THE CURRENT STATE OF REFORMED DOCTRINE
Matthew 6:19-24

A sermon given by the Rev. Richard H. Taylor
August 7, 2005 / 12th Sunday of Pentecost

Doctrine is not something that is popular at Beneficent. Sometimes we like to act like we have no doctrine at all. We even have a group called “Beyond Doctrine and Dogma,” whose name and activities seem to suggest that the interesting stuff is outside doctrine. We are more interested in the provocative or unusual.

But we do well to remember that we do have a doctrinal task. When children growing up ask questions; when confused or frustrated adults ask questions: “what does this Church believe?” “How shall we then love?” We have to offer more than, “whatever you think,” or “we really don’t know.” We have responsibilities not only to think, talk and ask, but also to conclude. “This is where we are. This is what we think God is saying.”

In its early days, Beneficent used the Cambridge Platform to describe where we fit in among the churches of the world. Written by New Englanders in 1648, the Platform said that the Congregational Churches of New England agreed with and were part of the Reformed family of churches.

So today the United Church of Christ belongs to an international fellowship of 218 churches in 107 countries called the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. It includes churches named Congregational, Presbyterian, Reformed, and United. Our Reformed Church family is obviously Christian and Protestant. We find our life revealed in Jesus Christ through scripture. Reformed Churches also, generally stress democratic processes within the church, value education, tolerate differences in theological nuances, lift up the role of women, and are very concerned about faith’s impact on the social realities of the world.

When you hear comments in the news that the Catholics are talking to the Baptists or that the Episcopalians have reached an agreement with the Lutherans, it is usually these international “confessional families” that are being talked about. You know, for instance, what is happening to the international Episcopal organization because of disputes over the election of a gay bishop in New Hampshire. You know what is front and center in the Episcopal family, or in the Catholic Church. What about our own family? What are our sister churches talking about?

Since, as I said, our family allows some differences on theological matters, we are perhaps slower than other families to come to say anything is status confessionis, that is that any idea is either essential or totally rejected by Christians. Nevertheless in the last Century that has happened at least twice, and may be happening for a third time. What might be something essential to Reformed belief, Reformed doctrine?

The other two times were these: In 1934 the Barmen Declaration was written by many Reformed Evangelical and some Lutherans in Germany to denounce the Nazi government of Adolph Hitler, and to separate authority in the Church from that of the state. In 1982 the World Alliance declared South African apartheid a sin. That was particularly unnerving to the white Dutch Reformed Churches in South Africa that were members of the Alliance, and which included the main leaders in the white government. The Alliance declared that it would suspend the membership of the South African churches until they confessed their sin. Through the work of the Holy Spirit and the faith of the Alliance, the South African Churches did confess their sin, and that confession played a major role in overturning the apartheid government.

So what great cause is moving our sister churches today? It is the oppression of the poor. They have been working on this for decades, and now are recommending to churches that the make the ending of oppression of the poor part of their faith statements.

Last year the Alliance’s churches had their every seven year meeting in Accra, Ghana. As part of the meeting delegates traveled along the coast to see the dungeons where slaves were kept before their passage to America. Every twenty miles along the coast was a castle to hold slaves. “Seventy million people were robbed from Africa. Only 25 million arrived in their master’s house – the rest were just dead along the way.” ¹ At Elmina Castle they found a room above the women’s dungeon. It was set up to be a worship center, where wealthy ship owners from England or Rhode Island could worship God. Underneath their very feet 500 women would be chained to the walls, hardly fed, waiting the passage. How could the Church have a “nice” worship service within the ear shot of such suffering?

How can we do it today?

Here is what the Alliance voted:

“We reject the current world economic order imposed by global neoliberal capitalism and any other economic system, including absolute planned economies, which defy God’s covenant by excluding the poor, the vulnerable and the whole of creation from the fullness of life. We reject any claim of economic, political, and military empire which subverts God’s sovereignty over life and acts contrary to just rule.” ²

To believe in modern capitalism is to believe in an idol. To make modern capitalism into the standard of all is a sin. “We reject,” say the Churches, “the culture of rampant consumerism and the competitive greed and selfishness of the neoliberal global market system, or any other system, which claims there is no alternative.” ³

Did you know that “Four hundred and ninety-seven billionaires hold as much wealth as 57 percent of the world’s population[?]. If those 497 people would share 5 percent of their wealth, all of the basic needs of the world could be covered. We wouldn't have a child dying every five seconds.” ⁴

Basically the Alliance is saying, what we are doing in this world is not only not working, it is sinful and leading the world rapidly to perdition. What we are doing is crazy. The Alliance looks at 24,000 people dying every day from poverty and malnutrition; the HIV and AIDS pandemic; the disappearance of a species every hour; climate change; war. It is not working.

Here are some examples of beliefs and thinking condemned by the Churches:

We reject the idea that “unrestrained competition, consumerism, and the unlimited economic growth and accumulation of wealth is the best for the whole world;”

We reject the idea that “the ownership of private property has no social obligation;”

We reject the idea that “capital speculation, liberalization, and deregulation of the market, privatization of public utilities and national resources, unrestricted access for foreign investments and imports, lower taxes, and the unrestricted movement of capital will achieve wealth for all;”

We reject the idea that “Social obligations, protection of the poor and the weak, trade unions, and relationships between people, are subordinate to the processes of economic growth and capital accumulation.” ⁵

All of these ideas are bound in sin. All of these ideas contribute to death and disease in the world. All of these ideas need to be confessed by responsible Christians.

I am sure that some of you will respond, this is of no consequence to me, I will believe what I want to believe. But I have to tell you as your pastor such personal obstinacy is not what we believe in. We are not Beneficent Individualists Church. We are Congregational, we believe in congregating. And our sister churches have sat down together, have congregated, have thought long and hard, have prayed, and are saying to us “this is sin. This must be changed.”

You know in Europe today every cow gets a government subsidy of $2.20 a day from the government. Meanwhile, 2.8 billion people live on less than $2 a day. For most of the world, you’d be better off being a cow. ⁶

If you believe the world as it is being run – is perfectly fine, believe it. But if you think too many are hurting, come to this table ready to confess your sin. Come to this table asking God to help you change it. Come to this table having heard from Christians around the world.

Amen.

1 – Berger, Rose Marie, “The Miracle of Accra,” Sojourners, (July, 2005, pp.33-36). Quoting Ulrich Duchrow, p.34. This article strongly influenced this sermon.
2 – “Covenanting for Justice in the Economy and the Earth,” World Alliance of Reformed Churches: 24th General Council, Accra, Ghana,…2004 p. 3 (This is the actual text of the Alliance’s statement. It can be found on their website at www.warc.ch.)
3 – Ibid.
4 – Berger, ob.cit., p.36, quoting Ulrich Duchrow.
5 – “Covenanting for Justice…” ob.cit., p.2.
6 – Berger, ob.cit., p. 33, quoting Charlotte Denny.