In 1967, the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America adopted its first new confession of faith in three centuries. The turbulent decade of the 1960s challenged churches everywhere to reconsider and restate their faith for a new time. Presbyterians got to work developing the Confession of 1967, which was adopted at the 179th General Assembly in 1967, and added to our Presbyterian Book of Confessions.
Modestly titled, the Confession of 1967 is built around a single passage of scripture: "In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself..." (2 Corinthians 5:19). The Confession addresses the church's role in the modern world, and calls the church to obedient action, particularly in response to social problems such as racial discrimination, nationalistic arrogance, and family and class conflict. It sees the life, death, resurrection, and promised coming of Jesus Christ as the pattern for the church's mission today, and calls on all Christians to be reconciled to God and to one another.
Crucial to all that follows in the Confession is the very first line of its Preface: "The church confesses its faith when it bears a present witness to God's grace in Jesus Christ" (emphasis mine). What the Confession goes on to say is that the Christian faith must be embodied in actions. It must take on flesh and blood and incarnational weight in the world. In other words, Christians are not simply people who believe stuff. They are people who do stuff. Discipleship is not simply believing Jesus. Discipleship is obedience to Jesus.
The Christian tradition has been rightly criticized for its historical abuses of power, promotion of slavery, racism, and it's use of the Doctrine of Discovery to justify the displacement of indigenous peoples. The church in America has excluded people because of the color of their skin, their sexual orientation, and their socio-economic status. It has failed to welcome the stranger, and been too quick to take up arms. The church in America has not always acted like the peaceable people that Jesus intends. Certainly, I'm not speaking about all churches and all Christians. Many have exemplified God's love in the world, but still, we have work to do.
The Confession of 1967 was written to remind and encourage Presbyterians to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the world, to resist the temptation to sit on the sidelines, and instead, to get out on the field.
I share this to encourage you. You are part of a Presbyterian tradition that has advocated for social justice, peace, reconciliation, inclusivity and love in the world; a tradition that has taken a stand against white supremacy and racism in all its forms; a tradition that has insisted for a long time that change starts with each of us striving to more faithfully follow Jesus by embodying his self-sacrificial love in the world.
In reading the Confession of 1967, this portion of Section 4 seemed particularly poignant for Christians and Presbyterians today.
4. RECONCILIATION IN SOCIETY
In each time and place, there are particular problems and crises through which God calls the church to act. The church, guided by the Spirit, humbled by its own complicity and instructed by all attainable knowledge, seeks to discern the will of God and learn how to obey in these concrete situations. The following are particularly urgent at the present time.
a. God has created the peoples of the earth to be one universal family. In his reconciling love, God overcomes the barriers between sisters and brothers and breaks down every form of discrimination based on racial or ethnic difference, real or imaginary. The church is called to bring all people to receive and uphold one another as persons in all relationships of life: in employment, housing, education, leisure, marriage, family, church, and the exercise of political rights. Therefore, the church labors for the abolition of all racial discrimination and ministers to those injured by it. Congregations, individuals, or groups of Christians who exclude, dominate, or patronize others, however subtly, resist the Spirit of God and bring contempt on the faith which they profess.
In each time and place, there are particular problems and crises through which God calls the church to act. In our time. In our place. How is God calling the church to act? How is God calling you to act? I'm wrestling with that question for myself, and I've decided that I can't sit this one out. I started by joining the peaceful protest on Sunday afternoon in Petaluma, and was pleased to see some of you there as well. Wearing my clerical collar, I had people thank me, as clergy, for being there. And I was proud to say I was from First Presbyterian Church. I'm committed to listening and learning, to reading White Fragility, by Robin Diangelo, and doing the hard work of rooting out my own racism. And I'm writing this post to invite you into the richness of our Presbyterian tradition of love and justice, compassion and action.
It's a modest start, I know, but change happens one person at a time. And I can't start with you. I have to start with me. Only you can start with you, and only you can decide what that will look like, how you will bear witness.
