Ten True Things about the Union Church

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"Ten True Things"

Matthew 25:34-40

September 13, 2009

As we gather for Kick Off Sunday, it is time to remember who we are and what we do. It is time to be the church that God calls us to be. Here are ten things that are true about our church...

Truth 1: We are a worshiping church. We share communion. We baptize our children. We pray together. We sing together. We share our joys and concerns. This sanctuary is our sacred space. In this space, as we worship together, we are transformed from strangers into brothers and sisters. What binds us to one another is not that we think the same things or make the same choices. What binds us to one another is the yearning to open our hearts to God.

Truth 2: We are an informal church. I’ll never forget the first Sunday when I was a guest preacher here. I went to call the ushers forward for the offering and one usher came down the aisle in his Blackhawks sweater. As a lifelong Presbyterian, (affectionately referred to as “God’s frozen chosen,”) all I could think was, “Wow!” Fifteen years later, I might think now, “Wow...that’s kind of formal!” We’re the church in which Alverdah Helming could sing the University of Illinois fight song in the middle of church and it wouldn’t phase us. We’re the church whose Christmas Pageant can include a toucan because...well...that child we love really wanted to be a toucan! And that is precisely the point. In a world in which you have to decide what you’re going to take seriously, we care about and love the guy in the the sweater and the woman struggling with Alzheimer's and the child in the toucan costume more than we care about how things look.

Truth 3: We are a thinking church. If we assembled the list of graduate degrees in this congregation and the list of esteemed institutions from which those degrees come, I would put that list up against any congregation on a per-capita basis. However, that’s not my point. My point is that this is a church in which we believe God gave us a brain with the hope and expectation that we would use it. We use those brains outside these sanctuary walls to make things work. And, we bring those brains to church with us. I remember one member of our church a few years ago who came through the receiving line after worship and mentioned that my sermon had really helped him think about the book that he was working on about religion and the Enlightenment. I remember plenty of Sundays when folks have come through the line and said, “I want to talk to you a little more about what I think of your sermon...” This is not a sanctuary where folks hang up their coats and their minds before entering.

Truth 4: We are a learning church. Real thinkers share one common insight: the more we learn, the more questions we have. We are deeply committed to educating our children and our youth. That’s why we have a children’s time during our worship--because that’s how much our children matter. Watch how excited the children are to come forward for that time and then how excited they are to head downstairs to their classes. Sneak a peak into the youth lounge some morning. It might be your only chance to spot our junior highs and high schoolers! However, you’ll be amazed by the group that you see! Come to Early Risers or to Church Ladies or to Bible Study or to Soup and Study. You will find adults who have committed themselves to learning. If anything I wish more adults would realize that what is good for the children and youth might also be good for them. (Just ask a Sunday School teacher how much they learned when they taught!) However, we remain a learning church.

Truth 5: We are a diverse church. This might not be obvious as first glance. However, look again. Many of us come from Lake Bluff. Yet, in increasing numbers, we are from any number of surrounding communities. The roots of this church are Protestant. However, many of us grew up Catholic. Many of us grew up in no church at all. A number of our families blend religious backgrounds: Jewish and Christian, Muslim and Christian. Some of us have lived in Lake Bluff our whole lives. Others of us are rural or suburban or completely urban in background. Some of us have lived all over the world. Currently, when I check statistics on our web site, we have folks regularly reading our sermons in Holland, in England, in Germany, in Russia, in China and in Brazil, among other places. When we go to work, some of us are white collared managers and executives. Some of us are craftsmen and women who work with our hands. And the work some of us are currently pursuing is simply finding a job. Still others of us are more or less retired. We are conservative and moderate and liberal in our politics. We are affluent and middle class and struggling mightily.

Truth 6: We are an eating church. Seriously! We can laugh about it but I actually think this matters quite a bit. Think about a family that doesn’t eat together at least some of the time. Aside from the fact that this family probably doesn’t eat well because they are eating on “the fly,” that family also is missing out on the chance to sit with one another and connect. How do you get to know each other unless you sit down and talk? What better excuse is there to catch up than when we eat? No matter how busy we are, we have to eat! That’s exactly what we are doing as a church, today in our picnic and at various other points throughout the year. Not unlike the family that sits down at the dinner table, when our church family sits down to eat together, we remember just how much we enjoy each other’s company. We realize that we’re in this life together!

