The Challenge of Church and Covenant

 
Sermon Duet
Marj: Good Morning!  Alison and I, from different perspectives and for different reasons, found ourselves last semester in a class on Unitarian Universalist Polity at Wesley Theological Seminary.  I am a Wesley student in my second year, working toward a Masters in Theological Studies.  There were five of us in this seminar class, all in various stages of denominational, theological and academic commitment.  Our professor was the Reverend Kim Beach, formerly minister of the Arlington Church and interpreter of Unitarian Universalist theologian James Luther Adams.  The experience was overflowing with books, articles and more articles, and wide-ranging class discussion. We explored denominational issues of history, and theology and organization. We thought about congregational questions of worship, ethics, and freedom and responsibility.  We tried to pull it all together in a final paper, and we learned a lot.

Alison and I continued the dialogue as we prepared our discussion for today.  In the language of covenant which we have been studying, we covenanted together to work on bringing you some ideas from our experience.  We hope you will covenant with us this morning to share your thoughts as well.
 
Alison: Wesley Seminary offers several degrees. I am working on the Masters of Divinity, the route to ordination. In the class Marj and I took on UU polity, we were to write our Doctrine of the Church & Ministry for our final paper. This was a valuable exercise for me in my first year of seminary, because it made me seriously grapple with the meaning and purpose of 'church'. And, as a consequence, my professional goals-a good thing to do before heading down a multi-year academic commitment.
 
Since Marj and I are the only seminary students from this church, we thought you might appreciate learning about some of the concepts and issues we struggled with, and how they connect to who we are as a religious community. We also hope we'll challenge you to think about our church and your involvement in new and deeper ways, just as we have.
 
You might think that someone who has been a church lay leader for years, and now a professional church leader, that this would be easy to write. The actual writing wasn't so hard, but the readings and discussion that preceded it was where the hard work occurred. At the end of it, Marj and I both came to understand more fully that what distinguishes a church from a religious interest group are our relationships.
 
That may sound simple or obvious, but as in any relationship, things are not so simple. We can find people to talk about religion, philosophy and spirituality elsewhere, but here we have relationships with people who have promised to care about us. And who have joined together to realize our principles. We have promised to be in relationship with one another, to covenant with one another. Last week we had a new member ceremony where we welcomed newcomers into this relationship. As a church, we take this covenant seriously.
 
At a Universalist convention in 1790, in Philadelphia, representatives defined the church as "of a number of believers, united by covenant, for the purpose of maintaining the public worship of God, the preaching of the gospel, ordaining officers, preserving order and peace among its members, and relieving the poor." Except for the mention of God, which some of us might prefer to re-phrase as 'that which has ultimate worth', this description of over two hundred years ago still rings true.
 
Passing well beyond club membership requirements, in covenant we become a community with mutual, intentional obligations and responsibilities. This covenantal expectation in many of our churches, I believe, is often understated, or not stated at all. Sometimes, I think we afraid to ask too much of people, for fear they won't stay. We know people have too much competing for their time; church is only one of many demands on Sunday morning. Sometimes the more abstract benefits of church lose out. But relationships require you to show up; they require work, honesty, and integrity if they are to be successful and meaningful.
 
If a church is about relationships, or covenant, than what creates and sustains our connections? Here's a sample of what we do when we're together.
 
Church is a place where we celebrate life-its highs and lows, its passages.
 
Church is a place where we shape our identity through shared bonds and values-we know we belong.
 
Church is a place where we exchange ideas and challenge our understandings, we can't become fully human in isolation; we learn through our experiences with others.
 
Church is a place where we worship, where we are called to be greater than we are, to reach beyond ourselves and recognize what is worthy, or holy, in life.
 
Church is a place where we do more in community than we can by ourselves.
 
Church is a place where we serve each other and the larger world.
 
Our covenant, like the affirmations we say on Sunday morning, are not creedal statements of belief, but an agreement to unite together based on common values; to affirm the unity in our diversity. For our liberal, non-creedal church, keeping the harmony in our diversity is one of our great challenges, as Marj will speak to, now.
 
Marj:  As a free church, a church with no theological membership requirements, how do we come together to find connection and relationship? What do we hold in common that is unique to a church?

In the covenant of the Cambridge Platform of 1636 our spiritual ancestors, the Puritans, agreed to "Walk together". Conrad Wright, a Unitarian Universalist historian, asks the ancient covenant question from the Book of Amos in the Old Testament, "Can two walk together except they be agreed?"  Wright answers, "No they cannot, unless they are agreed on a few things of overriding importance:"  

Emerson's ringing phrase, "Who would be a man would be a nonconformist" has inspired Unitarian Universalists to emphasize the importance of individual freedom. Yet as Dennis reminded us last week, there is "no such thing as a self-made man." As a congregation and as a denomination we are increasingly emphasizing the reality of community. From the writings of contemporary UU thinkers and from our class discussions I have gained a deeper appreciation of the constant tension between individual freedom and group responsibility.   
 
Alison:
Our liberal churches have a problem with this core American and UU value of individualism. All churches have issues, but I believe this one negatively impacts this concept of church. If the covenantal relationship is the primary characteristic of a church, then strident individualism undermines it.
 
