God of Infinity
“Before the mountains were born, / You brought forth / the earth, the world, / from everlasting to everlasting / You are God / without beginning, without end.” — Psalm 90:2.
Many who are members or attend the churches in the denomination known as the United Church of Christ insist on the independence of our churches. And rightfully so. But I believe too many Congregationalists, too many members of our denomination ignore a simple, pivotal, necessary founding and foundational truth about our churches.
The basis of Congregational Churches is not simply or only our independence. The basis of Congregational Churches is our independence and our interdependence.
Congregational Associations have existed since the 1600s, Conferences since the 1700s. These Associations and Conferences are living examples of our interdependence.
The nature of greater Congregational church organization— Associations and Conferences— is covenant, is connectivity. We are each of us one but we are also one each with the other and one with all— independent and interdependent.
I am reminded of our interdependency every time I attend a Susquehanna Association clergy gathering. The clergy don’t assemble as simply a social function. A portion of these gatherings is always set aside for education. That’s the point of the meeting.
Another advantage these events bring is we clergy get to see other pastors in their settled setting and physically see other churches in our Association. Having been in the Susquehanna Association lo these many years, I think I have been to all the churches.
Last week I was at Eastside Congregational Church in Binghamton. Gary Smith is the Authorized Pastor. The Association will gather for an Ecclesiastical Council in January and Gary will present an ordination paper.
I, having already read that paper, think it’s likely our Association in cooperation with the Eastside Church will be ordaining Gary sometime this Spring. But when I say the church and the Association will ordain Gary, that goes back to our interdependency.
You see, you— by your presence in this church— you will be a part of Gary’s ordination. How? By dint of your presence in this church, you participate in the Association.
By dint of your participation in the Association, whether or not you are physically present at the ordination, you participate in and affirm that ordination. Congregationalist are not just independent. We are interdependent. (Slight pause.)
We find these words in Psalm 90: “Before the mountains were born, / You brought forth / the earth, the world, / from everlasting to everlasting / You are God / without beginning, without end.” (Slight pause.)
The superscription, the opening words of Psalm 90, say this is a Prayer of Moses. These words should not be taken literally. These words should be taken seriously. These words are not an indication Moses was the writer. These words are a clue that we need to read Psalm 90 in the context of the Pentateuch, the Torah.
The central claim made by the Torah is God wants to be in covenant with us. God wants to be in covenant with each of us. God wants to be in covenant with all of us.
The second central claim made by the Torah is God wants us to be in covenant with one another. You have heard these two central claims about covenant voiced here many times before using different words. Love God; love neighbor. Covenant with God; covenant with neighbor. (Slight pause.)
For a moment let me come back to that clergy gathering. Our friend Joanne Lanfear ran the education piece on that day. Having picked up on this at a conference of Pastoral Counselors, Joanne presented some of the work done by Brené Brown, author of the New York Times Bestsellers The Gifts of Imperfection and Daring Greatly. She is a social work researcher whose areas of expertise include vulnerability and courage.
Online— you can do that these days, sit there and watch something online— online we watched a TED talk— that’s TED: Technology, Entertainment, Design— [1] online we watched a TED talk by Brené Brown. In this talk Brown stated her research maintains that connection is the prime reason are here— connection is the prime reason are here. Connection is what gives purpose and meaning to lives.
Having discovered this based on research, Brown refocused her work. She concentrated on people and how people connect. What she stumbled on amazed her.
When she asked people about love, they told her about heartbreak. When she asked people about belonging, they told her about excruciating experiences of being excluded. And when she asked people about connection, they told stories about disconnection.
She eventually discovered much of this boiled down to shame— not guilt but shame. There’s a difference. The problem of shame can be stated this way: “I’m not good enough.”
We all know that feeling: I’m not blank enough— fill in the blank. I’m not thin enough, rich enough, beautiful enough, smart enough, important enough.
