"Expressing a Sense of Identity"

Since January's congregational meeting, and even more often recently, you may have seen or heard our new church identity statement:

"We gather as God's people to discern Christ's way, seek social justice, and discover the holy."

As the M & M group (Moderators and Ministers) worked on the statement over several months, and then introduced it to the Cabinet and then the Congregation, we were very careful about the words we chose, because language not only expresses what we think and feel, but shapes it.

So I thought I'd take time in this summer issue to unpack the meaning of the words a bit in the hope of generating further reflection on this statement of who we are as a church.

"We gather as God's people" "Gather" comes from the Greek word ekklhsia, meaning "called out of." If you think of how we gather for worship each week, for small group classes, planning and governance meetings, to share meals, laughs, tears, Scripture, and so on, you get the idea: we have to come from someplace when we gather, and in order to gather with each other, we have to leave behind for a while where we were and what we were doing. The concept of "God's people" has been written about for centuries, and it predates the Christian church, going back at least to Judaism as a term to distinguish the people Israel as a people "set apart" for a specific, distinctive purpose, and with a distinctive identity. Whether "God's people" is applied to a local church, an association or conference (to use UCC language), denomination, or the universal Church, when we say, "We gather as God's people," it means we are called out of the world in which we live, to come together for a specific purpose and with an identity that we have together.

"To discern Christ's way" "Discern" is a wonderful word that comes from the Middle English word meaning "to separate, distinguish between," literally "to sift," (as in wheat from chaff, perhaps?). I get the sense of one trying to follow a path through the woods: sometimes the path is very plain, other times the overgrowth of brush from a lack of traffic makes it very hard to see and follow. Similarly with Christ's way: there are many different "ways", many paths in the diversity of Christianity. All of them point to a way of walking that is supposed to be different, to some degree, from the way of the rest of the world. Some people get very specific about what that means-and not just for themselves, but also for other people. What are the "marks" of Christ's way, for you? Which ones do you share with other Christians, and which ones differ? What does it mean for you to discern and walk the way of Christ?

"Seek social justice" "Seek" is another Middle English word, secan, which means "to go in search of, try to discover, acquire or gain; aim at." It implies not that one has found what one has been searching for, but that the search as well as the finding is what's important. This applies so well to social justice, with its emphasis on basic human rights and equal access to the benefits of society. The focus on the common good in which social justice has its roots is very different from our American notions of self-sufficiency, "doing for self," and individual betterment. To believe that ALL people are entitled to certain basic rights, and equal access to those rights, sounds almost like a heresy in our present day political dialogue, but it's what Jesus was about: giving people equal access-to food, shelter, clothing, health, and most of all, equal access to God.

"Discover the holy" "Discover" is also a Middle English word which means "to make known or visible, to obtain sight or knowledge for the first time." It captures the freshness of our spiritual search, our gathering, discerning, and seeking. Anyone can discover-happen upon by accident, or search for and uncover. The word "holy" is usually an adjective, as in "Holy Bible," but here, "The holy" is a noun, taken from the 19th century German theologian Rudolph Otto's book title, The Idea of the Holy. He uses the word "numinous" to describe a "non-rational, non-sensory experience or feeling whose primary and immediate object is outside the self." Now, that's pretty thick language, typical of a theologian trying to describe in words something that goes way beyond words. And theologians are more aware than most of us of how words fall short. And this is what distinguishes the holy from other forms of experience: it's not tied to thinking or what our senses take in; it may arise from these, but when we experience the holy, it comes to us from outside of us and does not depend on us. And because of this, we chose the word "discover" to describe how we encounter the holy.

Now, I'm well aware that I may be raising more questions here than I'm answering about the identity statement. And I'm working on a sermon series that delves even deeper into the meaning of our identity statement in relationship to the Bible and our faith traditions.
My hope is that this gets us to talk about our identity-both the statement we've come up with, as well as our identity itself-and that this conversation helps energize the pursuit of our mission and ministry in Longmont and beyond.