A Sermon Introducing A Commission on the Way Forward

This is the written manuscript I preached from October 28th. While I preach from this document, I do not claim this is word-for-word.

^{Micah 6:8}

⁶ With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
⁷ Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
⁸ He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly^[a] with your God.

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          God, through Micah, tells us exactly what he wants from us.  Do Justice. Love Mercy. And walk humbly with Me. That’s it. The secret of life. The will of God for you. In fact, Jesus even seems to restate it to the Pharisees:

²³ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. ^[1]

So lets quickly talk about these 3 things.

      The first thing God wants from us is to do justice. Now justice tends to refer to punishment in our nation. That’s not what God means when he says do justice. God was talking about fairness, equality for all people. Just look what God says before this passage about the state of the country:

¹¹ Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. ^[2]

Justice means righting the wrongs of those who came before us, and recognizing the wrongs in our midst. It means stopping oppression in all its forms.

We are to love mercy. If justice is making sure people are not wronged, Mercy takes it a step farther. Mercy says we are to help those who haven’t earned it. One bible translates it “Kindness.” It is helping those who don’t have the ability to help themselves. And Jesus was all about loving mercy.  Miracle after miracle were acts of mercy:

Healing the lame, the blind, the lepers, the demon filled, raising the dead. Not because any of these people deserved, or earned, or had a right to be healed. Simply as an act of mercy, of kindness. He helped those who couldn’t help themselves.

The last requirement God gives us is to walk humbly with him. The first 2 were focused on other people, but this one is about God.  And I love the way it describes what we do with God: we walk humbly. When we walk with God, we catch a glimpse of his heart for this world.  “Humbly” is not put there as an accident. It is as important as what we do. Humility means seeing ourselves rightly. Not less than what we are, and not more than what we are. And when we walk with God, we are forced to humility. We are forced to see our worth through God’s eyes, and to see our smallness. We are not all powerful. But even so, God can use us to transform the world.

John Wesley has these 3 rules to live by, that really sound Micah: First, Do No Harm. 2^nd Do Good. 3^rd. Stay in love with God.

Ok, now for one way we can practice those three things as a church.  (hold on to them for a minute and we will come back to them.)

At our last Methodist General Conference in 2016, a special commission call “A Way Forward” was created to talk about possible plans for changing our stance on homosexuality. This happened because for decades, we as a denomination have been divided on our interpretation of Scripture and God’s will on this subject. It comes up at every General Conference and takes over the meeting, keeping us from talking about making new disciples and transformation. Over the years, We have written in more accepting language, and then reacted with more limiting language.

In February 2019, a special called General Conference will be voting to change the language currently in our Book of Discipline and our stance as a denomination on homosexuality. Right now, this is what we as a denomination say: Everyone, regardless of orientation or practice, is welcome in our churches and can become a member.  However, practicing self avowed homosexuals cannot be ordained.  UMC clergy cannot officiate over same-gender weddings nor can those weddings take place in UMC churches. Pastors who break these rules can be stripped of their ordination. 

So there are 3 Plans that A Commission on the Way Forward have brought forward. As I share those plans with you, I will tell you what that means for us as a congregation.

One Church Plan. This plan, preferred by the majority of the Council of Bishops would remove restrictive language from the Book of Discipline that prohibits same-gender weddings in UMC properties and ordination of “self-avowed practicing homosexuals.” It would add language to protect churches and pastors who choose not to allow same-gender marriages. 

In this plan, each church would decide their policy on hosting weddings. Each pastor would decide their policy performing weddings. Each Conference, would decide their policy on ordination. A church would let the Conference know their stance, so a pastor that best fits your position would be appointed.  That all means that you as a church would have to figure out if we would want to host weddings and if you would be okay with a homosexual pastor.

Connectional Conference Plan. This plan would replace the current jurisdictional conferences with three connectional conferences based on affinity: Progressive, Traditional, and Unity. All three would use a general Book of Discipline with the ability to adapt other portions to their context for ministry. In this plan, each church would have to pick which of the 3 new conferences we belonged to. So again, we would have to know where we stand as a church.

Traditional Plan. This plan, developed more fully toward the end of Commission on the Way Forward process, broadens the definition of “self-avowing practicing homosexual”; puts penalties in place for disobedience to the Discipline; and requires bishops, pastors and annual conferences to certify adherence to the Discipline. This would most likely mean an exodus of churches that welcome homosexuals. It was decided largely unconstitutional (the Methodist Constitution) by the judiciary council. 

There is also the possibility that nothing will happen.

