Joint Worship Service Opens RCA and CRCNA Synods

Axes that were used to threaten others from entering a church, and chains used to bar the doors were recrafted by Pillar Church in Holland, Mich. into a baptismal font that was placed center stage in Calvin College’s chapel. It was a great symbol for the worship service that was held on June 7 to open both the Reformed Church in America general synod and the Christian Reformed Church in North America synod.

The axe handles and chains are artifacts from an era where the Reformed Church of America and Christian Reformed Church in North America split from one another in a dramatic and hurtful way. Pillar church, the convening church for this year’s synods, was the site where those axes were brandished in 1882 to keep others out. Today, this same church is a dually-affiliated congregation that is both RCA and CRCNA.

As representatives from both the RCA and the CRCNA welcomed delegates to the campus of Calvin College and to the evening’s worship service, the theme of unity became apparent.

“We all sing, ‘Jesus at the Center’ together because we are his followers, united in Christ with each other,” said Rev. Liz Testra following opening hymns.

It was a theme that Revs. Jon Brown and Jenna Brandsen picked up on in their joint sermon on “United for the Sake of the Gospel”. Both ministers pastor at Pillar Church. Brown was trained and ordained in the RCA denomination, while Brandsen was trained and ordained in the CRC.

“We’re just colleagues doing the affiliated church thing to the glory of Christ,” said Brown as they introduced themselves. They went on to give a unified message that flowed seamlessly as each pastor quoted from and took turns to reflect on Ephesians 4:4-6. 

Along the way, they told two stories that pointed out something obvious, revealed something stunningly spectacular, and also illustrated something that they wanted listeners to do.

The first story was from Genesis 3 and revealed humanity’s fall into sin.

“The ‘something obvious’ about this story is the fall. They fell. We fall,” explained Brown. He went on to say, “and the first thing they did was separate, divide and run away. We’ve been spiralling away ever since.”

Just as humanity’s fall into sin caused Adam and Eve to cover their nakedness from each other and hide from God, so we, too, allow sin to separate us.

“The consequence of disobedience is division,” Brown concluded.

But the story also pointed out something spectacular – God shows up. Brandsen picked up where Brown left off to say that God came to the garden and sought out Adam and Eve, not with anger, but almost like a spurned lover.

“God draws near and comes close,” Brandsen explained.  “He wants to stay connected to his people.”

What’s more, just after God listed the consequences of humanity’s sin, he also made a promise to send someone who would crush the serpent’s head. This is the first hint the Bible of the Gospel message and is still our hope today.

“Right in the middle of the story that feels most defeating, Christ shows up,” said Branden. “There is a different future for us because of Christ’s work”

This future does not need to stop at the divisions and separations that have defined us in the past. In fact, Brown and Brandsen, said that the story of the Fall challenges listeners to take action.

“There is also something that we want you to do,” said Brown as he began the next part of the joint sermon. There is a task for all Christians to work at pursuing Christian unity. “Get on it,” he challenged.

Brown pointed out that immediately following the fall, Adam named Eve. This was an act of creation and a model for how we, too, should continue to work for renewal and new creation until Christ comes again.

The two pastors explained that this story has implications for our daily life, our congregations, and our denominations but it also has direct consequences for delegates as they go about their business at the RCA and CRCNA synods this week. Brown pointed out that many delegates have come to synod with some particular issues is mind. They may already know exactly what they want to say.

He suggested that as these issues come to the synod floor and delegates take the mic to voice their opinions, they should, “say it with a humility that is congruent with our confession of being one body in Christ.”

The second story that Brown and Brandsen shared was of a church, like Pillar, that had been torn apart by human divisions. The church was Coventry Cathedral in England. While Pillar’s tragedy took place in 1857 with brandished axes, Coventry Cathedral was decimated in 1940, in the midst of World War II, by German bombs.

“The next day, Pastor Dick Howard walked up to the church and wrote in chalk on the broken wall of the cathedral,” said Brandsen. He wrote two words, “Father Forgive.” A few weeks later, he spoke on the radio and committed to working with Germans to help build a more Christ like world.

Before the service concluded with communion and an offering for the disability concerns ministries of both the RCA and the CRCNA, Brown and Brandsen reminded listeners once again about the lesson of Ephesians 4:4-6.

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; One Lord, one faith, one baptism;  one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

It is a lesson that all Christians should continue to strive for.

For continuous coverage of Synod 2018 including the live webcast, news, video recordings, photos, reports, liveblog, social media links, and more visit www.crcna.org/synod.