Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] February 25, 2024 “Whole-hearted Faith” Matthew 14: 22-33 – The Message As soon as the meal was finished, he insisted that the disciples get in the boat and go on ahead to the other side while he dismissed the people. With the crowd dispersed, he climbed the mountain so he could be by himself and pray. He stayed there alone, late into the night. 24-26 Meanwhile, the boat was far out to sea when the wind came up against them and they were battered by the waves. At about four o’clock in the morning, Jesus came toward them walking on the water. They were scared to death. “A ghost!” they said, crying out in terror. 27 But Jesus was quick to comfort them. “Courage, it’s me. Don’t be afraid.” 28 Peter, suddenly bold, said, “Master, if it’s really you, call me to come to you on the water.” 29-30 He said, “Come ahead.” Jumping out of the boat, Peter walked on the water to Jesus. But when he looked down at the waves churning beneath his feet, he lost his nerve and started to sink. He cried, “Master, save me!” 31 Jesus didn’t hesitate. He reached down and grabbed his hand. Then he said, “Faint-heart, what got into you?” 32-33 The two of them climbed into the boat, and the wind died down. The disciples in the boat, having watched the whole thing, worshiped Jesus, saying, “This is it! You are God’s Son for sure!” Last week we began a journey with Peter and his call as one of the first of the 12 disciples of Jesus. We learned that he was impulsive and impetuous but even more passionate, committed and bold, even if his boldness wasn’t always well thought out – as today’s story proves. But first: Chapter 14 began with the news that John the Baptist had been beheaded by Herod because it’s what his daughter wanted for her birthday – the head of John the Baptist served on a platter. Jesus was devastated by the news and got into a boat with the intention of going to a deserted place by himself, but before he even got there, crowds heard he was coming and were growing larger by the minute, waiting on the shore for him. By the time he landed, there were thousands of people in search of hope and healing. He really needed a break, but he had compassion upon them. A little later the disciples arrived and saw the chaos. After a few hours, they suggested that Jesus dismiss the crowd so they could go get something to eat, or perhaps, so that Jesus could finally get his delayed break. But instead, Jesus told the disciples, you feed them. A story you probably already know: They brought him everything they could find – five loaves of bread and two fish which he blessed and broke into pieces and sent around to the crowd. At the end, 12 basketfuls of loaves made their way back to Jesus. About 5,000 men plus women and children had eaten that day. That’s the point at which Jesus sent the disciples off to the other side of the Sea of Galilee while he finished up. Finally, he could go up the side of a mountain to be alone and pray. Even Jesus needed a break from the stress and heart-heavy work of compassion. When evening came, Jesus decided to rejoin the disciples. I was curious, how big is the Sea of Galilee? It’s the largest source of fresh water in Israel – about as wide as the Salton Sea, which is much longer and definitely not fresh water. It’s about the distance between here and La Mesa, which doesn’t seem that far in a car on the freeway but think about that distance in a boat fighting against fierce winds and violent waves. And just imagine. It was so difficult sailing into the wind that Jesus caught up with them by walking! The disciples had a similar experience in a boat in chapter 8. Jesus was in the boat with them as they were crossing when a fierce storm came up, waves so big they were filling the boat. Jesus slept right through it, only awakened by terrified disciples begging him, “Rescue us!” He said, “Why are you afraid, faint-hearts?” Why??!! Because a freaking storm is going to drown us, that’s why! But this time he’s not in the boat with them, he’s outside of it walking toward them. Which, of course, freaked them out. But when the whole “it’s a ghost!”-thing was resolved, Peter, true to his impulsive and impetuous personal style, asked to join Jesus on the water. Actually, he said, “Lord, if it’s you, order me to come to you on the water.” With the fierce violent storm still raging, Peter got out of the boat, and began walking toward Jesus. But then he notices(?) the fierce violent storm is still raging, began to sink, and he called out, “Rescue me!” Jesus immediately reached out to grab him. The Message translates Jesus’ response as a sympathetic, “Faint-heart, what got into you?” I much prefer that – faint-heart – over the Common English Bible which translates the words as an accusation that Peter had “weak faith.” “You man of weak faith, why did you begin to doubt?” Or maybe you’re familiar with the slightly more sympathetic, “O ye of little faith, why did you doubt.” But Peter doesn’t suffer from a weak or little faith. He may be misguided at times, a little over-zealous perhaps, but if we can describe anyone in this way, he is a man of “whole-hearted faith.” He has an all-in, no holding back, emotions on the sleeve kind of faith. Cry one minute, roll on the floor laughing the next. Weakness wasn’t his problem. And I’m not sure it’s ours either. Mainline Christians might not have a weak faith as much as perhaps a timid faith. Our struggle isn’t with doubt. We know that doubt isn’t the opposite of faith. But what is? Doing nothing, trying nothing, standing for nothing, is the opposite of faith. Peter may be impulsive and impetuous, he may break promises and act without thinking – like a bull in a china shop – but at least he doesn’t stand outside the china shop and just peek through the window. His faith was not weak and I thank God that Peter, full of enthusiasm, rushed right in. But I also thank God there are also those who act boldly with great faith in thoughtful and deliberative ways too – who are prepared to do something, try something, and stand for something. Do you know the story of Diane Nash?