“Respond to God’s Call”
Jeremiah 31: 31-34, Matthew 23: 1-12
Reformation Sunday, Oct 27, 2013
Rev. Joy R. Haertig
I would imagine that for most of us the 31st of October has more to do with
Halloween than marking the anniversary of the Christian Reformation. On
October 31, 1517, Martin Luther challenged the Roman Catholic Church’s
theology of salvation and sacraments, thus initiating the religious movement that
became known as Protestantism. I imagine it is given more air time in the
Lutheran tradition, but it nonetheless opened the door to the founding of all
Protestant traditions including Congregational which is the most familiar of the
four founding denominations of the United Church of Christ. (The four were:
Congregational, Christian, Evangelical, and Reformed)
In a recent gathering here at MUCC a question came up about the history of our
church – so I thought Reformation Sunday would be a good time to do a brief
sweep of our history.
In worship planning the staff chose our MUCC Purpose and Vision statement to
guide our October worship. Each week we have focused on one of its themes, this
week the focus is “Responding to God’s call”. A central driving force behind the
creation of the Protestant tradition is that we DO NOT earn God’s love and grace,
it is a gift given to us by God, yet there is a response to that gift on our part that
involves action, a response that involves embodying that love and grace to a world
where injustice, violence and oppression are unfortunately very real. Responding
to God’s call is a historic part of our Protestant tradition.
(I give credit to writer and Professor Diane Butler Bass in giving words to the
following Reformation history)
It is interesting to note that even though October 31st is called “Reformation
Sunday” “Martin Luther and those who followed the teaching and actions of this
new reform movement did not come to be known as “Reformers” but “Protestants”
– they were first, “protesters” – not reformers. They were actively standing up
against the religious conventions of the day arguing on behalf of those who were
suffering under religious, social, and economic oppression. These religious
protesters accused the church of their day of being too rich, too political, in cahoots
with kings and princes, having sold its soul to the powerful. The original
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Protestants preached, taught, and argued for freedom – spiritual, economic, and
political – and for God’s justice to be embodied in the church and the world.”
(Dianna Butler Bass, Putting the Protest Back in Protestant, 10/28/11)
Inspired by the words of Jesus such as the one’s we heard this morning from the
Gospel of Matthew as he criticized the religious hierarchy of his own day, Martin
Luther responded to God’s call in 1517 and initiated a new religious movement
with his protests!
At the heart of Protestantism – at the heart of our history – is the courage to
challenge injustice and to give voice to those who have no voice. Protestantism
opened access for all people to experience God’s grace and God’s bounty, not only
spiritually but actually.
Diana Butler Bass states it this way: “The early Protestants believed that they were
not only creating a new church, but they were creating a new world, one that would
resemble more fully God’s desire for humanity. The original Protestant impulse
was to resist powers of worldly dominion and domination in favor of the power of
God’s spirit to transform human hearts and society. Protestants were not content
with the status quo. They felt a deep discomfort within. They knew things were
not right. And they set out to change the world.”
There were two styles of resistance in this protest movement: Puritans and
Separatists, who would later be known as Pilgrims, these were the ones that would
eventually head to America and begin the “Congregational way” which are our
specific roots. Separatists James Robinson and William Bradford were the
forefathers of our denomination.
These men and their followers “responded to God’s call” in search of political and
religious freedom from hierarchy, they first fled England for Holland where they
settled for a dozen years or so before heading to America. After a variety of
traveling problems their ship, the Mayflower, landed in Cape Cod in November of
1620. Although this was not their original destination, they rejoiced in touching
land and gathered on the beach for a service of thanksgiving and praise. Later they
established the Plymouth Colony and the Congregational Way was launched in the
New World. (Rev. Bob Fitzgerald, words from a sermon preached at MUCC in
March of 1973)
Moving forward another 100 years as slavery became commonplace and a thriving
business in America, Congregationalists responded to God’s call as “ProtestingProtestants” through specific action in the anti-slavery movement throughout the
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17 and 1800’s and forward. If you by chance know the story of the schooner
Amistad that was taken over by African slaves who ended up in a Connecticut jail,
it was the New England Congregationalists that organized support to release them
to return home as free people rather than as property of the Spanish slave owner.
Jumping way ahead in history:
As mentioned earlier, Congregationalism is one of four denominations that over
time came together to make the United Church of Christ in 1957. While the UCC
denomination is relatively young, our roots are not, and while we are now called
The United Church of Christ we still practice what is called a “Congregational
tradition” in that even though we have ordained ministers, the power resides with
the congregation; we are non-hierarchical in our denominational polity with no
bishops or overarching governing body that tells us what to believe or do.
While we were founded on the East Coast of the United States, Congregationalism
eventually made it to the Pacific Northwest as pioneers made their way across the
country. Our particular congregation, Magnolia UCC, was originally Magnolia
Community Congregational Church. In 1945 the Magnolia community already
had Lutheran, Presbyterian and Methodist churches and while they were all
Protestant in nature – they were not congregational in their structure. Interest
was expressed in starting a Congregational church in Magnolia and the
Washington Congregational Conference was given some funds to build a
Congregational style, community church. We were founded during that marvelous
post WWII enthusiasm and the church grew steadily. In looking at a few of the
earliest Sunday bulletins I believe that our first Purpose and Vision statement was
what was printed on the front page: “Magnolia Congregational Community
Church - A sanctuary of the Spirit, a Friendly household, a Training School for
Christian Character, a Center of Helpful Service, a Force for Civic Righteousness,
A power for God throughout the World – an Unfailing Spring of Inner Refreshment
and Strength for All”.
Responding to God’s call has been a part of our history from the very beginning.
While I don’t have time to go further into the history of our specific congregation
and the varying shape our “response” has taken through the years, I do want to
return to some of the thoughts that writer and Professor Dianna Butler Bass speaks
to regarding Protestantism in general on this Reformation Sunday:
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Although the United States was a solid majority Protestant nation for most of its
history, Protestantism has fallen on hard times of late. The once commanding 2/3
Protestant majority has slipped to a bare 50% of the population (or less), with
many who are part of Protestant churches unsure of the meaning of the word, the
origin of their traditions, or the basic insights of Protestant theology. (I would
guess she is referring to some of the evangelical churches that have popped up over
the last 15 years or so.)
The roots and heart of Protestantism is the courage to challenge injustice and
to give voice to those who have no voice. Protestantism opened access for all
people to experience God’s grace and God’s bounty not just spiritually but
actually.
She continues: “In the United States, Protestantism has often been torn between
the impulse to protest (the abolition movement, women’s rights movements; the
Civil Rights movement) and the complacency of content by virtue of being the
majority religion. After all, if you are the largest religious group in society—if you
shape the culture—what do you protest ---Yourself? Protestant success in the
United States has always been a bit at odds with the primary impulse of the faith to
resist convention in favor of challenging injustice.
Now, however, as part of a religious plurality and no longer the majority faith,
Bass believes that Protestants are rediscovering the courageous part of our
identity too long hidden under a veneer of cultural success.
Diana believes that this is a good time to “put the protest back in Protestantism”.
I found her words thought-provoking. As we consider this history of ours and the
part of our vision and purpose statement which speaks of responding to God’s call:
What might her challenge mean for us at MUCC? How have we “protested”? Do
we “protest” ---How might we need to “protest”?
(We held a conversation about this after sermon, such topics as Equality in
Marriage and Gun Control. It was also noted that protesting included
“proclaiming” our faith – our church – our values to others.)
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