God’s Action
“Indeed, God sent the Only Begotten One into the world not to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved.” — John 3:17
I am sometimes asked to explain who Congregationalists are or what Congregationalism is. And I sometimes do it by saying ‘this is the quick and dirty way to understand Congregationalism: think Pilgrims, you’ve got us. Think Plymouth Rock, you’ve got us.’
Now that is accurate and it is inaccurate. Indeed, someone who heard me say that recently, questioned the premise. “Don’t you mean think Puritans you’ve got us”?
“Well, yes,” I said, “except for one thing. They are close cousins and most people don’t have a clue who the Puritans were and how they differed from the Pilgrims. And most everyone has some kind of picture, a concept about who the Pilgrims were, even if that picture we carry around in our heads is historically suspect.”
Now, I don’t want to get too deeply into the differences but, aside from the fact that the Pilgrims arrived on these shores first, the most obvious difference is Puritans, originally, had no intent of breaking with the Anglican church, the Established Church in England. Both were nonconformists. Both refused to accept an authority beyond the revealed Word of God.
With Pilgrims, religion was looked at as simple and straightforward. That translated into an independent style and an egalitarian structure.
Puritans, on the other hand, considered religion complex, subtle, intellectual. Leaders were trained scholars. But this, then, tended to translate into a structure and leadership which vaguely went toward a more authoritarian side of the ledger.
Given the history, I think you can see how Congregational Churches use aspects of both. The point my friend was making when he questioned my subterfuge, my tactical maneuver of using only the Pilgrims in my explanation, is that part of both of these groups are present in Congregational churches today.
Now, for a moment, I want to get back to our images of who the Pilgrims were. From where do those images come? My bet is many of us saw or took part in church or school activities about Pilgrims, probably in reference to the Thanksgiving holiday. Right? I am seeing some heads nod out there.
So what most of us learned as historical fact goes something like this: prompted by a good harvest, the very first Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims in 1621 at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts. There was a feast and celebration which offered thanksgiving to God and to which the local natives were invited. Right? That’s what we have as an image.
The historian in me needs to note that the earliest Thanksgiving on this continent observed by Europeans was celebrated by Spanish settlers in 1565 in what is now Saint Augustine, Florida. The first Thanksgiving celebrated by British colonists was in Virginia in 1607, not in Plymouth.
So, that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated by Pilgrims is pure myth, myth in the worst sense of the word— made up. Further, when it comes to Pilgrims or any early European settlers on these shores, I think we often have a mythic image of a people who came and did not look back.
They cut down trees and farmed the land to survived, independent of the places from where they had come. It is an image of people totally free of the old continent, its traditions, its social structures, its economy.
That is simply not true. I was reminded of this because I came across and I am reading the recent book Making Haste from Babylon: the Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World by British historian Nick Bunker. For us the story is often narrated from the perspective of the colonists. Bunker tells the story from a more European perspective.
What is that story? Those who emigrated here did not do so simply because their religion was suppressed in Europe or because they sought freedom, although both those are in the mix. There was also a fortuitous meeting of several factors.
In the early 1600s, seeing that one of the most destructive conflicts in European history, The Thirty Years’ War, was about to erupt, investors sought a safe place for their money away from the conflict. American settlements— away from the conflict— were seen as safe investments. The investors in these cross ocean enterprises never left Europe in risking their money.
In fact, one of the large early returns on investment came not from any farming by the aforementioned Pilgrims and Puritans but happened when they ventured into Maine, what is now the state of Maine and trapped beaver, an animal whose pelts were highly valued back in the so called ‘old world’ and sent them back across the Atlantic.
Additionally, the timing of these investments was impeccable because of new scientific developments. As dangerous as sea voyages were and remained for a long time, ocean navigation had just started to use the tools of logarithms and trigonometry to help that navigation.
All of which is to say the individualism, independence and freedom we often claim as reasons for immigration and tend to read into this story of the New England settlers is somewhat mythological, again in the worst sense of the word. Movement to this continent would not have happened without scientific discovery and monetary incentive.