[1] In the summer of 1961 she was teaching workshops for Freedom Riders with her husband Rev. James Bevell. She was 23 and five of her students were under 21 years old. She was arrested and charged with contributing to the delinquency of minors by encouraging them to break the law to desegregate interstate buses. She was found guilty of five counts, each carrying a sentence of 6 months – a combined total sentence of 2 ½ years. She appealed and the NAACP sent a $2,500 bond, the equivalent of almost $26,000 today, but the appeals court deliberately didn’t inform her of her court date. So, because she didn’t appear, there was now a warrant out for her arrest. That warrant was quite a dilemma – she could avoid it completely by simply leaving the state, as the state hoped she would, but abandon the work she felt passionately called to do. Or she could go to jail. She and her husband planned to spend their lives in Mississippi working for the liberation of Black people. She said, “I didn’t want Mississippi white men or anyone else deciding for me where we could live and work. I didn’t want anybody to run me anywhere I did not want to go.” But even more complicated, or rather, much more complicated, she was six months pregnant, which would mean her child would be born in jail and she would miss the first two years of his life. It wasn’t a decision to rush into so she retreated to her bedroom for three days. She told Bevel she didn’t want to be disturbed by anyone. “I did nothing but eat, sleep, think, and pray. After three days I made the decision to surrender and serve the term. With intense meditation, I had tapped into a very powerful force that I can’t totally explain. I thought over every eventuality and was prepared to face anything. I knew I could handle it. There was really nothing anybody could do to hurt me. I came to a place of strength and peace. If they killed me, I was ready.” Bevel was very supportive, but faced a lot of criticism. “Oh, Rev. Bevel, you shouldn’t make your wife do that. That’s too much.” They only thought of me as “the Reverend’s wife,” and as a woman, incapable of making a decision like that on my own. So, she presented herself to the sheriff, ready to serve her sentence. He was clearly amused at her bulging midsection and told her to appear in Judge Moore’s court, the same Judge Moore who had found Byron De La Beckwith not guilty of killing Medgar Evers – with a gun Judge Moore kept hidden in his home. Diane entered his court but wasn’t going to sit in the “colored section” so she walked right down to the front. For the “protest” of sitting in the front row, she was charged with defiance of local segregation laws and sentenced to jail for 10 days which she immediately began to serve. The jail provided absolutely no accommodation for her advanced pregnancy No vitamin pills allowed, no change of clothes or even a toothbrush. She was kept isolated from other prisoners so as not to corrupt them with her talk of civil rights. Only one guard was willing to engage her in conversation and, one day, seemed genuinely interested when Diane explained the discrepancy in public school funding. For example, in Holly Bluff they spent $191.77 per white child and $1.26 per Black child. But the worst of her jail experience, she said, was the cockroaches, masses of them crawling up the walls at night, the clicking of their feet, and then falling from the ceiling right over her concrete slab of a bed. At the end of those 10 days, she appeared before Judge Moore. He proclaimed her sentence was complete and she was free to go. She asked, “aren’t you going to hear the case of my contributing to the delinquency of minors?” He said no. She told the judge very clearly that she was going to go right back to teaching young people how to do non-violent civil disobedience. She told him her full home address for the court records so they couldn’t say they couldn’t find her. “I want you to know I’m not hiding from you.” But Mississippi authorities had tapped their home phone. They were aware that every civil rights organization in the nation knew her case and decided that keeping her in jail was public relations liability. Diane said, “I came away from the whole experience very much spiritually strengthened. In jail I learned that I could live with very little. The oppressive authorities imprisoned me and withheld basic necessities to frighten and control me, but it backfired. They are the ones who got scared. And in the end, I was freer, more determined, and stronger than ever.” Diane today is 85 years old and living in Chicago. Both Peter and Diane had what I call a “whole-hearted faith.” They put themselves all in. Where Peter may have been impulsive and Diane was more deliberate, both acted deeply and honestly to fulfill Jesus’ call to come follow me and love our neighbors as completely as we possibly can. Next week we’ll continue to watch Peter succeed and fail to do just that – a reassuring example of our own attempts not to act timidly in the face of need, but with a faith that is whole-hearted. What would that mean for you today? To live with your whole heart. [1] For the following story, see Hands on the Freedom Plow for 55 personal accounts of women in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
