7/9/67

Scripture: Deuteronomy 30: 15-20; James 1: 16-25.

I take it that the people of this church are well aware that, on June 25th, two weeks ago, our denomination celebrated the 10th anniversary of the formation of the United Church of Christ. While I was away, the Reverend Mr. Newton led you in a service of worship which recognized that significant occasion. At that time, I was in attendance at the Sixth General Synod of the United Church of Christ, being held in Cincinnati. It had been my privilege, and responsibility, to be a part of the First, or convening, Synod which came into being ten years ago. I was a delegate, and Mrs. Kingdon and our two youngest sons were visitors at that historic session. Mr. Henry P. Baldwin, then a member of this church, was also a delegate from the Wisconsin Congregational Conference, to that very first Synod meeting. Few churches, anywhere, had as much representation, through their conferences, as ours had at that Synod of a decade ago. It was a particular privilege, therefore, for me to be able to attend the Sixth General Synod this year as a delegate from the Wisconsin Conference of the United Church of Christ. Mrs. Kingdon, having completed her service as vice-moderator of the Conference in the preceding week, attended General Synod as a visitor.

I hope to bring to you some of the spirit, the thinking, and the action of this Synod from time to time. The hymns and Scripture lessons which I have chosen for use in today’s service are hymns and Scripture portions which were sung and read two weeks ago in the Sunday services at General Synod. The sermon subject which I have announced for today is the title -- word for word -- of an address to the Sixth General Synod by the Rev. Dr. Ben M. Herbster, president. And much of what I have to say this morning is a relaying to you of what Dr. Herbster told to us who gathered in Cincinnati.

After some fifteen years of discussion and negotiation, two major communions of Christ’s church --- the Congregational Christian and the Evangelical and Reformed --- joined to become one body in Christ’s name. With awe and humble joy, the delegated representatives of the two communions embarked on a great venture of faith. Delegates filling the rooms at Cleveland, where the first Synod was held in 1957, spoke in unison this statement: “We do now, as regularly constituted representatives of the Evangelical and Reformed Church and of the General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches, declare ourselves to be one body, and our union consummated in this act, establishing the United Church of Christ, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” Like many another venture of faith, the experiences which followed led alternately to the height of triumph and the valley of despair; through ways which were full of joy and over paths filed with anguish; on roads that tested the quality of our faith and yet brought continual reassurance of the never-failing presence of God.

Now, ten years later, some of the results can be seen. The shape of the United Church of Christ can be perceived more clearly by us who are in it, and by our fellow Christians of other communions, and by the public in general. Our United Church of Christ has not been silent and has been willing to take risks. The advocacy of civil rights legislation and community organization have lost us some friends. The plea that foreign aid programs be strengthened has caused some controversy. Some public stands have cost the United Church of Christ some members and some money. But who would back away or become silent? Ours has become the kind of church that stands confidently by the words of the Master, “Whosoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” [Luke 17: 33]. We have tried, as a Christian body, to stand for justice, for mercy, for love and for peace in these days. As Christians, we are not particularly to congratulate ourselves, but to look for the will of God and to follow Christ in faith.

Our United Church of Christ has passed several milestones in its first decade. We have learned to live together, and that is no small accomplishment nor is it perfected as yet. For we come of differing patterns and habits that still need to be understood. Our machinery and forms have shaken down, and need further adjusting after a report by the committee on structure. But these are signs of progress and strength. Staff members of the denomination can now spend their time in acting rather than in exploring each others’ minds. We are uniting for mission, in the conviction that the true church is mission --- a concern not just for our own lives but for life and lives all around us. We know that this is a time of peril for the church; but just as surely a time of challenge and opportunity. We have been living in a time when there is more criticism of the local church and more questioning of its influence and effectiveness than at any time in recent history. Some of this criticism has merit. But some of the judgments spoken against the church are so intemperate as to be almost unbelievable. We need to perceive the difference between valid suggestions and carping complaints.

After hearing some voices plead for a (quote) “return to religion,” and after some despair that anything is happening in local congregations, there is more disposition, today, to see the local church for what it is, one of the greatest assets for mission at work in today’s world. It is not as great, or good, as it should be. How can it be, when it is made up of incomplete and erring people like us? Nevertheless it is one of the great things we have going for us. So we propose to make it better and stronger. This is the reason that the General Synod of 1965, meeting two years ago in Chicago, adopted as the denominational emphasis for 1968-69, “The Local Church in God’s Mission.” Our 7000 local congregations are 7000 points of contact with the world. The local church is in position to make itself felt. It has people; it has skills; it has leadership to do the things that need to be done. God has been with us in triumph and failure. He will be with us as we attempt more growth in service and more courageous action as a Christian body.

The theme of the 1967 meeting of General Synod, just held in Cincinnati, summarizes our task as it calls us to “Obedience to Christ in Personhood and Peace.” This theme is printed in our Sunday bulletin at the beginning of today’s order of worship. Obedience to Christ! We are not to congratulate ourselves, but to thank God and to perceive and perform His will. Two weeks ago, you again read aloud, here in this church, our Statement of Faith, as we did at General Synod in Cincinnati. It says:

He calls the worlds into being,

creates man in his own image

and sets before him the ways of life and death.

