Not only us United Congregational Christian Church a union of the First Christian Church of Eureka and the First Congregational Church of Eureka, but the United Church of Christ (UCC) side is also – as the name would imply – a united church.
Founded in the late 1950’s, the United Church of Christ is a union of the Congregational Christian Church, the Evangelical and Reformed Church, and a number of Black churches which joined together to create a denomination of diversity and strength.
The Congregational Christian Church itself was a union of Congregational churches and Christian Churches. And the Evangelical and Reformed Church was a union of the German Reformed Church and the German Evangelical Church.
Even the German Evangelical church was an attempt to merge the Lutheran Church and the Reformed Church.
Unlike many denominations, we didn’t get here by splitting the church over differences: we got here by joining over what we shared.
Let’s go to God in prayer.
God of wisdom, may the words that I speak, and the ways they are received by each of our hearts and minds, help us to continue to grow into the people, and the church, that you have dreamed us to be.
Amen.
One of the advantages to a united and uniting church is that we get inspiration from many streams.
Via the Evangelical and Reformed Church, through the Evangelical Church and then the Lutheran Church, we reach back to Martin Luther. One might argue that, through Luther – a Roman Catholic brother at the time he wrote his 95 theses – we also reach back to Roman Catholicism.
Through both the Evangelical and the Reformed Churches we reach back to John Calvin, whose break with the Roman church was deeper.
Through the Congregational and Christian church, through the Congregationalists, we reach back to early European settlers on this continent, many churches having names like Pilgrim, Plymouth, and Mayflower.
And through the Congregational Christian Church and the Christian Church we reach back to the restoration movement led by Barton Stone and Thomas and Alexander Campbell, a heritage also claimed by the First Christian Church or Eureka.
The German Evangelical Church in the USA had a mirror in Europe
that was the state church of Germany.
That should not be a surprise: many nations had their own state churches.
There is still a Church of England, though here we call it the Episcopal Church.
And there is a Church of Scotland that is called the Presbyterian Church in the USA.
In the early 1900s, an independent Evangelical church arose in Germany,
but in 1933 the state abolished freedom of religion and installed a church leadership loyal to the party. Among the changes to the church was that it would only be for real Germans: anyone who did not fit into the national identity was removed, beginning with Christians of Jewish heritage.
In 1934 the independent church was absorbed into the state church. By law.
There were some objections.
A new church arose in Germany called “The Confessing Church.” This was an outlaw church: no church other than the state-controlled German Evangelical Church was permitted.
Meanwhile, in the USA the German Evangelical and German Reformed Churches chose to merge. Imagine being a German in the United States in the 1930s, aware of what was happening to the church at home.
Also in 1934, a Synod in Wuppertal-Barmen, adopted a document that made six points about the state of the church in Germany:
- The only source of revelation is the Word of God — Jesus Christ. Any other possible sources (earthly powers, for example) will not be accepted.
- Jesus Christ is the only Lord of all aspects of personal life. There should be no other authority.
- The message and order of the church should not be influenced by the current political convictions.
- The church should not be ruled by a leader (“Führer”). There is no hierarchy in the church (Mt 20, 25f).
- The state should not fulfill the task of the church and vice versa. State and church are both limited to their own business.
- Therefore, the Barmen Declaration rejects (i) the subordination of the Church to the state (8.22–3) and (ii) the subordination of the Word and Spirit to the Church.
This is a summary. An English version of the declaration – provided by the United Church of Christ – can be found here: https://www.ucc.org/beliefs_barmen-declaration/
As noted in the UCC’s page on the Barmen Declaration:
Not all Christians courageously resisted the regime, but many who did — like the Protestant pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Roman Catholic priest Bernhard Lichtenberg—were arrested and executed in concentration camps.
The Barmen Declaration had a profound impact on these German churches in the USA –
many with German language services.
It also had a profound impact on many who were involved in bringing the Congregational Christians and the Evangelical & Reformed Churches together to form the United Church of Christ.
Is the United States of America a Christian nation? There are many reasons to say no, including the body of the constitution, and the first amendment to the constitution.
But if we were to say Christianity was the religion of the USA, what version of Christianity would that be? And if there were one authorized Christianity, how great a temptation would that be for those who would desire to control all aspects of private life, even into the sanctuary?
There are some who want the church and state to be one, a marriage of sorts.
Those in the church who desire such a thing often suggest that the church could change the state, if only they were together.
Entertaining such an idea is playing with fire, as interweaving the church and state may give less power to the church to change the state than it gives to the state to control the church.
People in the USA may be Christian, but even if every person in the USA were to confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the state itself should never be considered Christian.
Rather, by keeping church and state separate, the Church has the independence to speak truth to power, to illuminate wrongs and to call for reform, to call for love of neighbor. When the church and state are one entity, that independence vanishes.
My challenge to all of us today is to think about what it would take to be a confessing church in this time and place.
What would be our Barmen declaration?
How would we speak the Truth of our faith to the Power of the state?
We have deep roots that go back to Martin Luther, who challenged the powerful church,
to John Calvin, who took reforms even further,
to the Puritans who crossed an ocean and settled in a new land
to Barton Stone, and to Thomas and Alexander Campbell, who sought the restoration of a simpler faith,
to Karl Barth and Hans Asmussen, who wrote the Barmen Declaration,
to Martin Niemöller, who wrote the famous “First They Came” poem,
to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed in a concentration camp.
Let’s honor their work by continuing it, even now.
Amen
- Scripture quotations marked NRSVue are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. https://www.friendshippress.org/pages/about-the-nrsvue
- Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James version of the Bible.
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