A New Kind of Comm-Unity
May 16, 2010
May 16, 2010
Rev. Susan E. Gilbert Zencka
Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church
Text: Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21; John17:20-26
I was in our nation’s capital two weeks ago for a conference – I was one of 70 religious leaders from a variety of denominations: there were clergy who were Presbyterian, American Baptist, Cooperative Baptist, Episcopalian, Unitarian Universalist, Orthodox Jewish, Jewish Renewal, United Church of Christ, Lutheran, Methodist; there were Catholic nuns, and laypeople from most of the above plus Zen Buddhists and Baha’i. All these different traditions, coming together for the national Interfaith Power and Light conference – Interfaith Power and Light is a religious response to global warming, it is an organization which now has chapters in 38 states, including Wisconsin. This is exciting to me – different faith traditions are not known for getting along, yet all over the country, there are interfaith groups uniting around climate change – much as they have around other moral issues, such as the civil rights movement fifty years ago, or child labor 100 years ago. As I said, it is exciting to me to see people of many faiths working together on issues, impelled by their faith to set aside differences and work together. Because usually the world of the church/synagogue/mosque and meeting for worship is a world where our differences often seem more to carry more weight than what we have in common.
And many denominations, including Presbyterians, don’t actually need another traditions in order to have conflict – lots of us have enough conflict within our own houses, so we don’t need to fight with our neighbors. The Presbyterian Church USA is preparing for our biennial General Assembly, which will meet in Minneapolis in early July, and there are several issues before the Assembly that will have people with strong opinions on at least two sides.
Two of the issues have to do with securing full welcome for all members in our church, regardless of sexual orientation, so that gay and lesbian Presbyterians would have no barriers to ordination, or to being married in the church. The third big issue has to do with the Middle East. The fourth big issue is a proposal to significantly revise the form of government portion of our Book of Order – that is the rules for how our church governs itself – at all levels from the local congregation to the national body – General Assembly. I am a commissioner to General Assembly this year and have been assigned to the committee on the Form of Government Revision, which promises to be interesting. The PCUSA has a long tradition of addressing social justice issues, and policy at a national and international level, so there are many overtures on a variety of issues, from global warming to swearing in the movie industry, to HIV testing, to U.S. military presence in Colombia, to the war in Afghanistan, to war in general, to budget issues, mission initiatives, and many many more. And in our denomination, there is often a fair amount of discussing, arguing, and lobbying the commissioners (I received a packet in the mail today). This is because we don’t have bishops or popes who are empowered to issue policies – our understanding is that God’s will is best discerned by communities, so we gather as communities – the session here in this congregation makes the decision, the presbytery makes decisions regionally, and General Assembly makes decisions nationally – as a large body, equally comprised of elders and ministers. We make decisions collectively, and that can be a little messy, and there can be a lot of disagreement. It reminds one a little of the saying about the making of sausage and legislation – you may like the results but you don’t want to see it made. And some folks won’t be happy with some outcomes – in our presbytery, a minister recently left the denomination because he was unhappy with movement toward ordaining gay and lesbian ministers. In my last presbytery, several conservative congregations left the denomination, and that has happened elsewhere, too.
And in the Church, there are not only disagreements between denominations, and within denominations, but also often at the congregational level. Churches can disagree about all kinds of things: worship times, Sunday School times, new hymnals, the decorations, the music, the minister, changes in worship, and so on and so on. I think churches have conflict for a few reasons: one is that church is where we come to think about issues related to things we care very much about, things that come at the center of life – like what creates meaning, and how do we work for justice, and who does God love, and what is truth, and that’s important stuff – so people are less inclined to compromise. Also, as culture as changed rapidly over the last 50 years, the church has been slower to change, so some people feel especially strongly that it not change – that it remain a bastion of life as it was.
