by the Rev. Robert R. LaRochelle
July 10, 2005
When I thought of returning to this church today after three weeks of study in Chicago, to be honest with you, I was thinking of a nice, easy reentry. JULY 10 tends to be a very quiet time, not much going on: No Sunday School, people coming home from vacation, others going ON vacation, calmer nights, summer breezes, all in all just a wonderful change of pace, even from the BUSYNESS in the life of a church.
BUT THEN…….But then on the Fourth of July, INDEPENDENCE DAY, something happened. Something about religion, about church, something that made headlines all around the country. You see, on July 4, the United Church of Christ, the church with which we are affiliated, in our meeting which we call a General Synod, passed a controversial resolution endorsing MARRIAGE EQUALITY, including the right of same sex couples to enter into the state of Matrimony.
As I sat in Chicago and watched the news come over the computer screen in my temporary apartment, I thought: I think I am going back to work really quickly after my plane lands at Bradley! I think you know me well enough by now, dear friends, to know that I don’t believe churches should duck the difficult questions, so, as tempting as it might be to talk about something else today, maybe to say something quiet and genteel about this sower and the seed that he sowed, well, I’m going to talk with you today about THIS Resolution.
First, we start with a basic fact. In the UCC, a RESOLUTION is NOT a requirement. That is NOT just a technical difference. Because the General Synod of the United Church of Christ endorses same gender marriage, no member is therefore expected to blindly follow suit. This Resolution is not BINDING upon your conscience or on mine. Our common responsibility is to reach moral decisions based on our own honest examination of all of the issues involved. Nor does this Resolution require me, as some have erroneously suggested, to perform civil unions or marriages were my own conscience to dictate against it. This distinction is NO MINOR POINT!
However, I WILL be honest and upfront with you, as I was months ago when a similar matter was discussed at our Annual Meeting here in Connecticut: I applaud, support and endorse this Resolution. I commend the General Synod of the UCC for staking out a challenging position deeply steeped in Biblical research and reflection. I encourage everyone to read the text of this Resolution available on the UCC web site and posted and copied here, available right in our Sanctuary today. And while I am deeply committed to what this Resolution espouses, I am EQUALLY concerned about something else, something I truly believe we need to address today, something that takes us back to this parable of Jesus, a parable about the WORD of God.
You see, something very sad is happening throughout the Christian church right now. In my view, there’s a terrible civil war going on. We’ve seen it in Connecticut as several churches have decided to leave the UCC and others have threatened to do so, mostly because of this issue of homosexuality. It’s not just a UCC thing, even though we happen to be making this week’s Hartford Courant headlines! Just look at the situation involving Bishop Robinson in the Episcopal Church and, you know, if we had all morning, I could take you through the specifics of ongoing battles which have erupted in one well known church after another! I was struck by a sermon title posted last week on the board of a church I walked by each day on my way to class in Chicago. The advertised sermon was entitled: ‘ The Church Divided’. How true, I thought! One of the great challenges facing the church worldwide and the church right here in Connecticut is a pretty basic one: ‘ How can we disagree with each other without becoming disagreeable?’
I’d like to read you something from this ‘ Marriage Equality’ resolution that you won’t hear much about in the press. I’ll simply quote it directly:
‘ Let it be further resolved that the 25th General Synod calls upon ALL settings of the United Church of Christ to engage in serious, respectful and prayerful discussion of the covenantal relationship of marriage and equal marriage rights for couples regardless of gender……….’
I really appreciate that quote. You see, if you and I are going to engage in serious and prayerful discussion as CHRISTIANS, what we are going to try to do is take this Word of God and PRAYERFULLY try to figure out what it says to us, what it means to us as we deal with complicated issues that face us as persons and as a society. Now, I may conclude in favor of marriage equality and may even try to persuade you, but, BECAUSE WE ARE UNITED IN CHRIST, we can disagree and still BE UNITED IN CHRIST, can’t we? Some of us can be Democrats and others Republicans, but can we still be united? Some of us might have marched in war and others against it, but can we still be united? Some of us gay and others straight, but can we still be united, united in Jesus Christ?
Two weeks ago, the Congregational Church of Torrington voted to split off from the UCC. Ultimately, it was over the issue of gay marriage. Last year, the church in Wethersfield did also as others have and are talking about doing. The flip side is that new UCC churches are being planted here in Connecticut and throughout the country and thousands are now being drawn to us as well, those infamous commercials having a tremendous effect but, for a moment, let’s take a look at those decisions to leave.
