Thomas to UCC: "Find, Commission, Enlist, and Inspire"

HARTFORD (06/25/2007) -- United Church of Christ General Minister and President the Rev. John Thomas preached on the story of Elijah "On the Run" (found in 1 Kings 19:1-19) at General Synod 26's Celebration Worship service on Sunday afternoon. The Civic Center Coliseum seating was filled into the upper rows to rejoice in the UCC's fiftieth anniversary, and to hear Rev. Thomas' words that would take them into the future.

The story had earlier been visualized on stage by a troupe of young liturgical dancers: how Elijah, fresh from the triumph over the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, had abruptly turned and fled from the threats of Queen Jezebel. "To be honest," said Thomas, "this is not Elijah's finest moment."

"We remember him confronting Ahab again when the king, succumbing to his wife's taunts, seizes Naboth's vineyard. 'Have you found me, O my enemy?'" says the king.

"But to be quite honest about it, in our text he is a pathetic, self-absorbed, whining figure. Fresh from victory, one word from Jezebel is enough to send him fleeing to Beersheba."

At the mountain top, Elijah confronts God with his complaint, to hear the question, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" "It is, I think, the perfect question for the United Church of Christ at 50," said Thomas. "Have we been sufficient trouble for the Ahab's of our day, sufficient danger to the Jezebels of our time to have some cause for being on the run."

Thomas raised the issues of Darfur, the New Orleans recovery, global warming, a global economy that exploits the poor, and the war in Iraq -- "its deceit, its torture, its demoralizing death and dismemberment" -- as one that still confront the UCC. "We have been silent witnesses of evil deeds;" Thomas declared. "Are we still of any use?"

"These fifty years have been graced by countless saints who had good reason to be on the run," said Thomas, "saints who have taught us that every day is Carmel and that we can't serve two altars, can't worship some comforting amalgram of Ball and Yahweh. Respectable religion and evangelical faith can't happily co-exist."

Thomas quoted David Napier's Beecher lecture, saying, "Go back. Always go back; and on the way, always on the way, find, commission, enlist, and inspire Elisha and Elisha and Elisha."

"Faithfulness -- and [God's] presence -- is found not on the run, but on the way home to our future. There we will find the seven thousand. There we will find Elisha. There in the silence, God will yet speak."

The Synod's grandest worship service included a choir that filled two sections of the Coliseum seating, and produced a wonderful sound. The grand processional featured symbols of the four traditions that united to form the UCC, with former Hartford Seminary President Barbara Brown Zikmund carrying that of Congregationalism, a model of the schooner Amistad.

Also symbolized in the procession were various special constituencies and ministries of the United Church of Christ. Banner after banner celebrated health, education, and missionary agencies around the country and the world. Two members of the Collegium of Officers, Linda Jaramillo and Cally Rogers-Witte, led the celebration of Holy Communion for the assembled thousands.

In the evening, the General Synod delegates turned to business, dividing into the committees that will consider the resolutions submitted to Synod. Floor action on those matters and the Synod's other business will occur throughout the plenary sessions on Monday and Tuesday.

No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here.