He seeks in holy love to save all people from

aimlessness and sin.

He judges men and nations by his righteous will

declared through prophets and apostles.

In Jesus Christ, the man of Nazareth, our

crucified and risen Lord,

he has come to us

and shared our common lot,

conquering sin and death

and reconciling the world to himself.

We begin with God, as we must, or our task is without hope. We differ somewhat among ourselves as to what we believe is God’s will, and how it is to be applied. But we will make room for differing shades of opinion. A church that is too small to include in its fellowship people of different opinions must be very cramped for God! But it is our task to discover the way He leads, and then to walk after Him in that path. We begin with God --- not just a philosophy or theology. We are called to obedience to Christ in following God. We may be like Jonah, preferring to answer the call of God by going in the direction opposite to the one He ordained. We are not famous for our obedience. But we cannot escape, if we are Christians. He sets our course, and we can abandon it or follow it.

“Obedience to Christ in Personhood.” Christ’s hand is always pointing to the place in our city and nation and world where people are treated with less than justice, mercy and love. For obedience to Christ never means to pray merely the “right prayers,” or attend the “right church;” or even to be only a just and good person. When we speak of obedience to Christ we necessarily speak of the burdens of his brethren. If our society does not treat all of God’s children as persons, as individuals of dignity and worth, then, no matter what else we do, we are not obedient to him. Here we have failed as citizens and brothers. And our failures cry out for correction. We Caucasians have far to go in our dealings with persons not of the white race. We who are comfortably prosperous have farther to go in our dealings with persons who have the misfortune of being poor.

We can do wonderful deeds. We can sail the skies; some few can, with the support of many, orbit in space; engineers among us can harness rivers; we can communicate instantly with others all around the earth. But to treat all of God’s children as persons is a priority which too often appears at the bottom of our list.

Our church has made some progress in fighting discrimination, in ending bigotry, in establishing justice in race relations. In a modest way, this was dramatized at General Synod. The moderator of the Synod meetings was Dr. Hollis Price, President of Le Moyne College, a man whose ancestry is partly Negro. Elected as Secretary of the United Church of Christ for a 4-year term beginning next October first was the Rev. Joseph Evans of Chicago, a pastor whose ancestry is partly Negro. It was noted, early in the sessions at Cincinnati, that the hotel where meetings were held and many delegates were housed, employed Negroes only in menial tasks. Upon complaint of the Synod, a representative of the system of which that hotel is a part flew in from a distance, negotiated with Synod officers, and came voluntarily before the Synod to assure everyone that discrimination is not the hotel policy, and that interviews would begin immediately to find qualified Negro persons, as well as white persons, to fill positions on the executive level. We are making progress as a church in the matter of treating Negroes as persons. It will be rough and rocky. But the direction has been taken.

And the principle is not alone a matter of justice for Negroes. What about American Indians? What about Asians? What about some of the people of Africa or Mexico or parts of Europe? They are children of God, too. What about those who have gotten out of step with society? Does the ex-convict feel welcome in our churches? I wonder --- and yet he is a person, a child of God.

Do the poor feel welcome in our churches -- in this church? I hope so -- but we should make certain of it. This is no blanket indictment. It is simply an attempt to be aware of people as persons --- their needs, their hopes, their frustrations.

Some of us think of church and its services of worship, as the place and time when we can find comfort and assurance and renewal for ourselves. That is only a part --- the selfish part -- of it! Church ought, also and especially, to be the medium for enlarged vision of the service we can render to persons other than ourselves. We must not stop our ears to the admonition of our Lord: “Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me; inasmuch as you have not done it to one of these the least of my brethren, you have not done it to me.” [Matthew 25: 40, 45].

Beyond persons as individuals, we must stay aware of what is beyond the church --- there is a society to be continually transformed. We live in a world of tremendous injustices, and it must be redeemed. We must remember that it is not “somebody else” who should “do something.” We are the ones to be doing something. We must stand for a just society. We must be concerned for quality education for all who need it. We must insist on job opportunities for all who wish to work; decent housing for all persons. We must find understanding programs for youth; have concern for people of all ages. We must seek the resources of God’s will and guidance, not alone that we may find comfort, but that we act to bring solace and encouragement to others in their need.

Our concerns are to be legion in number. What about the future of computers and electronic communications? Who will have access to computer-stored information? Will it be available only to some Establishment? Will educators, clergymen and scientists who do not always conform to the Establishment also have access to computer-stored information? Will the average man have any access to it, or will it be for the benefit only of giant organizations? We will decide the form of non-commercial radio and television. Will these media of communication and education be in the hands of a favored few, or will they be open to the many? Is not personhood involved here, too?

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Personhood is also involved in the matter of leisure time. Leisure is almost a foreign term to many of us in the church. When some of us hear it mentioned, we often want to explode: “Leisure; what is that?!” But as automation advances, it appears that more and more persons may have more time free from the demands of their vocational job.