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Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] February 18, 2024 “Peter: Unfiltered, Abrupt, and Unafraid” Luke 5: 1-11 – Common English Bible One day Jesus was standing beside Lake Gennesaret when the crowd pressed in around him to hear God’s word. 2 Jesus saw two boats sitting by the lake. The fishermen had gone ashore and were washing their nets. 3 Jesus boarded one of the boats, the one that belonged to Simon, then asked him to row out a little distance from the shore. Jesus sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4 When he finished speaking to the crowds, he said to Simon, “Row out farther, into the deep water, and drop your nets for a catch.” 5 Simon replied, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and caught nothing. But because you say so, I’ll drop the nets.” 6 So they dropped the nets and their catch was so huge that their nets were splitting. 7 They signaled for their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They filled both boats so full that they were about to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw the catch, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Leave me, Lord, for I’m a sinner!” 9 Peter and those with him were overcome with amazement because of the number of fish they caught. 10 James and John, Zebedee’s sons, were Simon’s partners and they were amazed too. Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid. From now on, you will be fishing for people.” 11 As soon as they brought the boats to the shore, they left everything and followed Jesus. What do you know about Peter, also known as Simon, aka Simon Peter… three different names in just this one short passage. And also known in the Gospel of John as Cephas (seff-us). But, for the sake of simplicity, I’m just going to call him Peter. So, back to my original question: what do you know about him? He’s named in lots of stories – 195 times. Compare that to all the other disciples who receive only 130 mentions – combined. All we know about some of the 12 is their name! Peter’s names pop up in story after story, but not as a complete narrative of his own. There’s something about Peter. But what is it? Well, this Lent, we’re going to find out. We’re going to take a deeper dive into the faith of this one individual, and yet even so, we’ll only get to skim the surface of this impetuous, impulsive, and unfiltered character. A deeply flawed but even more deeply passionate and committed disciple of Christ. In the end, we may discover he is someone with whom we can find a connection – something about him for which we can say, “Oh, if I’m honest, that’s me too.” When you hear the name Peter, are there any stories that come to mind? For me, number one is Peter’s insistence that he will never, never, ever deny Jesus. “There’s no way I would ever do such a thing.” Immediately followed by three denials. “I don’t know the man. I don’t know the man. I already told you, I don’t know that man.” That’s almost always the first thing I think of Peter because of course, “I would never ever do such a terrible thing!” I would never (2). I would never (3). The second thing about Peter is how he asked Jesus to walk on water. Jesus said, “Sure, come on in.” Peter got out of the boat, started actually walking on water and then became afraid because he was actually walking on water and so he began to sink. He cried out, “Help!” Which of course he wouldn’t have needed to do if he hadn’t been so impetuous in the first place! But you’ve never done that, right!? Not me. 😊 Third. One day Jesus responded to something Peter said by saying, “Get behind me, Satan.” Ouch! So, do you suppose Peter learned a lesson from this experience? Like, don’t speak before listening? Of course not. He’s Peter! And he’s me, and maybe you. As you probably already know, Peter was one of the first 12 disciples, but did you know that how he became one of the first is different depending on the gospel. In Mark, with which we are probably most familiar, Jesus simply walked by Peter and his brother Andrew and said, “Come follow me” and immediately they did. Then they came upon James and John and they left every-thing behind too. Matthew copied and pasted this into his gospel straight out of Mark, but curiously, Matthew cut the next part. In Mark, these new disciples followed him to the synagogue and listened to Jesus preach when all of a sudden, a demon interrupted him. Jesus told it to leave, which it did by screaming as it writhed its way out of a man. These pairs of brothers just stood there and watched and wondered, what have we gotten