Saint James UCC of Hamburg, NY

Exodus 19:1-6, John 17:20-23

Preached by Rev. Dr. Robert Matlack

The Israelite people had a strong sense of their identity. They were a people who had been called by God, a people who had a special covenant with God, a people who were specially blessed by God. One of the foundational moments in their relationship with God is described in our passage from Exodus. Here God reminds the Israelite people how it was God who rescued them from their slavery in Egypt, leading them forth to a new way of life. Then God says to them, "Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own people. The whole earth is mine, but you will be my chosen people, a people dedicated to me alone, and you will serve me as priests."

This passage defined their relationship with God. The responsibility of the Israelite people was to obey God, to dedicate their lives to serving God, and in return God claimed them as God's own people, a nation of priests.

From that time forth the Israelite people looked back on that moment, passing the message on from one generation to the next. Their relationship with God, as described in this passage, defined who they were and how they should live. It gave them a national identity that was different from all others, and this identity bound them to each other and to God in a special way. There were many times when the people forget this identity, when they failed to live as a people who belonged to God. Inevitably it caused them great grief and pain. They suffered because they were headed in the wrong direction, and always someone or something would happen to call them back to their real identity, so that once again they would know themselves to be God's people.

I mention that passage because as we gather here to worship, or as we gather in a variety of settings - whether they be religious, social, or even patriotic - I believe that sometimes we forget, or at least get a little fuzzy about who we really are. We get confused and seduced into thinking that we can and even do, do it all by ourselves, that life is about what we can acquire or what other people think about us. We want fame and fortune, and of course we want it right now.

When we buy into these messages that constantly bombard us, then we also forget pieces of who we are, important pieces, and in the process we lose track of what it is that we have to celebrate and be thankful for. The Hebrew people encountered the same problem. They would enjoy some successes, and people would start to forget about God, deciding that the victories which they had won were theirs and theirs alone, and that they didn't need to rely upon God any more. Whenever that happened, and it happened a number of times, disaster was just around the corner, because they had lost touch with who they really were.

Time after time, prophets would arise to call the people back to their roots, to remind them that they were God's people, and that that relationship was indeed at the very center of their identity. Once again the people would be reminded of and remember this passage from Exodus, and as they would start to identify themselves again as God's people, they would be renewed, for once again they were in touch with themselves. Once again, they saw themselves as they really were.

I mention their experience because it has some important messages for us. As our text from John reminds us, we too are a people who belong to God. Our unity, our glory, indeed all of the talents and the abilities that we have are gifts from God. We like to take credit for them. We like to look around at all the things we have accomplished, and think that we have done them on our own. Yet the reality is that all of those abilities and talents that we have are a gift from God. It is up to us to use them - or as we sometimes do, to abuse them. We clearly have to do our part, but we are only able to do our part because God's part is already done. God has acted in our lives to create possibilities and potentials for each of us.

If we are to live and grow faithfully, then we need to recognize that we are a people who belong to God. We are God's people. Apart from that understanding, we can never fully know ourselves, we can never truly live out our destiny. For just as that was a part of the Israelite's heritage, that is a part of our heritage as well.

As we look around at our society we see that this part is often forgotten. Today, many people have no church affiliation. Many others have a church affiliation, but to be honest it means very little to them. It is like a club that they have joined, and once in a while they participate in it, but it doesn't really effect their lives in any significant way.

The founders of our nation knew the importance of their faith and their religious heritage. Most of them were deeply religious people, and it's no accident that patriotic statements like our pledge of allegiance include the words "one nation under God" or that our money includes the motto "in God we trust".

Contrary to the trend today, where we often seek to eliminate any religious symbols from public places, our nation was started by people for whom their faith was the foundation upon which they built their lives. They believed in religious freedom, and that each person had the right to worship God as they chose, but they also knew that their faith was a key ingredient in the founding of our nation, for they clearly saw this nation as a people who belonged to God. They didn't want a country run by the church, but they did want a country that was run by people of faith.

Today as we look at our society, as we think about the problems that we face - whether it be drugs, or crime, or youth who don't take their education seriously enough, or unemployment - whatever the problem you might choose to name, perhaps the most serious issue that we face is a very real decline in moral values. Too often people are only concerned about themselves, about what they're going to get out of life, about how they can get what they want. They've decided that society owes them a living, that their comfort and convenience is the most important concern in life, and that other people don't really matter.

When you boil it down, what's happened is that people have lost touch with their faith in God. They've started living as if they're God, and because they can't conceive of anyone who is greater or more important than they are, they don't really care about other people, or about loving and serving the real God. They don't really know themselves, for they clearly have lost sight of the fact that they, and indeed all of us, belong to God.

Forty four years ago as President John F. Kennedy was at Amherst College for a ceremony in honor of the poet Robert Frost, he said, "I look forward to a great future for America, a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose... I look forward to an America which commands respect for its civilization...".

Over forty years after those words were spoken, we know that we still have not come close to achieving that dream. We have a long ways to go, and if we are to get there, we must begin by being reminded of the commitment, the dedication, the faith with which our nation was begun. We need to go back to the roots of our nation, back to the roots of the Israelite, back to the roots of our relationship to God, for there we find healing and renewal. There we find great reason to celebrate..

As we go forth today let us do so remembering who we really are, that we are a people who belong to God and that it is that relationship that gives us great reason to celebrate. Let us go forth with a sense of renewed dedication, as we seek to claim the very roots of who we are. For at it's very heart, we are a people who belong to God. God has not only created us, but also claimed us, and if we are to fulfill our potential, then we too must claim our relationship with God.

Amen