January 8, 2012

 

St. John United Church of Christ, Arlington Hts., Illinois

January 8, 2012 – Baptism of Christ and ONA Congregational Meeting

Mark 1:4-11 and 1 Kings 17:1-7

Rev. Jeffrey Phillips, Pastor

 

In 1 Kings, Elijah is the model prophet who speaks for Israel’s God Yahweh against the Canaanite god Baal, a storm god who brings rain, and thus life.  In Canaanite civilization, rain proves that Baal is alive and must be worshipped, but lack of rain is evidence that Baal is dead.  Elijah’s message is that Yahweh, not Baal, is the God of life who is worthy of worship.

 

Ahab, Israel’s king, has done an unspeakable thing, marrying Jezebel, a worshipper of Baal.  His sin isn’t marrying a woman of a different religion, but joining her in the worship of Baal, even building a temple and altar to him.

 

Elijah, prophet of the God of life, marches up to king Ahab and tells him, “Yahweh says there shall be neither dew nor rain – until he makes it rain.”  In other words, “My God is the God of life; yours is the god of death.”

 

Elijah is doing what prophets do - challenging the powerful, and doing so in the name of the God of life, not death.  What courage it must have taken for Elijah to say this to the king of Israel.  He’s not just making a theological argument.  He’s questioning Ahab’s decision to marry Jezebel, and accusing him of straying from worshipping the God of his own people.  As such, Elijah is challenging Ahab’s legitimacy as king – and that act of conscience is bound to have consequences. 

 

Elijah’s life is in danger for daring to speak up to Ahab, so God tells him to flee to the wilderness, drink from a certain stream, and take refuge there while he is fed by ravens.  That is what Elijah does.  While biding his time in the Kerith Ravine, ravens bring him bread and meat not once, but twice a day.

 

The short story ends with these words: “Some time later, the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.”  Remember: no rain, no Baal.  The brook is dry, thus Baal is dead, but Yahweh is alive.  Yahweh, not Baal, is the God of life, Baal is the god of death, and Elijah is bold to tell this truth to the king.

 

Today is a big day for this congregation as we vote on becoming an Open and Affirming (“ONA”) congregation. 

 

I am very proud of this congregation for having come this far.  It hasn’t been an easy journey, but it’s been a rewarding journey, and the rewards will only continue as our identity as an ONA congregation unfolds in the years ahead. 

 

It says a lot about this church that, way back in late 2009, the Church Council approved the formation of a task force to study and pray about this topic, and that nine of you enthusiastically came forward to start the process.  The task force met faithfully for many months, and then brought the fruit of their learning to the congregation in several educational forums designed to help us understand ONA. 

 

Many good questions were raised, many stories were heard, and much was learned.  And today is the day to decide as this family of God’s people: is this who we are?  Is this what God is calling us to be?  Is this how we, like Elijah, can testify to the world about the God of life? 

 

God’s call to Elijah wasn’t easy, and it hasn’t been easy for members of our congregation, who have, in this process, had to think new thoughts and be stretched in new directions.  Maybe today’s vote isn’t easy, either, and maybe the implementation of ONA in the future, if it passes, won’t be easy as well. 

 

But when God called Elijah to speak truth to Ahab, God didn’t say it would be easy.  When Jesus was baptized and started his ministry, the divine voice did not say, “Don’t worry, Jesus, it will be easy.  No pain will be required.”  When Jesus called his disciples, he didn’t say it would be easy.  In fact, he said they would have to deny themselves and pick up their crosses. 

 

When God calls us to venture into new territory and do new things for God, God doesn’t promise that it will be easy.  What God promises is that we will be OK.  We will be fed as Elijah was fed.  The Holy Spirit will fall upon us as she fell upon Jesus at his baptism, and we will hear the same words Jesus heard that day: “You are my child, my beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

 

As we vote on ONA, and possibly move into an identity as an ONA congregation, what more do we need than God’s promise to feed us, nurture us, and be with us as we go forward?  What more do we need than God’s Spirit falling upon us in a powerful way – the Spirit that gives courage to live into this new identity?  What more do we need than God’s voice saying to us, “You are my child.  I love you.  I am pleased with you”?

 

Remember how God fed Elijah?  Ravens delivered bread and meat to him twice a day.  Ravens!  This is ironic, for ravens are birds of prey considered to be unclean in Israelite religion.  God chooses that which is regarded as impure and disgusting to be instruments of God’s salvation.

 

That’s often how it is in the Bible: God chooses those regarded as “not quite right” to be the ones to do God’s work.  In story after story, Old Testament and New, God takes the despised ones, neglected ones, outside ones, little ones, oppressed ones, and raises them up.  Weak and tiny Israel is chosen to be God’s people.  Slaves are led to freedom.  Puny David is anointed king of Israel.  Mary, illiterate peasant girl, is chosen to be Mother of God.  God is born in weak, vulnerable human flesh in the form of Jesus who is blessed at his baptism, and begins to declare holy the very people regarded as unholy in his society: lepers, the sick, Samaritans, women, the poor, prostitutes, tax collectors, gentiles, and children.