ourselves into. But in Mark, everyone’s in a very big hurry and so off they go. Again, Matthew skipped this. But, then there’s Luke, who has a very different pace and a very different take on the calling of the first disciples. In Luke, Jesus has already been preaching for a while. You know, the first time Jesus preached it was to his hometown crowd in Nazareth, but after his very first sermon they ran him out of town and tried to throw him off a cliff. After that, he went down to preach in Capernaum every Sabbath instead. And it was on one of those occasions that the screaming demon writhed its way out of a man. It was after this startling event that Peter invited Jesus to his house or maybe as it sometimes happened, Jesus invited himself to Peter’s house only to discover his mother-in-law in bed with a fever. Jesus healed her and that night people brought folks from all over town to Peter’s doorstep, begging Jesus to help their loved ones. But that was it. After that long night, Jesus went back to preaching at other synagogues around Galilee and Peter went back to work. In Luke, Jesus is a wandering itinerant preacher, a little while here, a little while there. In Mark, everything is immediate, but Luke takes his time to let things unfold. Some of us just jump right in, but for those of us who want to think about a decision a little more, Luke’s our gospel. Peter didn’t just jump up and follow Jesus immediately after seeing his mother-in-law jump up from her fever. Peter went back to work because in real life, what other choice do we have? I grew up on a dairy farm. My father might have been in the hospital to witness the miracle of the birth of his first child at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, but he still had to go home and milk the cows by 5:30 and every 12 hours. Peter too needed to go back to work. He was a fisherman and fishermen fished every day except the Sabbath. Some days were better than others. I wonder if a fisherman’s better days were outnumbered by the days they didn’t even catch a minnow. Well, it was at the end of one of those not-even-a-minnow days that Peter and his partners were cleaning their nets and Jesus walked by the shoreline, followed, always followed, by a crowd hungry to hear him teach. To be clear, in Luke, Jesus wasn’t a stranger to Peter. Jesus had been at his house back whenever that was. Jesus asked Peter to row out a little ways so he could talk to the crowd pressing in on him. Now, that was one thing to ask. Sure, Peter would have to pause for a little while before going home for supper, but then Jesus asked for something much more: to stop the crew from their end of work routine to go back out and do it again. Peter spoke for himself and everyone else: “We’re tired! We’re worn out from a long day’s work.” And wouldn’t you agree? I wouldn’t be so happy to do my job over again before going home. I mean, those nets were heavy. They have weights attached in order for them to sink. They’re awkward and slimy, especially as you stand on a slippery wet boat. Throwing those things overboard when you’re already tired, well, this was a pretty big ask of Jesus. However, Jesus had healed his mother-in-law, so if the guy is now asking for a favor, how could he turn him down? And you know how it turned out. The haul of fish was so big it began to tear those big, heavy, slimy nets. A second crew came out to help but there were so many fish, both boats nearly swamped. Peter saw all this happening and his response was, “Get away from me!” Not “thank you.” Not, “Wow! could you come back every day?” No, he said, “Get away from me. I’m a sinner,” by which he meant “I’m not worthy of this.” We know this because Jesus’ response to Peter wasn’t, “you’re right Peter. You’re a dirty filthy rag… but I’ll forgive you.” Jesus said, “don’t be afraid.” Don’t be afraid of what? Too many fish? But first, this same story is also told in the Gospel of John, with a few details changed. In Luke, the story of this great haul of fish is how Jesus starts gathering disciples – the beginning. In John, it happened after the resurrection of Jesus – the end. Jesus was gone so they got out their boats and nets because that’s what they did for a living. They’re trying to process what had happened and maybe they were distracted which is why they didn’t catch any fish that night. Jesus called out from shore to throw their nets on the other side. I love that slight change from Mark’s do it over again. John says do the same thing but try the other side. And when they did, so many fish – 153 exactly, for some exact reason – all those fish jumped into the net and almost pulled down the whole boat. One little, odd, detail only in John’s version: Out there on the boat fishing with the others, Peter is naked. When someone saw Jesus coming, Peter quickly wrapped his coat around his waist and jumped into the water and raced to Jesus, completely ignoring the other disciples who will need him as they struggle to haul in that enormous catch of fish. Why does John think we should know that about Peter? What does it tell us about him? When they all got to the beach, Jesus had prepared them a nice pescatarian breakfast and afterward asked Peter, do you love me? He asked him three times to which Peter answered with escalating annoyance, “Yes!” “Yes!” “Jesus Christ, literally, you know I do!!” I’m getting ahead of myself – we’ve got 5 weeks. So, as we start to get to know Peter, what do we know?
