President Barack Obama began his State of the Union address Wednesday night with these words, “Our constitution declares that from time to time, the President shall give to congress information about the state of our union. For 220 years, our leaders have fulfilled this duty. They have done so during periods of prosperity and tranquility. And they have done so in the midst of war and depression; at moments of great strife and great struggle.”
It got me thinking, what is the state of our union as Presbyterians in the PCUSA? Could it be said that the state of our union is “strong?” What adjective might you use? Precarious? Hopeful? On the verge of … a bright future or imminent peril? There is some empirical data to look at (link here to 10-year trend info), but there is also the far less exact barometer of how people are “feeling” about things.
Just as all politics are local, people in the church tend to think that things are going well when things in their local congregation are going well. The reverse is also true. So, when people look around on Sunday morning and see empty pews, when the news from the session is “we need more money,” when the message from the pulpit is based on the newspaper headlines and not the Word of God from the Bible … people “feel” as if their church is on some pretty shifty sand.
Ask yourself, is our private practice of the faith, our social witness to the faith, and our proclamation of the faith declaring to the world what only the Church can declare? That there is a God, the Creator of all things, who has revealed Himself in the context of human history and in the person of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom was born into human reality in order that our relationship to Him might be restored through His blood shed on the cross. We needed Jesus to do what He did because from the very beginning we have failed universally and personally to trust God, desiring instead to be our own god, the lord of our own lives. That’s called sin. Sin not only breaks God’s heart, it severs the relationship between humanity and God. Restoration of that relationship is possible; it is provided for; it is freely offered. It comes by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone (who you can learn all about through the Bible). Jesus is the only hope for our individual salvation and Jesus is the hope of the world, because with humanity’s redemption comes also the redemption of all creation, which suffers the consequences of our sinfulness.
Who else can say that? Who will say it? Only the Church of Jesus Christ. Whatever else we might busy ourselves doing, if we fail to do this one thing, we fail.
The President addressed the state of national union by referring to issues of the economy, education, health-care, and the deployment of U.S. armed forces around the world. And then he addressed the key issue: the state of mistrust.
Likewise, we can address the state of denomination from several directions:
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Consistently declining trends in numbers of members, numbers of congregations, market share, per capita contributions, and PCUSA enrollment in denominational seminaries.
But as is true in the nation at large, the state of mistrust in our denomination is eroding our common life and threatens to undo us.
Organizational or institutional trust is not something that can be mandated, it must be cultivated. It begins with a seed of truth planted into the hearts and minds of people. It is fertilized over time by trustworthiness, by the upholding of mutually agreed upon standards, by the keeping of promises, by a spirit of openness and fair-play. Once trampled upon, tender roots of trust require special attention and genuine care. That does not happen by the work of national task forces that tell people to live peaceably with one another, or that reign down processes by which unity based on humanistic tenets can be achieved when ultimate unity (in Christ) has been routed.
What is the state of our union? Ultimately, my answer to the question is “read John 17.” But my one word analysis in terms of our denominational union is: “tenuous.”
What’s yours?