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REFLECTIONS GN BELONGING TO THE CRURCH
December 2, 1973

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pte clare ne srotly cebate, tly by a min se Yl

ates

belong? oi ‘
dhanontabte . dos peop R

rare: on Sunday morning when we decide what to do with our

act ev hee aus urer ~ "

is born and we experience the need publicaily to affirm and ce’

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sick in the hospital and want to know that we are not alone

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most intimate of relatiqnships called marriage and experience

ime at 10:48:

Puyerst

: The guestin

, "What does it mean to

wa ot4

ra

i

hen a baby

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ebrate somthing:

when we are

\ when we want to enter inte that

the need for the relationship

to be sealed with something more than a Justice of the Peace's.

pufhes a pledge card at us and haltingly tries to tell us that

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the corner of Longlots and 29th need us - and we sign or don't.

in the midstof our grief we know that, even though the deceaset

the Church can say with some authority that this life mattered

To reflect on belonging to the church is to begin with th

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most people do relate in some way to the Churchysperhaps uncon

usually at those times hh life when something important is happ

death.
To belong to the church is consciously to stand with those peo
inate

is a good thing to stand with other people as they live akan tl

ble who in turn, believe that it

legal sanction:\when someone

=i

the group of people down at

Sign:| when someone dies and

i never darkened the door,

nd so on - and so on.

t, namely the fact that

ciouslys but nevertheless

ning: birth, marriage, sickness,
wee me TE

hrough the important times in

life. \ That, it seems to me, is where it begins with most peop

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But “belonging to" must be more than that.\ People who ha

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attached to their affiliation believe that the church is what
togetner.| Now, we've never wanted to seem exclusive:

banish to hell atl those who prefer not to belong to our club.’
go of this conviction that the person who KZ is drawn to Jesus:

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we've ne!

We refuse to let go of this old conviction that there is no Sui

tian: [that being a Christian ts something one does with others

ane ahaa

together means being the church - or belonging to, if you will,

le,

ve the word “Presbyterian”

happens when Christians are

er been as eager as some to
i
And yet we refuse to let
ist is drawn to hi urch.
Christ is drawn to his churc
th thing as a solitary Chris-
ed an

~ and that being christians

And behind it all is the winsomeness of this man, this Je}

sus who walked among us a long
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time ago, and summoned a group of men to be his friends, and "p - in summoning them to

discipleship actually made them his church.

Someone wrote recently - and I like this very much

(orne church began with men who were

REFLECTIONS CON'T. DECEMBER 2, 1973

friends of Jesus, and in my opinion that stil] ought to be the test of nenbership| They al]

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believed different things and had different points of views. -tiey were more interested in

carrying out his works than in arguing about creeds. "| (Weatherhend P,159)
So, in the course of time = 1970, to be precise - when thé people at the corner of

Longlois and 29th decided to set out what it means to belon they came up with a statement

that is lean, that says simply what Presbyterians have always gaid3\and then they attached
be ae —_—., : re

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six disc#lines to hé@p anyone who happened to wonder what one dees if one happens to want
to belong.

They also determined that it was a geod thing for all the jpeople to think about their

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belonging at least once a year and to say outloud that, "Yes ~ we are the church. Yes - we

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believe that this winsome man who walked among us long ago was in fact, the Son of God,

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And yes, wh somewhere deep inside us we have felt drawn to him) the minister likes to talk
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about the "Call to Discipleship", but for us it's simply a_matter of being_drawn to him -

ar not quite being ab @ to shake him. \ and yes, we have come to understand that when we

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take that first step to follow him we get involved with other people who are at various
stages in that same pilgrimage.| And_yes, we confess - although |sometimes it isn't easy -
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that we do belong to them and they to us.\ And yes, although piety isn't very fashionable,
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aided

we do intend to try - to be here when the others gather to wor

| dependent on our generosity,

hip, and we will acknowledge

God's presence in our lives by praying, and we will regard this Holy Book as something other

than a leather bound dust catcher, or a good luck charm which ¢oordinates will with daisies

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if the leather is whi tes\and we will try to be honest about thé fact that this Jesus has 4

let of things he'd like to see done in the world, but that he*

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and we will help by loving and working and saying yes when we rather say no, and w e

moment comes we won't apologize for who we are and what we believe and how what we believe
has shaped our lives. :

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T invite you now to renew your belonging to the church \1f you are a member of another
church, renew your belonging to that church \ if you are not a|menber of a church, in the

br aaa hin

name of Jesus Christ I invite you today to decide to become one.
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ket us now affirm whe we are - and what we believe and what we are ssout | Will you join

me as we read the Covenant of Church Membership together.....