“Interdependence Day”

Kay and I picked the first of our huge crop of blueberries this past Wednesday – had blueberry pancakes for breakfast! OK, our “huge” crop was half a bowl and it came from one of our three little bushes, but the first blueberries of the season are always a big deal!

The blueberry bushes at the parsonage are something of a gift - we didn’t plant them, but we get to enjoy them. They were there when we arrived. They do need some care, of course – mostly mowing around them and pruning. One had to be rescued from under a pine tree, but they’re all looking good now and we get to enjoy the fruit.

When Peter Roberts (the member of our Leadership Team responsible for worship) came to me with the idea of reading the Declaration of Independence this morning I thought, “Well, OK…that’s certainly different, but what in the world would this have to do with worship?” Since worship is all about glorifying God and seeking a closer walk with Christ, just how would the Declaration of Independence fit in?

Like a blueberry bush.

Long before any of us came along, bold visionaries planted the Declaration of Independence. Each generation since 1776 has enjoyed the fruits of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That’s not to say there hasn’t been a need for pruning along the way as each generation has had to interpret the Declaration for their own time, cherishing some parts and thankfully, letting some other parts go. We continue to embrace the ideal that all people are created equal, but the part about “Savage Indians”…it’s a good thing we let go of that one. And that long list of complaints against Great Britain has faded into obscurity now that England is our greatest ally. Who in 1776 could have imagined that?

When Jesus spoke of not sewing new cloth to old cloth or putting new wine into old skins, he wasn’t talking about tossing out everything old in favor of some new fad. He was talking about not allowing the comfort of tradition to keep us from pruning, changing, letting go of those things that inhibit new growth, new fruit, new life.

His time was limited. He would only be with his followers a short while. They needed to see the new things he was doing, hear the new things he was saying, and reinterpret the things of old in the new time they were living.

“I am about to do a new thing”, spoke God through the prophet, Isaiah, “Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” Isaiah’s prophecies came true in Jesus. A new thing was happening.

A new thing is happening here, too. The congregations of a Second and First Churches are together today for worship and will be for the rest of the summer. We’ve enjoyed special services and events together, book studies and prayer breakfasts and boat building. Now, we’re spending some serious time together, checking each other out and wondering what’s next…more cooperative ventures…perhaps a merger?

Whatever course we take, it is inevitable that we’ll bring our histories, our traditions with us, the comfortable old cloth and the good old wineskins. That’s just human nature. But is it just human nature that we are being called to in this time? Jesus said. “You did not choose me, but I chose you that you might bear fruit, fruit that abides.” What does the Lord choose for us now? What of his divine nature are we to embody as we seek to bear fruit together? And what must we prune, let go of, for the sake of some greater good, for the sake of some greater ministry?

On this Independence Day, we can certainly choose to stay on our independent tracks. Or, we can open our hearts and minds to the great new thing God is doing among us and consider what it means to be the Body of Christ today, the United Church of Christ today. This might be Independence Day, but we are beginning to see ourselves as an interdependent community of faith with so much good fruit to share.

We get to enjoy things today that were planted long before we came along. But now it’s our time to water and weed and prune and harvest, to embrace the good things and let go of things that aren’t so good, to make decisions that will bless us today and extend those blessings to future generations. Christ chooses us for this – good fruit that abides.

Come now to the table of the Lord. There is forgiveness here and new life, new growth, Communion, community. Let us break bread together and let the new wine flow.