United in Faith

sermon by Torin Eikler
I Corinthians 1:10-18, Hebrews 11:1-9, 20-24, 29-34, 39
Heritage Series 8: Our Congregation

There is quite a list there in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews…: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, and how many others. The story we have in scripture is the story of the faith of God’s people. They were a people who believed in the promises of their covenant even when it seemed impossible that they would come to pass. They trusted in the presence and the power of God even when, facing impossible odds and certain death, hope seemed to be an unrealistic luxury. And through their faith, as we have been told, wonderful and terrible and miraculous events took place, affirming their faith and preserving them in hope.

As Christians, we claim all these people as our spiritual ancestors (and I suppose Noah as an actual ancestor). And, we add to their number the faithful followers of Christ in the early church and down through the ages: disciples and apostles, elders and deacons, saints and martyrs. As Brethren and Mennonites, we name still others as a part of our heritage: Dirk Willems, Menno Simons, Ernest Hochmann, Alexander and Anna Mack, Johanna and John Kipping, John Kline, Anna Mow, and Ted Studebaker.

And as part of this congregation, we can claim many others – some who have gone before us and others who are still among us: Walter Hamilton (who founded the mission to Morgantown), Miles and Francis Hamilton (who bought land for the mission on Virginia Avenue), Thomas Miller and Sylvanius Annon (two of the first ministers), Dennis Overman, John and Helen Shope, Ruby Stone (the longest continual member of this congregation), Paul Shay (who, at 100 years old, still looks for every opportunity to serve others in love), Margaret Prince, Lee and Deanne Beckman, and the many other members of this faith community.

These are the people whose lives and ministry as followers of the one triune God have brought us to the place we are today. Their willingness to yield all that they had and all that they were to the will of the God they served sustained and nurtured our faith as it flowed down through the years – one continuous river carrying many different names along the way. They witnessed, joined, and encouraged the birth of Christianity. They set in motion and strengthened the Anabaptists’ return to a faith marked by a shared search for truth among equals and displayed through lives of loving service to all. They had the vision and the courage to found a ministry here and to stick with it from the promise of growth and new buildings through the challenges of new cultural patterns and changing religious paradigms to make the most of opportunities for new life.

All of us are familiar with many of these people through stories and scripture. Some of us may even have known a few of those who helped to found this congregation. All of these examples speak of the power of faith to change history, lives, and even the world in which we live. It is through their efforts, their love for God and the church, and their faithful service that we find ourselves here today – serving God and our neighbors together in this time and in this place.

And that we find ourselves together is no small thing. We live in a culture that esteems the individual above community (and maybe even family) and admires self-sufficiency, interpreting any attempt to reach out for help as weakness and failure. The highest goal sometimes seems to be self-aggrandizement. For some of us, amassing wealth or accolades for ourselves – all by ourselves – is the highest goal we have. Not only is this at the heart of the “American Dream,” it illustrates the way that we have been taught to define our identity according to the way we are different from one another.

And our religion has not remained free of this divisiveness. Since the time of the Reformation when Martin Luther inadvertently provided the wedge that allowed others to split the Catholic Church into three branches, Western Christianity has continued to split and divide into a multitude of denominations as well as non-denominational churches on the basis of beliefs that are often blown out of proportion.

Thus, the Church of the Brethren split three ways in the 1890s, each branch defining itself around its disagreement with the others on issues like the importance of higher education or the spiritual danger posed by the radio. Other denominations have divided over the question of whether or not women should be allowed in the ministry or even to speak during worship.

Just this year, the Anglican Communion – which includes the denomination we know as the Episcopal Church – has found itself on the verge of a schism as some provinces threaten to disown the rest of the family because of the appointment of an openly gay Episcopal bishop. Even the Disciples of Christ – a church that claims the reunification of Christianity as a central goal – has split into two denominations. Sad really since Paul often encourages unity among the believers, saying in pastoral letter “I beg you to live a life worthy of the calling… bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit [and] speaking the truth in love [so that] we [grow] up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”

Our congregation, I know, has had its own divisive moments. Even in the past eight years we have faced this issue because of our position on the war in Iraq. Many of you know more about this than I do. But, as I understand it, several of our brothers and sisters felt alienated and angry about the way in which our congregation proclaimed the belief that war is counter-productive and sinful. And feeling that there was no space for constructive conversation among people of faith that held different views on the issue, they left the congregation to find other faith homes.

Everyone I have talked to about that experience has expressed sadness and pain at the way it ended up. Even a couple of those who left have told me that they wish things had gone differently. Yet, with everyone caught up in the heightened climate of fear that gripped the country in those days and its polarizing effect, perhaps there was little hope of a different outcome.

Yes, this congregation – like all communities of faith – bears with a healthy dose of divisiveness growing out of the fear and pain we experience as we live and worship together. But we also embody a spirit of unity that is more powerful than the spirit of individualism and division. And that can be seen in the way we bring together people from a variety of different backgrounds – Baptist, Pentecostal, Jewish, Brethren, Mennonite, and others – in one community of faith seeking to know God. In fact, that Spirit of Unity – perhaps we could even call it the Spirit of Truth – was fixed as a public part of our identity twenty-three years ago.

As I have heard the story told – and again, many of you know more of this than I, several Mennonite families had tried to start a Mennonite fellowship in the Morgantown area. When that did not work out well, some of the members began to attend the Morgantown Church of the Brethren. Some time later, around 1980, one sister approached Pastor Lester Boleyn about the possibility of affiliating with the Mennonite Church. When the question came to the Church body, the Brethren members, acting out of love and care for their Mennonite sisters and brothers, quickly agreed with the idea and began to work at join the Allegheny Conference.

During that process, the issue of the congregation’s name came up. Should a jointly affiliated congregation maintain the name of only one denomination? Should both denominations be represented in the name? Should neither be specifically mentioned? In the end, the congregation decided to keep the name of Church of the Brethren (adding “affiliated with the Mennonite Church). There were several reasons for this decision, but the most significant was the sentiment among some of the Mennonites attending the church. Responding to the love and acceptance they had experienced from the Brethren in kind, they proposed that the name stay the same so that the heritage of the congregation would be maintained.

A powerful story - sisters and brothers in Christ laying aside pride in former names to embrace each other. Saying not, “we belong to the Church of the Brethren” or “We belong to the Mennonite Church,” but claiming unity in the faith.

I find that to be inspiring. And I’m not the only one. This congregation was the first to bring together the Mennonite and Brethren traditions. Its example led several other congregations spread across the country to welcome brothers and sisters from one denomination or the other into one family of faith – a truer vision of the body of Christ.


Faith and unity… those are at the heart of this congregation’s identity. In the past couple of months, we have addressed several issues that are particularly important to the Anabaptist branch of Christianity: believers’ baptism, discipleship, simplicity, peace, and community. Our history – as Brethren, as Mennonites, and as part of the larger Christian church – is full of examples of those who lived out these beliefs faithfully. And, our desire to hold on to those values as our particular piece of the gospel message to the world and the rest of Christianity sets us apart from others in some ways. Yet, in this congregation, we do not seek to exclude others through these particular beliefs. Our heritage is one of inviting any and all who seek to know God in Christ more fully to join us on that journey of faith in the hope that we can discover more of God’s truth together.

I, for one, am excited about our future together and curious to see what we will become as we live and worship and seek God together – “bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit [and] speaking the truth in love [so that] we [grow] up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”