Sermons
This video and the text below are from January 5, 2020. The video is also on our ChatsworthUCC Facebook page, where you can see previous sermons.
“The History of Our Church”
Rev. Bill Freeman
Sunday, January 5, 2020
The Congregational Church of Chatsworth
Before I begin, I want to thank you all for being here today. When I look at all your faces, I see the history of our church. I see the past history, I see the future history, and I see the present history. That’s what I want to talk with you about today – the history of our church.
Now this church has a proud history. But not every church has a proud history. Some churches have an embarrassing history. I pastored a church once, and when I got there, I noticed on the cover of the bulletin were the words “The Friendly White Church.” Homina, homina, homina! Thankfully, the building was white. As I understand it, the reason they called themselves “The Friendly White Church” was because they wanted to differentiate themselves from the Methodist church down the way, which they claimed wasn’t as friendly as them. So this is how that started and I thought, “Well, okay, that’s fine, but at the first council meeting I went to I said, “I think we ought to change the motto of the church from “The Friendly White Church” to “A Community of Faith, Hope, and Love.” And they liked that. As I understand it, they still use that motto today. It may not be quite accurate, but they use it.
I didn’t think anything else of it, but then later I heard the rest of the story, that one time, years before, a firefighter had died who was a member of that church and they held the funeral and, you know, when police officers die, police officers from all over come to the funeral. In this case, firefighters from all over came to the funeral. An African American firefighter saw a stray bulletin lying around and said, “The Friendly White Church”?!? That was told to me, like, “Well, as if we meant anything other than that our building was white, that it could be taken the wrong way.” Well, you knew it could be taken the wrong way, and yet you continued to put it on the cover of your bulletin. But, I wouldn’t have thought anything of that until, a few weeks later, when I put together a brochure for that church, describing that church, or at least describing what I wished that church could be. This was a small town and I knocked on every house in town, there were about a hundred houses, and I either handed the brochure to the homeowners or I put it in the screen door. That Sunday I noticed a new face in the crowd, so during the Passing of the Peace, I went up to the woman and I said, “Hi, I’m Pastor Bill. I don’t think I’ve seen you here before.” She said, “No, I’ve never been here before. This is my first time.” I said, “That’s great! How did you hear about us?” She said, “I got one of your brochures.” I said, “Oh, wonderful!” She said, “But I won’t be back.” I said, “What?” “I won’t be back.” I said, “Why?” She said, “I know I’m not welcome here at The Friendly White Church.” This was about five or ten minutes into the service. She walked 10 or 15 steps into the church and she felt unwelcome. I think because she wasn’t a friend or relative of anybody in the church. So that kind of told me that if an African American family had come into the church and saw “The Friendly White Church” on the bulletin, they would have gotten the idea that they weren’t welcome. And they would have been right. If a Hispanic family had come in or an Asian family or whoever, they would have gotten the message they weren’t welcome at “The Friendly White Church.”
As I said, some churches have an embarrassing, or worse, history. But this church has a proud history. That’s what I want to talk with you about today – the history of our church. The history of our church begins at the beginning of time in Genesis 1. God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. “And God saw that the light was good.” I believe the history of our church goes back to the beginning of time. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” I was confirmed in that because I watched the Pope’s Christmas Eve Mass. I like to watch Pope Francis. I like Pope Francis. He’s a good pope. And I watched his Christmas Eve Mass and one of the priests or bishops or somebody gave the history of the Catholic Church. They said, “It begins in the beginning,” and they read Genesis 1. I said, “Yes, that’s what I am going to do.” So then it goes on and God says, “Let’s make humankind in our image.” In the image of God he let them be made and so God made humankind in God’s image. Male and female God created them. And God blessed them. And I think that’s part of our history. That we are children of God. That we are blessed by God and we are loved by God. And that we are brothers and sisters of Jesus.
