Lake Edge United Church of Christ

1994; it was the year of my divorce. It was also the year I heard Christ’s call. After 35 years as a Catholic Christian, I was searching for a church home. I spent a month or so in meditation and prayer, looking to the Scripture for guidance and direction. One day, the call came – by phone –not from God, but a friend. “I want to invite you to come to my church,” he said. We’d spoken off and on over the months and today was his day to deliver an invitation, like Jesus telling the fishermen, “Come and follow me.” That next Sunday, I was his guest. After I received communion and was back in my seat, an overwhelming feeling of acceptance flowed over me. “You are my beloved,” God seemed to say. Immediately, I knew where I belonged.
Today’s readings address membership. Membership’s also the subject of our new church constitutions. Whether or not we become an “official” member of Lake Edge, God still calls everyone to membership in the family of faith. Both church constitutions and membership rituals result in written documents. Constitutions spell out purposes, responsibilities and relationships; so do membership certificates and the rituals of welcome. Sadly, we tend to put a lot of energy into sifting through the process of creating governing documents and preparing to be received into a church. Then, after all the fussing’s over, we just stuff ‘em in a drawer and it’s off to the next thing; as if acting on these promises and relationships weren’t important at all.
The Prophet Jonah got caught in this kind of thinking. He was what Richard Boyce calls “an unfaithful insider.” Jonah knew who God was, but over time took the relationship for granted. One day God called him, and Jonah ran the other way. But, God wouldn’t let him go. Remember Psalm 139 last week? No matter where Jonah tried to hide, God was there. Finally, against his will and with little enthusiasm, Jonah did what God wanted. While Jonah pouted, the people Jonah ministered to, the Ninevites, immediately accepted God’s call to “repent.” Repent isn’t quite the right word. The word’s more accurately translated in English as “change.” God sent a Jewish man who refused to change, to call a foreign people to change. The “unfaithful insider,” the one who knew God, but acted like he didn’t, came to a Gentile people, outsiders who didn’t know God, but acted like they did. The Ninevites immediately changed their ways. Did Jonah change? Nope. He only got worse.
Then there was the ultimate change agent, Jesus Christ. While other prophets before him spoke for God about change, Jesus was God. An encounter with him changed lives forever. Before Jesus, faith talk was cheap. It was time to act.
Jesus walked along the Sea of Galilee and called James, John, Simon Peter and Andrew to “Follow.” They immediately responded dropping their familiar work and family lives, and changing into members of God’s new community. Although meaningful, classes, ritual, and paperwork aren’t the keys to membership, “responding” is. The process of joining the church is important, but not as important as “acting on” Christ’s call in our lives. In the Gospel, Jesus came, ‘“…proclaiming the Good News…saying, “The time is fulfilled…the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and act on the Good News.”’ Our life together as Christ’s church is a life-long activity. Both constitutions and membership certificates mark our journey towards the Christ. These are “living documents;” flesh and blood, God With Us road maps. Each day in faith is continuing education, and it takes a lot of credits to graduate.
Our United Church of Christ call begins long before the UCC merger in 1957. We’ve got to go all the way back to post-Reformation England. Our UCC forebear John Robinson, a Puritan leader, commissioned the first of our ancestors as they prepared to leave for the New World. He told them, “God has yet more light and more truth to break forth from God’s Holy Word.” We may not know Robinson’s words, but we know some others calling us to action in much the same way, “God is still speaking.”
When we say, “God is still speaking,” we proclaim a God with much more to say then we realize. The Bible is a large part of the ongoing story. But, we too are “living documents.” God is still speaking, through Jesus we are still changing, and if we listen close enough, God is calling us in new and unexpected ways.