Indeed, the colonies probably would have failed had there been no return on the investment. To read this movement as simply being about freedom abuses myth because it reads a modern perspective into the story.
Clearly religious freedom and personal freedom needed to interact with new science and economic necessity in order for the colonists to succeed. In short, the myths we have built concerning this history, perhaps because of our own desires and feelings about that history, are at best suspect. (Slight pause.)
You know this to be true: myths are powerful. Perhaps the most powerful human myth is that each of us is in control, independent, free. In control of what? You name it. We believe we are in control of whatever it is we desire.
On the other hand, my bet is each of us, down deep, knows we control very, very little. We just don’t like to admit it.
I also happen to think the reason so many people are enamored of the 16th verse of the 3rd Chapter of the Gospel we know as John, the verse which says: “...God so loved the world as to give the Only Begotten One, that whoever believes may not die but have eternal life” is because we read into it a myth about our ability to control.
We think these words place some kind of power, some kind of control in our hands. After all, it says: whoever— whoever believes (and that’s you) whoever believes will have eternal life.
The problem with that premise is the 17th verse. (Quote): “Indeed, God sent the Only Begotten One into the world not to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved.” This verse makes clear, you see, that God is in control. It is by the action of God, not by our action that salvation happens.
Frankly, I think most of us feel uncomfortable about God being in control, uncomfortable about salvation not being a choice we make. More to the point, when we think we make the choice, that not only gives us power— or at least we think it gives us power— but leads to all kinds of other things. Some of us even start to think we are in charge, we are God.
You see, when we are in control, we start to divide other people into good groups and bad groups. There are, for instance, a lot of churches who still argue about whether gay people are okay, fully human, or whatever else.
In fact, there are a lot of churches who still argue about whether women are okay, fully human, capable of being in a position of leadership. Anyone who is arguing about those things needs to take a deep breath and stop. You are not God. I am not God. You are not in control. I am not in control. (The pastor takes a deep breath.)
All that leads us to the obvious question: is the God we worship a loving God? If God is a loving God and loves everybody, we humans don’t need to worry about who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out.’ We do need to feed those who are hungry, clothe those who wear tatters, house those who need shelter, minister to those who are ill.
Please note: in human terms there is nothing logical about this. That’s because we see life in competitive terms. Human terns tend to be competitive terms. For us, if life is not competitive, it is not logical.
But life, real life is theo-logical— not human logic but God logic. And the logic of God says— love. Human life is, therefore, also, tied into the mytho-logic, but mythologic in the best sense and use of that word. Mythologic as in seeking deeper truth. (Slight pause.)
And, oh yes— one more item: that born again thing? In the words of theologian Thomas Keating (quote): “‘Born again’ is a wonderful gift, but it is not the end of the journey— it’s just the beginning.”[1] (Slight pause.) So, you see, life is a journey. And both the Pilgrims and the Puritans did understand that.
And for me, an understanding that God is a loving God means every morning when I get up I am born again. Why? Each day is an opportunity for me to again learn to trust that I am not condemned in any way, that I am not in charge and that God deeply loves me. Amen.
03/20/2011
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, NY
ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “A little more history for you: it was on this day, March 20th, in 1852 that the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published. She was upset by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which forced both authorities and private individuals in the Northern free states to cooperate with the slave states to track down and return slaves, so she decided to write a book about slavery. But she could not figure out a plot. One day, while she was in church, she had a vision of an old slave. He became Uncle Tom and she started writing. When Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published, it sold 10,000 copies in its first week and about 2 million copies by 1857. Stowe’s Brother-in-law, Samuel Scoville, was the pastor at this church from 1861 to 1877. The church where Stowe had her vision, the vision which became Uncle Tom’s Cabin was First Parish Church in Brunswick, Maine, the church that sent me to Seminary. History can be important. The history of the love God has for us is of utmost importance.
BENEDICTION: God’s love will surround us even when we do not ask for it. God’s voice speaks to us. Let us be attentive to it. Let us share this with others, confident that God will be with us. And may we love God so much, that we love nothing else too much. May we be so in awe of God that we are in awe of no one else and nothing else. Amen.
[1] Thomas Keating, Be Still and Know.
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