Today the nitty gritty business of General Synod begins. But first some gathered for Sacred Conversations on Race and others (like myself) went to worship in area congregations. I joined two other folks in attending Mars Hill the church of Rob Bell. I don't know a lot about Rob Bell but he's a young guy who started this church in Grand Rapids. He also produces videos for youth groups and adult discussion groups that explore various themes of faith. I've only seen one of the videos and I thought it was pretty good so I was interested in hearing him preach.
We drove up to the address of the church and followed the parking lot attendants to the parking lot of the church located in the back section of a mall. We went inside a humongous building and were ushered into the gathering space, which holds 3,500 people.
The music was fairly typical mega-church fare although the theology was a little more open-minded than what I've been exposed to in the past. It felt a little like a concert - performers on the stage, people singing along to their favorite songs. There wasn't a single moment where I felt like I was part of a community. But, I am a person who really likes and feels most comfortable in small groups.
The topic of the sermon was forgiveness. Rob Bell preached on one line of text - Jesus speaking from the cross in Luke; "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." I appreciated his insights about forgiveness - nothing new to me.
Then we went into communion - no liturgy, no prayer, no words just an invitation to come forward and serve yourself from the table with the little fake bread wafers and cups of juice. Some people served one another, some served themselves. This was my least favorite element of worship. I like the practice of serving one another, of being Christ with and for one another at the table.
Also during this time there were people who went up onto the platform to offer prayers at the cross. This was very touching and real. Clearly there were many people who had been deeply touched by what they had heard and who were really working on forgiveness.
Overall, a worthwhile journey into an unfamiliar church environment. It made me appreciate my own community in many ways. What we do is not as polished or as high tech but it is very real and incredibly genuine and for me that is enough, more than enough.
The afternoon was free time, which concluded with opening worship at 3:00 p.m. John Thomas preached and encouraged the entire UCC to be more bold, to take more risks, to dive into the pool of evangelism (there are no crocodiles in there!) and to be even bolder in our witness for social justice - to go beyond our fears of how our own lives will change if we actually succeeded on some of our visions. Because our lives would change and will change if and when we achieve greater justice for a greater number of people. Those of us in privileged positions have to be willing to let go of our privilege, our power and our luxurious lifestyle in order for justice to be real for more people. It's a scary but necessary thing for us to grapple with. In the end he assured us that the river of God's love, of salvation is flowing through it all assuring us of God's presence and God's care for all.
After a lovely dinner, I met with my committee, which was considering a resolution calling the UCC to take action in the next four months to encourage congress to pass comprehensive health care legislation that would provide health care for all Americans and eliminate the disparaties in healthcare, primarily for people of color. We had decent presentations from the authors of the resolution and I believe strengthened the resolution based on their input and our own deep concern for health care. We finished our business by 9:30 p.m. and so Monday morning is a free time for us!
After the committees adjourned I attended a 20/30 clergy gathering during which we honored and gave a gift to Rev. John Thomas for his faithful service and in particular for his support of this network of younger clergy.
It was another full day but also had more free time in it than I was imagining. I am looking forward to the business sessions on Monday and to starting to hear about some of the resolutions that various committees are working on.
As a reminder, there is live feed of much of what happens at General Synod on the UCC web page - http://www.ucc.org/.
Until the next post.
Tisha
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