August 2007 Herald

The Future Beckons: Do Not Be Afraid

By Richard A. Brown

This is the second of twenty-four articles to appear in the Herald that will focus on Doctrine and Covenants Section 163. We encourage the church to use these commentaries as the starting point to engage in widespread conversation about important issues before the Community of Christ.

Within a single week in June I attended two inspirational memorial services. The men were about ten years apart in age—late eighties and late seventies respectively. I do not think they knew each other, but they shared several characteristics. Each had a daughter I have known for years. Both men helped construct church buildings during their lifetimes. Each loved nature, tended gardens, and cared for animals. They were well-read and placed a high value on thinking and learning. They served in Melchisedec priesthood roles, including pastor. And both were happily married for decades to strong, intelligent, hardworking women of deep faith.

The wonderful truth is the Community of Christ exists today because of people just like those two married couples. Their generation has passed along—and strengthened—the traditions and heritage of this faith movement. The sad fact is that, having transferred congregational leadership roles to my own baby boomer generation, they are now dying in increasing numbers.

I was privileged to be asked to speak at the first memorial service. What I said about Jack could, I believe, be said about George, as well: His life embodied the Great Commandment spoken by Jesus—love God, and love your neighbor as yourself. God, family, church, career, and community were not separate compartments with easily definable boundaries. Those areas composed a unified whole, a life well lived, and an inheritance of goodness for all who knew him.

As is usually the case, on the drive home from the service I thought of one more thing I could have said: I do not know what heaven is like—none of us can with certainty, of course. But I can easily imagine the first thing my brother in Christ would say on entering heaven’s gates: “Lord, put me to work. I have been sitting long enough.”

We stand on the shoulders of spiritual giants in the Community of Christ. Since our beginnings as a faith movement in the 1820s, we have been a people on the borders of society—growing, building, dreaming, enduring. We have survived persecution, uprooting our newly settled communities repeatedly, grieving the assassination of our founding prophet-president in 1844, and dispersing widely after that tragic event in Nauvoo, Illinois. But eventually we reorganized and founded both a publishing house and a college. In time we resettled Jackson County, Missouri, made it the site of our international headquarters, and expanded our missionary efforts. Each location and era in which we proclaimed the “Restoration gospel of Jesus Christ” brought new cultural, language, and financial challenges.

Six years ago we responded to the impulse of the Holy Spirit and changed the name of the church. Today the Community of Christ is established in more than fifty nations of the world. We routinely translate the written word into at least a dozen languages. We could do more, of course, if we had more money. As President Steve Veazey pointed out at the closing service of World Conference, there is much good we could do—and feel called by God to do in abundance—if we adopt an attitude of generosity.

In response to his prophetic calling, President Veazey brought “Words of Counsel” to that Conference. That has happened many times before. We trust and hope it will happen again. But there was something different this time, I believe, and the church as a whole has already begun to be challenged with that difference.

Social scientists might well term what I think is happening in the church as a “tipping point.” That term originated with measuring scales: accurate weights placed on one side of a scale to balance a commodity on the other side. There comes a point in social and institutional development when the balance of influencing factors begins to tip. Unlike a measuring scale, there are many possible directions for the tipping. Once we set a direction, other forces come into play to speed up the process, often making it irreversible.

Section 163 is a big document, longer and more comprehensive than just about any other section in the Doctrine and Covenants. Each of its eleven paragraphs (and most have subparagraphs) introduce areas of importance for us as a body of Christ and a people of God. Sometimes in the past we have been guilty of approving new inspired documents at Conference time, inserting them into the Doctrine and Covenants, and moving on to other important challenges confronting us. This time is different.

As an international faith community we will engage in extended conversation with one another and, most especially, with the Holy Spirit to figure out just what God is calling us to be and do. There are many choices, many “right” answers. The key question, as posed in paragraph 10b, is to “discern and pursue what matters most for the journey ahead.”

This idea of figuring out what God wants rather than what we want for the church is a hugely tough one for us, especially for my own baby boomer generation. Presbyterian pastor and author N. Graham Standish put it this way in his new book, Humble Leadership: Being Radically Open to God’s Guidance and Grace (Alban Institute, 2007):

People who want to maintain tradition at all costs often want to maintain those traditions from the past that make them feel safe and secure, and they react instinctively and angrily to anything that threatens their security. They resist change in a church because change means living in uncertainty and ambiguity, which are among the worst feelings these people can imagine….

