Credo: This I Believe

Recently a seminary classmate from my home presbytery was called to a church nearby and mentioned that he had liked my Statement of Faith which I prepared for ordination. I was touched by this, and thought it might be time to go find it again amidst all my ministry papers, and I share it with you here:

Credo

I cling to the church reformed

        And always, still, needing to be reformed

                    Fallible, broken, but worthy of change

                                God alone may be capable of perfection

                                                                    But we are not all for lost.

I believe Holy Scripture is the Word and Event of God in our lives

        Also broken by human doing, despite our best doing

                    Sometimes contradictory and not always clear

                                But also, by and through and with and in God

                                                                                Complete and whole.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

        The Lord, the Giver of Life

                    That she does, indeed, give Life

                                And breath; that she stirs to life

                                            That which seems beyond all hope of being stirred.

I believe in Christ, who came not only to save, despite death

                    But also came to teach us, in life, how to go on living

                                                                    And this, in its own way, also saves.

I believe in Christ

        Speaking truth as well as reconciliation

                    Justice as well as peace

                                Disrupting human convention

                                            Crucified for his ‘sins’

                                                        Would Christ be welcome in our churches today?

I believe in Christ

        Incarnate among us

                    As a human, still facing human shortcomings

                                Foreign women taught him love of neighbor

                                            Perhaps having other things to learn

                                                        By becoming fully us

                                                                    Yet also intimately God

I believe that in worship we encounter the Holy;

        In water, wine, and bread, God touches us still.

                                Here Christ holds us and heals us;

                                            Here the Spirit reconciles us to one another

                                                        In the midst of bitter church conflicts, remember:

                                                                                We are all still standing on holy ground.

I believe in God who created heavens and the earth

All that is, though seen and unseen

        Though heard and unheard, powerful and vulnerable

I believe that God did not walk off

        Leaving us to our own devices

                    That God knew we couldn’t make it on our own

                                And stayed with us, creating, redeeming, sustaining

I believe God is still speaking

        Moving, changing, inspiring

                    Beyond class, race, or gender

                                God calls whom God wills.

I believe God wills for God’s people—

        All God’s people—

                    Justice, freedom, and wholeness

                                That the world alone cannot provide, and often works against

                                            That the church alone cannot provide, and often works against

                                                        God has not yet given up, despite us.

I believe God is not done with us yet,

        Even when life be too painful for words;

                    That in this world we can choose to go on living

                                Or to go on dying

                                            In that desolation God is there

                                                        Even when no one else is

                                                                    And I believe that even when

                                                                                we cannot see the path ahead,                                            

                                                                                                                    There is one.

I do not need to believe

        That God is all-powerful,

                    or all-good

                                or all-just

                                            or all-knowing

                                                        to believe in God.

In truth, I need only to believe that God is Greater.

Being Re-formed

Joel 2:27-29; 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18; Luke 18:9-14

(look these up at bible.oremus.org or biblegateway.com)

A Lego depiction of Martin Luther nailing the 95 Theses that started the original Reformation

Today friends, it’s Reformation Sunday!  Yippie! Yay!  And can I get an Amen?

Or, maybe you feel more like this about the topic of Reformation.

I know, I know, it’s hard to hold in our enthusiasm on a day where we discuss the finer points of Reformed theology! But let’s try to contain ourselves, to curb our enthusiasm, lest we get too carried away in all the excitement!

So, what is it that makes us who we are?  Why are we Reformed?  What are we even talking about?

As Presbyterians, we talk about our confessional heritage, which means that we take guidance from this lovely volume called the Book of Confessions. This, combined with the Book of Order, form the Constitution of the PCUSA.  Now, let’s take a survey: how many of you have this on your bedstands for gripping reading?  How many of you quote passages of the Second Helvetic with your loved one over the breakfast table?

Or, more realistically, How many of you have never seen this book in your life?

Really, that’s alright.  I didn’t teach any of your confirmation classes so you’re not in trouble with me,  I still love you.  In fact, I’m going to sum this book up for you in one handy phrase:

We are a church reformed, and always in need of reform.

Now, that does not mean changing just for change’s sake, but that we understand the need to adapt ourselves when the circumstances, well,  demand reformation.

