Our Great American Treasure

Our Great American Treasure        

Job 34:1-4 The Message; 1 Corinthians 12:14-27 GNT

Text: Isn’t it just common sense . . . To put our heads together     

and figure out what’s going on here.  (Job34:4 TM)

A meditation delivered electronically by Rev. Dr. Randy K. Hammer, Oct. 18, 2020

By personal constitution, I am a Congregationalist at heart, spelled with both a capital C and a lower-case c.  By capital C is meant that my ministerial, denominational affinity and standing lie with the American branches of the historic New England Congregational Churches that have bound themselves together in associations for almost four centuries. 

By lower case c is meant congregational as a form of church government – as distinguished from the Presbyterian and Episcopal forms of church government – wherein  each congregation is self-governing and doesn’t have to submit to a higher power in the decisions that it makes.  During the six years that I was minister of First Congregational Church of Albany, New York, when every annual meeting rolled around I gave my report, but I had one vote in the congregational meeting just like every other member. 

It is the same here in the United Church of Oak Ridge.  We are not a Congregational church in the capital C sense of the term, since this congregation is independent and doesn’t belong to any association of churches or denomination.  But we are congregational in the lower-case c sense of the term, in that our congregation is totally self-governing. 

But here’s the point: A congregational church at its best is a democratic religious fellowship in which every official member on the roll has an equal vote at each year’s congregational meeting.  It is in the church as the Apostle Paul reminds us in comparing the local church to the human body, that every member is important and has a place and has something to contribute to the common good.  As I said, by constitution and affinity, I am Congregational in both senses of the term.

But some 18 years ago, since learning that one of my great-great-grandfathers was a Quaker, I have also done a lot of study in Quaker history and thought.  And one of the neat ideas I learned about Quaker thought and practice is what they call “clearness committees.”  When a Quaker meeting, or a member of a Quaker meeting, is facing a difficult problem, question, or decision, they may call together a group of members who sit in a circle that they call a “clearness committee.”  And together they approach the problem, question, or decision by asking questions and trying to look at the situation from every angle, in order to get a clear understanding, discern the truth, the best course of action, how the Spirit might be leading, and what the overall informed consensus of the group is.  In such a setting, everyone who wishes to speak is heard and has a voice.  And, I would say, this Quaker practice is a form of the democratic process.

Well, such echoes what the speaker in Job had to say, as translated by The Message: “Isn’t it just common sense . . . To put our heads together and figure out what’s going on here?” (Job 34:4 TM).  Putting heads together in order to discern the truth, what the Spirit might be saying, the common good, the consensus, and the best course of action has been at the heart of Congregational churches from the beginning.  And from the beginning, it also has been at the heart of the great American enterprise called democracy.

Indeed, we are reminded as we stand just two weeks away from national election day, that America is a democracy.  It is not a monarchy, not an autocracy, not a dictatorship, but a democracy in which every adult American is to have a voice.  Every legitimate voter should have the opportunity to vote their conscience and have their voice heard and counted, whether that vote be by mail-in ballot, early voting, or by voting the day of the election.  And they should be able to do so without pressure or intimidation when they show up at the polls.

As Abraham Lincoln so aptly put it, “Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

As we look to casting our ballots, if we haven’t already done so early, we do well to seek to discern the truth, the best course of action for our nation, how the Spirit might be leading us, and what is best for the common good.  And we should cast our vote in such a way that we feel will best preserve and protect American democracy that we hold dear.  We would do well to ask ourselves which political candidates are most committed to guarding American democracy as envisioned by President Lincoln and those early founding fathers.

What a great American treasure democracy is – in both the form of church government that is illustrative of this United Church, and in American government.  But political democracy is not a guarantee for all time unless the people take the responsibility upon themselves to preserve and protect it.  Each voice is important.  May we let our voices be heard.  Amen.