Then our history continues on in the Hebrew scriptures to Abraham, when God says to Abraham, “You will be the ancestor of a multitude of nations.” That’s what Abraham is. Abraham is the ancestor to a multitude of nations and a multitude of religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. We are all descendants of Abraham. I would say Buddhists and Hindus and atheists and everybody is a descendant of Abraham, according to the Hebrew scriptures. So, we are all brothers and sisters. Or at least distant cousins. That’s part of our history.
Then our history continues to a manger in Bethlehem, with the birth of a baby named Jesus. So Jesus is obviously part of our history. Then Jesus grows up and even though Jesus was born a Jew and died a Jew, his life would later inspire Peter, Paul, and Mary, and others, to start Christianity. And that is part of our history.
Fast forward a thousand years or so and we are all one at that point, but then the Catholic and Orthodox churches split in 1054. Then fast forward another 500 years or so to the 1500s and our history continues with the Protestant Reformation. Out of the Protestant Reformation comes Lutheranism, Calvinism, Episcopalianism, the Church of England. So that’s part of our history.
Then our spiritual ancestors fled Europe for freedom, religious freedom, in American. It was Congregationalists and Pilgrims and those are part of our history. So that’s how our history continued. And Jesus said that, “You are the light of the world.” And we are. And Jesus also said, “That they may all be one.” Then in 1957 the United Church of Christ was formed. That’s our denomination, the UCC. They became one. They came out of the Evangelical and Reformed Churches and the Congregational Christian Churches and they became one, they became the United Church of Christ.
And the United Church of Christ has a rich history, too. Our spiritual ancestors opposed slavery back in the day. They were some of the few Christians who opposed slavery. I think that’s significant because the Bible talks about slavery as a good thing. “Slaves, obey your masters!” Obviously our spiritual ancestors said, “No, we’re not going to go along with those Bible verses that say slavery is a good thing.” Then, in the 1700s, the spiritual ancestors of the UCC ordained the first African American minister in a mainline Christian Protestant denomination. I think that’s significant also, because having the first African American minister means that coming forward this denomination, the UCC, now supports things like “Black Lives Matter” and supported civil rights and voting rights for African Americans.
Then in the 1800s our spiritual ancestors ordained the first female minister in a mainline Christian Protestant denomination. I think that’s significant because, again, the UCC, what I sometimes call the “Loosey Goosey UCC,” ignores those passages in the Bible that say women should be silent in church. They didn’t go along with that, just like they didn’t go along with passages that say slavery is a good thing, they didn’t go along with passages that say women should be silent in church. Women should be preachers in church, our spiritual ancestors say. Women should be teachers in church. So that’s a good thing. Our denomination, or our spiritual ancestors favored women voting in the 1920s.
Then, in 1972, after the UCC was formed, the UCC ordained the first openly gay minister of a mainline Christian denomination. And that’s significant because the UCC was ignoring the passages in the Bible that condemn homosexuality. That say homosexuals are an abomination and should be killed. The UCC says no, we should ordain them, they should be ministers in our church. Now there were probably not-openly-gay-and-lesbian ministers in our church before that, and in other churches, but this was the first openly gay minister in our denomination. So that’s part of our history, part of the history of our church.
Then, in 1958, this church was founded. Jesus had said, “You are the light of the world,” and this church became a light in Chatsworth – The Congregational Church of Chatsworth. The other day I talked with a founding member of this church – Marve Davis, 93 years old. He told me that this property that we’re on was a chicken farm back in 1958 when the Southern California – Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ bought this property. A chicken farm! Apparently, while this church building was being built, the congregation met in a bar, he told me. I said, “A barn?” He said, “No, a bar!” Wow! I said, “Well, today a lot of churches are meeting in bars to attract young people.” He said, “Well, we were ahead of our time.” That’s Marve Davis.
This church, which is constructed, as you can see, like the ark, like Noah’s ark, this church has a rich history. Forty some years ago the food pantry here was begun, feeding dozens and dozens of people every Saturday, as we do still today. Food is important to this church. After church we have lunch, not just for the people in this church, but for the people in this community. At Christmastime, on Easter Sunday, around Memorial Day and Fourth of July, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving, but not just those days. Every Sunday after church we have lunch, food, fellowship. The reason we do that is because Jesus fed the five thousand and Jesus had The Last Supper. He did not have The Last Cookies and Coffee. He had The Last Supper, so we have a meal after the church service, after every church service, to be welcoming to the community. That’s part of our history.