But I’m grateful Peter didn’t have a filter. He’s real. He’s us. Perhaps it would be nice if we all felt as free to express our emotions as we wanted. Because if he had thought about it a little more before he spoke, he might not have immediately responded to seeing all that abundance with “I’m not worthy of this.” But then we wouldn’t have heard Jesus say to him what sometimes we need Jesus to say to us: Don’t be afraid. Don’t your waste time with such nonsense. It is a waste of time to ask, do I deserve this. Use what God has given you and don’t be afraid of it. This is the story of his call to the first disciples. The same one to us today: Come follow me. There are people waiting who are hungry for your love, people who need your time, and people who deserve your attention. Don’t question whether you deserve it. Just use all God’s abundance for the sake of Jesus’ sheep. Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] February 11, 2024 “Haven't You Heard?” Isaiah 40: 21-31 – New Revised Standard Version Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them like a tent to live in, 23 who brings princes to naught and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing. 24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. 25 To whom, then, will you compare me, or who is my equal? says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing. 27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless. 30 Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted, 31 but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. When I want to tell a story that’s been passed down over the generations among the people of the palmetto dunes in South Carolina. Picture a woman stolen from Africa forced to pick cotton in the oppressive summer heat. Her clothes are drenched from the humid air and her toddler is clutching her leg as she worked, crying out for attention. She is a woman with such dexterity that she could pick cotton with her right hand and caress the forehead of her little boy with the left. But eventually, exhausted, she fell to the ground. He begged her to get up, well aware that if the slave driver saw her “taking a nap,” his mother would be beaten. As he tried to shake her, an old man rushed over – a man the Africans called Preacher and Prophet. The slave drivers called him Old Devil. The boy looked up and said, “Is it time?” The old man nodded his head and smiled. He bent down to the ground and whispered into the woman’s ear: “Cooleebah! Cooleebah!” At that moment, the woman arose with the dignity of a queen and looked down at her son. She grasped his hand, looked to the heavens, and all of a sudden, they began to fly. The slave drivers rushed over, stunned at this human flight. While they were distracted by watching this woman and her son fly away, the old Preacher Prophet ran around to all of the other Africans crying out “Cooleebah! Cooleebah!” Upon hearing the word, they too began to fly. Can you imagine the sight? All the dispossessed flying? All the disempowered flying? All the three-fifths of a person flying? These men, women, and children of Africa taking flight? The slave drivers rushed over to the old man and demanded that he bring them back. “I can’t,” he said. They beat him, commanding him to “bring them back!” But with blood running down his cheek, he just smiled and said, “I can’t.” “Why not?” “Because the word is already in them and since the word is already in them, it cannot be taken from them.” [1] [2] “Have you not heard? Have you not known? The Lord, the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, God does not forget you, God does not grow weary or faint. God gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted, but those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Could the people actually fly? But haven’t you ever flown? Hasn’t a word or simple phrase ever lifted you up from the bottom? A word like “remission.” Phrases like, I forgive you. You got this or it gets better. But, there are also words that can cause us to crash to the ground. Works like, cancer. Phrases like, he was in an accident. You’re a failure or you’ll never amount to anything. God hates fags. The Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III told this story of the people who could fly and said, “the Preacher Prophet gave them the power of a single word.” He reminded them of the power. The word Cooleebah, he said, means God – a word that can be used to lift others to flight. But we also know that sometimes God is a word used like a weapon. You know, don’t you, haven’t you heard, that a single word spoken with great intention can cause someone to have a break through. Or spoken carelessly, a single word can cause someone to have a break down. One word has the power to cause healing or hurt. How about two powerful words, like “remain seated”? Let me tell you about Septima Clark.