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This Sermon was prepared by Rev, Dr. Bill Steadman, of Sudbury, Ont. Copyrite 2015. - for the 90 anniversary of the United Church
of Canada and is being used by the Little Current United Church on June 7, 2015. Used with permission.
In his preamble for this 90th Anniversary Celebration and talking in “We Are the Church” he tells us….
Stewardship, as you have often heard, is not about money – it is about how we live our faith. In
context of this presentation, it is helpful to see stewardship as how we live our lives as Christians
within a faith community.
In recent years, more and more congregations have honoured members who have reached the
milestone age of 90. While such recognition may be increasingly common in our congregations, we all
know it is a significant time of life of an individual, not to be taken lightly. So it is within our
denomination. Let us mark our 90th anniversary with joy, commitment, and vision for the future.
This day also marks a new opportunity to renew our commitment as partners with God, being sent
into the world to love and serve others as A New Creed affirms. We are to care for creation, and to
seek justice and resist evil. We are to be a people who proclaim the good news and who share our
faith. We are to find ways to support one another and to celebrate God’s goodness and presence.
May this momentous event of 90 years, help us to see anew the power of the faith that we share,
and the hope that we cradle, as followers of Jesus Christ.
“The Church Today, Tomorrow…… Forever?”
We ARE the church. When said boldly and confidently, we tell others that we are clear about
who we are, and confident about who we will be. We bring together the best of the past, and
plan for the best we can be in the future.
WE are the church. The church is people – people like you and me. We who are within this
congregation are prepared to stand up for what we believe. We are united in our purpose,
even if we are interested in different focus groups or programs, or part of a variety of study
interests or outreach activities. We are committed to being followers of Jesus Christ. As such,
the church is where each one of us is grounded as we determine what we will offer to the
world.
We are THE CHURCH. A simple phrase, a powerful phrase, but already you can see it means so
many different things depending on how we place the emphasis in that sentence. Is that focus
on us, the “we”? Is the focus on the long term, ongoing presence of people within the church,
the “are”? It is a reflection on all that we have done in the past? It is a rallying call to be the
presence of Christ in our world, building community and sharing resources, on the well-being
of living out all that “the church” itself is called to do?
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No doubt at various times the phrase has meant all of those things, but when we affirm in our
creed that “We are the church,” we are identifying who we are in a way that is far different
than when we say “I am a teenager” or “I am retired” or “I am a student” or “I am a parent” or
“I am a landed immigrant” or “I am a visitor.” For one thing, the focus is on the group, not the
individual. And for another, it is a phrase that seeks to bring people into a common identity
and purpose, not a phrase of self-identity.
When we speak about who we are as “church” we expand the horizon, and make the circle
wider. The church can only be the church if it is a big tent reality. By that I mean that being
the church entails not limiting the boundaries of who we are, but opening up the boundaries
to remind us that being the church is never about us, but about our reaching out to others.
Newer choruses from MV such as “Draw the Circle Wide” (MV 145) or My Love Colours
Outside the Lines (MV 138) reminds us of this reality.
In their book Wake Up, Church!, Ed Kruse and Bill Steadman argue that the institution with
greatest impact on society in the last 2,000 years is the local congregation. The way we
express being the church in our local communities, regions, and neighbourhoods has been the
source of educational programs, hospitals and healing centers, social agencies, community
dialogue groups, youth activities, parent support groups, and welcoming centers.
Congregations have partnered with a multitude of agencies to provide relief to areas
experiencing natural disasters, supported refugees and recent immigrants tour own county,
and encouraged dialogue with people of other religious traditions. Your local congregation, as
part of The United Church of Canada, is called to make a difference.
In his book Post Modern Pilgrims, Leonard Sweet writes about bringing the first century
passion of believers of that time into the twenty-first century. People today have returned to
the language of “soul” and “spirit” to speak about, and reflect on, “what is the religious quest
of our day.”
The church, if it is to speak to the yearning of today’s people, need not try to adapt to the
modern reality, and change from a modern to post-modern understanding of the world, but as
Sweet says, we need to have a “cross Christianity, a faith that is both ancient and future, both
historical and contemporary.”
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In some ways the scripture passages [for today] are about choosing different images for the
church and the people of God. [Old Testament,] Ezekiel is filled with the image of the cedar
tree. The mountains and the oak tree, cedar trees [well known to Manitoulin] are often seen
as tall, strong, mighty, and so the use of that imagery in biblical tradition emphasizes the
greatness of God.
The New Testament passage [you might hear about next Sunday] is about a small seed
growing, especially the mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds. So it is often with Jesus’
teachings. The emphasis is on tiny beginnings, almost insignificant experiences that become
significant as we grow.
