2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14
Luke 9:51-62
Have you ever had the experience of inviting people to a party, perhaps to a wedding, and inviting more people than you expect to attend, and to be honest, you are counting on some of the people not attending, and then finding yourself shocked and a bit unprepared when everyone actually shows up? Well, at the 26th General Synod last weekend in Hartford, CT, everyone came! In the weeks leading up to the event, the count of those registered to attend kept ticking up. First we heard it was 5,000, then 6,000, then the week before, 8,000, and by the time we actually arrived, we found out that 10,000 people were descending on Hartford for the General Synod! This General Synod, marking the 50th anniversary of the United Church of Christ, was the largest in the denomination’s history. And let me tell you, it was a grand celebration.
I hope that some of you took the opportunity to watch some of the General Synod on the UCC website, where you could view streaming video in real time of what was going on. And I would encourage you to go to the UCC website where you can still watch archived footage of some of the musical performances and extraordinary speeches, and where you can also read the major speeches. And speaking of the speeches, I’m sure by now you’ve heard of the incredible line-up of famous speakers we heard from, many of whom are proudly UCC, like Bill Moyers, Barack Obama, Marian Wright Edelman, and Lynn Redgrave just to name a few. Yes, it was quite a party, and for me, it was an incredible, indelible affirmation of my decision to join what has been famously called the beautiful, heady, exasperating mix that makes up the United Church of Christ.
The theme of this General Synod was “Let It Shine” and the organizers took to heart Jesus’ command not to hide our light under a bushel. We lifted up and celebrated the extraordinary history of the United Church of Christ since its inception in 1957, including our costly commitments to racial and economic justice, civil rights, radical inclusiveness, prophetic social witness, and ecumenical fellowship with other Christians at home and abroad. We were inspired and moved by creative and powerful worship. And we honored the gifts of a wide and diverse group of people who have contributed greatly to the work of the church, including our own Anne Wildman, who was one of the handful of women from the Central Atlantic Conference to receive an Honored Lay Woman award. I was so proud to be there with her and with Chuck and Kathy when she received that award.
I wish I could have taken every single one of you with me, but then I suppose Hartford probably couldn’t have handled that! But in all seriousness, as I was writing this sermon, I was struggling with how to even begin to convey the experience that was the 26th General Synod, and I finally had to accept that thinking that I could adequately share the experience with you in a sermon was a fool’s errand. I hope, however, that I can get across to you some of the most significant themes of the Synod as I understood them, drawing upon some of the most powerful speeches in concert with reflection on our scripture lessons for today. And so, I want to reflect upon three questions which I think the speakers and workshops and worship services and even the business meetings of the Synod were constantly trying to answer, and those questions are:
Where have we been? What are we doing here? Where are we going?
So to begin at the beginning, we reflect upon the question, where have we, the United Church of Christ and its predecessor churches, been? And what have we inherited from our forbears in this church? I think Bill Moyers, the famous journalist and public commentator and UCC member, may have said it best when he spoke to us last Saturday. I want to share with you one moving passage of his brilliant speech, which I urge all of you to get from the UCC website and read. Moyers said:
“I am grateful to be in your company this morning, to be among so many kindred spirits. I am at home in this church. You believe in a witness based on the historic tradition of scripture but also the lived experience of today, and so do I. You believe in the power and promise of democracy, and so do I. I thank God for your witness and for the storied heritage of this Church. This United Church has the lineage that has influenced the American Experiment far beyond its numbers and its treasures. Eleven signers of the Declaration [of Independence] were members of UCC predecessor churches. You have raised the prophetic voice against the materialism and the racism that chokes America’s arteries. You have placed yourself in the thick of the fight for social justice. You have aligned yourself on the side of liberty, equality and compassion, a church of prominent firsts, first to ordain an African American, the first to ordain a woman, [and] the first to ordain an openly gay person….Justice Brandeis might have been speaking of this Church when he said the secret of liberty is courage. For this courage, you have been attacked.”
This is the proud legacy of our denomination and its founding churches, which in its Congregationalist incarnation goes all the way back before the Revolutionary war. As Barack Obama told us, in speaking of his own decision to become a member of a UCC church, “my journey is part of a larger journey—It’s a journey that takes us back to our nation’s founding, when none other than a UCC [predecessor] church inspired the Boston Tea Party and helped bring an Empire to its knees.”
Such a legacy can feel daunting, as though all those courageous souls that preceded us are looking over our shoulders and evaluating us. But that sense of a cloud of witnesses watching over us can also be empowering. As Roger Shinn, brother-in-law of our own Martha Shinn, and the principal author of the UCC Statement of Faith once said, “Every time I look back, I meet the eyes of my forbears steadfastly looking forward.”
The prophet Elisha knew what it was like to follow in the footsteps of a great man and to try to live up to his legacy. The story we read about Elisha today tells us something about what it takes to inherit a sacred mantle of leadership and prophecy. This passage is best remembered for its stunning scene of Elijah’s ascension to heaven in the chariot of fire. But I think the fascinating part comes earlier, when Elijah seems to be testing Elisha’s worthiness as a leader, and Elisha has the audacity to ask for a “double portion” of Elijah’s spirit. Three times, Elijah commands Elisha to stop accompanying him, and three times Elisha refuses, insisting on going all the way with Elijah to his final destination. This journey speaks to us of the tenacity and fortitude that is required of all who wish to inherit greatness. The destination keeps shifting…first Elijah is going to Bethel, then on to Jericho, and finally, to the shores of the Jordan river. But tired and footsore, Elisha stubbornly refuses to leave his master. As one biblical commentator has noted, “the disciple follows his master resolutely until he is given the gift of the spirit for his task. The main point of the passage is the continued availability of people who would proclaim the word of the Lord. The people of God are not left forlorn. As one prophet passes, another is immediately raised.”