Truth 7: We are a member-driven church. If you want to know what I did with my summer, the answer in part would be, “I made a lovely bulletin board at the church!” (Well, it is the “loveliest” I’ll ever make!) Right outside the sanctuary is the Union Church Organizational Chart. In order to create that chart, I had to do something that I believe only Ellie Borders and I have actually done: I had to read the Union Church’s “Articles of Government.” I want you to take a look at the chart. If you’d like, I’ll give you a copy of the “Articles,” too! Here’s the bottom line on how this church runs: aside from what the pastor’s preach and what baptisms and weddings they perform, everything in this church is up to its members. Members run all the meetings. Pastors do not moderate or vote. Things happen in this church as a result of folks working on committees and reporting to boards and taking action at congregational meetings. Every member gets one vote and every vote counts equally. And as the nonvoting pastor of the Union Church, I think that’s a really healthy system!

Truth 8: We are a changing church. In the long history of this church, dating back to 1866, pastors have come and gone. Members have come and gone, too. Whole generations of leaders, both pastors and members, have had a hand in shaping the unique heritage of the Union Church. Across those generations, that heritage and history becomes much larger than any one person, be they pastor or member. The Union Church has always valued diversity. The Union Church has always been a member-driven church. The Union Church has always been an eating church, just ask the folks around here about the old supper club! And yet, in each generation of the church’s life, the job of being the Union Church in that particular moment in time is clarified. Who could possibly expect that being the Union Church during the Great Depression would mean the same thing as being the Union Church in the 1960’s? Our job is, and has always been, to carry the essential principals of who we are into each era and to discover the unique challenges and opportunities that are there for us as a church in being the Union Church, here and now. Each generation has done that. That’s why the church is alive and vibrant today.

Truth 9: We are a caring church. Part of what it means to be the Union Church today speaks to the life we share within this community. We are the Union Church in hard, challenging times. People who have jobs are worried about keeping them. Other folks within this church family are looking. Things which used to make us feel secure--pensions and 401K’s and good health insurance--now seem up for grabs. I remember the days when I first came here when every Spring it seemed like the hobby in town was to buy each other’s houses. Now, we wonder if a house will sell at all. There is a lot of anxiety and insecurity and worry around and many of those worries are quite real. And yet, the truth that we are called to live with one another is that none of us are alone as we face those challenges. We are family--church family. We care. That care takes all sorts of forms: a meal delivered at just the right time; help with a resume’ or a reference for an interview; sharing our wide range of expert skills with each other. If we freely share the gifts that God has given us and that we have worked to hone with one another, there is hardly a challenge which we cannot overcome! I see that truth lived again and again. However, we have to be willing to share our struggles with each other. And, we have to be willing to listen to the calling when it’s our turn to help: “We come to the time in our service in which we share our joys and our concerns with one another...”

Truth 10: We are an outreach church. When someone from beyond our church family arrives at our door, we do what we can to help. We try to identify needs and resolve problems. Ask the single mother who was relieved that her son’s school went to uniforms to shut down the gang identification but then realized that she couldn’t afford the uniforms. Check out the look in her eye when her son leaves for school because he’s dressed exactly as the rules describe, thanks to the Union Church. Check out the backpack on another student’s back on a Friday afternoon as they leave school. It looks like any other backpack except it is filled with food for her family for the weekend. The Union Church and Holy Family Food Pantry worked to make that happen. Watch as the man who had worked for years in manufacturing shows up at our door to ask for help for the first time in his life. He’s laid off. He’s doing the best he can. Look at the relief on his face that has at least as much to do with being treated with respect as it does with the help that comes his way. We care. We help.

And yet, we don’t sit and wait for those who come and find us. We support the great work that Mother’s Trust and P.A.D.S. do in their own spheres, and that support is financial, thanks to the Chili Auction that so many people work on and support, and that support is “hands on,” thanks to all of those who cook for and staff our shift at P.A.D.S. From the shantytowns of Brazil to North Chicago, from a soldier in Iraq who opens a care package to a neighbor who goes to a food pantry and finds food on the shelf, we care. We reach out to those in need.

In the end, what makes us a church and not simply a social club is our willingness to respond to the needs of others both within our church family and well beyond our own walls. May God help us to be be a caring, outreach church in this world of needs!