For example, we include the Barmen Declaration, written in response to Nazi-era Europe, which says that we shouldn’t let the Nazis dictate how we run our churches, however convenient it might be not to be executed.

The Confession of 1967 deals with, well, the 60’s, and says that maybe the 60’s are a different life reality than the 1600’s.

And the Balfour Declaration (which is not yet in the Book of Confessions but has been under debate for inclusion) arises from the Apartheid regime in South Africa, and states that Apartheid is wrong and the church has something important to say about that.

Then there’s the (sort-of) Brief Statement of Faith, which was created when the different Presbyterian groups reunited into the PCUSA we know today.  

As members in the Reformed tradition, we realize that there are times when we must adapt to the present circumstances in order to thrive.  And this is good to remember, even when we don’t sit down and write a confessional statement about it.  

One example I find really interesting is how we’ve adapted our practices of Holy Communion to the needs of the frontier in early American church history.  The norm was to practice Communion each Sunday in established communities and churches back East, but on the frontier, it could be difficult even to get a preacher, maybe a circuit rider.  Also, while bread was easy enough to make, it was harder to get wine or grape juice, since there was no refrigeration and travel might be by horse, stagecoach, or train--making glass bottles tough to transport.  Instead of just skipping worship, we adapted to having Communion on a quarterly minimum basis, when we could get a pastor and a grape beverage together at the same time for the sacrament.  In fact, this church only ten years ago finally voted to increase the frequency to monthly communion, and the ‘old blue’ and the new purple hymnals both remind us that it is actually okay to celebrate Communion weekly!

Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians---we all have had at least one Reformation in our past.  I want to lift this up today because I know that many folks in this congregation were raised in church traditions other than the PCUSA, and also this can be a touchy subject in ecumenical dialogue.  Suffice it to say, we wouldn’t want to go around saying, “I’m more reformed than you.”  Like I mentioned in the Youth Moment today, it’s hard when someone else tells us that our room is messy.  We might get a little defensive.  

Really, though, it’s better when we can all admit that we all fall short sometimes.  For example, many churches divided up over slavery;  and mostly, even if it took 100 years, got back together again.  For us, we say that Christ alone is Lord of our consciences, and we also believe that good people can still disagree yet worship together and be in fellowship with one another.

So what does all of this have to do with Scriptures for today?  Like the men praying in the temple in Jesus’ parable, we can’t brag that we’re better than anyone else.  We should be humble servants of God, not ashamed of who we are, but humble.  And by being humble, we can be joyful and loving, knowing that even when we make a mess of things, in our lives or in our churches, we are redeemed people, forgiven, and able to begin anew.  And the beginning of beginning anew is in those moments when our young people will see visions and our old people will dream dreams, and we can begin to work together, led by the Holy Spirit, into something better than we’ve ever imagined.  Thanks be to God!

So let’s look together at the litany in our bulletin, and let’s read through it together, and if you like, take it home afterwards and pray your way through it, think about what it means, even look up something you don’t understand or wonder how we got there.  Let us affirm our faith together:

Link to Reformation Litany using each of our Confessions can be found here:

http://www.pcusa.org/resource/litany-reformation-sunday/

Prayer Requests:

For those wrestling with the pain of divorce

For safety for everyone this Halloween

All who struggle with winter weather

All who work for change and growth

Blessing of Backpacks and Briefcases

This past weekend, we tried our first-ever 'Blessing of the Backpacks and Briefcases' to celebrate Labor Day and Back-to-School. We invited everyone, even retirees, to bring a symbol of their vocation, work, or study, to help celebrate and prepare for the year ahead. And after the worship, we had an ice cream social, because that's how we roll around here.

The introduction and prayer we used is as follows:

Introduction

Friends, God has called all of us as God's own children, and each of us, whether child or adult, one who studies, or works, or is retired, has a purpose and place in this world to which God has called us.  God calls some of us to work in physical labor, and others of us to work in offices, and yet others of us to work in situations of danger.  God calls us to be teachers and students, paramedics and nurses, builders and landscapers, social workers and musicians, to every vocation we might possibly know, and even to ones we’ve never known before.

I invite you at this time to bring the symbols of your vocation forward if you desire, or, if you prefer, remain seated and simply place these symbols in front of you in your lap. If you didn't bring something but would still like to participate, you may wish to lift or your hands in front of you with your palms open.

