Covenant of Discipleship

Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread. At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!” and ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down. The Lord called again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food,” and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, “The two shall be one flesh.” But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body. 

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” 

This morning we come to our fourth Sunday in the series on covenant.  A little reminder of where we have been.

Week 1,  we started with the basics of what a covenant is, the expectation of covenant, and what we do when we are out of covenant Matthew 18:15-17 being a starting place.  We like to believe that there was harmony in those early gathering of Christians.  The church being made up of humans has always had troubles with divisions and disharmony.   Matthew’s answer then works even now in almost all situations.

15"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' 17If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

-First, if a person is acting in a way that breaks down the body of the church, go talk to a person face to face.

-Second, if that person continues to work against the building up of the body of the church, go with a group.  Perhaps, more ears and voices can bring better understanding.

-Third, if a person continues to act in a way that breaks down the body of the church, they must be removed from the fellowship until they are ready to return to the covenant.

Week 2. we looked at the covenant of being on this journey together.  We considered the diversity of the wise ones who sought Jesus and brought their gifts and considered what it means for a diverse group to unify to seek after a common experience of God.

Week 3 we look more closely at the specific covenant we share in baptism and how we affirm that covenant when we join as members.

This week, our 4th week, we look at the covenant to be Disciples, learners of this way of Jesus. The lectionary passages we heard this morning remind us to be learners who listen for the Still Speaking God, who have freedom and responsibility in our covenant relationship, and who need to overcome the prejudices that get us stuck.

From the Hebrew scripture, we heard the call of the boy Samuel.  God spoke to him in the stillness of the night.  It took Eli, a person blind by his eyes but seeing clearly with his heart, to tell Samuel that he needed to answer that voice and ask what was wanted of him.  God spoke. Samuel listened. Then Samuel was given a very difficult task.  His first assignment was to carry the knowledge that trouble would come upon Eli’s children because they have behaved so badly. 

Consider Samuel’s call. How do you know when God is calling you?  How do you know the nudge or push of God telling you to listen?  You need to ask others. But not just any others.  You need to ask those who can see with their hearts even more than they can see with their eyes.  That is the way of our Congregational heritage.  Anyone can say they have heard God, or feel that they are called by God.  It is when we talk to others in our faith community about what we are feeling that we can better discern what direction the Spirit is taking us.

Think about God’s calling to us.  We say God is still speaking.  Some churches add, “ And we are still listening.”  But are we church? Are we listening?  We are first and foremost a church.  Not just a church, we are a Christian church.  What is our ministry as a church in this time and in this place.  

There are neighbors who do not like the Rotating men’s shelter being here.  Our Preschool absolutely does not like the shelter being here.  We are first and foremost... a church.  I have to tell you that I get the calls from neighbors and the preschool complaining about the Shelter.  I know how difficult it is for us as a small congregation to make this happen.  I recognize the juggling of concerts and recitals.  And I have prayed that maybe the shelter doesn’t belong here.  And I was wrong.  Three of you each came up to me in December and said how much the shelter meant to you because, “ this was doing church.”  You didn’t know about my prayers.  You each used about the same words.  Now, if that wasn’t the Holy Spirit, it was an amazing coincidence.  You reminded me that we are first and foremost... a church. In our ministry as a church, everything we do, must be part of our mission to bring the way of Jesus in all we do.

In the second reading, Paul started off with a maxim “ All things are permissible to me” It was probably a maxim that the people of Corinth used.  They were now free in Christ.  You know people like this, they take a partial truth and declare it a full truth.  Yes, they were free in Christ.  They were not free to behave badly.  Freedom, yes.  Responsibility to the covenant, absolutely! There were expectations of this relationship with the Divine and with the community of those who follow this way of Jesus.  We here in the west miss what this passage was trying to say because we get hung up on the mention of sex.  The problem is that the Corinthians are using a partial truth, that we have freedom in Christ, as their reason that they can have sex with temple prostitutes.  This was not about a loving relationship.  It was about a pre-Christian practice in a worship not of the way of Jesus.  It was definitely not something followers of the way of Jesus were free to continue. 

Friends, this maxim is still said today.  It is said that in the UCC each church is autonomous so we can do whatever we want to do. We are free.  Well, yes, we are autonomous just as a married couple is autonomous and we are in a committed relationship with the UCC just as a married couple is in a committed relationship with one another.  We have freedom and we have a relationship that we have joined into freely.  In that choice we have committed ourselves to a way of being.  We have committed ourselves to be among the progressive churches.  We have committed ourselves to the support of our local conference and our national body.  We have committed ourselves to participate as best as we are able in the activities of our wider church. There is more we can do.  There are more connections we can make. We are autonomous and we are in a marriage with our UCC denomination.

3. Commitment to unity rather than destruction or division. NOTE: The Honorable Opposition is good for a relationship, that is one who points out the disagreements and the unseen possibilities while still working for the building up of the body.  This is different than the actions that break down the body. The Unhonorable Opposition does not talk face to face.  The Unhonorable Opposition often tells half truths and sets them out as full truths.  The Unhonorable Opposition breaks down and divides the body of the the relationship.

4. Commitment to be fully human in relationship with other fully human people. We will grow and change and make mistakes and learn and grow some more.

Now, I know this is controversial for some - our preschool is a mission and ministry  of our church. It is not autonomous as far as the IRS, the non profit status, and the licensing board is concerned.  The church did not marry our preschool. The church created the preschool as a ministry to bring good childcare to this valley and because it was needed at that time and in this place.  We must continually discern if it is still our mission and ministry as times change in this place. Our leaders on the church council are committed to this ministry.  They are legally responsible for the clarity and transparency of our preschool operation. The school has been given great freedoms and for eight years the council has requested financial reports that are balanced.  As of this month, we are still struggling to get these.  

We are in covenant with our church leaders.  We have selected them to do this difficult task.  If you have a disagreement, go to them face to face.  Letters sent out, whispers behind doors or backs, are out of covenant.  The Honorable Opposition is needed to speak openly and directly with the intent of building up the church.  For we are first and foremost... a church.  The Unhonorable Opposition is about other things, maybe power, control, having things a certain way and may even be unable to see the destruction that is caused by being divisive and setting up sides.  Let me be clear, sending out letters  without talking face to face is out of covenant.  Sending out letters or talking in some truths, some half truths, some non-truths is out of covenant. We need to talk face to face especially with our leaders.  They are trying to be faithful to the responsibilities they have covenanted with us to bear.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus called Nathanael to follow him. Nathanael was surprised to find that Jesus came from he obscure village of Nazareth. He wondered about how anything good could come from that place.  Nathanael came up against his prejudice.  He could have gotten stuck.  He could have held to his belief about Nazareth.  And had he continued to be stuck in that belief, he would never have given himself the opportunity to follow this Jesus. Luckily, Nathanael overcame his prejudice.  

Could anything good come out of Nazareth?  Could a Black man ever be President of the United States?  Could women be preachers? Could a blind man be governor of NY? Well, yes.  Could we learn to solve our differences without going to war?  Could the dishearten and desperate be given hope instead of rifles?  Could we claim who we are as a church, knowing that we cannot be all things to all people ? 

We can listen to God and listen to each other. We can be set back on the path of freedoms with responsibilities. We can over come our stuck places and answer the still speaking God with, “Speak Lord, your servants are listening...”