was some significant opposition among Congregationalists. And then in 1949, some members of Cadman Memorial Church in New York City filed a lawsuit alleging that the “merger” would violate local autonomy. The New York Supreme Court upheld the case and stopped any activity for four years until it was overturned by the Court of Appeals. Work resumed and the UCC was finally born in 1957. That they may all be one! Except for the 1,000 Congregational churches that started a new denomination instead. It seems that every merger of two churches creates a new total of three. Would Jesus weep over the inability of his disciples to become one church? Or was that his prayer? What did Jesus really mean when he prayed, “that they may all be one?” John emphasized over and over the unity of Father and Son. Like the circular logic of the Gospel of John, Father and Son are circular, one flowing into the other and back again. I believe that the followers of Jesus are to be a mirror of God and Jesus as one. But all being “one” does not mean that all must be the “same.” Jesus and God are not the same. We agreed about this at Lunch and Lectionary on Thursday, although one person commented, if we’re not all called to be the same, couldn’t we at least all go in the same direction? I agree. Unless I disagreed with the direction chosen! When “let’s all get along” means leaving some people out, then I dissent. Many UCCs begin worship with the same line: No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here. That’s the “same direction” I’d like to go. The inclusion of all people of every race, color, nationality, ability, gender and identity, orientation, language… An equal place at the table for people of all faiths or none. A celebration of diversity. Healing from our very real divisions over slavery in our past that are still very much present today. Ironically, other Christians are fighting against that very “same direction.” What did Jesus mean? Eugene Peterson translates “that they may all be one” in this way: “so they can be one heart and mind, as we are one heart and mind.” But, we are very much not. Yet, if not of one heart and mind, isn’t it possible we could at least find one purpose? In 1987, diverse constituencies of the UCC created a Statement of Mission. It’s what we used to open the service today. They met to try to find some common theological ground – evangelicals and liberals, social justice types and charismatics, folks from our theological diversities that include LGBTQ people and others who claimed what they called a “biblical witness.” The Statement articulates a lot of purposes, but, I wonder, is there something behind them that might help us all be one? So, I went back to the Gospel of John to ask, “what would make us all one?” Here’s an idea. Jesus said, “This is eternal life: to know you, the one and only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent.” What if our one purpose, our one prayer to God, was to “know you?” The caveat, however, there’s always a caveat, is the language, “the one and only true God.” To respect all religions and make peace in the world is to take that phrase out of our vocabulary. We could say, our one and only true God. But if our purpose was to know God, would, or could, everything else flow from that? However, we don’t all come to know or experience God in the same way.
What is the one purpose behind worship and praise and protest and prayer and community and solitude and music and study and children and the dying and communion and soup? What is our one purpose? At least for today, I want to suggest it is to know God and seek God all our days. Because if you know God, you know love. And if you know love, if you know that you are loved and that our calling is to love, you know God. You see that very circular logic of John’s gospel? It’s confounding. Or is it really just that simple? If who we are as the United Church of Christ and as Mission Hills UCC is to know God in all we do, shall we then all be one? I believe the answer is yes.
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May 2024
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