19th Sunday after Pentecost
Psalm 80:7-15
Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.
You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land.
The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches;
it sent out its branches to the sea, and its shoots to the River.
Why then have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
The boar from the forest ravages it, and all that move in the field feed on it.
Turn again, O God of hosts; look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine,
the stock that your right hand planted.
May God bless us with understanding for these readings of our sacred text.
What We Did
October is Stewardship Month for us this year. As you have hopefully seen and heard, we’re keeping the theme from last year: “Stewardship is what you do with what you have.” Using this theme, we wanted to look at our past, our present, and our future. So today, our theme is: “Stewardship is what we did with what we had.”
As I thought about this, I couldn’t help but think about the 60th anniversary that we all just celebrated in May. It was such a wonderful celebration! We had a joining ceremony, where thirteen of us became new members of Plymouth Congregational Church, an echo of that first Palm Sunday joining service of the church on March 9, 1961, when 76 people became charter members. We revived the church cookbook and the spaghetti dinner, and then we watched and bid as Steve Mandeville auctioned off food, and artwork, and vacation stays to raise money for our new fire alarm system. It was such a wonderful day of celebration, and remembering, and joy.
But, none of it would have been possible if not for that first brave group of souls who decided that Helena needed a Congregational Church. We covered some of this during our 60th Anniversary celebration, but it’s a story worth retelling. We need regular reminders of where we came from, and the legacy that we’re trying to uphold.
Although we celebrated our 60th anniversary in May of this year, the roots of this church, this particular congregation, actually reach even further back than sixty years. When I was looking through some of the historical documents, I was delighted to find this, a book of the Minutes of the Board of Trustees of First Congregational Church of Helena Montana, the Congregational Church that was here long before Plymouth. The first entry is dated April 2nd, 1921. This group actually got its start in 1883, when First Congregational Church was organized with just 9 charter members. That was over 140 years ago.
Over time, the congregation grew, and a second congregation was founded in 1892. But, times were hard, and the congregations grew smaller. By 1931, there was only a single congregation of 12 people left, and they voted to dissolve, most of them deciding to go to the Presbyterian Church.
We see a similar trajectory in our Psalm reading for today. The psalmist calls the Israelite people “a vine out of Egypt” which God planted and cared for so that “it took deep root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches; it sent out its branches to the sea, and its shoots to the River.” But, something went wrong; the Northern Kingdom of Israel fell and the people were exiled. The psalmist blames God for this, if not directly, then for not stepping in to stop it. They write, “Why then have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit? The boar from the forest ravages it, and all that move in the field feed on it.”
It makes me wonder what it must have been like for those first Congregationalists in Helena. Things had seemed so good at first. They were starting a new church, there was all of this excitement and energy around it, and they grew. They grew so fast that in less than ten years, they had started a second congregation. But, 40 years later, after the first World War, after Prohibition, the Spanish Flu Pandemic, and The Great Depression, there were only 12 members left. And, they voted to dissolve.
But, that isn’t the end of our story. There’s always hope, because God is always with us. The ember of Congregationalism was kept alive in the shelter of the Presbyterian Church. And, in 1960, that group of Congregationalists decided that Helena should no longer be the only state capital without a Congregational Church. 50 adults and 35 children held their first service in the Van Orsdel Chapel at Intermountain College on January 8, 1961. Within two months, the church had a basketball team, a junior high fellowship, a senior high fellowship, and they put out a call for Gold Strike stamps, so they could get a coffee maker, which was considered an urgent need at the time. First Congregational Church of Great Falls sent a gift of 39 Pilgrim Hymnals.
On February 24, 1961, at a potluck dinner, because of course it was at a pot luck dinner, we always do things around food, they voted to name the church, “Plymouth Congregational Church of Helena.” And, they adopted the following covenant, which you can read any time you want, on the wall of our new Founder’s Room:
We are united in our desire to seek spiritual development and personal fulfillment, based on the principles of freedom of individual thought and the responsibility of individual conscience.
We extend to each fellow member, as to all persons of good faith, the opportunity to seek understanding of God’s Truth in the ways that are most meaningful to each individual, and to learn Christian principles as represented in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.
We further seek to encourage the spiritual growth and self-realization of each individual member through Christian fellowship, mutual respect, counsel, and inspiration.
Things happened quickly that first year. The congregation bought the land for this building on September 20, and Rev. Bill Burkhardt was installed as minister on October 14. The congregation broke ground for this building in May of 1963. The education wing was added in 1969.
The United Church of Christ occupies a special place in the Christian world. I often liken it to a safety net that catches all of the people who have been pushed out of other denominations because they asked too many questions, or they cared about social justice, or they wanted to use feminine pronouns for God. Because they are female. Because they are liberal. Because they are queer. Because they are black, or indigenous, or another person of color. Because their theology, or lack thereof, doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the congregation. I was one of those people who were pushed out and then caught in the United Church of Christ safety net. I often think about what the world would be like if that safety net wasn’t there. I think about it a lot.
Over the years, we’ve adopted lots of slogan and phrases, some of them from the denomination, and some of them, we’ve come up with on our own. God is still speaking. Don’t put a period where God put a comma. No matter who you are, or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here. Nurturing families, promoting community, respecting diversity, and encouraging exploration of faith. And the latest, not official yet, but which our Slogan Committee has been working on for quite some time, now: Love in action.
In 2015, this congregation voted to become an Open and Affirming church. The actual language that the congregation adopted is really quite inspiring. It reads: Plymouth Congregational Church, UCC recognizes the presence of God in every person, and has always welcomed people in to the full membership and ministry of our church without regard to sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, race, ethnicity, class, or physical or mental ability. Therefore, we declare that we have been and are an Open and Affirming Congregation, giving thanks to God for the gifts of God’s children, in the name of Jesus the Christ.
This is what we did with what we had. Our forebearers knew that they needed to create a safe space for freedom of thought, freedom of expression, a safe space where people could worship God in the ways that felt right for them. We are not a denomination of creeds, we are not a denomination of bishops and popes, though we certainly respect those who choose those ways of being church.
In this loud and messy world of today, we often find ourselves as the voice of reason, finding that middle ground, threading the needle. It’s important work, and we have to hold on to these ideals as we keep moving towards the future, doing God’s work.
I want to leave you with this, our mission statement, which we try to print everywhere we can, so that we can remember who we are and what we stand for: Plymouth’s Mission is to nurture our congregation and the wider community with acts of love and a vision of God’s image in all things. Amen.
~ Rev. Charles Wei
