Now That You Have Joined

NOW THAT YOU HAVE JOINED

Scripture: Isaiah 6:1-8

I Corinthians 12:4-7, 12-18, 26-27

For a few moments now I want to address the six people who have just joined this church, as I did when Harry and Thomas were confirmed last June, but I guess the rest of you can listen in if you really want to. I promise I’ll get back to the whole congregation shortly. I really hope that today all six of you felt the kind of “extravagant welcome” from all of us that the United Church of Christ hopes is extended to everyone – but perhaps most particularly we want to give it when you make your commitment to become members of this community.

What exactly is it that you have joined? A senior pastor whom I served under many years ago, Vernon Loescher, was fond of saying that a church like ours – that is, a United Church of Christ – was the easiest church of which to become a member and the hardest church of which to be a good member. Why? Well, there aren’t any tests that you had to pass and there aren’t any specific requirements that you must follow in order to join. Yes, you were asked some questions to which you responded, and we’ll get to the meaning of those in a moment. But members of this church – and this now includes the six of you – are very diverse in terms of our theology and opinions and behaviors – and we wouldn’t have it any other way! One of the real joys of being a part of this fellowship is that we can revel in this broad diversity and respect one another even when there are differences.

But that kind of puts the burden back on you. In this church there aren’t specific rules to follow or creeds to affirm. Even if we did say The Apostles’ Creed together a moment ago, and even though we do say the United Church of Christ’s Statement of Faith from time to time, none of us are bound to follow the provisions of this creed or that statement. We don’t have a requirement that you tithe, although it would be nice if some of you did. We don’t have a moral code that you must live up to. We value independent thinking and individual choice. On the other hand, we do think of ourselves as a community and as a church on mission, so it’s important that we pull together and affirm the activities that make up that mission. Do you see why I say, following Dr. Loescher, that this is a difficult church of which to be a good member? It’s up to you to make the choices that will make membership in this fellowship meaningful to you – and thus to the rest of us.

I told Harry and Thomas last spring that the church looks into the past to the revelation of God in history and into the future to the hope of God’s reign to come. But neither a past look nor a future hope should sabotage the meaning of the present as God’s particular moment for each one of us – a moment so important that Paul Tillich could speak of it as, and entitle one of his books, “The Eternal Now”.

That’s what it means to come into the life of a local church – to live in the present moment with a strong sense of the mission and ministry God has given to us. I hope the rest of you were listening carefully to the questions that were asked of these six people and their responses. Each of us has been asked, and we have promised, to resist oppression and evil, to show love and justice, and to witness to the work and word of Jesus Christ. This means being able to identify when one group is oppressing another and standing up to that injustice, even though it may not be the popular thing to do. This means demonstrating that God’s law of love is what motivates and determines each action we take. This means talking about how Christ has affected our lives and why that’s important to us.

But note, too, the promise coming from the other direction that’s implicit in these questions: “by the grace of God,” “according to the grace given you…..” God’s grace is there for us throughout all that we undertake in God’s name; it never flags or tapers off. Three of the responses to these questions were, “I promise, with the help of God,” and we know that that help is always available.

There’s one other important thing to be aware of “now that you have joined.” Yes, you have joined this particular local expression of the church of Jesus Christ, but you have also joined much more. In joining this local church you have also joined the church universal – all of the people of so many racial, national, and cultural backgrounds around the globe who have in common this commitment to Jesus Christ and the way he taught us to follow. And I’m not just talking about those who are part of the United Church of Christ, but all those who are part of the oikumene – the Greek word that means “the whole people of God”, and who thus make up the church ecumenical, the church “catholic” (small “c”). Some of you who have joined this church today come from a Roman Catholic background, as, quite probably, do others in this congregation, and you do not lose that connectiveness just because you have made a church membership commitment here. What’s more you are all a part of the Communion of Saints, as I was telling the kids a moment ago.

