The Elisha generation
2 Kings 2: 1-2, 6-14
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
June 30, 2019 – Open and Affirming Sunday
Last weekend the United Church of Christ held its 32nd General Synod in Milwaukee, WI. There were 19 resolutions, ranging from supporting the Green New Deal to revising the bylaws to include non-binary language; supporting survivors of rape and sexual abuse through a church-wide observance of Break the Silence Sunday; denouncing acts of hatred, violence, and racism carried out by white supremacist and neo-Nazi ideologies; abolishing the growth and existence of private prisons; addressing the state of global forced migration; recognizing the Mental Health Network and the Colectivo de UCC Latinx Ministries as Historically Underrepresented Groups; avoiding the use of single-use plastic foam. All of these resolutions passed with an overwhelming majority. Hundreds of UCC folx marched and protested at an ICE detention center. A prayer service of support was held outside a Planned Parenthood clinic. This is your church, folx.
One resolution was so emotionally-charged that the discussion was carried over from an evening plenary to the next morning plenary session, where it was then voted to be tabled and the work given to the United Church of Christ Board of Directors. The resolution, Stewardship of Exhibit Space as a Resource for a Mission of Justice, posed the question: does the extravagant welcome of an inclusive Christian denomination extend to those whose theology is not inclusive but actively exclusive?
Out of almost 5000 UCC congregations, more than 1500 are Open and Affirming. The United Church of Christ is also home to about 100 or so congregations that identify as Faithful and Welcoming—evangelical, conservative, orthodox and traditional. Previously they were known as the Biblical Witness Fellowship. These congregations remain in the United Church of Christ to pursue open and respectful dialogue, to give voice to these more conservative churches in the UCC, but also to advocate for an historic understanding of sexuality and marriage.
The resolution, brought forth from the Michigan Conference, sought to ban any Faithful and Welcoming presence in the exhibit hall at future General Synods. A group of about 25 youth from Michigan, their bodies draped with prayer shawls from the self-care suite, their fear, anger, and pain palpable, approached the microphone to speak in favor of the resolution. They witnessed to coming to the last General Synod, thinking that the wider church would be a safe space, full of acceptance and extravagant welcome for LGBTQ folx, only to find a group in the exhibit hall that espouses the exact opposite of those values.
Others spoke against the resolution so that years of previous dialogue may continue, that one day we might win what Martin Luther King called the “double victory”—freedom for the oppressed and the freed heart and mind of the oppressor. I thought how would I vote and found myself torn between voting in favor and voting against the resolution. I could see the value on both sides.
And then I read a tweet before the plenary session in which the resolution was tabled. I follow someone whose Twitter handle is Jesus Christ; they tweeted “Please remember young people who are really, really struggling.” We strive to err on the side of grace but sometimes we forget in our privilege of age and experience and resources that there are vulnerable, tender people looking to us for that grace. Just so they can live their truth out in the open.
Elisha is the next generation of God’s prophets, God’s truthtellers. It’s been a dangerous time for Israel, with corrupt kings and bad leadership, and things aren’t going to get better any time soon. It’s time for Elijah to move on and time for Elisha to take up the mantle. When Elisha will not leave Elijah’s side, when he asks for a double share of Elijah’s spirit, this is the sound of a young person really, really struggling. When someone younger than us tells us, entrusts us with their truth, many times they are struggling to do so. Because leadership can be corrupt and it doesn’t look like things are going to get better any time soon. Because it’s dangerous to be young right now. Because unlike friends their own age, they don’t know if they can trust us. Because they don’t know if we will believe them.
Even now, our young prophets—tellers of their own truth—they are often not welcome in their hometown, in their village, their tribe, their faith family. They’ve had no choice but to have been raised as digital natives but we criticize them for being on their phones too much. We’re handing over a world with more crises than at any other time and we question why many of them are choosing to postpone marriage or not have any children. We’ve told them they can do anything they want but if they go to college they could incur a debt that will probably dominate their adult life and more likely be paid a wage that will not sustain the payment of that debt, while those who are 65 and older have the highest net worth.
Ironically this present ageism is not new. The Silent Generation (born 1926-1946) complained about the excessive spending habits of baby boomers (1947-1964), who grumbled about the laziness of Gen Xers (1965 to 1980), who now gripe about the self-absorption of millennials (1981-2000).