[3] Born in 1898, her father had been enslaved in South Carolina, but education lifted her beyond her circumstances. She went to college and was certified to be a teacher but Charleston wouldn’t hire Black teachers so she taught on South Carolina’s Johns Island. She came back three years later to teach at the Avery Institute, one of 500 schools started by Congregational churches following the Civil War to lift African Americans to new heights, schools that include top flight Howard University. While there, Ms. Clark joined the NAACP and participated in a successful effort to get Charleston to hire Black teachers, where she then began to teach. And in 1945, she worked with Thurgood Marshall on a successful case seeking equal pay for Black and white teachers, which increased her pay three-fold. But in the 1950s, South Carolina made it illegal for public employees to belong to civil rights groups. When she refused to disaffiliate, she lost her job and went to work for the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee. She was hired to lead workshops for people who wanted to change their communities using non-violence, like she had done. Many who participated in the civil rights movement were prepared at Highlander – how to face violence with a non-violent response. They trained people like the Freedom Riders, students who desegregated lunch counters, those who walked across the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma or were slammed to the ground by the power of fire hoses in Birmingham. One woman who attended Ms. Clark’s workshops decided she would remain seated the next time she was ordered to move to the back of the bus. Septima Clark inspired and taught Rosa Parks and countless others that they too could fly – by remaining seated. Ms. Clark, sometimes referred to as the Mother of the Movement, was a devout Christian. She asked a lot her students preparing to endure the indignity and violence of white supremacists determined to chain Black citizens to the ground. I can hear her, “Have you not heard? Have you not known? The Lord, the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, God does not forget you, God does not faint or grow weary. Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” And sometimes, God will be your rock, there with you as you stand your ground or remain seated. Ms. Clark didn’t stop there. She found her calling travelling all over the South training local people to become Citizenship teachers and start Citizenship schools – 800 of them. Citizenship schools taught people such skills as how to write their name instead of using an X, balance a checkbook, how to read road signs and basic literacy. Most significantly, they taught citizens how a democratic system of government is supposed to work and how to vote in elections. It was extremely dangerous work and many of her friends were killed for teaching citizenship. It’s amazing how the power of a single word like “vote” can both empower the disenfranchised and frighten the powerful. And Amanda Gorman described so beautifully what can happen: “We the successors of a country and a time Where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president only to find herself reciting for one.”[4] “Have you not heard? Have you not known? God has not forgotten you and gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless. Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” In the time of the Prophet Isaiah, destruction and exile had generated such despair and chaos in the people that they doubted God.[5] But Isaiah reminded them to compare the power of the God of creation with the power of their oppressors. He told them, their oppressors are simply grasshoppers who are blown away by a strong wind. Can we really compare the Creator of the universe with those trying to harm us? Isaiah said, “Scarcely are they planted, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when God blows upon them and they wither away and the tempest carries them off like stubble.” Ah, “but those who wait upon the Lord shall mount up with wings like eagles.” By the way, the story of the people who could fly was a true story. True because their oppressors were of no significance. They were tiny, frightened, little men, like grasshoppers. Compare that to the God of creation. It’s a true story just like those who feared the power of women like Septima Clark were scared of things like equality, voting, and democracy. But surely you know that our heritage in the United Church of Christ, our legacy, is like Amanda Gorman’s vision: “Yes we are far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect. We are striving to forge a union with purpose; To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man. And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us but what stands before us. To conclude her brilliant poem, The Hill We Climb, We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west, we will rise from the windswept northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution, …rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states, we will rise from the sunbaked south. We will rebuild, reconcile and recover. And every known nook of our nation and every corner called our country, our people diverse and beautiful will emerge, battered and beautiful. When day comes we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid. The new dawn blooms as we free it; For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it. But why wouldn’t we be? Haven’t you heard? [1] The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales 1985 by Virginia Hamilton [2] Story told by Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, pastor