Actually, Frame has very little conflict compared to many churches I have known – although lack of conflict is not always a good thing in churches. Sometimes people are so conflict-averse that they can’t talk about things if they disagree, so when they are faced with conflict, they leave or they stay and refuse to engage. Conflict in itself is not a bad thing, and it is a totally inevitable thing. People don’t always agree. What makes conflict unhealthy or healthy is how we handle it. And that’s where the Biblical advice to “speak the truth in love” comes in. The Presbyterian way of being church assumes that we won’t always agree – but it is in discussing, listening, and respecting each other and the process that we discern how we sense God calling us. And in that process, we often come to a relationship that is stronger, even if we don’t come to agreement.
So with all these kinds of conflict – in congregations, in denominations, between denominations and between faiths – how is it that Jesus can seriously be calling for unity among the people of God? How can there be unity when conflict is inevitable?
The answer is that conflict and unity are not mutually exclusive.
Unity is not the same as unanimity. Unanimity is rare – any time you get two people or more, inevitably they will eventually disagree. Sometimes I am even of two minds all by myself! Disagreement isn’t a bad thing. It can be part of the process of discerning the right way to proceed. As the late Ruth Bell Graham said when asked if she and husband Billy Graham ever disagreed, “Of course we do. If we didn’t, one of us would be redundant!” Of course, Mrs. Graham was Presbyterian – that’s an essential part of our perspective: that we gain in understanding by sifting among differing opinions. Part of the meeting process at presbytery and General Assembly is to alternate opposing opinions. So after someone speaks for a motion, the moderator will often call to ask if there are any to speak against the motion. We assume that we won’t all agree and we hope that by listening to one another, we can come to agreement. Our Presbyterian constitution, the Book of Order, assumes that conflict will arise, and states that “God alone is Lord of the conscience” and that “we also believe that there are truths and forms with respect to which [persons] of good characters and principles may differ. And in all these we think it the duty both of private Christians and societies to exercise mutual forbearance toward each other.”
Several years ago I went to two conferences on marriage. One of the points that was made again and again is that conflict is normal, and even potentially healthy, but that in our culture many people have not learned how to deal with conflict in healthy ways. This can lead to divorce when a marriage could be saved, and it leads to people leaving jobs, churches, and all kinds of relationships because they have not learned how to “speak the truth in love” and listen deeply to another.
Of course, part of the reason there are so many differing opinions is because we’re not all the same. The church includes young, old, and many ages in between. The church includes gay, straight, married, and not married, all nationalities, people who were raised Presbyterian and people who weren’t, people of different political perspectives, economic backgrounds, and education. And that’s because unity is not the same as uniformity either.
I know that there are people who prefer to be around people like themselves, but one of the values of the church is that in the church, people who are different in all possible ways are brought into community together. And by being in community with people who are very different from us, we learn that different doesn’t mean wrong, different doesn’t mean strange, different doesn’t mean bad, different is just different, and different adds to our understanding.
So if unity isn’t uniformity, and unity isn’t unanimity – what is unity in the church? Fundamentally, unity is about recognizing that we are all part of a larger oneness, that our identity is shaped by something larger to which we all belong. And knowing that we belong to a greater oneness, we know that we belong to one another as well. As different as we are from one another, as different as we are from other people who believe other things in other places – we are all part of one another. It is a fascinating thing that the Bible ends with the words “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all….” While it is true, some ancient manuscripts added the words “the saints” many of the manuscripts just leave it at this “grace to all”.
And we see that great belonging even in God – God the creator, the energy of life and love that creates everything in the cosmos; Jesus the son of Man, revealing to us how that Divine love is lived out by humans, showing us what it means to be fully human; and the Holy Spirit, that same divine energy of love and life that flows through all of life, and that is our own inner experience of divine love. And these different manifestations of the divine, these different ways we experience the Holy, are themselves all part of a greater Oneness in which we are all united.
The unity of the church is an awareness of that Great Unity, that Oneness in which we all “live and move and have our being” – it is who we are at our most essential. And so when we talk about the unity of the church, we are talking about a commonality, a consciousness, an awareness, that we are part of each other, and part of a greater whole, in which our differences make that wholeness rich and beautiful. And acting on that unity deepens our awareness of it, and our witness to it.
We don’t have to agree to be in unity, we delight in that we are not all alike to be in unity – unity is not unanimity nor is it uniformity – unity is knowing that we are part of one another, and part of God in whom we are truly one. Thanks be to God.