It’s not just members trying to maintain traditions who can be closed to God. Those who want to get rid of traditions can be just as closed off to God. Sometimes those who want only new music, new orders of worship, and new practices can be just as closed to God because they want to create a church that serves them and their needs, not a church that focuses on what God is calling them to do.—Humble Leadership, p. 20

Our situation is daunting. We are trying to be an international church in increasingly pluralistic societies and cultures. We are called to be accepting, diverse, multilingual, egalitarian, and generous. We have begun to be more comfortable with our new name, but we do not yet fully understand what a blessing it can be and what God has in store for us. To top all this off, we still do not fit easily in any other religious tradition. We face what I will call a collection of “yets”:

• We are called to proclaim the “peace of Jesus Christ,” yet we are not a traditional peace church like the Quakers or Brethren.
• We are a deeply sacramental people who celebrate eight holy sacraments, yet we are not within the traditions of other Christian churches (Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican) that also observe so many.
• We value the outward characteristics of a spiritual life, yet we are not within the broad stream of traditional holiness churches (such as those within historic Wesleyan movements).
• We have deep, lasting roots in the Latter Day Saint tradition, yet we do not self-identify as a “Mormon” church—and cringe when others make that connection.
• We uphold the congregation as the primary unit of the church, yet we are not a Congregationalist church.
• We can agree in principle with many of our Protestant sisters and brothers on the “priesthood of all believers,” yet at the same time we affirm our system of governance as a theocratic democracy led by the Holy Spirit through priesthood.
• We see ourselves as a Spirit-led community, yet we are not a Pentecostal church like the Assembly of God.

Most of us in the Community of Christ try our best to balance multiple roles and responsibilities. Like my late friend Jack, we have God, family, church, career, and community all mixed up in our identities. I am a baby boomer pastor, church employee, and editor of this magazine, a husband (my wife and I just celebrated our twenty-eighth anniversary), and the father of two young adults. On the same day as Jack’s memorial service, my neighbors across the street experienced a house fire. I am ashamed to admit I could not remember their names, even though they have lived there for four years.

Perhaps that is just a small sign of the busyness and complexity of my life. I rationalize that by adding: Who among us is not plagued by something similar? Now, put all of us together in the church, with all our combined busyness and complexity. Add in the ever-increasing pace of change in society and the dizzying advances in technology. Stir in the call to be pastoral, to evangelize, to pursue peace, to do justice, to give generously of time, talents, and finances. At the same time, remember those recent decades in the church in which we experienced division (even schism) and, often, heated disagreements (even rancor).

Section 163 calls us to stop, to listen to “the Voice,” and engage in an extended conversation about the future church God beckons us to become. Perhaps what will matter most for us baby boomers, in particular, is to prepare to hand over the leadership reins to those who currently are young adults. Or maybe it will be something else, depending on who and where we are. We will not know until we engage honestly, prayerfully, and humbly in this conversation. I am so glad paragraph one ends with the counsel: Do not be afraid.

__________________

March 2007 Herald

Theological Reflections

A Sacrament of Blessing and Promise

By Richard A. Brown

The scene is familiar to just about everybody in the Community of Christ. Parents bring their child to the front of the sanctuary during a worship service, often accompanied by the child’s older siblings. Two elders stand ready to officiate. One takes the child in his or her arms, if it is an infant, while the other places hands on the child to offer a prayer of blessing. Quite often these days, one or both elders are grandparents of the child.

The blessing prayer usually centers on guidance and nurture to be provided by parents and faith community, and divine protection throughout the child’s lifetime. At prayer’s end, the baby is handed back to proud parents (perhaps relieved their child has not cried), and the worship service continues. After the service concludes, the extended family, along with friends and officiating ministers, often gather for photos to remember such an important occasion.

Of all eight sacraments in the Community of Christ, the blessing of children is easily the most family oriented. It is an important rite of passage, similar to the practices of other denominations that christen or baptize infants. Yet the sacrament of blessing is not a part of the baptismal sacrament or entrance into our faith community. It is, however, the sacrament most likely to attract nonmember friends to the church, and as such can be an important evangelism opportunity. Care should be taken to explain the significance of this sacrament for the child, parents, extended family, and congregation.