Brown tried to dig deeper still. She found the underlying concept is vulnerability. And shame works against that. Shame works against being vulnerable. Further, in order for connection to happen— connection, this reason why we are here, remember— in order for connection to happen we have to allow ourselves to be seen, really seen. That requires us to expose ourselves— to be seen requires vulnerability.
So, she spent six years doing research on vulnerability, thousands of deep interviews— she is a researcher— thousands of deep interviews trying to get a handle on it. What did she find? Let’s peel away some levels.
As indicated earlier, one thing that keeps us out of connection is our fear we’re not worthy. So, what did people have who tended to connect?
What they had in common is what Brown labels as a sense of courage. But don’t confuse courage with bravery. They are not the same.
The word courage, you see, is from the Latin word cor, meaning heart. So, courage means speaking with the heart.
Brown’s research found people who speak from the heart had the courage to be... imperfect. I need to add being imperfect is not particularly acceptable in our society. Her research strongly suggests people willing to allow for imperfection also have the compassion to be kind to themselves first, and thereby be open about their own imperfections and, thereby, then be kind to others.
It is, in fact, hard to practice compassion with others if we can’t treat ourselves kindly. Compassion leads to a willingness to let go of who we think we should be in order to be who we really are. And all that, especially being who we really are as opposed to who we think we should be, leads to connection— the reason why we’re here.
Put another way, the process of admitting imperfection to others bring us to a sense of compassion which fully embraces vulnerability. Vulnerability leads to connection.
To be clear: vulnerability in no way means being comfortable with ourselves or with anyone else. Most of what I just said is not comfortable to anyone at any time, ever. Vulnerability is, rather, a willingness— and I think this is really the key— vulnerability is a willingness to invest in a relationship that may or may not work out. Vulnerability— a willingness to invest in a relationship that may or may not work out. [2] (Slight pause.)
All that brings me back to a God Who is (quote:) “without beginning, without end.” As I said, the claim being made for God by the Psalm is one of covenant.’
Therefore, the claim being made is about God is about a God who connects, a God Who is vulnerable. The God of Scripture is a God Who presents a willingness to invest in a relationship that may or may not work out.
Further and importantly, vulnerability— our vulnerability or the vulnerability of God— is not weakness. Rather, vulnerability presents a willingness to fail— a willingness to fail— something rarely seen in our society. Last, this kind of vulnerability is the birthplace of creativity and courage and change. And change— where does that go? Change leads to... growth. Change leads to growth. (Slight pause.)
I think this takes us to two places. First, the possibility that being vulnerable seen as a goal presents to us and illustrates to us our own human failings. After all, we don’t like to fail. We don’t like to let others know we fail.
Second, God who is infinite is a God who is vulnerable, a God who is willing to fail, a God Who presents a willingness to invest in a relationship that may or may not work out. (Slight pause.)
Perhaps, just perhaps, somewhere deep down inside us we are in touch with our own mortality; we know about our limits. Therefore, I want to suggest we Congregationalists have it right. We are both independent and interdependent.
We do know we need to work as independent individuals; we do know we do need to be interdependent, to rely on one another. Why? Independence and interdependency is the place to which God who is infinite calls us. Amen.
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, New York
11/16/2014
ENDPIECE— It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Congregational Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “This saying is attributed to Theodore Roosevelt: ‘It is not the critic who counts, not the one who sits and points out how the doer of deeds could have done things better but has fallen and stumbled. The credit goes to the one in the arena whose face is marred with dust and blood and sweat. In the arena, at best this one wins, and at worst this one loses. But loss happens only because one dares greatly.’ Which is to say engagement— engagement on many levels is, I think, an imperative.”
BENEDICTION: A kind and just God sends us out into the world as bearers of truth which surpasses our understanding. God watches over those who respond in love. So, let us love God so much, that we love nothing else too much. Let us be so in awe of God that we are in awe of no one else and nothing else. Amen.
[1] TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, under the slogan: “Ideas Worth Spreading.”
[2] https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability#t-602822
No comments:
Post a Comment