In the past many of our background decisions have been made for us, whether it is through our education, family traditions and expectations, religious tradition and teaching, social and cultural norms, government policies. The assumed wisdom was that this made for a more stable society. And yet the more decisions that are made for us, the less we are required to grow and mature. A simplistic example would be that in the past we had regular coffee and decaf, milk or cream, sugar or Sweet-n-Low. Now we have a myriad of choices of coffee roasts, low-fat and non-dairy creamers, all-natural sweeteners. Even as recent as Generation X, it was assumed there were two genders and there were still expectations that followed male and female. Now we know there are more than two genders, that gender identity and gender expression are two different things, and that who we are as a person is up to us to figure out and no one else.
Out of 76 million millennials, about 15 million or 20% percent identify as LGBTQIA. Nearly two million youth from ages 13-24 in the U.S. contemplate suicide each year, the main contributing factor being a lack of acceptance. However, when LGBTQ youth have at least one accepting, supportive adult in their lives they are 40% less likely to attempt suicide.
This is why it is so important for churches like ours to exist. This is our double share of spirit: to listen to identities and experiences that are not ours and believe and trust them to be true; to accept and affirm all flesh as worthy of dignity and respect; to seek after our own truth, to be grounded in that truth and to live it out in community as best as we are able.
It is only from the standpoint of privilege and power that we can say “these things take time” or “I need more time to adjust”. Because for the most vulnerable there is no time at all and the time to be Church is now: to encourage healing, provide safe space, advocate for justice, disrupt violence, and embody compassion. For as long as it takes.
Amen.
Benediction
“Rebellion...should be our natural state. [Faith] is a belief that rebellion is always worth it, even if all outward signs point to our lives and struggles as penultimate failures. We are saved not by what we can do or accomplish but by...our steadfastness to the weak, the poor, the marginalized, those who endure oppression. We must stand with them against the powerful. ...[The] struggle to live the moral life is worth it."
―Chris Hedges, from The World as It Is
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
June 30, 2019 – Open and Affirming Sunday
Last weekend the United Church of Christ held its 32nd General Synod in Milwaukee, WI. There were 19 resolutions, ranging from supporting the Green New Deal to revising the bylaws to include non-binary language; supporting survivors of rape and sexual abuse through a church-wide observance of Break the Silence Sunday; denouncing acts of hatred, violence, and racism carried out by white supremacist and neo-Nazi ideologies; abolishing the growth and existence of private prisons; addressing the state of global forced migration; recognizing the Mental Health Network and the Colectivo de UCC Latinx Ministries as Historically Underrepresented Groups; avoiding the use of single-use plastic foam. All of these resolutions passed with an overwhelming majority. Hundreds of UCC folx marched and protested at an ICE detention center. A prayer service of support was held outside a Planned Parenthood clinic. This is your church, folx.
Others spoke against the resolution so that years of previous dialogue may continue, that one day we might win what Martin Luther King called the “double victory”—freedom for the oppressed and the freed heart and mind of the oppressor. I thought how would I vote and found myself torn between voting in favor and voting against the resolution. I could see the value on both sides.
And then I read a tweet before the plenary session in which the resolution was tabled. I follow someone whose Twitter handle is Jesus Christ; they tweeted “Please remember young people who are really, really struggling.” We strive to err on the side of grace but sometimes we forget in our privilege of age and experience and resources that there are vulnerable, tender people looking to us for that grace. Just so they can live their truth out in the open.
Ironically this present ageism is not new. The Silent Generation (born 1926-1946) complained about the excessive spending habits of baby boomers (1947-1964), who grumbled about the laziness of Gen Xers (1965 to 1980), who now gripe about the self-absorption of millennials (1981-2000).
Out of 76 million millennials, about 15 million or 20% percent identify as LGBTQIA. Nearly two million youth from ages 13-24 in the U.S. contemplate suicide each year, the main contributing factor being a lack of acceptance. However, when LGBTQ youth have at least one accepting, supportive adult in their lives they are 40% less likely to attempt suicide.
This is why it is so important for churches like ours to exist. This is our double share of spirit: to listen to identities and experiences that are not ours and believe and trust them to be true; to accept and affirm all flesh as worthy of dignity and respect; to seek after our own truth, to be grounded in that truth and to live it out in community as best as we are able.
It is only from the standpoint of privilege and power that we can say “these things take time” or “I need more time to adjust”. Because for the most vulnerable there is no time at all and the time to be Church is now: to encourage healing, provide safe space, advocate for justice, disrupt violence, and embody compassion. For as long as it takes.
Amen.
Benediction
“Rebellion...should be our natural state. [Faith] is a belief that rebellion is always worth it, even if all outward signs point to our lives and struggles as penultimate failures. We are saved not by what we can do or accomplish but by...our steadfastness to the weak, the poor, the marginalized, those who endure oppression. We must stand with them against the powerful. ...[The] struggle to live the moral life is worth it."
―Chris Hedges, from The World as It Is
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