This sacrament holds a unique place in the Community of Christ. Its practice and theological basis arise from direction found in all three books of sacred scripture. The church was admonished in 1830 as follows:

Every member of the church of Christ having children, is to bring them unto the elders before the church, who are to lay their hands upon them in the name of Jesus Christ, and bless them in his name. –Doctrine and Covenants 17:19

In the Book of Mormon account, Jesus illustrated the love and concern he had for children: “And when he said these words, he wept, and the multitude bore record of it, and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them and prayed to the Father for them” (III Nephi 8:23).

The New Testament offers an extensive rationale. Mark’s Gospel, in particular, shares the story of Jesus chastising his disciples for treating children as a nuisance who should be kept at a distance:

People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them. –Mark 10:13–16 NRSV

Parallel accounts can be found in Matthew chapter 19 and Luke chapter 18. One of the most interesting aspects of these accounts is the way Jesus tied his act of blessing children to the promised kingdom of God.

The key word for Mark is “receive”; the peaceable kingdom is tied not merely to the innocence or naiveté of children. Rather, it comes as grace, especially to those on the margins of society who are considered either unimportant or unworthy. Such an understanding reflects the coming of Jesus himself. When God sent a savior/messiah to the world, it was as a baby born to humble parents in the most unexpected of circumstances: the manger of a stable in the tiny and remote town of Bethlehem, far from Rome, the center of worldly power and prestige.

The birth of Jesus marked the inauguration of God’s promised kingdom on earth, as foretold by prophets throughout Israel’s history. The full revelation and establishment of that kingdom is yet to be, of course. But with every child who is brought forward in the church to be blessed in the name of Jesus Christ, that peaceable kingdom is proclaimed anew and brought one small step closer to fruition.

There are sound reasons why the Community of Christ does not baptize children younger than eight, considered as the “age of accountability.” This theological position has a clear scriptural basis. According to Doctrine and Covenants 28:13a, “…little children are redeemed from the foundation of the world, through mine Only Begotten; wherefore they cannot sin, for power is not given unto Satan to tempt little children, until they begin to become accountable before me.”

The most extensive teaching on this subject is found in the Book of Mormon, especially in Moroni 8:5–29. The baptism of little children is referred to as a “gross error” which should be “removed from among you”:

Little children are whole, for they are not capable of committing sin; wherefore the curse of Adam is taken from them in me that it hath no power over them; and the law of circumcision is done away in me. (vs. 9)

Teach parents that they must repent and be baptized, and humble themselves as their little children, and they shall be saved with their little children; and their little children need no repentance, neither baptism. (vs. 11)

Little children are alive in Christ, even from the foundation of the world. (vs. 13)

All children are alike to me; wherefore I love little children with a perfect love; and they are all alike, and partakers of salvation. (vs. 18)

Little children cannot repent;…they are all alive in [God] because of his mercy. (vs. 20)

All little children are alive in Christ. (vs. 25)

The unique teachings offered in the Inspired Version (Joseph Smith’s emendations of the King James translation of the Bible) add significantly to our theological understanding. This is particularly true with a portion of the long section on the life and teachings of Enoch inserted in Genesis 5 (KJV):

And the Lord said unto Adam, Behold, I have forgiven thee thy transgression in the garden of Eden. Hence came the saying abroad among the people, that the Son of God hath atoned for original guilt, wherein the sins of the parents cannot be answered upon the heads of the children, for they are whole from the foundation of the world. —Genesis 6:55–56 IV

The words of scripture writers offer comfort, direction, and understanding. Yet it’s obvious that children are born into an imperfect world, one filled with inequality, injustice, suffering, and misfortune. It is easy to forget that children are not simply smaller versions of adults. They need nurture, love, disciplined guidance, and moral direction. Their first source should be parents. How fortunate are the children born to loving parents within a nurturing faith community. But, of course, that is not always the case.

The sacrament of blessing can provide both a literal and symbolic tipping point in a child’s young life. That is not always understood at the time of blessing and, in fact, it may take years or even a lifetime for a testimony of further blessings.

I cannot recall the exact words of blessing for either of my children more than twenty years ago. But in hindsight I can now see the movement of the Spirit in our family’s life, connected in a powerful way with the observances of this sacrament. Two days after my son was blessed on an Easter Sunday, my father died from a heart attack. My infant daughter was blessed about a month after I lost my job, and my wife and I dealt with my job uncertainty for more than a year. Those events may well have been coincidental; the blessings of the Spirit were not.

Little children are holy and whole in the sight of God. We who refer to ourselves as the body of Christ and the people of God bear a responsibility to nurture them, to raise up new generations of disciples of Jesus. The sacrament of blessing of children is an ideal way to begin.