But a closer reading show us that the dichotomy is more artificial than real. The Ezekiel
passage is about a “shoot” of the cedar being planted on the mountain to eventually grow.
Anyone who has spent many of their adult years in northern Ontario knows how long it takes
to grow a large tree on a rocky hillside – generations. Yet each tree began as a seedling, and
went through all kinds of transformations, struggling through heat and snow, seeking out
small bits of earth and limited moisture, in order to reach maturity. As a church known as The
United Church of Canada, and as members of a congregation within this denomination, we
sometimes need to be reminded that all life, no matter how significant or large when it
matures, begins with a seed germinating and growing despite the struggles faced.
So it is in our faith journey. We need to remember that all successful activities as a church,
and all significant spiritual experiences, begin with an idea planted and germinated within the
community of faith or within our own spiritual journey. The question for us today is to ask
ourselves: “How can we plant more seeds of faith, that we will then nurture into the future?”
There is often a trend in organizations, particularly the church, to see transition times as times
of significant choice – do we preserve the past or open ourselves to a new future? Put
differently, do we honour the historical traditions or do we find new ways to move forward?
Leonard Sweet and others have pointed out to us in recent years that such choices are
artificial choices. We need both to honour the past and to celebrate new opportunities. In
other words, we need to be thankful for the historical realities of what we have experienced
within the church or through the church, and we also need to be open to new opportunities.
The choice of “either/or” can weigh us down; the option of “both/and” can be liberating,
exciting, and freeing.
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While not the same, it is as if the folk wisdom of Yogi Berra, a retired baseball player who was
part of the New York Yankees decades ago, has emerged from the experiences of our church.
Berra famously proclaimed (one of his many witty insights): “If you come to a fork in the road,
take it.”
Too often we are so worried about which way to go that we forget that our purpose as a
people who follow in the ways of Jesus Christ is to go out and serve.
If we as a local church debated for months “should we feed the homeless people?” or “should
we provide assistance for abused women?” and ended up doing nothing because we were not
sure which was the more appropriate activity, we have failed to identify the fork in the road
and take it.
If we are a city church and not sure if we should use our space to provide a safe place for
recent immigrants to gather and find support during the week, or if we should provide a place
for nannies from other countries to come and interact in a safe, friendly environment, and end
up doing neither, then we have failed to identify the fork in the road and take it.
If we are a church in a rural setting and we debate whether we should focus our interest on
support of the needs of local farmers, or whether we should develop programs for inter-faith
dialogue as the community around us becomes more multi-racial, multi-cultural, and multireligious, and we decide to do nothing, then we have failed to identify the fork in the road and
take it.
We can get caught in artificial divisions when discussing our plans for the future, and as a
result becoming immobilized, when the more helpful response might be: “Let’s do whatever
we can.”
As we celebrate this 90th anniversary of the United Church, we are in a fork in the road. We
come to such forks in our history at important times of transition and new opportunity. Let us
be aware of the momentous nature of this time, and let us not be immobilized from fear or
uncertainty,
The United Church has always been about choices. As a relatively small denomination within
the world scene, our global partnerships have been developed within certain parts of the
world, and our priority activities have had a defined focus, for we cannot do everything. We
must choose where we will focus our resources, but we are clear that we seek to be sharing in
God’s mission in the world. What we do, ultimately, has a purpose that is clear and grounded.
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Hear one of the stories of those partnerships (read at this point a Minute for Mission 2015
“Called to be the Church” story)
Mission and Service is our way to make real opportunities for partnership in mission within
God’s world.
A report from the Comprehensive Review Task Group looking at the future organization of the
United Church will be tabled at the 42nd General Council meeting in Corner Brook,
Newfoundland this coming August. It is just one piece of an ongoing reflection on how we
want to be “the church” into the future. As this report has been developed, many discussions
have taken place. We have been reminded that we need to be attuned to what the church has
been, what it is today, and what it will be into the future. Structures need to be addressed,
but the church ultimately is not about structures, or governance – it is about sharing in God’s
mission.
As we seek ways to live out God’s mission in the world, let us see that one way to do that is
through the Mission and Service of the United Church. When a congregation comes to a fork
in the road, and faces some challenging issues, recognizing that some important decisions
need to be made about the future, it is important to be courageous in order to take whatever
route seems appropriate. Above all, do not forget that our prime reason for being is to live as
partners with God in the mission that is both God’s and ours. Once we put survival ahead of
our common purpose and shared partnerships, we have lost our sense of being the church as a
body engaged in God’s mission to the world.
The role of the congregation from its inception, and the source of the church’s purpose for
future, is to live with faith and hope in all that it does. This will nurture us in the present, and
carry us forward into the future.
We share in God’s mission – through our prayers, our programs, our partnerships, and our
gifts.
We are the church.
Thanks be to God.
VU #918 A New Creed
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