Education is part of our history. We have Bible Study before church. They’ve had Bible Study in this church for many years. We have our book box out in front of our church, where young people can come and get a book, children and adults can come and get a book, take it home and keep it or takae it home and bring it back or bring back other books, share the books with others. That’s part of the Lifelong Learning at this church. Hopefully our Sunday service, with songs and sermons, is part of the Education of this church. That’s part of the history of our church.
This church has a proud history, a rich history. We have cultural activities here and have for many years. Christmas concerts and operas and different plays. We had a play put on here a couple of weeks ago thanks to Patrick and Ana – The Lion King – that was a delight. That’s part of the history of this church. That is the kind of thing this church has done for many years. This church has a rich history, a proud history.
A Spanish philosopher, George Santa Ana, said, “Those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” This church has learned from history. This church has learned that we need to do outreach, as Marcie wants to do, that we need to reach out to the community, that we’re not just a social club. We are a church. We do justice and we do compassion, compassionate acts – we help the homeless, as people in this church do. So we’ve learned from history that we need to be more, we need to be more than a chicken coop. We have to be a church.
A couple weeks ago we had a visitor to this church. As he was leaving, I shook his hand, and he said to me, “This is the most diverse church I’ve ever seen.” I thought, “Wow! He’s right. We have young and old in this church. We have male and female in this church. We have white people and people of color in this church.” Another person said to me, after hearing that, that this church is like heaven. And it is, really, when you think about it. This church is a microcosm of heaven, where everybody is welcomed. We have a Buddhist in this church, we have an agnostic in this church, we have people from different faith traditions and different spiritual backgrounds in this church. That’s part of the history of this church. Again, it’s a proud history. If this kind of diversity, if this kind of outreach, continues at this church, it won’t just have a proud history, it will have a bright future.
(The sermon was presented without notes and this text was transcribed from the video.)
Rev. Bill Freeman
Sunday, January 5, 2020
The Congregational Church of Chatsworth
Before I begin, I want to thank you all for being here today. When I look at all your faces, I see the history of our church. I see the past history, I see the future history, and I see the present history. That’s what I want to talk with you about today – the history of our church.
Now this church has a proud history. But not every church has a proud history. Some churches have an embarrassing history. I pastored a church once, and when I got there, I noticed on the cover of the bulletin were the words “The Friendly White Church.” Homina, homina, homina! Thankfully, the building was white. As I understand it, the reason they called themselves “The Friendly White Church” was because they wanted to differentiate themselves from the Methodist church down the way, which they claimed wasn’t as friendly as them. So this is how that started and I thought, “Well, okay, that’s fine, but at the first council meeting I went to I said, “I think we ought to change the motto of the church from “The Friendly White Church” to “A Community of Faith, Hope, and Love.” And they liked that. As I understand it, they still use that motto today. It may not be quite accurate, but they use it.
I didn’t think anything else of it, but then later I heard the rest of the story, that one time, years before, a firefighter had died who was a member of that church and they held the funeral and, you know, when police officers die, police officers from all over come to the funeral. In this case, firefighters from all over came to the funeral. An African American firefighter saw a stray bulletin lying around and said, “The Friendly White Church”?!? That was told to me, like, “Well, as if we meant anything other than that our building was white, that it could be taken the wrong way.” Well, you knew it could be taken the wrong way, and yet you continued to put it on the cover of your bulletin. But, I wouldn’t have thought anything of that until, a few weeks later, when I put together a brochure for that church, describing that church, or at least describing what I wished that church could be. This was a small town and I knocked on every house in town, there were about a hundred houses, and I either handed the brochure to the homeowners or I put it in the screen door. That Sunday I noticed a new face in the crowd, so during the Passing of the Peace, I went up to the woman and I said, “Hi, I’m Pastor Bill. I don’t think I’ve seen you here before.” She said, “No, I’ve never been here before. This is my first time.” I said, “That’s great! How did you hear about us?” She said, “I got one of your brochures.” I said, “Oh, wonderful!” She said, “But I won’t be back.” I said, “What?” “I won’t be back.” I said, “Why?” She said, “I know I’m not welcome here at The Friendly White Church.” This was about five or ten minutes into the service. She walked 10 or 15 steps into the church and she felt unwelcome. I think because she wasn’t a friend or relative of anybody in the church. So that kind of told me that if an African American family had come into the church and saw “The Friendly White Church” on the bulletin, they would have gotten the idea that they weren’t welcome. And they would have been right. If a Hispanic family had come in or an Asian family or whoever, they would have gotten the message they weren’t welcome at “The Friendly White Church.”