If any of these are chosen in February, it means we will need to have conversation as a church about who we are. Now, I haven’t been here long, so I don’t know where you are, individually or as a congregation, or what conversations you have already had. So I am coming in with some assumptions based on the 4 other UMCs I have served. The first assumption is that we are not all in agreement.  The second is that this is personal for some of us. In every church I have been in, no matter how conservative, there are family members who are homosexual.  In some of the more conservative ones I have served, there have been LGBTQ+ people who attend those churches. So, we are not discussing some hypothetical group of people we haven’t met. We are talking about people we know and love. People who may well be in our congregation.

So with that said, I want us to start talking about this following God’s expectations in Micah. To do justice/do no harm. To show kindness/do good. And to humbly walk with God. In our conversations with each other. And I pray that we use those expectations or John Wesley’s Rules to also guide us in our position within the church.

      This makes me nervous, but also really excited. Because anytime we do something that is tough, it gives us an opportunity to grow.And we can demonstrate to our world how to have respectful conversations even in the midst of disagreement. And our world desperately needs that right now.

Poem by Mary Bowen:

How shall we worship our God?

We have heard what the Lord requires of us.

Leave empty talk and pride behind.

We must walk the walk.

Prepare to step out in faith, even into troubled waters.

Only God knows where we might need to go.

Don't be afraid.

Jesus will guide our steps along the way,

Teaching us to walk humbly,

To love boldly,

To serve God with body, soul, mind, and strength.

Let us pray for the humility and courage

To follow where the Spirit leads.

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^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2001 (Mt 23:23). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

^[2] The New International Version. 2011 (Mic 3:9–11). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

We Pray With Her

                Before. Before I knew God’s love for me. Before I loved him back. Before I followed his call to pastoral ministry. Before all that, I wanted to be an author when I grew up. I loved books and the places they could take you. I loved how they could make you feel something. I loved how they could break the secrets of the world open. I wanted to be a creator of those worlds. I wanted to tell the secrets of the universe.

                I am blessed that each day I get to do a little of that in my job. I get to dive deep into not just a book, but The Book, and unlock its mysteries. I get to take those hidden treasures and share them through written language. Each week I get to write about an invisible God who wants us to see him. Each week I write. I write sermons and newsletters and Bible studies and devotions and even an occasional blogpost. And I share those words with my little bit of the world. I pray that they would take people places and make them feel something. I pray that through them the secrets of God would break open.  

                Every day I write. But I am not an author. There are no published works. I have never been recognized as worth reading. Other than a stray comment here or there, mostly, I’m not sure if I am even worth reading.

                Until now. Today I became an author. Today, I received a copy of my first ever published writing. It’s about one page in a book of over 200 pages. But it is my writing. In a published book.

I couldn’t be prouder to become an author through We Pray With Her. More than 70 United Methodist clergy women share these pages about leadership. We write about being called by God. We write about struggle. We write about courage, resistance, and persistence. While the title says it’s for women who lead, my husband said men could easily read it too. It is smart, strong, encouraging, and a little vulnerable. It is really well written.

As I hold this book in my hands, I thank God. I thank God that one of those things I gave up to follow him, he has given back. And I hear the words from Jesus in Luke anew:  

“Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.”

*To purchase your own copy follow this link:  We Pray With Her

A Reckless Love

“Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God
Oh, it chases me down, fights 'til I'm found, leaves the ninety-nine
I couldn't earn it, and I don't deserve it, still, You give Yourself away
Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God, yeah”

–lyrics to Reckless Love of God

The kids and I were listening to this song last night, and my son asked about that lyric, “leaves the ninety-nine.” It’s a strange text without a little context. The Ninety-Nine refers to a story Jesus tells in the gospel of Luke. Jesus is being criticized by the temple leadership for wasting his time with what they would consider faithless people. Jesus tells three stories in a row, all with similar plot lines. In one, he tells of a farmer who leaves 99 of his sheep in open country to go rescue one lost sheep. Jesus says this is how God’s love is. Jesus doesn’t look at these people as riffraff, but as people who don’t yet know how much God loves them and desires them to be part of God’s family. Jesus chooses to love them, to spend his time and energy on them, even if it means sacrificing time at the temple. It is a reckless act to those in the temple. It after all is not how ministry is done.

               As I explained this to the kids, we ended up talking about some of the “reckless” ministry our family has been part of in La Fontaine. Ministry that wasn’t always approved of, but was vital to reach those who didn’t know how much God loved them.

               Then as we were going to school this morning, we heard another song on the radio that took on a whole different meaning. 