Let us pray.

God, you have given us minds to think and to learn, and gifts and talents and skills to use in order to provide for ourselves a living in this world.  

God, for those of us who study, we thank you for the opportunity to go to school and for teachers and staff who care about us.  We ask for your presence with us, especially when we struggle with new lessons, or face difficult situations with our classmates.  We ask that you will give us courage to ask questions, to speak up for ourselves or others who may be faced with teasing or bullying, and that as we travel to and from school, play on the playground, or walk the hallways, that we may do so in safety.  God, help us to hear your calling in our lives, to particular fields in which we might be most useful and also find meaningful, and help us to know that you will continue to guide us as we seek to follow you.

God, for those of us who work, who are looking for work, or those of us retired from our labors, we ask that you are present with us also.  Remind us that in all places and with all people we are bearers of your love.  Help us to be patient, to be courageous, to accept new challenges, to apply new skills, to never stop learning in the vocation to which we are called.  Help us listen constantly for new directions in which we may be called, until the day you finally call us home.

Lord, lend your blessing to us, now on this Labor Day Weekend, and always.  Amen.

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I would also enjoy using the above setting while allowing a few moments for anyone who wished to speak to share a little about the symbols they have brought. This is especially meaningful to hear from retirees and those who have had to end their vocations earlier than they may have chosen due to a variety of circumstances. Another option may be to ask who might wish to share where they have heard God calling them into a vocation, either in the past, or now being called forward into the future.

Visions...of Peace (Peace I Leave With You)

Acts 16:9-15, Psalm 67, Rev 21:1-10, 22:1-5; John 14:23-29

Today, we hear about visions, dreams, and hopes for the future.  Paul has a vision which he believes is God calling him to Macedonia, which is Europe, from the Middle East, and begin missionary work there.  John’s vision is of a new heaven and new earth, something different from the present troubles and persecutions he and his people face--one in which there will be no tears and will be abundant life.  Jesus offers in his parting words and farewell to his disciples a vision of peace within them, rather than troubled hearts, and the hope that they will be reunited in the future.

Before we talk more about these specific visions and where they lead, it wouldn’t hurt to talk about visions and dreams themselves.  Probably we all have dreams and visions, and perhaps some of them have held special meaning for us.  However, at least for our branch of mainline Protestantism or Midwesternism or whatever you want to call it, I think I’m safe in saying, we don’t like to talk about vision, and we’re worried maybe of what others would think of us if we did talk about it.  Would we ever admit it if we’d had a vision?

Would You Know A Vision If You Saw It?

I think there have been times in my life, where I’ve been on the brink of some major decisions, where I have had a dream or if not a vision, then an overwhelming sense of peace, that the path I’m about to go down will turn out okay in the end.  They’ve been comforting and allowed me to move forward when the way seemed difficult if not impossible.  I’ve heard people say the same thing to me when they’ve been about to undergo things like surgery, or chemotherapy,  or even when they have lost a job that provided a steady paycheck, and about to set off on a new or uncertain venture.

I believe it is good to ask ourselves on a regular basis, what God is calling us to do with our lives, and whether we have felt the movement of the Spirit, perhaps a vision or dream, moving us in that direction.  And certainly, it is worth asking that of our congregation--meaning the whole of us people here together, working together.  What is God calling us to do?

Now, that’s not always easy to figure out, and sometimes we can also feel quite overwhelmed and alone.  Yet it’s too easy to get into analysis paralysis and never actually try to do something new.  Being too afraid to fail that we never try to follow our own callings, can be our own greatest obstacle.

Dream Big and Be Bold!

Lydia, who features in the Acts reading today, was a successful, wealthy businesswoman who was head of her household and many employees. You may not know that dealing in purple cloth, which is expensive to produce and moreso to sell, means that you are very wise and very wealthy.  And yet this woman of considerable status was searching for more.  In spite of all she had, she was moved to become baptized, and have her household baptized, and welcomed Paul and his companions into her household.  I would think that took a lot of guts, but she went ahead and did it.  She acted boldly, and through her actions, the church grew throughout the region and beyond.