As I said, some churches have an embarrassing, or worse, history. But this church has a proud history. That’s what I want to talk with you about today – the history of our church. The history of our church begins at the beginning of time in Genesis 1. God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. “And God saw that the light was good.” I believe the history of our church goes back to the beginning of time. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” I was confirmed in that because I watched the Pope’s Christmas Eve Mass. I like to watch Pope Francis. I like Pope Francis. He’s a good pope. And I watched his Christmas Eve Mass and one of the priests or bishops or somebody gave the history of the Catholic Church. They said, “It begins in the beginning,” and they read Genesis 1. I said, “Yes, that’s what I am going to do.” So then it goes on and God says, “Let’s make humankind in our image.” In the image of God he let them be made and so God made humankind in God’s image. Male and female God created them. And God blessed them. And I think that’s part of our history. That we are children of God. That we are blessed by God and we are loved by God. And that we are brothers and sisters of Jesus.
Then our history continues on in the Hebrew scriptures to Abraham, when God says to Abraham, “You will be the ancestor of a multitude of nations.” That’s what Abraham is. Abraham is the ancestor to a multitude of nations and a multitude of religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. We are all descendants of Abraham. I would say Buddhists and Hindus and atheists and everybody is a descendant of Abraham, according to the Hebrew scriptures. So, we are all brothers and sisters. Or at least distant cousins. That’s part of our history.
Then our history continues to a manger in Bethlehem, with the birth of a baby named Jesus. So Jesus is obviously part of our history. Then Jesus grows up and even though Jesus was born a Jew and died a Jew, his life would later inspire Peter, Paul, and Mary, and others, to start Christianity. And that is part of our history.
Fast forward a thousand years or so and we are all one at that point, but then the Catholic and Orthodox churches split in 1054. Then fast forward another 500 years or so to the 1500s and our history continues with the Protestant Reformation. Out of the Protestant Reformation comes Lutheranism, Calvinism, Episcopalianism, the Church of England. So that’s part of our history.
Then our spiritual ancestors fled Europe for freedom, religious freedom, in American. It was Congregationalists and Pilgrims and those are part of our history. So that’s how our history continued. And Jesus said that, “You are the light of the world.” And we are. And Jesus also said, “That they may all be one.” Then in 1957 the United Church of Christ was formed. That’s our denomination, the UCC. They became one. They came out of the Evangelical and Reformed Churches and the Congregational Christian Churches and they became one, they became the United Church of Christ.
And the United Church of Christ has a rich history, too. Our spiritual ancestors opposed slavery back in the day. They were some of the few Christians who opposed slavery. I think that’s significant because the Bible talks about slavery as a good thing. “Slaves, obey your masters!” Obviously our spiritual ancestors said, “No, we’re not going to go along with those Bible verses that say slavery is a good thing.” Then, in the 1700s, the spiritual ancestors of the UCC ordained the first African American minister in a mainline Christian Protestant denomination. I think that’s significant also, because having the first African American minister means that coming forward this denomination, the UCC, now supports things like “Black Lives Matter” and supported civil rights and voting rights for African Americans.
