The
Role of the Church in Today's Atmosphere of Uncertainty
and Dissension
Address
by Nancy S. Taylor
Presented to the Metropolitan Boston Association Spring Meeting,
April 27,
2003
Union Congregational Church, UCC, North Reading, Massachusetts
GREETING: Greetings, grace and peace to you
in the name of God, the Holy One, and Jesus Christ, Head of
the Church. Greetings to the Churches, clergy and delegates
of the Metropolitan Boston Association of the United Church
of Christ. It is a delight to be with you today on this 40th anniversary
of the Metropolitan Boston Association.
I was invited to address a particular topic this afternoon: "The
Role of the Church in Today's Atmosphere of Uncertainty and
Dissension." I am both grateful for and humbled by this
opportunity. The reflections I bring this afternoon are the
result of considerable conversation and consultation with the
communion of saints.both the quick and the dead.
I offer these reflections as a work in progress, much as
the Christian Church is a work in progress and you and I are
works in progress.
THE CHURCH: First, what is the Church.what
is this thing, this entity, organization, movement, institution
we call Church?
Jesus said of us that we are light, salt, leaven (Matt). He
described us as branches to his vine (John 15.5) St. Paul described
the Church as the "body of Christ" (Rom. 12.5), "God's
field, God's building" (1 Cor. 3. 9) and the book of Revelation
calls the Church the "bride of Christ" (Rev. 21.2).
In other descriptions the Church is "the communion of
saints," "a city set on a hill" (Matt. 5.14), "a
royal priesthood," "a dwelling place for God" (Eph.
2.22), a "pilgrim people," "strangers and sojourners" (Heb.
11.13), that community where "the Word is purely preached
and the sacraments rightly administered," (John Calvin)
and, my all-time favorite, we are "a peculiar people." (1
Peter 2.9)
The word "Church" comes from the Greek, meaning "a
convened assembly". It also has a Hebrew root, meaning, "to
summon". In the Hebrew sense it means those people who
are summoned together by God.
THE ROLE OF THE EARLY CHURCH: The early Christians
understood themselves to have been summoned by God and commissioned
by Jesus as bearers of good news: to serve and convert the
world, to care for the sick, the widow, the prisoner, the orphan.
Within a hostile and violent world, they witnessed to God's
love and grace as they had experienced it in Jesus. Both as
individuals and as communities of Christians, they sought to
live lives informed by the power and values of Jesus.
That power and those values were learned, transmitted and
reinforced as they gathered regularly to share the bread and
wine, to tell and retell the stories of Jesus, to be informed
by the teachings of the apostles and the ancient writings of
the prophets, to be shaped by preaching, fellowship, hymn singing,
and by service to the world.
These Christians were in the world but not of the world. They
were called to serve the world and minister to the world.but
they did so from a place apart, as a "peculiar people" as "strangers
and sojourners" as "citizens of heaven".
These early Christians sought only to bear witness to Christ.
They did so in the way they comported themselves: in acts of
charity and kindness, in refraining from violence, in welcoming
the weak and outcast. And they had an impact. We read in the
Book of Acts that the Church grew, day by day, and that they
were held in goodwill by the all the people (Acts 2.47)
This early community of Christians - although it was illicit,
largely underground and much in danger - had a profound effect
on the surrounding culture. There is evidence that it was because
of the witness of the early Christians that the ancient Roman
practice of infanticide was abandoned. It was due to the influence
of early Christians that gladiatorial contest - killing for
sport - was also abandoned and eventually forbidden. Early
Christians organized themselves to care for the poor, the ill,
and the rejected.
In all these ways, the first followers of Christ witnessed
to Christ in the totality of their lives and brought Christ - brought
his grace, healing, love, and salvation - to the world around
them.
THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH TODAY: But here we
are these 2000 years later. As the first followers of Jesus
asked themselves, "What is our role in the world?" so,
too, do we. "What is the role of the Church in today's
atmosphere of uncertainty and dissension?" The role of
the Church today - as was the role of the Church in the first
months and years after Jesus had died, as has been the role
of the Church through two millennia - is to bear witness to
Christ. We have done our job - or we are doing our job - as
the Church when we bear witness to Christ. It is that simple.
It is that difficult.
Theologian H. Richard Niebuhr wrote: "The world is the
community to which the Church addresses itself with its gospel;
to which it gives an account of what it has seen and heard
in divine revelation, which it invites the world to come and
see."
So, then, what is it to which we want to invite the world
to come and see? What have we seen and heard in divine revelation
to which we wish to give account? I can tell you what it is
I want the world to come and see. I can tell you of that to
which I want to give account.
An Apostolic Community: First, I want the world to
come and see an apostolic community at work. By this I mean
a community of Christians who understand themselves in relation
to and in continuity with the earliest followers of Jesus.
