A Community of Faith

A sermon preached at Old South Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Hallowell, Maine, September 16, 2007.

Text: Psalm 78

The Rev. Susan M. Reisert, Minister

What do you think of when I say the word “church”? [a building, a community of people, a family, programs, committees]

What do you think of when you think of coming to church? [finding nurture for your life and for your faith, being challenged to grow and to seek God’s wisdom and grace in new ways, an obligation, a worn-out routine, searching for that spiritual home, something that breathes new life into your weary spirit, is it something that excites you and presents new opportunities]

What do you think of when I say the word “Bible”? [set of rules, a mystery, a book that is almost impossible to understand, a set of sacred stories, God’s irrefutable word]

What do you think of when I say the word “faith”? [something that gets me through the day, my link with my Creator, a yearning, a set of beliefs that I hold onto for dear life, a path through which I experience new life and new hope]

What do you think of when I say the word “Jesus”? [Savior, nice guy, challenging, God incarnate who came to tell truth to power, siding with the poor and the oppressed, a first century hippy, the one in whose footsteps I endeavor to follow]

We come together today as another year of church school begins and we come together to be renewed and refreshed in what it means for us to gather as God’s people, to be a community of faith. Who are we as a community? And how strong is our faith? And, how well do we do in passing along our beloved stories, our sense of God’s presence, our faith?

We begin today by getting a sense of who we are now and that’s what all those questions were about, an opportunity to reflect a little on how you perceive this gathering of people in this sanctuary on this particular Sunday morning and on other Sunday mornings. Are we simply individuals who gather here or small groups with similar interests surrounded by other small groups with similar interests or groups of families that either mostly come for their children or because there’s not much else to do on a Sunday morning or are we a community of faith, taking seriously that we are God’s people, seeking in holy love to grow in faith and to encourage growth in others and to gather together celebrating our diversity?

And when we come to our realization of who we are and why we are here, it is time to ask if we could do better. And, today, we spend some time reflecting on our learning together and on our passing along of traditions and stories, our beliefs and our sense of church. Are we participating actively in where God wishes us to go as a community of faith, ensuring a vibrant witness in the future?

We will spend a few moments today considering our community of faith through the lens of Psalm 78:

“Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our ancestors have told us. We will not hide them from their children; we will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done. He established a decree in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach to their children; that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and rise up and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments; and that they should not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

The section of Psalm 78 on which we focus this morning offers basically three sections: listen, teach, set hope on God/keep God’s commandments. These all seem simple enough, but how well do we live out of them? And, how would our children and youth evaluate our Christian Education program in doing those things and keeping faithful to our mission? How would the children and youth have answered the questions that I posed at the beginning of this sermon?

I’d like us to consider a phrase that we don’t hear much in our corner of Christianity, but I think is a good one for us to take seriously and that is, “faith formation.” Now, we may think, at first anyway, that faith formation is all about teaching children and youth. But, really, it is through the teaching of children and youth, of taking seriously the need to tell our own stories, to pass along our traditions, that the faith of adults is also formed and strengthened, renewed and refreshed.

The new curriculum that we are using in our church school, called Gather ‘Round, offers a convincing view into faith formation. The mission and goals of the curriculum are as follows:

1. To nurture children and youth in their faith formation by helping them know, love and follow God; engaging them in the language and habits of worship; respecting them as partners in ministry; and, encouraging them to engage directly with scripture.

2. To strengthen the connection between home and congregation by: offering parents resources to participate in their children’s faith formation; and, providing opportunities to engage the entire congregation in faith nurture.

3. To explore what it means to follow in the footsteps of Jesus in Christian community by: considering how God is working in the world and how people are invited to participate in that work; learning how to share our faith with others; providing an alternative to worldviews that emphasize individualism, power and accumulation of wealth; and, encouraging an attitude of service.

I offer this outline of our new curriculum not simply so that parents will know, or any Christian Education Committee members might hear, but because we are all responsible for the faith formation of our children and youth. Whether or not you have children, whether or not your children have grown up and moved out, we are all responsible for the care and nurture of our children and youth in our midst; we are all responsible for their faith formation. And that support is not just about keeping certain lines in the budget, it is about our active support of our programs and our own personal engagement in the faith formation of the young people who have been given to us and who gather here with us.

We all gain by being active participants in faith formation, for it is not only the child’s faith that will be formed, but yours as well—formed, reformed, refreshed, renewed. We all gain—the children, the youth, their families, our church, this community of faith. Together, we seek to listen, to teach and to set our hope on God—to remember who we are and to whom we belong.

What do you think of when I say “community of faith”? What would the children and youth say?

In this morning’s faith story, I told the story of the turtles that we saw yesterday—the baby turtles who had hatched and made their way over the long lawn of the neighbor’s house to the water of Great Pond. Those turtles knew where they were going. Somehow, they knew where to go.

Do our children and young people know where to go? I suspect that our children and youth need more guidance than those turtles. And, if they don’t get in their families or here at church, they will look for it elsewhere.

So, let us listen. Let us teach. Let us set our hope on God, that we may be a community of faith, a community of young and old and in-between, learning and growing together, a faithful people.

Praise be to God.

Amen.