I recently moved my mom out of her house and into a smaller space. This meant going through a lot of mementos, old pictures, family artifacts, and family tree research done by my detail-oriented aunt. My son and I were fascinated and horrified by it all – discovering ancestors associated with the religious reformer Huldrych Zwingli in sixteenth-century Switzerland and relatives in the American south who owned slaves. We learned about the origins of the Lemmond family name – it’s Gaelic hailing from Scotland and means “law man” – that’s right, there’s a new sheriff in these parts (just kidding). This morning I want to invite you to an ancestry exploration, to discover what it means that you find yourself worshiping today in a denomination called the Evangelical Covenant Church (BTW not our original name). And one of the best ways to introduce that understanding is to have you reach out a grab a hymnal. Our hymnal gives a vision of what our family tree looks like. It’s filled with Catholics, Protestants, Anabaptists, Pietists, Moravians, Methodists, Presbyterians but also African Americans, Koreans, Latin X, Middle Easterners, Northern Europeans, Africans, Whites. It has multiple languages, diverse liturgies and celebrates a motley family that hail from many different Christian traditions that we celebrate. The primary goal of today’s sermon is not actually to mark us different from other Christians or to somehow claim that we are better than other Christians, which is why we hesitated for so long even referring to ourselves as a denomination; instead using the phrase “Mission Friends.” Our own origin document – before it discusses anything about our particular beliefs – first wants to affirm “Our place in the worldwide Christian Church.” So I want to tell you first about who we are by setting us in a broader family of people of which we are a part. Show the tree image.
We are an apostolic church – those who are devoted to the mission and message of early Jesus followers. When we say we’re an apostolic church we’re saying that we believe, teach and continue to experience the truths first known by the earliest followers of Jesus. We read what they wrote down, what has become our Bible, and say “yes” and try to live it out. We anchor ourselves with them. Our passage from Psalm 119, not surprisingly, is part of what many consider the Biblical manifesto for the grandeur and power of Scripture, which the apostles affirmed and which defines what following is all about. This text preached at our very birth connects us to any and all who take God’s Word seriously. To be an apostolic church, in other words, is to be a people who pay attention to this book and it’s intended message, who grapple with it. We place ourselves in a long line of people who believe that the Bible offers us the story of a God who ultimately came in the form of Jesus Christ to redeem the world. We are those who agree with the first followers who heard Jesus talk about all of Scripture as his story (Luke 24:27).
We are a catholic church – those who connect with the whole church.
Catholic in this instance isn’t big “C” catholic but little “c” catholic, which literally means universal. This means that we are a denomination that values other denominations as cousins, brothers and sisters, family, and not strangers or enemies. And that means for us that the critical elements, the distinctives of Christian identity that are worth fighting over while important are rather small and that we prize unity that is not doctrinal conformity, that we value connectedness that embraces difference. Let me give an analogy. Think of the definition of a mammal: warm-blooded, breathe air, have fur and a spine, and females produce milk. That definition does knock out other animals but remains incredibly inclusive and diverse. You’re still talking about a tiger and dolphin, a tiny bat and an enormous whale. For us – that mammal definition finds its best expression in the earliest catholic creeds of the church (we are creedal but non-confessional, seeking to avoid theological statements that divide rather than unify): Apostles’, Nicea, Chalcedonian creeds which emphasize the earliest and best summaries of the story that Scripture is trying to tell without getting too much into the weeds of more particular matters. Take the Apostles’ Creed as an example. Notice what it says but also what it leaves out, all the diversity it still allows.
We are catholic because Jesus was catholic – aimed at redeeming all of creation. We see that catholic trend in Jesus’ own prayer when he prayed that all of his followers would be one as he was one with the father (John 17:21).
We are a Reformation church – those who believe in the three “alones” – sola Scriptura, sola gratia, sola fidei.
We are a church, birthed out of a renewal movement, whose origins are located in the Protestant Reformation and with Martin Luther. We are certainly a people who believe that Martin Luther was restoring something very important by centering the church back upon Scripture and the grace of God which precedes and prioritizes God’s love apart from what we do and that we are asked to assent only to what God has done through the death and resurrection of Jesus. But we also connect with a renewal movement within the Reformation called Pietism, a 17th century movement which occurred in northern Germany and Scandinavia. They sought to use the Bible as a devotional resource and not simply a doctrinal one. They also desired that doctrine transform Christian practice. The Church historian Dale Brown identifies Pietism in this way:
"The Pietists milieu resulted in a desire to transform the living conditions of the poor and oppressed, reform the prison system, abolish slavery, break down rigid class distinctions, establish a more democratic polity, initiate educational reforms, establish philanthropic institutions, increase missionary activity, obtain religious liberty, and propose programs for social justice.”
Pietist were a people who loved Scripture and believed whole heartedly in the love of God to transform the world and not simply save souls.
We are an evangelical church – those who in love seek to serve others.
Evangelical is a word that has changed quite a bit over time. It connected with renewal movements who came to this country seeking religious liberty. It was grounded in the Great Awakening revival movements which stressed personal relationship and devotional energy over doctrine and theological hairsplitting and sought to engage society with a desire to transform it rather than retreat. It was a coalition movement centered on the gospel that sought avoid the twin poles of fundamentalism, on the one hand, and theological liberalism, on the other (for example, I attended Fuller Theological Seminary, the largest evangelical seminary in the world that had more Presbyterian students than any Presbyterian seminary and more Charismatic students than any Charismatic seminary). And that brings us back to our origin text – the first passage read and preached at our very first meeting as a denomination in 1885.
I am a friend
to all who fear you,
to
all who follow your precepts. ~ Psalm 119:63
I am a companion with all who center their lives on you or who trust in you. (my paraphrase). The biblical term “fear of God” does not refer to the emotion of terror or dread. It doesn’t reflect a commitment to cower; rather, it refers to one who wishes to be in right relationship with God, to trust him, and to discover how crazily, awe-striking, expansive God is toward us and to discover how expansive, how diverse, how massive the group that follows this God is as well. I’m curious where do you come from? What Christian group put you on the path? We are who we are by affirming that.
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