BEAR WITNESS TO YOUR LOVE

(Preached on Sunday, September 30, 2007)

Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God,...                                                              -Psalm 146:5

 

He is 92-years-old.  Well-poised and proud, he is fully dressed each morning by eight o=clock, with his hair fashionably coifed and shaved perfectly, even though he is legally blind.  He just moved into a nursing home.  His wife of 70 years had recently passed away.  After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled sweetly when the administrator told him his room was ready.  As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, she provided a visual description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window.  AI love it,@ he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.  AMr. Jones, you haven=t seen the room; just wait.@  AThat doesn=t have anything to do with it,@ he replied.  AHappiness is something you decide on ahead of time.  Whether I like my room or not doesn=t depend on how the furniture is arranged.  It=s how I arrange my mind.  I=ve already decided to love it.  It=s a decision I make every morning when I wake up.  I have a choice.  I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.  Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, even though I can=t see much, I=ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I=ve stored away.@

 

Praise the Lord!  Choose to be happy.  That is what the Psalmist calls the people of God to do.  No matter what life brings to you, praise God, for God is the one who walks with you and provides for you, no matter what you confront.  After all, God made the heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.  God is faithful in all things and brings justice to the oppressed and food to the hungry.

 

We know that to be true, especially because of what we know of God through Jesus the Christ.  Because of what Jesus has done for us, we aren=t the same people.  We have the perspective of those who have been rescued.  Daniel Defoe, who studied to be a Presbyterian pastor, wrote his novel, Robinson Crusoe, as a portrayal of one=s life with God.  Crusoe, the only survivor of a shipwreck upon a deserted island expresses his gratitude for rescue: AI was now landed, and safe on shore, and began to look up and thank God that my life was saved in a case wherein there was some minutes before scarce any room to hope.  I believed it is impossible to express to the life what the ecstasies and transports of the soul are when it is so saved, as I may say, out of the very grave....@

 

Realizing one is saved; realizing one is loved right here and now just because God chooses to love you; this is reason to rejoice.  This is reason to praise God.  This is reason to choose to be happy and to approach life with a positive outlook.

 

This is the choice the United Church of Christ has made as a wider church.  We are no longer the church we were.  The Stillspeaking Initiative has changed the story that we tell about ourselves.  We are no longer the people of membership decline but instead the people of extravagant welcome.  We are no longer defining ourselves by what we are not but now define ourselves by commas, etched in red and black, punctuation that says God=s revelation is ongoing and we are lining up to hear the new.

 

Astute business leaders know that if a company focuses primarily on what is wrong with the company; on the weaknesses of the product, those companies are the first to go bankrupt or out of business.  Very rarely does it work for a business to define itself in relationship to a competitor as Awe are not them@ or Awe are #2, we try harder.@  We have learned that as the United Church of Christ and so we have moved to defining who we are and what are our strengths.  The long answer for many in the United Church of Christ has become that Awe are a united and uniting, multi-cultural and multiracial, open and affirming, accessible to all, just peace church.  That is a mouthful.  But  it is a positive statement of our identity.  There is meaning, heart, and history behind each part of that identity. 

 

Last week we discussed being ready to talk about your church.  Part of being ready is to know what you have to talk about it.  Are you going to share the difficulties, shortcomings, weaknesses of your church?  We have them, that is for certain.  No human group is perfect.  Or, are you going to share what brings your heart joy, gladness, and makes you want to be present?  Are you going to share our strengths?  Are you going to share what you love? 

 

You may have seen the new posters hanging around the church grounds.  They are statements from various members of UCC churches expressing how they love their church.  In the worship folder is a booklet with those statements: 16 Ways to Say AI Love My Church.@  Like last week, I invite you to take it out and follow along with me as we look at some of it together. 

 

The very first page asks two very important questions: Do you think your church is great?  If you do, why keep it a secret?  If you are going to share your church with other people, you have to think seriously about these two questions first.  Turning the page we read: AMost church members talk about their church only to other members of the church.  But they already know about your church!  If you found a great restaurant, you=d tell people about it.  If you read a good book or saw a good movie, you=d tell people.  So why not tell people about your church?  If your church adds value to your life, share it!  Church should add more value than a great restaurant!  Let the world, or just one other person, in on the secret: >I love my church.=  Here are some ways a few of us have found to say we love our church...@  Turning the page you see each page offers one of the very poetic statements UCC members have created.  Some of those that really tugged at my heart were:

#1 - I love my church because it=s sort of like The Wizard of Oz C it=s about having a heart and a brain.  And courage!

#7 - What I love most about my church is that it=s a place where we feel free to Athink out loud together.@

#13 - I love my church because when we get together we aren=t afraid of sharing our feelings.  Last year we voted on whether or not our pastors could perform a gay marriage in our sanctuary.  People of all ages shared how they felt, and nobody was mean.

#16 - I love my church because my two favorite people to talk to on Sunday mornings over coffee are a man who lives in a group home and an 8-year-old girl who wants to be the first female pitcher in the major leagues.

 

If you turn the page after #16 it asks: What about you?  Why do you love your church?  You were handed an insert as you came in this morning entitled Strengths of Christ Congregational Church.  A week ago Saturday 15 members gathered to talk about growing this church.  One of the exercises our leader had us undertake was to focus on the positives and list the strengths of Christ Congregational Church.  That group of 15 people came up with this list of 37 strengths.  We have a lot to celebrate in this church!  Just look at the list. Our strengths include:

- Organist/Music leadership

- Excellent Preschool

- Congregation that cares for people

- Support for needy

- Great acceptance of diversity

- Policy of Afree-thinking@ embraced here

- Children welcome here

- Willingness to adjust to change