Sunday Words
I was invited to one of our congregations, Southern Hills Christian Church in Edmond, OK, to participate in worship. It was a good morning. If you are in the Edmond area and looking for a faith community moving into progressive (liberal) Christianity that is not too small and not too big, then I suggest Southern Hills. One of the things I say about our congregations in Oklahoma, and this might hold true for my denomination as a whole, is that the content of worship is liberal even if the style of worship is traditional or appears to be competing with the nearest nondenominational megachurch. If you set aside the Unitarians in town, our congregations are the most liberal in town even when they lean or firmly identify as conservative. Why? Because, Disciples look outward not as an evangelism tool, but because we can still hear the wise rebuke, “when you have done this for the least of these, you have done it to me.”
And now for an aside. Those words, liberal and conservative, have become unhealthy markers of political, ideological, and theological tribalism in the struggle for ‘who gets to decide’ about identity, dollars, and governance. The great myth of my denomination is that in our golden years we were less divided and more united in mission and the search for Christian unity. I don’t think that is accurate. We were the newest flavor of Christendom that challenged traditional orthodoxy and orthopraxy in a time before quick communication, social mobility, and rapid change. We valued, and still do I think, education as vital to a healthy person and congregation. We valued diversity of thought and practice within boundaries set to provide identity and purpose in a primarily caucasian church born on the frontier of rugged individualism. Now, we are more openly diverse in many ways: racial, women in leadership, women clergy, and sexual orientation. For the past twenty-five years the boundaries of identity and purpose have become more fluid because the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), like other mainline Christian denominations, is contracting. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It’s an opportunity. It seems to me that fear, rather than informed curiosity and life long learning, has made the boundaries of our identity and mission more fluid. It happens to corporations that experience expansive unsustainable growth. People of the parentheses adopted a corporate denominational style of organization during our second intentional restructure between 1968-1972, which led to another, shorter, growth spurt, but that has come to an end. We are living through a third restructure that lacks informed intentionality. And now I return to my primary thought.
Yesterday at Southern Hills the congregation celebrated the congregation’s support of a trip called International Affairs Seminar. My denomination has offered this trip through our Regions for a long, long time. Only a hand full of our Regions continue to offer this trip and at least one calls it by a different name: CYF Seminar. IAS is a study trip for junior and seniors in high school to Washington DC and New York City. I met a person here in Oklahoma that went on the trip 55 years ago. At Southern Hills yesterday, two adults spoke about the experience when they went as youth. One in 1974 and the other in 1991. They also had three young adults speak about their experience from 2016 and 2017. I was invited to say a few words as an introduction to IAS (International Affairs Seminar). Below are my words.
How do I introduce you to International Affairs Seminar. There are stories I could share about interesting food, tired feet, lots and lots of laughter, a few tears, and questions followed by deep conversation. I could tell stories about the nighttime sounds outside the windows of Calvary Baptist Church in DC: the sound of the homeless settling in for the night and garbage trucks at 3am. Stories of “ah ha” moments when youth realize that politicians rarely answer the question you ask. Stories about the struggles of using the subway cards, and at least two stories about the subway in New York that include, “Look, it’s a rat on the platform. Quick get a picture.” But, I won’t tell those stories. The important stories began at breakfast as Grace talked about her experience last year, and will continue from others that have made the journey: Russ, Brooke, Morgan, Iris, and the expectations of Ethan. I look forward to your words.
A proper introduction includes some history, but I could not find a date for the first time our denomination offered International Affairs Seminar. What I do know. When the calendar flips to June this year, it will have been fifty-five years ago that Donald, a member over at First Christian here in Edmond, rode in a station wagon with a few others to and from Washington DC to attend International Affairs Seminar. Back then, IAS was a gathering of all the Regions. It was a leadership development trip that combined study, prayer, worship, touring, meeting with a Congressional representative, and being the visible presence of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in our Nation’s capitol. IAS was, and remains, one way youth and adults can experience the spirit of Alexander Campbell’s words:
“A church can do what an individual disciple cannot, and so can a district of churches do what a single congregation cannot.” He wrote those words in the Millennial Harbinger in 1831:
For many years our Region and the Southwest Region (Texas) offered IAS as a joint trip with years where 40 plus youth and adults traveled together. In the late 2000’s that came to and end. International Affairs Seminar was revived in our Region in 2011, and since that time 125 youth and 28 adults have made the journey together. This year 14 youth and 4 adults will study how we choose to reconcile with our neighbor one on one, in congregational life, and through our system of self government. Some of the questions the group will consider:
What role does faith have in the work of reconciliation?
What are the steps of reconciling with my neighbor?
Which came first: forgiveness or reconciliation?
How do we reconcile the values of our Nation with how the government spends tax dollars?
How many times will Michael say, “Walk with purpose?”
Since the revival of IAS, we use a rotation of themes, but this year introducing a new theme that is relevant for our context. Reconcile: It’s a Choice We Make. Our four primary themes are:
- Faith and Economics: Consumption, Contentment, and Compassion
- Who is Welcome: What is a Christian Response in the Immigration Debate?
- Coexist: Interfaith Dialogue Is a Christian Practice
- Created in the Image of God: Stopping Human Trafficking
This study trip is an opportunity to come to know God more fully, and know oneself more fully, in relationship to other people, cultures, and God.
What happens on IAS? We spend time writing in journals and examen our day and experiences with the whole group. You meet the woman at the well. You are confronted with the modern leprosy of urban poverty, hunger, and homelessness brought on by the economics we practice. You reflect on the times you have denied knowing Jesus and through intentional Christian community begin to discover what it means to feed lambs, tend sheep, and feed sheep. You begin to connect the dots of what it means to profess belief on Sunday and practice the way of Jesus, sometimes well and sometimes badly, the other six days of the week. You hear the small voice whisper, “Make justice happen. Love as God loves. Remember, you are an image of God in this world.”
Back in 2012, we asked participants to answer this question: Should someone from your youth group go on this trip? I close a response:
“Yes, it is trip that allows you to step outside your comfort zone while still with a group of people you are quickly bonded to. It gives you the chance to explore your faith, yourself and your future. The best advise is pack as light as possible, be ready for the fastest & slowest week of your life.”