 

This is what biblical faith is all about: the worship and service of the God of life who raises up the lowly, the reviled, the unloved, and the detested to places of honor.  And that is what our heritage is all about in the United Church of Christ.  We were one of the only an American denominations to take a strong stand against slavery in the nineteenth century, and to then be on the side of full equality for women and people of color in the twentieth century. 

 

And this is what Open and Affirming is all about: the worship and service of a God of life who is not content with a church and a world in which there continue to be hatred and discrimination against people because of their culture, economic status, age, sex, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, marital status, and physical and mental condition.

 

Elijah stood up to Ahab and said: “Your god is a god of death, but I worship a God of life, and invite you to put aside your fascination with this Baal of dry gulches, and worship the God of life who gives water and bread and meat and everything that is necessary for life.”

 

ONA is a contemporary prophetic movement, not too different from the prophetic movements of Elijah, Jesus, Mohandas Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking a word of life about the God of life, acceptance, and community to a world that is too often a place of death and discrimination.  ONA is the prophetic voice in our church today that says, “Discrimination against people because of culture, economic status, age, sex, etc., is wrong because it is worshipping a god of death.”  ONA, like Elijah, calls us to worship the God of life who, in naming Jesus “beloved,” names all of us “beloved.”  As Elijah’s words poked a stick in the eye of Ahab, ONA is the poking of a stick in the eye of biases and prejudices based on sexual orientation, gender, race, disabilities, and the rest.

 

Sadly, Ahabs rule today in churches and societies that still don’t allow women to be leaders.  Ahabs rule in our world when people, both in church and society, think that disabled people, including the mentally ill, should just fend for themselves.  Ahabs rule in churches that preach that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people are intrinsically flawed, and that our relationships are not as legitimate as heterosexual relationships (and most churches still preach this).  Ahabs rule in our nation in which candidates for president still stereotype people of color as preferring government handouts to work (we heard this racist trash talk this week).

 

An ONA statement commits our congregation to speak up and act, as Elijah did, for the God of life, who offers a better way forward for church and society than these ways of death.  An ONA statement commits our congregation to repeat the words that Jesus heard at his baptism, “You are my child, my beloved, with you I am well-pleased,” until everyone hears and believes that they are children of God, beloved, those with whom God is pleased. 

 

There are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people who do not know that God loves them as they are, and that there is a church for them.  We’ve got to tell them because most churches, including most churches in this town, say the opposite.  There are glbt children and youth who wonder if what other churches say about their sexual orientation is true.  There are heterosexual children and youth who wonder if it’s true that God disapproves of same-sex loving people and their relationships.  We’ve got to tell all our children and youth about the God of life who is tired of these ancient prejudices, and who wants a better world.  As boldly as Elijah spoke to Ahab, and as boldly as God spoke to Jesus, we must speak the truth: in God’s household, glbt people are welcome as they are, both as individuals and as couples and families, no different from straight individuals, couples, and families.  An ONA statement commits us to this. 

 

But ONA isn’t just about this issue.  There are people with disabilities who wonder if they will be able to enter and navigate throughout our building.  The truth is that our first floor is fully accessible through the west entrance here, but our basement is not accessible at all.  Our chancel is also not accessible to people with mobility limitations.  An ONA statement commits us to overcome these barriers.

 

People with mental illness wonder if they, too, would really be welcomed in our congregation because they’ve attended other churches where it just didn’t feel right to talk about depression or bipolar disorder.  An ONA declaration commits us to make sure that our church is a safe place for people – and children - with mental illness, where they can be themselves and be free of the stigmatization and discrimination they experience elsewhere.

 

There are people from different cultural backgrounds who wonder if their cultures could be represented in the life of this church if they walked in here.  An ONA statement commits us to welcome people of all languages and cultural traditions, and to make sure that every culture is represented in our life together.

 

There are parents of daughters who wonder if this church would teach, as many churches still do, that girls cannot grow up to be spiritual leaders in the home and in congregations.  An ONA statement says to those parents that we are a church where girls and boys can expect to hear God’s voice calling them in baptism to a relationship with God that results in a life of service to God and neighbor.

 

Divorced people often wonder if church is for them because too many churches still condemn divorce in such a way as to condemn divorced people, leaving them outside the communion of the church.  Single parents can feel out of place in a church that doesn’t quite know what to do with them and their children.  An ONA statement commits us to pay attention to the last, the least, and the lost – the very ones Jesus reached out to.

 

And an ONA statement commits us to do and be all kinds of other things that we can’t imagine now, but which will become clearer to us as God’s future unfolds.

 

I am so excited about this vote that my heart is about to explode with joy and gratitude.  It’s not because ONA is “politically correct.”   It’s because I know in my heart that members of this wonderful congregation worship the God of life, acceptance, and human rights, not the God of death, discrimination, and prejudice. 

 

I’m excited because in this ONA process we have heard God’s call to go and tell the king the truth.  We’ve heard God’s voice reminding us that we who are baptized in Christ’s baptism are as much God’s children and beloved by God as Jesus was, and we just can’t wait to go and tell others the same good news: you, too, are children of the God of life, and you, too, are as beloved by God as we are and as Jesus was.