wfn.org | Connecticut preacher wows crowd at UCC's Monday evening worship

[powellb@ucc.org]

United Church of Christ
General Synod Newsroom
Monday, July 14, 2003
newsroom@ucc.org
http://www.ucc.org

By Tim Kershner

MINNEAPOLIS?"If you abide in me," Jesus says in the Gospel according to
John, then "ask what you wish, and it will be done for you."

"This is the Gospel for the broken people," said the Rev. Lillian F.
Daniel, pastor of Church of the Redeemer UCC in New Haven, Conn., even
through she acknowledged that while some have experienced the blessing of
answered prayers, others?equally as sincere?are "not buying it."

During the Monday evening worship service at General Synod 24, Daniel
chided popular culture and mores but ultimately reminded delegates and
visitors that because we all abide in God, "we have all been called by the
same God for the same reason."

Daniel said that, in her experience of ministering to the sick, she has
often encountered people who asked for prayers of healing and hope, but in
the end, they wind up ministering to her more than she ministers to them.
There are others, she said, who "love the Lord, but have asked for a lot of
things that have not come to pass." In between, she says, there are those
who reserve their prayers for the "big things" that they actually "believe
God can't fix" like world peace, hunger and despair, "and leave the rest to
the people who are truly capable."

Regardless, Daniel advised, "We all have to get together and remind
ourselves that God is still speaking?because the other voices are so loud."

"What does it mean to abide in God?" she asked. It means "you are not just
visiting" but are there for good.

Relating to the oft-heard complaint of those who claim spirituality, but
avoid organized religion, she said, "They must love Jesus and hate all his
friends." But to abide in God, she said, is to abide among the realities of
God's creation. "God had a shot at making a perfect church, but then added
human beings."

We do not abide for one hour on Sunday, she said, but "when you live [in
God], you are grounded." She said the passage might be better understood
using a tongue-in-cheek paraphrase: "If you put up with me, and I put up
with you, then ask what you wish, and it will be done for you." This is the
more honest personal relationship to which we are called, she said, one
which can be either as gratifying as a relationship between loving
partners, or as awkward as "college roommates who have a fight in the first
week of one semester, and at the end of the year, they are still not
talking."

"We can tell Jesus what we want," she said, "but Jesus tells us what He
wants. And this divine intimacy won't be cheap."

She congratulated the Synod delegates for abiding with God and each other
as they discuss and discern the future of the church. "You have served your
churches with faithfulness," she said. "You would not be here if you didn't
know something about abiding."

"We've been given this church," Daniel declared, "and it comes with
instructions: to abide in Jesus' love and to sing each other into heaven."

"There is nothing I can ask for that has not already been accomplished by
your sacrifice on the Cross," she closed, "but we are not there yet."

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