of Trinity UCC in Chicago [3] Learn more about Septima Clark at www.sistermentors.org and www.biography.com [4] The Hill We Climb [5] Richard A Puckett, Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 1, p. 317 Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] February 4, 2024 “The Fifth Stream” Galatians 3: 26-29 – Common English Bible You are all God’s children through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 Now if you belong to Christ, then indeed you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to the promise. When we talk of the history of the United Church of Christ, we often speak of the UCC as having four streams that merged into two that eventually became one river. In the first stream were churches from the Congregational tradition. That’s us. Congregational churches are older than the United States. The Church of the Pilgrimage in Plymouth, Massachusetts, celebrated its 400th anniversary in October. Yes, among our Congregational ancestors were the Pilgrims and the Puritans. Some look upon that fact with pride, some with hesitation and even scorn, but it’s our heritage. The first wave among them were seeking freedom from religious persecution. Sadly, they went on to do some religious persecuting of their own. Our family closet has a lot in it. The primary concern of Congregationalists wasn't about beliefs, which were quite diverse, but for the congregation to have its own authority. There were two streams involving German immigrants – the first wave in the 1700s were from the Reformed tradition, centered around Philadelphia, fleeing war and poverty. The second wave came in the mid-late 1800s and were centered around Saint Louis, also fleeing war and poverty. This second group were known as Evangelicals. Not the small “e” evangelicals of today, nor the moral majority type. In fact, they were quite broad minded for their day. Evangelicals were a middle way between rigid doctrine and secular rationalism. Their motto was “In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, diversity. In all things, charity.” The Reformed immigrants and the Evangelical immigrants found commonality and joined together to form one stream known as the Evangelical and Reformed Church. A very imaginative name, right? Per capita, for their size, this group founded more human service and health care institutions in the United States than any other religious group, including the largest hospital systems in Chicago and Saint Louis. The fourth stream was a group known only as Christians – a group of former Baptists in New England who believed in universal salvation, as in, there is no hell, and among them were some of the earliest women preachers in America, including Nancy Gove in the 1820s. Also, a group of former Methodists in Virginia who wanted to be free of authoritarianism by bishops and a group of former Presbyterians in Kentucky who embraced frontier revivals. This disparate group wanted nothing of denominationalism but united around some common principles which they later realized needed some kind of structure so they became a denomination known as The Christian Churches which found commonality and joined together to form one stream known as the Congregational Christian Churches. Another imaginative name, right? Those were the four streams, that became two, that became known as the one United Church of Christ in 1957. The motto at our founding is “that they may all be one.” But there was one more group that no one knew what to do with. They didn’t fit this narrative, so they were ignored. That’s the charitable view. This group was Black, so you might say they were dismissed. But whatever you might say, at the founding of the UCC they were absent. The Afro Christian Convention or Connection, centered in the Tidewater region of Virginia and North Carolina, was lumped together with The Christian Churches, but they are distinctly different. These churches were not centered in whiteness, not founded by white people or offshoots of white churches. Immediately after the Civil War, people who had been enslaved and still practiced aspects of religious tradition passed down from their descendants in Africa started churches and created their own structure of cooperation and fellowship – and even a college. If you have an image that all UCC churches worship in relatively the same way, for example, singing hymns and listening quietly to prepared sermons, churches from the Afro Christian tradition are more lively and free-spirited with African rhythms and influences. The absence of these members at the founding of the UCC, the absence of their story in the telling of our history as four streams, was confessed at last summer’s General Synod along with an official apology and a commitment to their inclusion in our teaching of history as a rightful fifth stream in the UCC. I’ve taught UCC history at the seminary in Denver for 10 years. I always included their story as a hidden history, but not with the perspective of the Afro Christian Connection as a fully equal part of our history. That now changes. African Americans have always been part of the history of the Congregational tradition, but more often as the subjects of mission rather than the agents of mission. Upon becoming a Congregationalist, Black members and Black churches were expected to adopt a