"The church confesses its faith when it bears a present witness to God's grace in Jesus Christ."
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
Have courage. Go. Do. Bear a present witness.
Modestly titled, the Confession of 1967 is built around a single passage of scripture: "In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself..." (2 Corinthians 5:19). The Confession addresses the church's role in the modern world, and calls the church to obedient action, particularly in response to social problems such as racial discrimination, nationalistic arrogance, and family and class conflict. It sees the life, death, resurrection, and promised coming of Jesus Christ as the pattern for the church's mission today, and calls on all Christians to be reconciled to God and to one another.
Crucial to all that follows in the Confession is the very first line of its Preface: "The church confesses its faith when it bears a present witness to God's grace in Jesus Christ" (emphasis mine). What the Confession goes on to say is that the Christian faith must be embodied in actions. It must take on flesh and blood and incarnational weight in the world. In other words, Christians are not simply people who believe stuff. They are people who do stuff. Discipleship is not simply believing Jesus. Discipleship is obedience to Jesus.
The Christian tradition has been rightly criticized for its historical abuses of power, promotion of slavery, racism, and it's use of the Doctrine of Discovery to justify the displacement of indigenous peoples. The church in America has excluded people because of the color of their skin, their sexual orientation, and their socio-economic status. It has failed to welcome the stranger, and been too quick to take up arms. The church in America has not always acted like the peaceable people that Jesus intends. Certainly, I'm not speaking about all churches and all Christians. Many have exemplified God's love in the world, but still, we have work to do.
The Confession of 1967 was written to remind and encourage Presbyterians to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the world, to resist the temptation to sit on the sidelines, and instead, to get out on the field.
I share this to encourage you. You are part of a Presbyterian tradition that has advocated for social justice, peace, reconciliation, inclusivity and love in the world; a tradition that has taken a stand against white supremacy and racism in all its forms; a tradition that has insisted for a long time that change starts with each of us striving to more faithfully follow Jesus by embodying his self-sacrificial love in the world.
In reading the Confession of 1967, this portion of Section 4 seemed particularly poignant for Christians and Presbyterians today.
4. RECONCILIATION IN SOCIETY
In each time and place, there are particular problems and crises through which God calls the church to act. The church, guided by the Spirit, humbled by its own complicity and instructed by all attainable knowledge, seeks to discern the will of God and learn how to obey in these concrete situations. The following are particularly urgent at the present time.
a. God has created the peoples of the earth to be one universal family. In his reconciling love, God overcomes the barriers between sisters and brothers and breaks down every form of discrimination based on racial or ethnic difference, real or imaginary. The church is called to bring all people to receive and uphold one another as persons in all relationships of life: in employment, housing, education, leisure, marriage, family, church, and the exercise of political rights. Therefore, the church labors for the abolition of all racial discrimination and ministers to those injured by it. Congregations, individuals, or groups of Christians who exclude, dominate, or patronize others, however subtly, resist the Spirit of God and bring contempt on the faith which they profess.
In each time and place, there are particular problems and crises through which God calls the church to act. In our time. In our place. How is God calling the church to act? How is God calling you to act? I'm wrestling with that question for myself, and I've decided that I can't sit this one out. I started by joining the peaceful protest on Sunday afternoon in Petaluma, and was pleased to see some of you there as well. Wearing my clerical collar, I had people thank me, as clergy, for being there. And I was proud to say I was from First Presbyterian Church. I'm committed to listening and learning, to reading White Fragility, by Robin Diangelo, and doing the hard work of rooting out my own racism. And I'm writing this post to invite you into the richness of our Presbyterian tradition of love and justice, compassion and action.
It's a modest start, I know, but change happens one person at a time. And I can't start with you. I have to start with me. Only you can start with you, and only you can decide what that will look like, how you will bear witness.
"The church confesses its faith when it bears a present witness to God's grace in Jesus Christ."
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
Have courage. Go. Do. Bear a present witness.
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