In a word, you are part of a body. That’s a wonderful image that Paul uses in the 12^th chapter of I Corinthians -- “Now you are the body of Christ.” Note that Paul doesn’t say like a body – this isn’t intended as a metaphor or simile. You are the body of Christ. That realization ratchets the stakes up a bit, doesn’t it? It is up to us to be the Christ for this place – for this end of Eastern Avenue, for this Las Vegas, for this Nevada, for this United States, for this world. To be this Christ in all reality. Now that starts to seem somewhat more daunting, doesn’t it?

What Paul is doing by using this kind of language is to show us that it doesn’t have to be that daunting. None of us – no single individual – is the whole body. What we become when we join a Christian church are parts of the body – parts which have important functions. You really wouldn’t want to lose any piece of your body, would you (well, OK, maybe a little something off the middle or around the hips)? And obviously, from time to time some of us do lose something that makes up the whole body – we lose our eyesight or our hearing or a limb becomes so gangrened that it has to be amputated. Whenever this happens we mourn that loss and feel diminished. In Paul’s analogy that’s a lot like what happens when a member of this church community dies or moves away – the whole body is lessened, and we deeply feel that loss. But it’s also what happens when you or I as a part of the body don’t fulfill our function – don’t pull our own weight, as it were. Most churches, and ours is no exception, typically have a handful of people who do most of the work and provide much of the resources that fulfill the mission and ministry of that church. As we head into a time of stewardship and nominations for next year’s Boards, it is important to realize the vital functioning that each part of the body has.

There’s another significant datum about a body: it grows (and I’m not just talking about across the middle). As I’ve said before, to think of the church as a living, growing body in this way is to see it as more like an organism than an organization. Paul, in this chapter in I Corinthians, is not concerned about the offices of elders and deacons and trustees, about questions of polity and whether the church will be governed by a local Council or by a denominational hierarchy, about the appropriateness of having four Boards and a moderator and other officers. Rather, Paul is saying, the church is a human organism, and like a human organism there are different members with differing functions, but each is essential to the growth of the whole. We have experienced some growth this morning with the reception of six new members. But our growth as a congregation is on-going and can never be evaluated just by numbers of people. To have six or 60 or 600 or 6,000 members never truly tells you whether a church is an alive, vibrant, whole body of Christ – the faithfulness of those in community is what does that. Remember what I said a couple of weeks ago: we are not called to be successful; we are called to be faithful.

It’s not always easy, and we know that. That’s part of what’s behind the statement that this is a difficult church of which to be a good member. Isaiah’s vision in the temple is certainly a scary one – I really want to use the word “daunting” again here: a huge throne “high and lofty”, all those seraphim, all that smoke and loud voices – it really is a scene out of an epic sci-fi thriller. Who wouldn’t want to run away from such a vision and seek out a life of ordinariness once again? Who wouldn’t be afraid to respond to such a call? Who wouldn’t feel that they were too insignificant in the midst of all that splendor and magnificence to do a task for such a Lord?

And yet. When the time comes and the question is put to him: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for me?” there is no hesitation at all. Isaiah simply, humbly, puts himself into the Lord’s service: “Here am I; send me!”

“Here am I; send me!” Our sending as members of this body of Christ is into all of the many worlds in which we live and move and have our being. Our sending is our calling to be the body of Christ wherever we might find ourselves.

It is fitting that on a day when we receive new members into this community we also receive communion – for in eating this bread and drinking this juice we are all renewed in the power that the Holy Spirit gives to us – and that is especially so for those who have become a part of the body of Christ. Christ’s body and blood symbolically give us new life and strengthen our body – that is, the body of Christ gathered here in this place – to respond to the Holy Spirit working among us. Also, in eating this bread and drinking this juice we express our participation in the Communion of Saints – that great parade, as I talked about with the kids, that never ends and which you and I are marching in for all of our lives.

“Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it”. Take, eat, drink, and enjoy all the fruits of the Spirit that are showered on you this day. Know that the Holy Spirit is blowing in the wind to empower us to be Christ’s body on this day and each day of our lives.

Amen.

Dave Pomeroy

First Congregational Church/United Church of Christ

Las Vegas, NV

November 4, 2007