That is, in the words of the author of the letter to the Ephesians,
a community "built upon the foundation of the apostles
and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone" (Eph.
2.20) This means we are a community - or many communities - of
Christians, each of which is seriously devoted to prayer and
study to assist and inform us in our discernment of God's will.
But let me illustrate this with an example. As we all know,
there has been considerable dissention within the Christian
Church concerning the war against Iraq led by the United States
and a "coalition of the willing." We cannot expect
or even hope that all Christians can or should agree on such
matters. What we can and must expect - and, indeed, must hold
each other to - is that we discern our position having earnestly
consulted the teachings of the Church.. including the Bible,
Church history, and theology.
Others (non-Christians) are perfectly free to base their
positions and opinions on the interests of their political
party, national citizenship, social status, economic interests,
ethnicity, or personal preferences and inclinations. But for
us, as Christians, we are formed and informed by the traditions,
witness, revelations, and teachings of the apostolic community
and the entire communion of saints.
Practically speaking, this means we engage in serious and
attentive conversation with the historic Christian positions
relative to war: pacifism, crusade, the Just War Theory, and
Just Peace theology. Humanly speaking, we will still not arrive
at the same conclusion; there will still be Christians who
serve in the military while other Christians commit acts of
civil disobedience in opposition to the state's declaration
of war.
But as a peculiar people, a people called out by Christ, a
people in the world but not of the world, we bring the perspective
of the prophets and apostles, of Jesus himself, and of the
great Christian thinkers today and of ancient days to form
and inform our positions. We also devote ourselves to prayer,
asking God to open our hearts and our minds.
It is the devotion of this community - this apostolic community - to
which I want people to come and see. I want them to experience
a people who are seriously and humbly devoted to discerning
the mind of Christ and the will of God.
A Community of World Citizens: Second, I want the
world to come and see a community of world citizens. This is
to say, I want the world to see and experience a community
of people who share the ethical passion characteristic of monotheism.
Monotheism is first a critique of nature religion.but it is
also and fundamentally, a critique of tribalism. As monotheists,
we join with Abraham and all the children of Abraham, in proclaiming
there is One God, and God is God of all peoples.. and has made
from one blood all the peoples of the earth. As monotheists,
as children of the One God, we seek to view the world, the
peoples of the world, and the conflicts and brokenness of the
world from God's perspective, from a God's-eye-view.
During difficult times, when people are gripped by fear,
there is a human tendency to resort to tribalism, to circle
the wagons around our own kind, and to allow our view of God
to contract. There is human tendency to dehumanize and demonize
one's opponents.
But the Christian - as monotheist - is devoted to a universal
perspective, to a God's-eye-view of the people and the world
God has lovingly fashioned.
Practically speaking, in a time of war, the Christian is called
to a ministry of reconciliation and bridge building, to ecumenical
and inter-religious dialogue, to mission trips and mission
partnerships, to study and education. While the princes of
this world set out to solve international disputes and crises
with weapons and wars, Christians will participate in international
and inter-religious dialogue. In so doing, this peculiar people
bears witness to the God of Abraham and Sarah, of Jesus and
Mary.
It is this, too, to which I want to give account: this community
of world citizens who witness, not to a national deity, but
to the God of all the nations of the world.
A Community of Lament: Third, I believe that in a
time of war, terrorism, and international conflict, the Church
is called to be a community of lament. This community of lament
suffers with those who suffer, holds this broken and bleeding
world in prayer, and weeps - as our God weeps - over God's
warring children. For, whether a war is or is not justified,
war is a cause for lamentation. No matter how it is reported
by imbedded reporters into our warm and brightly lit living
rooms, war is brutal and hellish. It wreaks havoc and suffering
on both victor and vanquished. Since Cain killed Abel God has
been weeping over God's children who continue to kill each
other. And so, at such a time as this, we turn to the Judeo-Christian
tradition of lamentation. This is, simply and deeply, a time
of sadness.
It is this, too, to which I want to give account: this community
of lamentation, a community of God's people who hold vigil
with the sufferings of others, who weep when others weep, who
participate in the divine pathos.
A Community of Hope: Fourth and finally, I want to
give an account to the world of a community of men and women
who are not afraid. I want to tell those out there about you
in here: that we are not afraid of death, for our God has conquered
death. We are not afraid of terrorism - and we will not allow
terrorism to make us hateful, or timid, or retreat into nationalism - for "nothing
will be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours
in Christ Jesus.neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height,
nor depth, nor anything else in all creation" (Rom. 8.38)
Whether we are on orange or red alert, our confidence is in
God. And for this community, "if this earthly tent we
live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." (2 Cor.
