Now there was a
Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.
He came to Jesus by night and said to him,
“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has
come from God; for no one can do these signs
that you do apart from the presence of God.”
Jesus answered
him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the
kingdom of God without being born from above.”
Nicodemus said to
him, “How can anyone be born after having grown
old? Can one enter a second time into the
mother’s womb and be born?”
Jesus answered,
“Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the
kingdom of God without being born of water and
Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and
what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be
astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born
from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses,
and you hear the sound of it, but you do not
know where it comes from or where it goes. So it
is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus said to
him, “How can these things be?”
Jesus answered
him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you
do not understand these things? “Very truly, I
tell you, we speak of what we know and testify
to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our
testimony. If I have told you about earthly
things and you do not believe, how can you
believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No
one has ascended into heaven except the one who
descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whoever believes in him may have eternal
life. “For God so loved the world that he gave
his only Son, so that everyone who believes in
him may not perish but may have eternal life.
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world
to condemn the world, but in order that the
world might be saved through him.
Message:
“Our
lives begin to end the day we become silent
about things that matter.”
Martin
Luther King, Jr.
Umuntu, hgamuntu, gnabantu.
Where are Fran and Robin Markham when you need
them? I bet they could pronounce it quite easily
and correctly. The phrase is from the Bantu people
of South Africa. Umuntu, hgamuntu, gnabantu.
It means a person is a person because of other
persons. You see the Bantus understand that we are
all born into and live in relationships. We grow
and live in relationship to others and we die in
relationship to others. When Africans name a child
at a dedication ceremony they think of it as the
giving of life – abundant life – the life that is
found in relationships. And in many ways that’s how
our church community functions. This church
community connects us with others. It grants us a
name and an identity by which we can be called by
name and respond to God’s call. It assures us that
others know that name.
Umuntu, hgamuntu, gnabantu.
Last
weekend Michael Bakus and I participated in a
wonderfully rich, inspiring, and exciting event
together – the annual Conference men’s retreat at
Pilgrim Firs. There we experienced in a whole lot of
ways what I sense is what the South African Bantus
might have had in mind with their phrase. A person
is a person because of other persons.
If you’ve never attended the men’s retreat by the
way, I would encourage you to give it a try. The
next one will be the first weekend of February next
year. Some of the men there have been attending
every year since the event was created some 15-16
years ago. They attend because of the relationships
that are created, formed and nourished. They attend
because they understand what the Bantus mean that a
person is a person because of other persons. Give
it a try. Ask Michael or ask me about it. I don’t
know about you, but in the world where I live, I
have come to realize there are very few places in my
life where I have a deep sense of community –
especially now that I’m not in the active work force
and don’t have a daily place of work to occupy my
time and focus. As a result I find it essential to
seek out those places where relationships can
develop and be nourished. Places like the men’s
retreat. Places like this. Places where you are a
person because of your relationships to other
persons.
For as
long as I can remember – and particularly after I
became a pastor – my life has been immersed in the
church. I dearly love our denomination – the United
Church of Christ. Over the years I have served on a
number of national and conference boards and
committees – and still do. It was my service on
those boards and committees, frankly, that inspired
me to pursue a career in ministry when it came time
to deal with issues of career changes. I can not
imagine myself not being involved in the United
Church of Christ in some form or another. I love the
UCC and I love talking about the UCC – a church
which has embraced the concept and spirit of the
comma. You know what I’m talking about. Never place
a period where God has placed a comma – because God
is Still Speaking. I call myself a UCC junkie.
So, I
would encourage you to bear with me this morning
because I want to talk a bit about the UCC – about
some of the pieces of our denomination – a little
bit of our history – and about some of the alphabet
soup that comprises the UCC – things like OCWM – Our
Church’s Wider Mission, and JWM – Justice and
Witness Ministries.
My
challenge is to do so within the framework of the
scripture text for today – the one from the Gospel
of John – the one that has so often been
misunderstood, misappropriated and misused. The one
about being “born again.”
If
you’re like me at all, it makes me shudder when I
hear that term: born again. That’s probably because
most every time I’ve heard it, it is usually in the
form of a slogan or a litmus test for proof of one’s
Christianity. If you haven’t been “born again” then
you’re not a “true” Christian. I’ve met some folk
who have accused me of not being a Christian at all,
because I don’t claim to have been “born again.”
We did
an interesting exercise in seminary. Signs were
placed on the walls of the classroom. One said
“Born again.” Another said, “Always have been a
Christian.” Another said, “Still trying to figure it
out,” and a fourth one said, “I am not a
Christian.” We were asked to stand next to the sign
that we most closely identified with. Now you have
to understand I went to seminary in Pennsylvania –
Lancaster, Pennsylvania – an area of the country
where Ku Klux Klan cells are known to hold
occasional marches down Main Street. (That happened
the summer before I started my studies.) So I
figured a whole bunch of folk would stand next to
the born again sign. Much to my surprise, only two
did so. Most of us – maybe 15 to 20 (including me)
– stood next to the sign that said, “Always have
been a Christian.” I grew up in the church. It’s
just been a part of my persona. I don’t remember a
time when I ever considered myself anything other
than a Christian. I have never had an emotional
conversion experience that could be characterized as
being “born again.” Which, as I said, in some
circles would locate me squarely in the camp of not
being a true Christian at all.