white style of worship – singing European songs – and a theology shaped by Europeans, addressing issues of interest to Europeans, not those living in the reality of a Jim Crow world, subject to lynching and excluded from decision making in society. White churches may have talked about these issues on occasion, but not in a way that reflected the daily lived experience of racism. When the Congregational Christian Church was founded in 1931, Black Congregationalists and Afro Christians struggled to find common ground – with styles of worship vastly different from one another. Black Congregationalists were often well educated and the upper crust of the Black community. Afro Christians were not, which further led to their marginalization. But slowly and deliberately the two groups nurtured a relationship of family and common purpose that was, unfortunately and ironically, interrupted by the formation of the UCC. In the new UCC, churches would be integrated into geographical conferences. Integrated, which seemed only right, but isolated from one another, which further led to their marginalization. It seems impossible to think that a denomination that talks a lot about racial justice failed to talk with and include its own Black members. Impossible but yet so common we didn't even notice it, at least “we” who represent the dominant majority, who either intentionally or unintentionally set and maintain the expectation of what it means to be the UCC. That’s changing. One of the fastest growing groups in the UCC, yes there are areas of growth, are congregations of Black LGBTQ Pentecostalists. It makes sense that they would be welcomed into the UCC, but is the UCC ready to welcomed into them? Not for them to change to fit us but for us to change to fit them? And get rid of the whole “us and them” altogether. We have a model to do so straight out of the Afro Christian tradition known as the Five Principles: 1)Jesus Christ is the only head of the Church. What does that mean? The head of the church is not a pope or a bishop. And not even the people. Christ alone is the head. One of my favorite lines is the lay woman who told her pastor, “Jesus is the head of this church, pastor; not you.” 2)Christian is a sufficient name of the Church. They resisted such names as Presbyterian or Methodist or Congregational. No sectarian divides, they preached. 3)The Holy Bible is a sufficient rule for faith and practice. No creeds, no indoctrination, just the Bible. But they were not literalists. They had women preachers because they saw evidence of it in the Bible. Literalists would say women should be silent in the church. 4)Christian character is a sufficient test for Church membership and fellowship, which is to say, membership isn’t about being able to recite a creed or answer specific questions about doctrine. The only thing asked is to live a Christian life. I suppose they still needed some way to talk about what that meant, but not something that easily excluded people for having the “wrong” beliefs. 5)The right of private judgment and the liberty of conscience are rights and privileges that should be accorded to and exercised by all. This was a big one. People have a right to decide for themselves what to believe. They affirmed our own consciences as valid interpretations of belief, not what some outside authority told you to believe. Can you imagine how absolutely radical this would be in the 1800s, but actually it would be seen as unacceptably radical in some churches even today. But it is what Afro Christians who were shaped and formed by African religious practices found in common with Baptists who didn’t believe in hell, Methodists who resisted authoritarianism, and Presbyterians who believed in the validity of personal conversion. And this is how they found each other to cooperate as Christian Churches who came together with Congregationalists who also held quite diverse beliefs, added to the E&R church with its motto In Essentials, Unity; in Non-Essentials Diversity; in All Things Charity. That’s us as the UCC, a story in which one stream will no longer be absent. Thinking about your own faith story, how do these statements, five principles, sit with you? What do you think: 1)Jesus is the only head of the church. Does that differ from how you were raised? 2)Christian is a sufficient name. What are the names of denominations you have belonged to? Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist… Do we need more labels – even UCC? Does anyone outside our churches care one bit about it? 3)The Bible is a sufficient rule for faith and practice. Were you raised in a tradition of creeds and doctrines? 4)Christian character is enough to join a church. That could be a tricky one. What if a church decided that something about you was not Christian-enough? But their concern was really with creeds and doctrines. 5)Private judgment and the right to follow your conscience. Does that sound like what you grew up with? Does it describe who you are now? If it does, you might be UCC! Here’s to our Fifth Stream. We have many stories to learn and tell. To learn more, see Afro-Christian Convention: The Fifth Stream of the UCC edited by Yvonne Delk published by United Church Press in 2023 |
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March 2024
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