5.1)
AT SUCH A TIME AS THIS: As we attend to the
question of the role of the Church in this time of uncertainty
and dissention, it is important to say that "this time" of
which we are speaking is post-September 11th time.
The events of September 11th have changed many things.including
our understanding of our place in this global village. Many
citizens of the United States assumed we lived in a gated community
and were protected from the chaos, poverty, fundamentalisms,
epidemics, and violence occurring in other parts of the village.
As we found out, it is possible to breach this gated community.
Today we find ourselves in uneasy proximity to desperate poverty,
rampant disease, inequality and injustice, along with the desperation,
fanaticism and violence those conditions breed.
To a degree that surprises and frightens us, this has affected
our national economy (including the airline, insurance and
tourism industries), our sense of security, our willingness
and ability to travel, and our position among the community
of nations.
September 11, 2001 has to be understood as a decisive turning
point in US history and perhaps in world history. The events
of that day have a special relation to us - to all religious
persons - for on that day we were reminded that religion is
a powerful force in the public sphere. It is often a powerful
force for ill. But it can also be a powerful force for good.
In his book, Flame in the Mind, Anglican priest, Michael
Marshall, notes striking parallels between the events of September
11 and the sack of Rome in the 5th century of the
Common Era. It was on August 24, 410 that the Gothic army entered
the capital city of one of the greatest empires the world and
succeeded in bringing about the unthinkable. Under the command
of Alaric the Goth, Rome was sacked and much of it was burned.
While signaling caution about exaggerating the parallels between
the sack of Rome and the attacks of September 11th,
Marshall points to striking similarities. As Rome was once
the symbol of a colossal world empire, so were the World Trade
Towers and the Pentagon symbols of the wealthiest and most
powerful nation on earth. Both the sack of Rome and the attacks
on September 11th were, to their contemporaries
and victims, "inconceivable." Both had repercussion
and reverberations that would continue to haunt those civilizations
and that changed them both, irrevocably.
Christians could have responded to the sack of Rome and the
crumbling of the Roman empire in any of three ways: 1) despair
that God has any real hand in the meaning of history, 2) withdraw
from the world to a closed and private Christian community,
and so abandon the hope that the Church can positively influence
the secular state, or 3) live in but not of the world, and
bear Christ to the world.
It was to this last option that Augustine of Hippo, a seasoned
bishop of the Church, committed himself. Augustine responded
to the sack of Rome by writing The City of God. In so
doing, he engaged the world head on, from a Christian perspective,
bearing the gospel into the world.
CONCLUSION: In this time of uncertainty and
dissention, it is not only war and terrorism with which we
must contend. As people of faith, we have an opportunity and
responsibility to enter the public debates over vouchers for
religious schools, cloning and stem cell research, faith-based
initiatives to deliver social services, the death penalty,
homelessness, public education, state-sponsored gambling, civil
rights, human rights, civil liberties, and state, city, and
federal budget priorities.
Unlike the earliest Christians, who had little opportunity
to engage in public policy advocacy and political debates we
can bring our Christian faith to bear upon and inform our citizenship.
The role of the Church today - as was the role of the Church
in the first months and years after Jesus had died, as has
been the role of the Church through two millennia - is to bear
witness to Christ. We have done our job - or we are doing our
job - as the Church when we bear witness to Christ.
On the one hand, this is a frustratingly obscure answer.because
you and I will each discern a different means to witness to
Christ and bear Christ to the world. On the other hand, this
answer is as clear as crystal: it sends us each into inward
communication with God and Christ. It requires of us together
that we are in constant consultation and conversation with
that great cloud of witnesses - the communion of saints, both
the living and the dead - who have borne Christ to this world
over two millennia, on whose shoulders we stand, by whose faith
we are informed, and by whose courage we are inspired.
What is the role of the Church? It is today what it has always
been: to be light, salt, leaven. To live as a peculiar people,
in but not of the world; to live as strangers and sojourners,
as pilgrims on earth with our citizenship in heaven, with our
ultimate allegiance not to any earthly authority, but to God.
SOURCES
The City of God, by Augustine
The Cost of Discipleship, (1976) Dietrich Bonhoeffer
A Cyclopedic Bible Concordance, Oxford University Press
Flame in the Mind, (2002) by Michael Marshall
Fragments Grave and Gay, (1976) by Karl Barth
The King James Version of the Bible
The New Westminster Dictionary of the Bible, (1970) ed. Henry Snyder Gehman
The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible (1991)
The Once and Future Church, (1991) by Loren Mead
The Oxford Companion to the Bible, (1993) ed. Bruce
Metzger and Michael D. Coogan
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, (1971) ed. F. L. Cross
The Oxford Illustrated Dictionary of Christianity, (1990) ed. John McManners
The Purpose of the Church and Its Ministry, (1997)
by H. Richard Niebuhr
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