Amen.
Rev. Susan E. Gilbert Zencka
Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church
Text: Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21; John17:20-26
I was in our nation’s capital two weeks ago for a conference – I was one of 70 religious leaders from a variety of denominations: there were clergy who were Presbyterian, American Baptist, Cooperative Baptist, Episcopalian, Unitarian Universalist, Orthodox Jewish, Jewish Renewal, United Church of Christ, Lutheran, Methodist; there were Catholic nuns, and laypeople from most of the above plus Zen Buddhists and Baha’i. All these different traditions, coming together for the national Interfaith Power and Light conference – Interfaith Power and Light is a religious response to global warming, it is an organization which now has chapters in 38 states, including Wisconsin. This is exciting to me – different faith traditions are not known for getting along, yet all over the country, there are interfaith groups uniting around climate change – much as they have around other moral issues, such as the civil rights movement fifty years ago, or child labor 100 years ago. As I said, it is exciting to me to see people of many faiths working together on issues, impelled by their faith to set aside differences and work together. Because usually the world of the church/synagogue/mosque and meeting for worship is a world where our differences often seem more to carry more weight than what we have in common.
And many denominations, including Presbyterians, don’t actually need another traditions in order to have conflict – lots of us have enough conflict within our own houses, so we don’t need to fight with our neighbors. The Presbyterian Church USA is preparing for our biennial General Assembly, which will meet in Minneapolis in early July, and there are several issues before the Assembly that will have people with strong opinions on at least two sides.
Two of the issues have to do with securing full welcome for all members in our church, regardless of sexual orientation, so that gay and lesbian Presbyterians would have no barriers to ordination, or to being married in the church. The third big issue has to do with the Middle East. The fourth big issue is a proposal to significantly revise the form of government portion of our Book of Order – that is the rules for how our church governs itself – at all levels from the local congregation to the national body – General Assembly. I am a commissioner to General Assembly this year and have been assigned to the committee on the Form of Government Revision, which promises to be interesting. The PCUSA has a long tradition of addressing social justice issues, and policy at a national and international level, so there are many overtures on a variety of issues, from global warming to swearing in the movie industry, to HIV testing, to U.S. military presence in Colombia, to the war in Afghanistan, to war in general, to budget issues, mission initiatives, and many many more. And in our denomination, there is often a fair amount of discussing, arguing, and lobbying the commissioners (I received a packet in the mail today). This is because we don’t have bishops or popes who are empowered to issue policies – our understanding is that God’s will is best discerned by communities, so we gather as communities – the session here in this congregation makes the decision, the presbytery makes decisions regionally, and General Assembly makes decisions nationally – as a large body, equally comprised of elders and ministers. We make decisions collectively, and that can be a little messy, and there can be a lot of disagreement. It reminds one a little of the saying about the making of sausage and legislation – you may like the results but you don’t want to see it made. And some folks won’t be happy with some outcomes – in our presbytery, a minister recently left the denomination because he was unhappy with movement toward ordaining gay and lesbian ministers. In my last presbytery, several conservative congregations left the denomination, and that has happened elsewhere, too.
And in the Church, there are not only disagreements between denominations, and within denominations, but also often at the congregational level. Churches can disagree about all kinds of things: worship times, Sunday School times, new hymnals, the decorations, the music, the minister, changes in worship, and so on and so on. I think churches have conflict for a few reasons: one is that church is where we come to think about issues related to things we care very much about, things that come at the center of life – like what creates meaning, and how do we work for justice, and who does God love, and what is truth, and that’s important stuff – so people are less inclined to compromise. Also, as culture as changed rapidly over the last 50 years, the church has been slower to change, so some people feel especially strongly that it not change – that it remain a bastion of life as it was.
Actually, Frame has very little conflict compared to many churches I have known – although lack of conflict is not always a good thing in churches. Sometimes people are so conflict-averse that they can’t talk about things if they disagree, so when they are faced with conflict, they leave or they stay and refuse to engage. Conflict in itself is not a bad thing, and it is a totally inevitable thing. People don’t always agree. What makes conflict unhealthy or healthy is how we handle it. And that’s where the Biblical advice to “speak the truth in love” comes in. The Presbyterian way of being church assumes that we won’t always agree – but it is in discussing, listening, and respecting each other and the process that we discern how we sense God calling us. And in that process, we often come to a relationship that is stronger, even if we don’t come to agreement.