Then in the 1800s our spiritual ancestors ordained the first female minister in a mainline Christian Protestant denomination. I think that’s significant because, again, the UCC, what I sometimes call the “Loosey Goosey UCC,” ignores those passages in the Bible that say women should be silent in church. They didn’t go along with that, just like they didn’t go along with passages that say slavery is a good thing, they didn’t go along with passages that say women should be silent in church. Women should be preachers in church, our spiritual ancestors say. Women should be teachers in church. So that’s a good thing. Our denomination, or our spiritual ancestors favored women voting in the 1920s.
Then, in 1972, after the UCC was formed, the UCC ordained the first openly gay minister of a mainline Christian denomination. And that’s significant because the UCC was ignoring the passages in the Bible that condemn homosexuality. That say homosexuals are an abomination and should be killed. The UCC says no, we should ordain them, they should be ministers in our church. Now there were probably not-openly-gay-and-lesbian ministers in our church before that, and in other churches, but this was the first openly gay minister in our denomination. So that’s part of our history, part of the history of our church.
Then, in 1958, this church was founded. Jesus had said, “You are the light of the world,” and this church became a light in Chatsworth – The Congregational Church of Chatsworth. The other day I talked with a founding member of this church – Marve Davis, 93 years old. He told me that this property that we’re on was a chicken farm back in 1958 when the Southern California – Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ bought this property. A chicken farm! Apparently, while this church building was being built, the congregation met in a bar, he told me. I said, “A barn?” He said, “No, a bar!” Wow! I said, “Well, today a lot of churches are meeting in bars to attract young people.” He said, “Well, we were ahead of our time.” That’s Marve Davis.
This church, which is constructed, as you can see, like the ark, like Noah’s ark, this church has a rich history. Forty some years ago the food pantry here was begun, feeding dozens and dozens of people every Saturday, as we do still today. Food is important to this church. After church we have lunch, not just for the people in this church, but for the people in this community. At Christmastime, on Easter Sunday, around Memorial Day and Fourth of July, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving, but not just those days. Every Sunday after church we have lunch, food, fellowship. The reason we do that is because Jesus fed the five thousand and Jesus had The Last Supper. He did not have The Last Cookies and Coffee. He had The Last Supper, so we have a meal after the church service, after every church service, to be welcoming to the community. That’s part of our history.
Education is part of our history. We have Bible Study before church. They’ve had Bible Study in this church for many years. We have our book box out in front of our church, where young people can come and get a book, children and adults can come and get a book, take it home and keep it or takae it home and bring it back or bring back other books, share the books with others. That’s part of the Lifelong Learning at this church. Hopefully our Sunday service, with songs and sermons, is part of the Education of this church. That’s part of the history of our church.
This church has a proud history, a rich history. We have cultural activities here and have for many years. Christmas concerts and operas and different plays. We had a play put on here a couple of weeks ago thanks to Patrick and Ana – The Lion King – that was a delight. That’s part of the history of this church. That is the kind of thing this church has done for many years. This church has a rich history, a proud history.
A Spanish philosopher, George Santa Ana, said, “Those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” This church has learned from history. This church has learned that we need to do outreach, as Marcie wants to do, that we need to reach out to the community, that we’re not just a social club. We are a church. We do justice and we do compassion, compassionate acts – we help the homeless, as people in this church do. So we’ve learned from history that we need to be more, we need to be more than a chicken coop. We have to be a church.
A couple weeks ago we had a visitor to this church. As he was leaving, I shook his hand, and he said to me, “This is the most diverse church I’ve ever seen.” I thought, “Wow! He’s right. We have young and old in this church. We have male and female in this church. We have white people and people of color in this church.” Another person said to me, after hearing that, that this church is like heaven. And it is, really, when you think about it. This church is a microcosm of heaven, where everybody is welcomed. We have a Buddhist in this church, we have an agnostic in this church, we have people from different faith traditions and different spiritual backgrounds in this church. That’s part of the history of this church. Again, it’s a proud history. If this kind of diversity, if this kind of outreach, continues at this church, it won’t just have a proud history, it will have a bright future.
(The sermon was presented without notes and this text was transcribed from the video.)