May 2022
And Yet Another
02 May 2022 @ 18:21
Ladies and gentleman! Let me introduce to you yet another denomination! I read yesterday that the United Methodist Church’s Council of Bishops, ended a five-day meeting on Friday, April 29th, and acknowledged the inevitable breakup of their denomination – a schism launched out of a global movement led by theologically conservative Methodists. The breakaway denomination, called the Global Methodist Church, officially became a reality on Sunday, May 1st. The article said that its leaders have been exasperated by liberal churches’ continued defiance of UMC bans on same-sex marriage and the ordination of openly gay clergy.
I was awakened this morning with these thoughts so let me share them as imperfect as they are. As a child I grew up attending the Methodist Church with my parents. In Sunday School I learned of The Story that would give me the foundation of my life. It was a story of a perfect God who loved each of us even in our imperfection. It was a story of mercy and of grace and of forgiveness. Not that I deserved any of it but simply because God is God and his love for his children is without condition. He loved us not because of what we did, or would do, but simply because He was God the Creator who created each of us in His image. As Brennan Manning would later say it, ‘God loves us as we are and not as we should be because none of us are ever as we should be’. In that I found peace and hope. In that I found my calling from a God who taught in a way and with a wisdom that were truly not of this world. There is nothing we can do to cause him to love us less or to love us more. Do you remember the call of Matthew? The story in scripture goes like this. From Matthew 9:9-13 we read ‘As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” Are we witnessing the second coming of the Pharisees?
Perhaps the problem lies with what we cannot see or refuse to see. In Romans 3:19-26 we read, ’Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For “no human being will be justified in his sight” by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus’. But it seems the argument in the present day church goes something like this. ‘I’m not a sinner, he or she is a sinner.’ It is so difficult for us to embrace the idea that none of us are worthy of God’s love. We treat grace and mercy as though they themselves are sinful in nature and in doing so become increasing devoid of them.
In 1968, at the age of fifteen I experienced an overwhelming feeling that God was in our midst as I watched the Evangelical United Brethren Church and Methodist denominations join to form the United Methodist Church; two coming together as one to minister to the needs of a hurting world. I was not aware of it at the time but this came after an earlier merger in 1946 which brought Evangelical and United Brethren in Christ denominations together to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church. It was in the Methodist and later United Methodist Church that I first felt my sense of a calling to minister at the age of ten. It was in this church that I later prayed that God would break my heart with those things that broke his heart and in that he led me to that place where I could use the simple gifts that he had given me to bring a little bit of bit of peace and joy into the midst of overwhelmingly difficult times. Now I feel a sense of God’s own heart breaking as his church seems to grow in just one fashion—it grows in the judgment of one over another. Have we also forgotten God’s teaching about judgment? Jesus taught in Matthew 7:1-5, “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.”
I will forever struggle with that log in my own eye and in that I cannot place myself over another. In that I feel that I can only come alongside fellow travelers in a way that lets us discover God together in a truly Holy way. That way is one of unconditional love and compassion. That way is one of mercy and grace. That way is one of allowing God’s presence in the midst of love and outreach to be the changing factor in our own lives and the lives of others. God came into the midst of all that was wrong and we feel we can somehow run to a place where all is right ‘in our own minds’. That will be the only place it is right, in our own minds, because our ways will never be God’s ways, try as we might. We market the newest denominations as the better way while there is only One Way and that is the Way that became flesh and dwelt among us. The better way is not in a church created to draw those like-minded folks together in judgement over another. That has gone on for far too long. My thoughts are many but I will simply share a story in closing.
I first traveled to the beautiful country of Ukraine in October 1998. I traveled with the Ukraine Initiative which was a part of the then Central Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church. This group had begun working in Ukraine shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union. We worked there with the Order of Goodness and Charity which was overseen by a woman named Galena. Now Galena and her husband had been military officers in the Soviet Union. In that, it seemed like our motives for being there were always under scrutiny. On our first Sunday there we asked Galena if we might be able to worship in a local church. It was obvious that this did not sit well with her but, nevertheless, she took us a a large ultra-modern church which had been built by a large American denomination that shall remain nameless. The first thing that I noticed as we pulled into the church’s parking lot was that there were elderly folks walking the recently harvested potato field that was next to the church property. They were gleaning the harvest, trying to find sustenance to carry them through the upcoming winter. Then I glanced at this building and felt such a sense of guilt and heartache. Remember the quickly passing fad where everyone was asking ‘What would Jesus do?’ I found myself asking that very question. That fad I believe fell by the wayside because it was just too difficult to love and do for others as Jesus would do and it was obvious as I looked at this monument to modern day ministry.
