This morning as we celebrate on the first of our Summer Sundays, I am beginning a sermon series on the Nature and Purpose of the Church. This will continue through the summer as Larry and Greg pick up the theme on those Sundays when I am on vacation. Our hope is to help us all grow into a deeper understanding of what it means to be the Church, the Body of Christ, living together as faithful disciples of our Savior Jesus Christ.

A big-league baseball player once said, "Baseball is like church. Many attend but few understand." I don't know if you feel that way about baseball-a lot of us are feeling that way about soccer these days-but as our Vision Team has been working this year, and as our Lay Leadership Committee, the Church Council and Financial Growth Task Force have also been working, we keep coming back to questions of what does it really mean to be "the church." What can we learn from our heritage and what are we called to be into the future?

The title of today's sermon is "Our Church Is Connected!" Now, in this day and age, to those of you who've been living with computers, Palm Pilots and other electronic toys for most of your lives, that might tell you that we have a webpage and are connected globally as part of the world wide web: www. santamonicumc. org

We are connected that way, and it's a growing part of our identity and ministry. Visitors are finding us through our webpage and coming to worship. People read the sermons, I'm discovering, and people are seeking out information about our many programs and ministries. We are so fortunate that when we had a vacancy in our office staff, we found Alex Brideau III-you may know his mom and dad, Rachel and Alex-who is a computer whiz and loves helping us develop this critical outreach tool.

But as Methodists, as heirs of the organizing genius and theology of John Wesley and his brother, Charles, we live out our experience of church as connection in almost everything we do. And that's really what I want to focus on for these few minutes this morning. Now I know that the experts are telling us these days that fewer and fewer people adhere to denominational loyalty. That is, it seems that denominational labels don't matter to people as much as the real vitality and faithfulness of a congregation. Calling ourselves United Methodists may get visitors here, but that alone will no longer keep them here if, when they come, they don't find food for their heart and mind and soul.

So, I'm not talking about brand loyalty now, but about what sets us apart and shapes us and frames our experience of Christ's ongoing work in the world through this part of the church we call United Methodist.

Remember, John Wesley was an Anglican priest, a priest of the Church of England, and he never intended to be anything else. But he saw that his beloved church had become fossilized and ingrown and self-serving. He longed for new life and renewal. And for that renewal he prayed and studied and fasted. And he started doing a lot of things that will sound remarkably familiar to those passionate about church renewal and growth in our time. At Oxford University, he and his brother Charles organized students into small groups, covenant groups. They met weekly to hold one another accountable to their commitment to grow in faith through works of piety-prayer, worship and mercy-helping the poor and serving others.

He went out to where people were to preach. He took church to them-to the coal mines and fields and the city streets. Charles wrote hymns using popular tunes of his day and these were just as controversial then as new church music is today. (Some things don't change.) As time went on and this movement grew, it was derisively referred to as "Methodist" because of Wesley's methodical and consistent and thorough approach to renewal in the life of the believer and the body. He began to gather others around him, priests and lay preachers, men and women, who came to be known as preachers "in connexion with Mr. Wesley."

I don't have time for the whole story this morning, but, suffice it now to say that, that "connexion" defines us still. When we gather each June in the session of the Annual Conference, all the pastors and lay members from each of the 400 churches and ministries from Southern California, Hawaii, Guam and Saipan, we bring this California-Pacific part of the connection together for worship and spiritual renewal, and to hold ourselves and each other accountable for our ministry in the year just past and to set in place plans for the future.

Ministers in the United Methodist Church are ordained by the bishop at the session of the Annual Conference, not in the local church as is done in some denominations. We are voted into the connection by our fellow clergy. We hold our membership not in a local church, but in the Conference. Every year our district superintendent must vouch for our character and our fitness to continue in ministry. Every year we receive our appointment to our place of ministry from the bishop. The clergy connection is the body that grants retirement and the Annual Conference memorializes us when we die. It's a powerful and precious covenant community. In this year's Memorial Service for pastors and spouses, five had related to First Church Santa Monica at one time or another, spanning the years from 1917-1978.

I recently told a colleague, not a Methodist, that I was going to be preaching on what it means to be a United Methodist. He asked somewhat flippantly if we had a Methodist flag and I said, "No." He asked if we have a Methodist song and I said, "No." But later, I realized that if you asked any Methodist minister what our song is, the response would be the hymn we sang just a bit earlier: Hymn #553-"And are we yet live, and see each other's face? Glory and thanks to Jesus give for his almighty grace!"

That song is sung at the beginning of each clergy session, and now, as I have sung it with my fellow pastors for 26 years, this hymn of gratitude through it all is, indeed, our song.

Throughout the long days and evenings of this past week's session, we heard again of the ministries of our great United Methodist connection here and around the globe, all supported by our generous giving of time and financial support. We heard reports of camping experiences for urban kids. We heard of food pantries and the Medical Mission Team to Vietnam. We heard of the Christian Educators network and campus ministers. We heard a report from our seminary in Claremont and from a representative of the thirteen historic Methodist black colleges. We heard that through the Volunteers in Mission program of our Conference, more that 680 people have given time this past year on a great array of projects, saving nearly $198 million in labor costs.

We heard from our teams going again this summer to rebuild burned black churches in the south, and of the bridges of reconciliation they create. Having built two Habitat for Humanity houses during past conferences, we heard that next year we will build a house in partnership with Loma Linda University for cancer patients receiving long-term treatments at the hospital there. And we heard from our missionaries in Japan and China, in Los Angeles, and from the Rev. Sandra Olewine who serves in Bethlehem and sent me home with a little gift for our congregation in gratitude for our love and prayers and support.

We are a connected church. Santa Monica First UMC is one vital part of a connection that spans time and space. We are connected with the generations who pioneered the way before us and with the generations yet to be born. We are connected with churches and mission in every part of this globe.

As in any large institutional body, there is danger of becoming overly bureaucratic and fossilized. There is danger of thinking that just doing more of the same old same old is all that God really expects. And so, there is always need for self-reflection and renewal within the church just as there was in Wesley's day. And I can tell you that in our conference, renewal is happening through the leadership of Bishop Swenson and our Conference Leadership Team.

Renewal is essential to keep the connection vital and strong and life-giving, just as renewal is essential here in the local church, just as it is in our own lives of faith. And the larger connection keeps us from living only unto ourselves, from becoming insulated and isolated and self-serving. Indeed, it stretches our field of vision, the scope of our minds and hearts, so that together we might share the saving love of God through Christ Jesus, far and wide. The connection reminds us that even as the church, we live not for ourselves, but for the greater glory of God.

We are a connected church, connected to one another, connected to the mission of God's kingdom, connected to the energy and power that comes from the Holy Spirit. May that Spirit blow through us again, and fill us with love and joy and power, with righteousness and peace.

Amen.

© Patricia E. Farris, 2002. Permission is given for brief quotation with attribution. All other rights reserved.