We Belong To God

So where were you 32 years ago less a day? Where were you on the day of the inauguration of The Uniting Church in Australia. There was lots of excitement where I was. The crowd for the North Brisbane presbytery service marking the occasion was so big that it overflowed the fairly recently built Aspley High School assembly hall into the concrete undercroft of one of the classroom blocks. It was a freezing night in June and we Queenslanders aren’t much used to the cold, but the people remained seated in the whistling, piercing wind through that undercroft, hanging off the words transmitted from the main hall to the overflow. (There was no convenient data projection feed—it was audio only.) It was my job to manage the volume.

On the other side of Brisbane at the Brisbane Presbytery celebration, the now Revd Dr Andrew Dutney, one of the Uniting Church’s most prominent theologians, was among the crowd at the open air service at the Milton Tennis Courts. In his book, Where did the joy come from?, he describes the night as “excruciating”, running an hour overtime on “one of the coldest nights of the year”. Nevertheless, Andrew remembers it as “worth being out that night” for the sake of watching the sheer joy of one of the architects of the Basis of Union and the preacher for the evening, Revd Prof Rollie Busch. Andrew describes it this way:

I don’t remember much of what he said any more but I remember its effect. Whatever was burning in him, he shared it with us. The cold and the tedium were forgotten and we were warmed and enlivened as he read his careful, scholarly sermon… The impression he made that night seemed thoroughly improbable to me. The transparent joy of one small man using the most conventional, conservative and … dull instrument of Christian witness [preaching] did what all the rest [including massed choirs, musicians, dancers, actors, banners and processions] couldn’t. It made it worth being out that night, sitting in the cold. (p. 7)

Andrew is writing in the midst of one of those turbulent periods in the history of the Uniting Church when jibes and insults are being thrown across party lines around issues of sexuality. He looks back to that inauguration night to wonder at the vision of those who worked towards it and of their joy at achieving such a union. He looks back and asks, “Just where did that joy come from?” and “What on earth does it have to do with us now, decades after the inauguration, decimated several times over by the attrition of controversy, age and dissolutionment?” and “Is it all still worth it now in the cold nights which we experience in our time?”

I wonder, I wonder whether the disciples were similarly reflective as they looked back upon the inauguration of the ministry of the Jesus people—perhaps a decade or two down the track with the success of some missions and the difficulties of others. I wonder whether they too could look back and wonder… where did the joy come from? Where did the hope come from? Where did the peace come from… in the midst of the difficult and stormy time that was the ministry of Jesus… in the centre of the storm? And how is it that it had sustained them so far? Did the disciples ever wonder how God had been marvellously at work despite the deprivations of discipleship, the humiliations of failed following and the painful road to the cross; despite the storms in the temple and on the Sea of Galilee, the wrath of the Romans and of the religious leaders? Did they look back after the horrific debates of their day (on eating meat offered to idols and whether circumcision was required), did they look back and wonder at the awe of the vision and mission imparted in that time of beginnings?

I think the community of Mark did; and I think they must have loved the story of the calming of the sea: a story which reminded them of the wonder and awe of the work of God in the midst of stormy and difficult times. For this story depicts Jesus as being very much enfolded in God, as belonging to God, as being God—the one whom wind and sea obey; the one who discerns order in chaos; and who brings calm to troubled seas.

The Gospel of Mark is intent upon imbuing followers and prospective followers of Jesus to come with the joy and the hope and the peace that Jesus instilled in the first disciples and which they passed on to the generations of followers after that. The story has been kept and repeated and probably at least another lifetime after the death of Jesus, it has been written down—in continuing attempts to keep the story alive of where the joy and the hope and the peace had come from. And it’s a powerful story, just as the memory of Rollie Busch is a powerful memory for Andrew Dutney.

The Uniting Church has endured some stormy seas; some troubled times. This congregation has had its share of its own storms both as part of the Uniting Church and as a congregation in its own right. And it is easy to become disheartened when people move out of the community, or things we don’t understand happen, or when we just don’t seem to be able to attract other people to this God whom we care for so much.

Mark’s story of the calming of the sea invites us to see the work of God through it all—to have faith that God is at work; to look back over our history and to say, “Despite the storm, despite the cold, despite the turbulence, God was, is still and will be here.” Andrew Dutney invites us to risk again and again the journey which is faith in the unfolding work of God. Towards the end of Where did the joy come from?, he writes:

Like many other people I have been deeply troubled by the conflict that has come upon the Uniting Church. I love the Uniting Church. I am glad to be part of it. I believe that ours has been a Spirit-led adventure of faith, and that Christ still calls us onward if we have the courage to continue. And like most other members of the Uniting Church, I have been disappointed by those who have set about, or unintentionally managed to devalue and discredit what God has been doing among us and through us.

I don’t believe it’s about sexuality, or even about biblical authority any more. However it started, now it’s about whether we have the trust, the patience, the mutual commitment, the nerve to really “wait upon God’s Word”—and to keep waiting, together, as the risen Christ meets us and forms us for service “in his own strange way” [Para. 4 Basis of Union]. (pp. 37-38)

Our foundational document, the Basis of Union reminds us:

The Uniting Church affirms that it belongs to the people of God on the way to the promised end. The Uniting Church prays that, through the gift of the Spirit, God will constantly correct that which is erroneous in its life, will bring it into deeper unity with other Churches, and will use its worship, witness and service to God’s eternal glory through Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen. (Para. 18)