Organized?

May 2 was Confirmation Day, and I wanted to present the idea that religion is more an “organism” than an “organization …”

Organized?

Psalm 148; Revelation 21:1-6

On Wednesday I was up at United Seminary for their spring convocation, and at the opening worship service we sang a hymn called “This Is a Day of New Beginnings.” The last line of each verse is “Our God is making all things new.”

Like the passage we heard this morning from the book of Revelation, the hymn celebrated God’s power of renewal and restoration.

We celebrate that same conviction nearly every Sunday when our welcomer says “…we hope this hour we spend together in worship and prayer will refresh and renew you for the week ahead.” We have confidence that during our time together, God’s voice and the Spirit’s breath will move through our assembly and bring new life.

Today, we listen for that voice and wait for that breath in the rite of Confirmation and the sacrament of Holy Communion. The young people who have come this morning to affirm their baptismal vows and assume responsibility for their spiritual journeys are bringing us the gifts of their talents and skills, their ideas and their presence. They refresh and renew our faith and they refresh and renew our congregation and our life together.

The small amounts of bread and juice that we will eat this morning are not enough nourishment for our bodies for the week, but they are nourishment for our spirits. We are refreshed and renewed by the knowledge that God’s blessings are present in the simplest and most everyday of things: of eating and drinking together, of offering words of condolence or encouragement, of doing acts of kindness and charity. We eat and drink at God’s table to remember: to remember the love and mercy that have been broken and poured out for us.

And in the Confirmation and Communion that we celebrate today, we are also reminded that our church is much more than an organization. There’s a classic joke told about the UCC. A prospective member comes into the pastor’s office and says she has always had a problem with “organized religion.” “Don’t worry,” answers the pastor, “nobody has ever accused us of being organized.”

Well, it is easy to make fun of the way churches are organized – and disorganized – but what I want to say today is that churches are not so much organizations as they are organisms. God’s promise of newness is a promise for restoration and reconciliation, for the processes that mark living, breathing bodies – the bodies that compose (however unexpectedly) the Body of Christ.

Every day is a day of new beginnings; every day our God is making all things news. Thanks be to God. Amen.