And two
or three stood next to the other signs –“ still
trying to figure it out” and “I am not a Christian”
primarily my Unitarian colleagues. I think it would
be fun to do an exercise like that here – in the
“integral church” – the church that refuses to
embrace anything that could be identified as litmus
test theology.
Let me
comment just briefly on the term before I move on to
the UCC stuff. By turning the term “born again”
into a slogan, the power of what it means is put at
risk. To make it a litmus test slogan repeats the
same mistake that Nicodemus made: understanding the
concept at only one level. The inquisitive Nicodemus
misunderstood the many dimensions of “born again”,
or more accurately as the text says, “born from
above”. Nicodemus focused only on physical rebirth.
Which it clearly did not mean. Conversely, to
interpret the term to only describe spiritual
rebirth through personal conversion does a
disservice to the concept as well. That emphasizes
personal change more than placing the emphasis of
that change where it belongs – which in the
Christian tradition is – Christ, or the Christ
energy – however that might play out for you. John
is inviting the readers of this story to allow the
many dimensions of the term to play with them. He
invites the readers into the mystery of what it
would mean to embrace a renewed sense of life that
comes with the recognition of the full character of
God as revealed by the life and presence of Jesus
the Christ. Or as some might characterize it, the
Christ energy.
To read
the term as meaning spiritual rebirth through
personal conversion alone is to place a
period where God had intended for a comma to be
placed. It would be to muzzle the still speaking
God.
The
Still Speaking God that is alive and well in the
contemporary United Church of Christ, as well as the
historical UCC.
One of
the reasons I am so proud of the United Church of
Christ is because of our history – and our social
justice stands – which reach way back to the times
of the abolitionist anti-slave movement, to the
civil rights movement and into today’s culture where
the church has taken a number of bold and prophetic
stands on behalf of our gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and
transgender brothers and sisters. When Multnomah
County began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex
couples in Portland a few years ago, I and a number
of my UCC colleagues responded by officiating at
those weddings. I performed 14 such weddings before
the courts in Oregon pulled the plug on the county’s
policy.
Rooted
in the Congregational tradition, our history goes
clear back to the Plymouth Rock Pilgrims. I’m fond
of saying that we’re the church that brought you
Thanksgiving. And Harvard. And Yale. You know
those Pilgrims couldn’t very well send folks back to
England to be educated as doctors, lawyers,
engineers and clergy – so they created their own
education system.
We’re
also the church that moved through the south after
the Civil War and set up some 500 schools and
universities to educate the freed slaves. Most
every major African-American university in the south
was founded by the American Missionary Association –
an agency created by the Congregationalists – us.
In the
field of communications, the United Church of Christ
literally changed the color of telecommunications
through our work during the civil rights struggles
to deny the broadcast license of WLBT in Jackson,
Mississippi for that station’s failure to serve the
public’s interest. The result of that effort is
that broadcast stations were required to implement
affirmative action hiring policies – opening the
doors for people of color – for the first time ever.
The way
the national church is structured, we have four
different major agencies of the church: the
administrative stuff through the office of the
President and General Minister, Local Church
Ministries, Wider Church Ministries and Justice and
Witness Ministries (JWM). The UCC feels so strongly
about the work we do in the field of social justice
that we have created an agency that has the same
standing as the other agencies of the church to
focus exclusively on social justice issues. You’ve
met Linda Jaramillo – the executive minister of that
agency – when she visited here a few months ago.
And the
primary source of funding for all of those agencies,
including the missionary work that we do around the
world, is through that piece of the UCC alphabet
soup called OCWM – Our Church’s Wider Mission. When
Fran and Robin Markham were doing their missionary
work in Africa and India, OCWM helped fund that
work. We met Doug Searles at the men’s retreat last
weekend – who, along with his wife Liz, have been
serving as missionaries in China, teaching English
to English teachers. Their work was funded, in
part, by OCWM. Yet local congregations are choosing
again and again to cut back on OCWM funding because
it is perceived as money that goes “outside” the
church – which in my opinion is pulling the rug out
from under some of the most vital work we do as the
United Church of Christ. And I believe that’s being
done because local churches simply do not understand
the importance of that kind of work. Many
congregations lose site of the connections we have
with one another, and with our colleagues in other
settings of the church. OCWM support is one way of
continuing to support one another, and get to know
one another.
Umuntu, hgamuntu, gnabantu.
We are
persons because of other persons. We are persons
because of the relationships we have with one
another. Born again or not.
AMEN.
