Rev. Tom Sorenson, Pastor
December 5, 2004

Scripture:

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

Today is the second Sunday of Advent. It is also the first Sunday since our denomination, the United Church of Christ, began running a television commercial as part of the larger God Is Still Speaking campaign. Last week I told you that during Advent I want to address the question: Where do we need God to come into the world and into our lives? This week something happened in that God Is Still Speaking Campaign that I know most of you have heard about and that drove home for me one way in which we need God to come into the world today, and that’s what I want to talk to you about this morning.

That thing that happened is that two major broadcast television networks, CBS and NBC, refused to run the television advertisement the UCC wanted to buy time to run on those networks and on several cable networks as well. I suspect that by now most of you have seen the ad. (The ad may ve viewed at www.stillspeaking.com - webmaster.) It shows two burly men manning a velvet rope gate in front of a Christian church. They let some people in and turn others away with a brusque "not you." Those turned away include two men who might be but are not specifically identified as a gay couple. In the closing scene we see a smiling, happy group of people that includes two women who might be but are not specifically identified as a lesbian couple. Text appears: "Jesus didn’t turn people away. Neither do we." The voice over says: "No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you’re welcome here." NBC refused to run the ad because it is, as they said, "too controversial." CBS said:

Because this commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other minority groups by other individuals and organizations, and the fact the Executive Branch has recently proposed a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, this spot is unacceptable for broadcast on the [CBS] network....

In response, The Rev. John Thomas, President and General Minister of the United Church of Christ, issued a statement that read in part: "It’s ironic that after a political season awash in commercials based on fear and deception by both parties seen on all the major networks, an ad with a message of welcome and inclusion would be deemed too controversial." Thomas ended his statement with the perhaps rhetorical question: "What’s going on here?"

What indeed? Here’s what I think is going on here. The "Executive Branch," to use CBS’s euphemism, and their right wing religious allies have become so powerful and have created such an atmosphere of fear and intimidation in this country that free speech is chilled and freedom of religion is threatened in the name of religion itself. And the issue they are using to create this atmosphere of fear and intimidation is above all othersthe hatred and oppression of God’s gay and lesbian children. What’s going on here is that the religious right and the politicians who pander to them are elevating a teaching that was never more than a cultural prejudice and was never truly the word and will of God to the level of immutable divine truth simply because it can be found in the Bible and because those very few, often misunderstood Biblical passages support their own cultural prejudices.

And this is a place where we desperately need God to come into the world and into our lives. We need God to free us from the misuse of God’s holy word to buttress the domination of some over others and to perpetuate prejudice and hatred rather than to free all people and to bring the abundant life that God wants for all God’s children. Put another way and more simply, we need God to free us from the scourge of Biblical literalism in the larger church and in our larger culture.

Here in the United Church of Christ we are in a better position than those in any other Christian denomination to free people from literalism. Freedom from literalism, freedom from the error of locking God up in a book, freedom from proclaiming ancient prejudice as God’s truth, is our heritage. In 1620 John Robinson, the Congregationalist pastor to the Pilgrims, told those Pilgrims as they departed for the new world: "God has yet more light and truth to break out of his holy word." Here in this church from that Congregational tradition and in the UCC as a whole, we are the direct spiritual descendants of those Pilgrims and their wise pastor. Seeing the Bible as alive, seeing God as alive and always communicating new truth, comes naturally to us UCC Congregationalists. At least, it should come more naturally to us than to any other Christian denomination. Here, we do not lock God up in a book, not even in the church’s book, the Bible. Here, we are free to explore God’s word prayerfully and with open minds and open hearts, free to hear God’s word of unconditional love for all people. We are free to see the Bible for what it is, a source of inspiration, comfort, and hope, the witness to their experience of God of faithful but flawed and fallible people-people, that is, just like us. We are free to be open to what the still speaking God is saying to us here and now, in our time and place. We are free to be open to new truths from the God who speaks with commas and never with periods.

As that sage Gracie Allen said, let us never place a period where God has placed a comma. Let us open our hearts and minds to the still speaking God. We need God to free us from literalism; but as I said last week, Christian waiting is active, participatory waiting. We need God to act, and God needs and calls us to act. So let us never be afraid to speak the truth as we know it, speak it to be sure in love for all of God’s children, even or especially our opponents. Let us exercise Christian charity toward all people, even or especially our opponents. They would silence us. That was the message of numerous right wing Christian spokesmen on the national news shows this week who attacked our ad because it welcomes gay people, thereby by implication at least supporting the networks’ attempt to muzzle us. Let us never seek to silence them; but let us also never be silenced. The world needs the UCC today. This community needs us today. God is still speaking. Let us get on with speaking at every opportunity about the still speaking God who brings us the Good News of love for all people. Amen.