It’s also worth noting that when the man we know as John has his Revelation, and speaks to us this vision of the healing of the nations, of the new heaven and the new earth, of the Lord God being all the light we need and there being no more night and no more tears, and where those who do harm to others do not win out over those who suffer---that God will be the end as much as the beginning, no matter what has happened in between--that the vision was to comfort those who were very much afraid and doubting and feeling overwhelmed and alone--not only from the common crime of the day, but also of the very real wars and injustices that were going on at the time, and illnesses, and everything else that we fear in life.  And yet, the people did persevere, and thrive--not because the circumstances they lived with were perfect, but because they found comfort and purpose in the vision, enough so to keep moving forward.

There are certainly many places in our lives where we are called to work for peace--whether peace among nations, or within our own relationships, or perhaps even within our own selves.  Places where the visions communicated to us in the Scripture today can be especially helpful.  

It’s helpful to remember what the vision is--and isn’t.  As one pastor in our lectionary group said, “Jesus did not say, ‘I leave you with tortured guilt and endless shame.’”   Rather Jesus offers peace.  Also promises that the Holy Spirit will come as an Advocate and continual teacher.

Discovering Our Path By Walking It

I don’t know how early you get up on a Sunday morning but I like to be up at 6 for NPR and a program called ‘To the Best of our Knowledge.  This morning an author wrote about how her mother bequeathed her journals to her when she died--and there were many of them, but they were all blank.  She was distraught, because she thought that finally she would know so much about what her mother had been thinking all these years.  But they were silent.  ‘Silence is the pathway to peace through pain,’ she said about this, and began to write in the journals herself.  Eventually, she became a published author.  The blank journals had given the daughter her own voice.  

I thought, that’s worth adding here because maybe it speaks not only to some of the unmet longings we may have in our own relationships with our parents, since both Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day are coming up; but also because it speaks so well to some of our own faith struggles, and perhaps those of the disciples, standing there, listening to some of Jesus’ final words with them.  With Jesus’ ascension, which we celebrate next Sunday, the disciples don’t suddenly get bestowed with all the answers.  They don’t know all that Jesus knows.  And they won’t, at least not in their earthly lives.  I bet that was enormously frustrating and painful.  But Jesus does say this,

And those disciples did find their own ministries and their own voices and even their own disciples to pass on the things they did know.  We hear about several of them this morning, through the origins of these books of Scripture--Acts and Revelation and the Gospel of John.  We know Jesus’ disciples continued to go through all manner of persecution and hardship, and even mistakes and arguments they had.  They were still very much human, even though they followed God’s calling and did great things.

And perhaps that is the most important testament that they leave to us today--that God calls us and speaks to us, that God grants us vision and dreams; that God has not given us a perfectly peaceful world in which to live but God calls us to respond to the needs of our world.  As we work for the healing of the nations, or for the healing of our own relationships, or even simply for peace within ourselves, it is good to reflect often on Jesus words for our own lives:  

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

Peace to you, friends, and may you carry that vision of peace, guided by the Holy Spirit, who is your Advocate, in all times and places.  Amen.

Children’s Message:  

What do you know about dreams?  Do you ever have dreams?  How about when you’re sleeping?  What was it like?  Do you remember them?  Sometimes, our dreams carry special meanings to us.

Do you have any dreams for the future?  What you might want to be when you grow up?  These dreams also have meaning for us.

Today in our scripture readings, we’ll hear about dreams, or visions--ideas about the future. These are designed to teach us, to give us courage, to help us to feel less worried about our future.  Especially for people who were really worried about their lives, dreams provided a lot of help for them.  Today, we’ll also hear about the Holy Spirit, which God sent to us after Jesus returned to heaven, to help guide us.  Many people feel that Holy Spirit communicates with us through dreams and visions.  This isn’t anything to be afraid of, but we should listen and pay attention for what the Holy Spirit may be saying to us.  When we’re unsure, we can always ask a trusted adult, and we can always pray for God to help us understand what God wants us to do.

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Prayers This Week:

For Wiota Lutheran (southwest Wisconsin), a congregation mourning the loss of three members due to a random act of violence, and prayers for the young man who committed the murders.

For the people of Bangladesh, following the collapse of the building and the deaths of hundreds of workers trapped inside.

For all places in the world in need of peace.