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Reflections

 

When you have the job of a minister, parishioners often share treasurers. Typically the item has some inspirational value, such as a meditation that Kathy McGrane shared this past week (which you heard a few minutes ago).

Sometimes it’s a piece addressing some worthy social justice issue.

A couple of weeks ago I was given something by the Rutters, but this time it didn’t fit into the usual categories.

Nonetheless, I was moved by it.  Looking at the contents of its pages – the contents being YOU – gave me a sense of nostalgia.

Today we’re going to be talking about you, and me, and the Community…   where we’ve been, who we are, where we’re going.

Let’s start with the where we’ve been part, by taking a look at some of today’s NCCer’s from yesteryear images in the 2005 NCC directory.

-SLIDESHOW-

I can only imagine how amusing it was to see these 20-year-old images.

In addition to being entertaining for sure, viewing your pictures from decades ago gave me a sense of our history.

This kind of longevity can only come with intention, devotion and love, weathering all the various seasons from our founding to the present.

It made me think about our past, to go along with all the thoughts I’ve been having about our present and future.

From the beginning of our wonderful relationship with each other until now, we’ve been in semi-triage mode.

We’ve gotten acclimated to each other, and together we’ve buoyed our Community with action groups, small groups, partnerships.

I think it’s safe to say that, through focusing on our present, we’ve grounded ourselves and are not so much in revitalization mode any more.

The past is a part of our heritage, our roots, so let’s pause to appreciate it for a moment.

At ISU there was the Campus ministry that five faith traditions supported– United Church of Christ, Presbyterian, Disciples of Christ, Church of the Brethren, and the Mennonite Church.

One of the campus ministers, Jim Pruyne, had a vision and consequently created an actual congregation tailored for students – a progressive, inclusive church that celebrated questions as much as doctrinal answers.

That was us…New Covenant Community!

At some point the Mennonite and Brethren groups fell away, leaving the campus ministry denominations of Disciples, United, and Presbyterian.

The years passed and while NCC sustained itself, funding for campus ministry didn’t, and ultimately dried up completely.

Because of this and other factors, the campus property was sold.

Our still tri-affiliated church [around 30 years old by then and no longer a campus ministry] relocated to our current location here at Second Presbyterian in 2022.

So that’s our nutshell past, which basically brings us up to the present day.

Again, given the in-roads we’ve made in this last year and a half, our present is solid. So there’s our past, and our present.

And then there’s our future.

Being entrusted with the sacred and significant task of shepherding, one part of the imperative of my ministry is visioning for our future.

It is about that – and more specifically where and what we call home in a couple of domains – that my thoughts of late have been.

In many conversations I’ve had with you, the topic of our church home has been discussed.  There is a general consensus that our current location met our needs when we needed a place to go, and wasn’t universally really considered ‘home’ as much as it was a place for which to be grateful for the time being.

We’ve created a search team to undergo the task of looking for a new, more permanent home for us.

I believe that our growth will be impeded as long as we are in a situation where we don’t appear to be anchored.  I look forward to providing you updates in our search.

Unlike the issue of a new home for us (which has been on my mind for a year), it wasn’t until this fall’s budgeting process that the question of our denominational affiliations came up.

We have the wisdom of Karen Rousy to thank for that.  She knows that we, all these years up to the present, have had affiliations with UCC, DOC, and PCUSA.

But she noticed that we were only slated to give per capita funds to one, because only one denomination requests those funds and interfaces with us much.

Karen wisely suggested that we should pay per capita dollars to whomever we claim to be affiliated.   She went on to add that she wasn’t necessarily advocating to keep all of our affiliations, but if we are going to maintain an affiliation, it should be meaningful (in part, through financial support).

Since then the question of our affiliations has been rolling around my head.

Our affiliations should be meaningful.

Yes, they should be.

As a momentary sidebar…there’s a scene from the film “Conclave” that reminded me of us.

In it the cardinal overseeing the search for a new pope was delivering a homily to his fellow voting cardinals.

He said…

Certainty is the great enemy of unity.

Certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance.

Even Jesus was not certain at the end (My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?)

Our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand in hand with doubt.

If there was only certainty and no doubt, there would be no mystery, and therefore no need for faith.

These words not only reminded me of us…uncertain, non-doctrinal, inquiring, discovering, ever-open, embracing of mystery which begets faith…

It reminded me not only of us, but of something I’ve heard numerous times through the years… “You liberal, progressive theology people have it so easy…you can believe and therefore do whatever you want.”

I humbly and resolutely disagree.  If you come from a truth-seeking place of mindfulness, earnestness, then one’s openness can actually require more engagement than before.