And so, we have some sense of how to answer the question, “where have we been?” and it may have dawned on us by now that “we are the people we’ve been waiting for.” So the next question is, “what are we doing here?” That one is a little more challenging. UCC President John Thomas posed that question to us powerfully in his sermon during our Sunday worship service. Fortunately for me, he was also preaching on the story of Elijah, so he set me up nicely for today’s sermon. But Thomas focused upon a much earlier incident in Elijah’s life, when, after having miraculously defeated the court prophets of the wicked King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, he was fleeing for his life into the wilderness. As Thomas remarked drily, this was not Elijah’s finest moment. In this story from 1 Kings 19, Elijah is not the mighty, brave prophet we’re familiar with, but is scared, defeatist, and in retreat. On the mountain of Horeb, cowering in a cave, the Lord finds Elijah and asks him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” John Thomas took God’s question of Elijah and brilliantly and pointedly turned the spotlight upon the church. Listen to Thomas’ words:
“What are you doing here, Elijah? It is, I think, the perfect question for the United Church of Christ at 50. At this mountain top event, standing at least for a moment outside the celebratory caves that can offer respite but also lure us into hiding, the still speaking God confronts us as Elijah was once confronted. What are you doing here? But before we quickly claim Elijah’s mantle, let’s ask ourselves another question. Have we been sufficient trouble for the Ahabs of our day, sufficient danger to the Jezebels of our time to have some cause for being on the run?....We like to think of ourselves as Elijah, taking on Jezebel’s court prophets…But life, country, and security loom large in our list of wants and our sanctuaries threaten to become stained glass caves….If today’s Jezebels [and Ahabs] are not even chasing us, are we of any use?”
Thomas’ words are challenging and a bit disconcerting. Not, I think, what many of us were expecting to hear from him as we celebrated our 50th anniversary. Yet Thomas was speaking the language of Jesus in reminding us of the very real cost of true discipleship. In the passage from Luke that was read earlier, we find a demanding Jesus who gives no quarter to disciples who have higher priorities than following him. Three would-be disciples come up to Jesus, each interested in following him, and each one is challenged to do more than he has bargained for. “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head,” Jesus warns. Do you still want to follow me? To another, he refuses to honor the emotional and cultural obligations of family and clan by telling a man who wants to bury his father, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” These sayings of Jesus focus upon the serious commitment that is required to be a disciple of Jesus. As New Testament scholar Sharon Ringe has written, “Discipleship involves major changes in behavior and understanding, putting aside the common wisdom of any society governed by human norms, and adopting the project identified as the reign of God.”
Well, is the United Church of Christ up to the challenge? John Thomas’ hard-hitting sermon seemed intended to steel us for the journey ahead, to warn us against the temptation of resting on our laurels. If the resolutions passed by this General Synod are any indication, I think our denomination is still on the right track. The Synod passed resolutions committing itself to work on climate change, to advocate a fair and humane immigration policy, to address environmental racism by supporting Native Americans living on a Superfund site in Oklahoma, and to declare the year 2007 as a Sabbath year, a Jubilee year when we will work towards the cancellation of the debts of the poorest nations. Most controversial perhaps, may be the Pastoral Letter on the Iraq war which was signed by the Officers of the United Church of Christ, the presidents of UCC-related seminaries, and, amazingly, the Conference ministers of all 39 Conferences. This letter, which was crafted with the support and help of UCC military chaplains, is a sober lament about the failures of both church and government in allowing this war to happen. After a standing ovation and some debate, the 26th General Synod voted to add its name to the list of signatories to this letter. Whether or not you agree with the substance of the letter, and I will tell you later where you can get a copy, it is clear that the leadership of the denomination is striving to follow the leadings of their conscience to speak truth to power in the spirit of the denomination’s forbears.
Where have we been? What are we doing here? And finally, where are we going? These are the questions that I heard at the 26th General Synod, and to bring it home, I think they are also useful questions for Rock Spring as we enter into a phase of transition and strategic planning, as we prepare for the departure of Chuck, who has been our steady guide for almost 20 years, and get ready for a new era in the life of Rock Spring. Where have we been? What have been our guiding principles and core values? What are we doing here? What is our mission in this community, at this time in history, to the people whose lives we can touch? And where are we going? What new challenges do we want to embrace, what new structures of service and of ministry are required? Where will we find the spiritual and financial resources we need to forge ahead and keep our light shining brightly in this community? In the story of Elijah at the cave of Horeb, God tells Elijah to go home and face his problems, and he promises him that he won’t be alone. He tells him that there are yet 7,000 faithful people in the land of Israel and that he will find and commission a new prophet and successor, who is none other than Elisha. To conclude with the words of President Thomas:
“Go back. But not to the past. Not to a pleasant place of yore existing only in faulty memory. Go back to the place where the idols of respectability still lure and Jezebel’s intimidations still threaten…Go back where the seven thousand are waiting, and find Elisha who will succeed you. Go back, United Church of Christ, into the next fifty years….And what of God? Will God be there? Surely, that is the promise, confirmed not in the howling wind, the powerful earthquake, or the consuming fire, but in the quiet, always in the sacramental quiet, where the stillspeaking voice is heard, and the holy One is met…. There in the silence, God will yet speak.”
From Choon-Leong Seow’s commentary on 1 and 2 Kings in volume III of The New Interpreter’s Bible, 179.
From Sharon Ringe’s commentary, Luke, by Westminster John Knox Press (1995), 147-148.