So with all these kinds of conflict – in congregations, in denominations, between denominations and between faiths – how is it that Jesus can seriously be calling for unity among the people of God? How can there be unity when conflict is inevitable?
The answer is that conflict and unity are not mutually exclusive.
Unity is not the same as unanimity. Unanimity is rare – any time you get two people or more, inevitably they will eventually disagree. Sometimes I am even of two minds all by myself! Disagreement isn’t a bad thing. It can be part of the process of discerning the right way to proceed. As the late Ruth Bell Graham said when asked if she and husband Billy Graham ever disagreed, “Of course we do. If we didn’t, one of us would be redundant!” Of course, Mrs. Graham was Presbyterian – that’s an essential part of our perspective: that we gain in understanding by sifting among differing opinions. Part of the meeting process at presbytery and General Assembly is to alternate opposing opinions. So after someone speaks for a motion, the moderator will often call to ask if there are any to speak against the motion. We assume that we won’t all agree and we hope that by listening to one another, we can come to agreement. Our Presbyterian constitution, the Book of Order, assumes that conflict will arise, and states that “God alone is Lord of the conscience” and that “we also believe that there are truths and forms with respect to which [persons] of good characters and principles may differ. And in all these we think it the duty both of private Christians and societies to exercise mutual forbearance toward each other.”
Several years ago I went to two conferences on marriage. One of the points that was made again and again is that conflict is normal, and even potentially healthy, but that in our culture many people have not learned how to deal with conflict in healthy ways. This can lead to divorce when a marriage could be saved, and it leads to people leaving jobs, churches, and all kinds of relationships because they have not learned how to “speak the truth in love” and listen deeply to another.
Of course, part of the reason there are so many differing opinions is because we’re not all the same. The church includes young, old, and many ages in between. The church includes gay, straight, married, and not married, all nationalities, people who were raised Presbyterian and people who weren’t, people of different political perspectives, economic backgrounds, and education. And that’s because unity is not the same as uniformity either.
I know that there are people who prefer to be around people like themselves, but one of the values of the church is that in the church, people who are different in all possible ways are brought into community together. And by being in community with people who are very different from us, we learn that different doesn’t mean wrong, different doesn’t mean strange, different doesn’t mean bad, different is just different, and different adds to our understanding.
So if unity isn’t uniformity, and unity isn’t unanimity – what is unity in the church? Fundamentally, unity is about recognizing that we are all part of a larger oneness, that our identity is shaped by something larger to which we all belong. And knowing that we belong to a greater oneness, we know that we belong to one another as well. As different as we are from one another, as different as we are from other people who believe other things in other places – we are all part of one another. It is a fascinating thing that the Bible ends with the words “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all….” While it is true, some ancient manuscripts added the words “the saints” many of the manuscripts just leave it at this “grace to all”.
And we see that great belonging even in God – God the creator, the energy of life and love that creates everything in the cosmos; Jesus the son of Man, revealing to us how that Divine love is lived out by humans, showing us what it means to be fully human; and the Holy Spirit, that same divine energy of love and life that flows through all of life, and that is our own inner experience of divine love. And these different manifestations of the divine, these different ways we experience the Holy, are themselves all part of a greater Oneness in which we are all united.
The unity of the church is an awareness of that Great Unity, that Oneness in which we all “live and move and have our being” – it is who we are at our most essential. And so when we talk about the unity of the church, we are talking about a commonality, a consciousness, an awareness, that we are part of each other, and part of a greater whole, in which our differences make that wholeness rich and beautiful. And acting on that unity deepens our awareness of it, and our witness to it.
We don’t have to agree to be in unity, we delight in that we are not all alike to be in unity – unity is not unanimity nor is it uniformity – unity is knowing that we are part of one another, and part of God in whom we are truly one. Thanks be to God.
Amen.