The Protestant churches once created an ethic about work --- an ethic which enabled man to find dignity and worth at honest labor. Can we now do the same for leisure? Can we establish an ethic for leisure that will free persons who have it? Does leisure have to be a time of escape? Is the alternative to the Protestant ethic of work to become now the suburban-type ethic of the weekend party? Or can we find a way to free mankind to have fun in leisure time --- the fun that renews energy, rebuilds a sense of well-being, stores up strength to face the complexities of our modern life and vocation? Do we have to spend long hours gazing blankly at a television set, for want of anything else to do? Do we have to kill the extra time that God may give us, or can we find new life in our word-free hours?

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Personhood must also include something to live for. If one has no purpose in life, no goal to achieve, no mountain to climb, then his material well-being, in the end, will not help him. The church has always specialized in helping people to find a purpose and a goal for life. So we are on familiar ground here. But we have no ground for complacency. Can we help a person to see that personhood and individual freedom are most enhanced when all people work together for a just society; and that an ultimate goal in life is to break down the barriers that divide one man from his brother? We know that we can do this only in faith, only in trust, only because we truly believe that a world brotherhood was ordained by God and will come.

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Words will not bring about personhood. Words will not, in themselves, right injustice. Words alone will not establish public policies, free people to enjoy their free hours, give men a goal toward which to work. We must act to do these things. We must act in the faith that God indeed wants His children to be responsibly free. We have that faith; let us pray that our faith shall help mightily in transforming the world.

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But our emphasis, underlined at General Synod, is two-pronged; obedience to Christ in personhood, and peace. Certainly one does not need to spell out the importance of peace in our day. We have gone far beyond any limits of safety in developing weapons of destruction. One real mistake; one push of a button; could begin the swift destruction of a whole civilization. And yet, is it not true that people, and sometimes nations, go bludgeoning about the earth as if life did not hang in the balance? Do we not hear voices urging that more terrifying weapons, including the most powerful bombs, be unleashed in war-torn areas like Vietnam? Surely this can be no way toward peace! There must be a way that we can establish peace. Of course, no move that we may make toward peace is certain to be the correct one, and we may run the risk of hurting the very cause we seek to serve. But we have begun our church life as a venture of faith, and our faith must not fail in some kind of venture for peace. War must cease; else our brothers, and we all, will perish. Arms proliferation is no way to security; it is the way to death.

But the way to peace comes not unilaterally --- that would be suicide. No one nation is entirely responsible for this warring world -- and no one nation is entirely innocent. We are all in it together, and we must find ways to work ourselves out of it together. “Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere” --- so goes the advent song. Speak peace; proclaim peace; work for peace. Write peace. Teach peace -- especially teach the children. Peace does not just happen. It must be sought, worked for, designed and built. It is the result of integrity, security, compassion, good will and understanding. It begins with people having enough to eat. Probably there have never been more hungry people on the face of the earth than there are today. And when a man gets hungry enough, or his family is hungry enough, he may stoop to almost anything to find food. We need a technological crash program to multiply and distribute food for an exploding population. And at the same time we must work at the other side of the emergency. It is irrational for the persons of this world to bring to birth more people than can be fed, clothed and housed. Population control is imperative. We can not expect that hungry people are going to be peaceful people.

We must think about future threats to peace, now, before it becomes too late. We must encourage peaceful uses for atomic energy; try to assure that weather satellites will not be used for purposes of war; demand that technological advances be used for peaceful purposes. Science must benefit mankind, not threaten him. It must bring new life, not untimely death. Communication satellites must be used to broadcast messages of hope and love, not fear and hatred; propaganda must be for the brotherhood of man, not for enmity. It is no act of faith to continue on a path toward certain destruction, hoping that God will pull us out at some eleventh hour and save the day. He has given us no such promise. But He has promised to be with us --- and it is in that promise that we find the courage to act in His name.

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Is it not clear that we must act as an expression of our faith? And if we are to act, then our people must be more loyal. Local churches must become stronger than they now are. We must serve as individuals and as whole congregations to establish justice, banish hunger and disease, bring about peace.

And so we look ahead to the 1968-69 emphasis: “The Local Church in God’s Mission.” Indeed we need not wait for the calendar! I have insisted before, and repeat it now: The church must be engaged in God’s mission. The church is mission; God’s mission and not the mission of our own desires. It is a time for new ventures of faith aimed at transforming the world.

There are no “somebodies” to do it. We are the ones to do it. We are the ones to do the work, train ourselves for leadership, furnish the resources and time and talent and know-how to take the steps God requires us to take. Either we do it or it is not done.

We face, without embarrassment, the truth that we must give to live; give of time and thought and devotion and substance. It is not a take it or leave it choice; it is a necessity. We must give to live.

How awesome and thrilling that

“He calls us into his church

to accept the coat and joy of discipleship,

to be his servants in the service of men!”

Amen.

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, July 9, 1967.