Have you ever had to explain Christianity to someone you know who might be Jewish or Muslim or of no religious faith at all? Have you ever had to explain why there are all of these different Christian churches and why there are divisions within the churches? You’ve got Southern Baptists and National Baptists and Progressive Baptists and American Baptists. Lutherans of the Missouri or Wisconsin Synod and still other Lutherans in something called an ELCA. Anglicans who go by the name Episcopalians and others who complete reject that name. Congregational UCC’ ers and others who just call themselves plain old Congregational.
Seven years ago, as you know, I left the Roman Catholic Church and became a Protestant. I’m going to tell you what Catholics say about Protestants: They will tell you that whenever Protestants don’t like something, they just go off and start another church. They will tell you that Protestants have a hard time understanding that THE CHURCH is bigger than their own little church, that Christian unity is crucial and must not be overlooked or disregarded.
Now, let me give you a Protestant response, because, trust me, I’ve had to do that on more than one occasion! The Protestant response? It was the Catholics who kicked Luther out! Why do we call it a REFORMATION? What did Luther want to do? He wanted to REFORM the church, to call us back to the Word of God, that Word proclaimed in today’s remarkable, powerful parable! Luther was downright shocked when he was threatened with excommunication. He did NOT want to break the UNITY of the church. He wanted instead to center it firmly upon the Word of God.
The last thing the church needs now is DISUNITY. WE need to learn how to disagree and still remain bonded to each other. One of the great scandals of Christianity is the scandal of division. In a drippingly sarcastic takeoff on a famous hymn, the theologian Robert McAfee Brown mockingly wrote:
‘ We are ALL divided, not ONE BODY we…..Some lack faith, others hope, and ALL lack charity…..Onward, Christian soldiers…..’
We need to learn how to disagree and still be connected to each other, NOT ruptured apart! WE need to take the time and study the Bible, not to find simplistic answers there, but rather to understand how things came to be written as they were written. Local churches, the Congregational Church of Union, UCC, included, local churches need to step up the opportunities we offer for Bible study so that we can do what this Resolution asks: so that we can ‘engage in serious, respectful and prayerful discussion’.
I received an email once from someone who visited this church and wanted me to know that their family wouldn’t be coming here because they don’t want to go to a UCC church, but they would prefer one that ‘follows the Bible.’ I resent that. It was the Bible that motivated massive reform in Europe, the Bible that inspired Pilgrims to come to America, the Bible that inspires every prayer we utter right here in these pews and EVERY hymn that we sing. And it is the words of Jesus found in the Bible( John 17) ‘ that they all may be one’ that is the driving force for the UCC today.
Since I said ‘ I resent that;, I will get even more personal. I’m catholic enough, small c, to believe that people can’t just go off and create new churches of our own. What I admire most about the UCC is the way we go out of our way to invite people into the Christian fold. Our very motto ‘ a united and uniting church’ tells you what we are all about. WE welcome everyone to this table at which we will gather in just a short while. We are seeking ways to HEAL divisions even as others so readily create new ones. WE value intelligent discussion. You don’t need to check your brain at the door to walk in here. If you open your Bible and say: ‘ Wow, this Gospel ‘s genealogy has 72 generations and this one’s only 45. Hey, look at that chapter that condemns homosexuality. In the very same book, the Bible supports the death penalty for adultery and divorce too, And eating shell fish is a scandal to God? …and, by the way, if it’s such a big issue, why was Jesus so quiet about things that stir us up so much? AND, by the way, why all of these people who take the Bible word for word…why don’t THEY give away their possessions and give it all up to feed the poor?? Why do they fight? And why do they go off to war and kill? And, if they really love their enemies, why do they give them lethal injections, for goodness’ sake?
IF YOU OPEN YOUR BIBLES AND ASK THESE KINDS OF QUESTIONS, YOU ARE NOT WHISKED OR SHOOED AWAY in the United Church of Christ! ….you are welcomed in! Your questions are valued. Your place at God’s table secure!
More than ever, we need to turn to God and in turn to one another. With open hearts and open minds, hearts and minds committed to ‘serious, RESPECTFUL and prayerful discussion‘, can the church of Jesus Christ learn that , even if and when we disagree, on today’s hot issue or some new one a few years hence, when we disagree with one another, we need NOT be DISAGREEABLE. Rather, can we disagree as children of God, as brothers and sisters, all members of One Body, one Body united in Jesus Christ?
AMEN+