I wish somebody would have told me babe
Someday, these will be the good old days
All the love you won't forget
And all these reckless nights you won't regret
Someday soon, your whole life's gonna change
You'll miss the magic of these good old days

-lyrics to Good Old Days

            This morning a line popped out in this song. I bet you guess which one, right? “And all these reckless nights you won't regret.” It felt like a heavenly confirmation that those nights of recklessly loving people outside our church doors won’t be regretted.

With every move, there are things that are hard to let go, but there are moments when God whispers, “I’ve got this.” When you know that the risks you took for God’s kingdom really were worth it. When you know no matter what the future holds, God has transformed hearts and minds through your offering of love.

If we are really doing what Jesus did and loving people, people who are often hard to love, we are going to have some reckless nights. We are going to take some risks. We are probably going to have some people tell us we did it wrong. But God tells us,  we won’t regret those reckless nights when we go looking for that one lost sheep.

When God is with US

It is the day after our children’s program. I am amazed how God has used such a simple project to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Let’s count the ways:

1.       God called a new leader in our congregation to head up this project. Samantha asked about doing a
program as we celebrated her confession of faith at our new membership service in August. She talked to kids and parents, set a weekly practice, and led practices. She didn’t just suggest we do something and expect someone else to do it. She stepped up and made it happen.

2.       God got kids excited about inviting people to worship. The 13 kids and families in the program invited over 100 people to come hear about Jesus’ birth.

3.       God got people here. Ten minutes before we were to start, one kid peeked out. “That’s a pretty small crowd,” she said. I assured her more were coming. By the grace of God, I was right! Around 60 people came to support these kids and here about Jesus’ birth.  

4.       God shook those nerves right out of us. The kids all remembered their lines and did a great job with their songs and motions.  It was a great play.

5.       One of our students was all ready for their line when the student too shy during practice whispered a request to do it. The first student let the second do it. That was some grace and kindness in action for sure.

6.       God provided food! We had just enough to invite folks downstairs to build relationships after the performance. Kids did the heavy lifting of connecting people who hadn’t met before.  One girl wanted to meet my parents. She told them she was my favorite! 

Thank you, God, for showing up and for the little blessings sprinkled throughout the night.

A Weekend in Murfreesboro

             My kids asked what was happening in Charlottesville when violence erupted during white supremacists rallies earlier this year. I sat them down and told them as plainly as I could what happened. People had gathered and said they wanted all Jews to die, black people to die, and anyone with darker skin to die. Other people had come to say that wasn’t right, and the two groups had gotten into fights. My son looked up at me with his big brown eyes and said, “But WE are Jewish.” He is right. My husband’s family takes deep pride in their Jewish and Mexican ancestry, as they should. Like parents across our country, I understood the fear that my child has a target on their back.      

      When my colleague shared with us her deep concern that the same white supremacist groups that met in Charlottesville were coming to her community in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, another colleague and I decided to make a quick trip to stand with her in solidarity. She shared with us the concern many people had for her as a young white woman, and how she pointed out to them that young white women had a particularly important role in this protest. We hold the same power of being white, and hold privilege as their sisters, mothers and grandmothers. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. consistently talked about how silence of privileged demographics such as mine is often taken as consent by racist groups. I felt it was important to stand up for the lives that felt threatened by the acts, the language, and even the very presence of white supremacists. I tell my kids to confront bullies at school when they are not the victim. This was no different.

We prayed over the community the night before the rallies. We used the good old buddy system to make sure everyone was together and safe. In a group of three, I found myself often saying, “Where is my person?” That phrase I think is symbolic of why I was there. I was there to say, “I am your person. I walk with you as you face violent people. I will not allow you to be left behind or take the risk alone. You are my person that I can go into danger because you are by my side. You are my person, not because of the color of your skin, your heritage, or your faith.  You are my person because you are a person and your life is precious.  Your life matters.”

The next morning we stood with counter protesters at the rally. We felt the wave of fear run through seasoned protesters when white supremacists were allowed to carry in metal and hard plastic shields that busted open heads in Charlottesville. A Jewish woman shouted Shabbat Shalom as they arrived, which is a greeting that roughly translates to Peace to you on the Sabbath. Across the street stood a group that had beaten her. And we stood together in solidarity, twice the crowd of those who had come together because of hate.

               
              It was because of this and the news that our group of roughly 400 people had swelled to 1,000 ready for their afternoon rally in Murfreesboro, that the white supremacists canceled their Murfreesboro rally all together. We drove into Murfreesboro to a street lined with signs and the chant “No hate! No Fear! Everyone is welcome here!” In that moment I was proud to be American.