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The phrase, "stepping out on the promise" comes from the African American church. It means that if you believe there is a God and that God is a good and promise-keeping God; then if you do what is right, all will be well. This phrase teaches that Christian faith is about trusting God and doing the right thing. Faith is about what you believe, but what you believe is best revealed, not through what you say, but what you do. So you’ve got to step out.

Now, to be honest, stepping out of the promise can, when our faith falters, seem more like walking the plank - caught between the prodding pirate’s saber and the shark infested waters. Our faith falters when we start to fear. We are afraid that there is no God, or that if there is, God either doesn’t care, or is helpless. If any one of those things is true, then, as St. Paul says, we are, of all people, the most deceived. Well, I believe God is there, God is good, and God keeps promises. My proof is what this church has already done over these recent years. My hope is about what this church will continue to do.

Stepping out on the promise is about trusting God and doing the right thing. How do we know what the right thing is in any particular situation? On this Annual Meeting Sunday, how do we determine our policies, priorities, objectives and mission? It is appropriate to think about this today, because our congregation is organized "congregationally," that is, the people decide. Ultimately it is not the ministers, or the elected officers, or the board members that make the important decisions. It is you, the congregation. This congregational polity is both a privilege and a responsibility. Amid all the uproar in the Roman Catholic Church today about sexual abuse and pedophilia, I believe that one important dimension of what we are witnessing is a grassroots revolt against the leadership of a very hierarchical organization. Many Catholics see this as long overdue. In the United Church of Christ we have no pope nor bishops, nor parish priests who rule unchallenged. Our relationship with the wider church is a covenant relationship. That is, it is a relationship of mutual accountability freely entered into. But the important decisions are made right here among ourselves.

So how do we make those important decisions when there is no higher earthly authority to turn to beyond ourselves? In a spiritual sense we do this through prayer and discernment. This means learning how to listen for the voice of God. Spiritual discernment is very different from "figuring out." Figuring out means that if we just cudgel our brains vigorously enough, for long enough, we’ll find the solution. On the other hand, spiritual discernment means that God has already placed the answer before our eyes and in our hearts. The answer has been within you right along. Stop talking. Stop analyzing. Just listen. Become aware. What does this spiritual approach mean in practical terms? Well, it is pretty hard to have an annual congregational meeting with no talking. We could try it. Our congregational way is to speak up, to listen respectfully, to disagree honestly, and to come to closure lovingly. We believe, do we not, that the Holy Spirit works through the process if the process is good.

In Peter Gomes’ new book, The Good Life, which Dale referred to a couple of Sundays ago, the author reflects on the words of the prophet Micah. He writes this:

(Micah 6:8) is a summary of accumulated ethical wisdom…from the prophetic predecessors of Micah. It is Amos who demands justice, Hosea who requires mercy or kindness, and Isaiah who insists on humility in the face of the exalted God. Justice, kindness, and humility might well be called the "three historic Hebrew virtues,.." The substance of these virtues is enormously significant: here is a code of conduct, not of belief, and one that is both inclusive and absolute. Yet of even greater interest is the conviction that this is not new knowledge, but is well and universally known, and to know that one knows it is not only to define how one is to behave, but who one is. We already know what the good is: the task now is to perform it. (As) Bishop Krister Stendahl once put it…"The demand of (Christian) ethics is to act upon what we have always known."

So when we engage in the give and take of discerning God’s will for us in our situation, we are seeking to recover again what we have already known and to do it. And, if we are faithful, I believe the process and the outcome will be characterized by justice, kindness, and humility.

An example of the kind of decision that needs to be made with prayerful discernment involves the tension between meeting our needs first, and our responsibility to others. The radical extremes are, on the one hand, taking care of ourselves first, and, giving to others out of what is left, if any; and, on the other hand, giving everything we have away. I believe the answer lies somewhere between these two poles and should be determined by prayerful reflection on the realities of the moment, as God helps us to see them. And those realities need to be discerned both spiritually and wisely. But, as Peter Gomes would say, we have guides and we know what is right already. For years I have had taped on my computer printer these words of the Jewish sage Rabbi Hillel. He wrote, "If I am not for myself, who will be? But if I am for myself alone, what am I? If not now, when?"

I would like to close by briefly sharing a letter I received. You are aware that the nearest United Church of Christ to us is Pilgrim Church in Wheaton. You may also know that Pilgrim was founded in the year 1963 through the efforts of members of this congregation who felt that, even though we were a thriving and growing church, that the Layhill area needed a new United Church. Our own Shirley Coll served that church as pastor for a number of years. The Rev. Steve Anderson is now their minister. Pilgrim has a membership of 174 and a budget of perhaps a quarter the size of ours. And there is wonderful spirit and energy in that church. In fact they recently completed a Habitat for Humanity project in Honduras. Well, late last week Steve stopped by our church to drop off this letter.

Today is Friday, June 14, 2002.

The Reverend Dr. James A. Todhunter, 
Christ Congregational Church, UCC, 
9525 Colesville Road, 
Silver Spring, Maryland 20901,

Dear Jim:

The Campaign is over; the renovation/construction completed, and the debt is impressive. Did anyone think of calling in Pilgrim Church's debt'? Of course not! God blesses our purest gifts with total forgetfulness, and today's, agonizing decision to give more is simply tomorrow's grateful thanksgiving for God's abundance. All our pockets are so much deeper  than we think - we are God's people engaged in ministry with God.

Christ Congregational Church extended aid to Pilgrim Church almost forty years ago. That gift made possible the purchase of property for our present facilities. While those who made the gift have surely forgotten it, Pilgrim Church has not. We have carried the actual gift and our debt of gratitude on our financial statements.

We hope Christ Congregational Church will accept this check as a gift in return. We wish it could be more. We wish it could be the initial gift with interest on top of interest. Please accept our ministry in community, Association, Conference and UCC as interest benefiting all God's people and satisfying the debt of one Christian community to another.

We pray God will prosper the ministry of Christ Church in beautiful, new facilities, and we pray  Christ Church's commitment to mission, so well represented in the generosity of aid extended to Pilgrim Church, will always characterize Christ Church's ministry.

Sincerely yours,

Stephen M. Anderson

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Our UCC covenant friends at Pilgrim Church are demonstrating the Hebrew virtue of kindness. And in the process they have given us the opportunity to experience the virtue of humility. Empowered by kindness and humility, let us all, together in covenant, reaffirm our ministry of justice. AMEN.

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