The questions are not all answered, the rules aren’t set, a roadmap from point A to Z isn’t neatly included in our travel pack.

Imagine there are two travelers, beginning their journeys from the same place, aspiring to arrive at the same place.

One is given a detailed roadmap with specific instructions on where to go and how exactly to get there.

The other is invited to find the way to the promised land through discernment about the landscape, natural elements, the four directions. Fall in line with the rhythms of the Universe as you experience them, and find your way.

Is the way of liberal, progressive theology easier?  It certainly requires a different type of engagement.

I know that most of you know the difference, having experienced such a migration.

I say ‘migrating’ because I see NCC much the same way I’ve always seen Unitarian Universalists…as a migratory flock.

A vast majority of us were not born into our current religious/theological setting.

Coming from something different, we came to understand that traditional theology no longer fit.

So we’ve chosen something different; not entirely different, but fundamentally different in some key ways.

These differences came to light in a conversation I had a week ago with Jamie Kaiser, the Second Pres ministerial candidate who has preached for us.

We were talking about dissimilarities between traditional Christian theology (her Presbyterian theology) and NCC’s.

She noted how much she changes in her sermons and musical choices between what she delivers upstairs and down here.

We recalled how each church – Second Pres and us –  had independently indicated a boundary in the exposure of our kids to each other’s theology (we’re not seeking atonement theology, and the same with them and progressive theology).

We agreed that Jesus dying on the cross for our salvation and his divinity in the trinity are fundamental differences.

It reminded me of the story several of you have told me about our wonderful interim Bryan Burris, who said to NCC, “I love you guys, but you’re basically Unitarians and I want to be in a Disciples Christian Church.” So he left to do that.

When I’ve asked numerous ones of you early on why you didn’t just join the Unitarians in those days of discernment about whether this Community would continue to exist, the same answer was given each time.

“We don’t feel like we’re Unitarians exactly.  So, where else would we go?  Yes, if there’s a worship service we’re going to share with another congregation, or a social justice cause we’re going to team up with, it’s usually the UUs because they’re most like us.”

Indeed they are.

I’m going to give you some descriptors of Progressive Christianity and Unitarianism.  See if you can differentiate which is Progressive and which is UU.  There are 7…4 Progressive and 3 UU.

-Rooted in liberal Protestant Christianity (UU)

-Rejects the doctrine of ‘original sin’, instead believes in ‘original goodness’ (PC)

-Believes that Jesus was a human, not the incarnate deity (UU)

-Views Jesus as a moral example rather than the divine son of God (PC)

-Rejects the doctrine of the trinity that God is three persons. (UU)

-Emphasizes social justice, care for the poor, environmental stewardship (PC)

-Questions tradition and accepts human diversity (PC)

Clearly, it’s nearly a mirror image. But quite the same.  The difference is that NCC brings Jesus, the mortal, model man, more front and center.

Here’s one more descriptor, that essentially says the same thing, but there’s a blending. The descriptor is…

-A branch of Christianity that rejects the trinity, believing that Jesus was inspired by God but not equal to God.

This describes Christian Unitarianism, a blending that contains the ingredients of New Covenant Community…Christian in focus on and love of Jesus, Unitarian in theology.

That’s why there’s not a place for you to go in this town, because there’s not a Christian Unitarian faith group here.  It exists, it’s a thing. Just not here.

Actually, it does exist here.  It’s you.  It’s us.

___

If you’re thinking that I have an agenda here, you’re right, I do.

If you’re thinking it’s to sway you into becoming a UU church, you’re wrong, I’m not.

My agenda in this next chapter of our story is posing questions about home.

Now that we have our legs under us, let us ask loftier questions. Who are we?  Where are we?

These are questions about physical space, and theological place.

Yes, they are questions about HOME.  I want us…I want you to be home.

Home for sojourners/seekers such as us will always consist of journey.  But there is also the truth that there’s no place like home.  There’s nothing like sleeping in your own bed.

Both truths can coexist.

Perhaps we discern and decide, “Yeah, we’re good where we are.  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Perhaps.  In the name of mindfulness, being fully awake and engaged in what ‘home’ means to us, I encourage us to at least ponder the questions.

These are much bigger questions than we can begin to address in our response to the reflection time here.  What I invite you to respond to instead is the general idea of mindfully asking the questions about where, how, what our home is.

It matters to me, and I know it does to you.  All you have to do is look at the hardly aged faces of those in our midst today -those same faces we saw on the slides a few minutes ago – to know that it matters to you too.

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