Together with our Puritan roots of congregational polity and our young nation's political experiment with freedom and democracy, over time our UU freedom of belief and embrace of theological diversity, has led to a community disconnect.
Two famous figures we claim as UUs, rightly or not, encouraged this trend in our early UU history. Thomas Jefferson felt he could be a Unitarian by himself because he wasn't interested in attending church and he claimed there weren't enough Unitarians around Monticello. Also, Ralph Waldo Emerson, despite his need to sermonize and create community through his writings, felt religion was best explored in solitude. "Men are less together than they are alone," he once said. But I believe spirituality must be connected to community; privatized spirituality keeps us from doing justice work, it is shallow and untested.
 
And it is without relationships. Religion and spirituality should not be all about me or you. James Luther Adams writes, "A purely spiritual religion is a purely spurious religion; it is one that exempts its believer from surrender to the sustaining, transforming reality that demands the community of justice and love...The faith of a church or of a nation is an adequate faith only when it inspires persons to give of their time and energy to shape the various institutions-social, economic, and political-of the common life." The liberal church may be free of doctrinal belief, but it is not free of responsibilities and obligations.
 
Spiritually, I connect with much of what Emerson says about transcendent religious experiences, his reverence for nature, and the restorative value of solitude in the wild. But I don't believe that's enough. Religion and spirituality are more than the momentary transcendent experience; church allows that 'more' to be expressed. We need both. If I were not part of a religious community, my life would be less. I find meaning in life through shared religious expression and human interaction. I need church.
 
Marj:    We covenant as a church to be together, and to do together.  In our Seven Principles we affirm our shared ideals of "right relationship" with each other and with the world around us.  We may differ on the theological grounding of those ideals, or on the words for expressing our shared beliefs, but as Wright puts it, "we are agreed on a few things of overriding importance".

One of these principles is "inherent worth and dignity", our own and everyone else's.  We come together as a church to practice that idea, to make it real in daily life. However, because we are believers in human goodness, we haven't developed many ways of dealing with the times when we disappoint, when we are unfaithful, when we mess up.  We have no formal rituals for recognizing and mending those human experiences, large and small, of falling short of our best selves.  
Rebecca Parker, president of Starr King theological school, in her talk to the 1998 General Assembly said, "All of us as human beings have experienced promises not kept.  We know the impasse and the anguish that comes to human life when commitments are broken."  She goes on to say, "The path to deeper spirituality begins with promises failed, covenant broken, hope suppressed."

This is where covenant groups come in.  Here, in regular face-to-face dialogue, Unitarian Universalists come as close as we get to the relief and growth of the ancient spiritual practice of confession.   

Here we covenant to say out loud our doubts and our fears, as well as put our hopes and dreams on record, and share our pleasure in happy endings and work well done.  We inspire others, and find comfort for our limitations. Here we can talk about being disappointing not only to people we love, but also to ourselves. Here we have a UU model for faithful practice of our values in community.

I want to share a final idea about how covenant involves both freedom and responsibility. These thoughts come from Kim Beach's essay "The Covenant of Spiritual Freedom".  He says, provocatively to us UUs, "We are not free to believe whatever we want, any more than we are free to do whatever we want--unless of course, we choose instant gratification and utter transience.  We are free to believe what we must and to do what we must in order to fulfill our human vocation, our calling to a larger humanity."

"Human possibilities emerge and shine most brightly in the fact of limitations" he says, and gives the example of creating a piece of pottery.  The potter starts with infinite possibilities.  At first, he is only constrained by the materials of his craft, the tools and his skill.  Within these realities, anything is possible.  As the work proceeds, so do limitations. To decide to make a pitcher excludes the possibility of making a bowl. In proceeding toward a finished ceramic, the choices become fewer, and the demands of the finished product more powerful.  Therein, for all of us, as we metaphorically create our individual pitchers and bowls, lies both the freedom and the necessity.

Alison and I experienced that process as we pruned and tweaked our ideas and words for this morning. We began as individuals, and in dialogue learned as much about each other as what we planned to say.

A few weeks ago forty of us met in a "congregational dialogue" to talk out some pieces of our history and sort out some facts, misunderstandings and hopes.  This kind of getting acquainted and re-acquainted with each other will happen again at our Annual Meeting after this service when we make decisions for next year and beyond. When we talk together as a congregation with open minds and hearts we grow as caring and connected individuals.   

Beach says that faith is like that.  If we are creating our spiritual selves, we need to accept the discipline of becoming who we really are. We also need to accept the discipline of encouraging others to be who they really are.  

Here the metaphor of the potter shifts, because we are not creating ourselves by ourselves.  We are growing our souls within community.  We can help each other become who we were meant to be.  There is creative freedom as we acknowledge the necessity and constraints demanded of covenanted people.
 
Invitation to Dialogue
Marj:  And now we invite you to experience a sample of this kind of connection. The format will begin with a short one- on- one conversation, and then we'll invite a reporting of a few of these ideas to the larger group. For today, this will be our congregational experience of sharing joys and sorrows.

So, from your seat, find someone you don't know, or at least don't know well. Remember, if you can, an experience of a time when you felt connected in this church and what it was like.  Or, if you are new, or such an experience doesn't come to mind, share a hope for that kind of connection.  After that brief conversation we'll come together again as a congregation, and describe a few highlights of what you have learned from each other.
 
Congregational Dialogue
Marj: We thank you for the experiences you have shared. May that the process continue at coffee hour and beyond.