Over the years I continued to travel back to Ukraine for I had truly fallen in love with this country and these people. During a visit in 2002 I was leading a time of worship for our group who were staying together in a former Soviet sanatorium. Here we had been given the opportunity to minister to children who had been born into impoverished families who, leaving everything behind, had fled the Chornobyl region. We were also working with local orphanages and a cerebral palsy center. I had invited Galena to join us that Sunday and was pleasantly surprised when she arrived with her interpreter. I simply shared my heart that day. No planned message or altar call. I just saw it as a time to praise God for his goodness and for the fact that he would use even me in this place. We closed with me playing guitar and leading the group in singing ‘Amazing Grace’. The interpreter knew the song in Ukrainian so he sang along. Two languages yet one heart. I closed with a prayer. Almost immediately the interpreter asked me to sit with Galena. She asked me to specifically pray for her and said that she was attracted to this Jesus that I spoke of. Together we prayed. When I later asked her what brought her to that place she shared something that impacted me deeply. She said, ‘Many have come to our country and built their churches but you came to this country and loved our people.” How humbling. She wasn’t speaking of just me but of the Ukraine Initiative which had been serving the people of Ukraine at that point for nearly a decade. In the serving of others she found herself drawn to a place where she wanted to know this Jesus better.
My question today is this. How do we best serve God in building his Church? Is it in our judgment and division or is it in our mercy, grace, forgiveness and pursuit of justice for all whom God has created that none should be lost? Let us stop acting like the older brother of the prodigal son and let us become as the Father who would rush down the lane to embrace even someone like me.
I was awakened this morning with these thoughts so let me share them as imperfect as they are. As a child I grew up attending the Methodist Church with my parents. In Sunday School I learned of The Story that would give me the foundation of my life. It was a story of a perfect God who loved each of us even in our imperfection. It was a story of mercy and of grace and of forgiveness. Not that I deserved any of it but simply because God is God and his love for his children is without condition. He loved us not because of what we did, or would do, but simply because He was God the Creator who created each of us in His image. As Brennan Manning would later say it, ‘God loves us as we are and not as we should be because none of us are ever as we should be’. In that I found peace and hope. In that I found my calling from a God who taught in a way and with a wisdom that were truly not of this world. There is nothing we can do to cause him to love us less or to love us more. Do you remember the call of Matthew? The story in scripture goes like this. From Matthew 9:9-13 we read ‘As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” Are we witnessing the second coming of the Pharisees?
Perhaps the problem lies with what we cannot see or refuse to see. In Romans 3:19-26 we read, ’Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For “no human being will be justified in his sight” by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus’. But it seems the argument in the present day church goes something like this. ‘I’m not a sinner, he or she is a sinner.’ It is so difficult for us to embrace the idea that none of us are worthy of God’s love. We treat grace and mercy as though they themselves are sinful in nature and in doing so become increasing devoid of them.
In 1968, at the age of fifteen I experienced an overwhelming feeling that God was in our midst as I watched the Evangelical United Brethren Church and Methodist denominations join to form the United Methodist Church; two coming together as one to minister to the needs of a hurting world. I was not aware of it at the time but this came after an earlier merger in 1946 which brought Evangelical and United Brethren in Christ denominations together to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church. It was in the Methodist and later United Methodist Church that I first felt my sense of a calling to minister at the age of ten. It was in this church that I later prayed that God would break my heart with those things that broke his heart and in that he led me to that place where I could use the simple gifts that he had given me to bring a little bit of bit of peace and joy into the midst of overwhelmingly difficult times. Now I feel a sense of God’s own heart breaking as his church seems to grow in just one fashion—it grows in the judgment of one over another. Have we also forgotten God’s teaching about judgment? Jesus taught in Matthew 7:1-5, “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.”
I will forever struggle with that log in my own eye and in that I cannot place myself over another. In that I feel that I can only come alongside fellow travelers in a way that lets us discover God together in a truly Holy way. That way is one of unconditional love and compassion. That way is one of mercy and grace. That way is one of allowing God’s presence in the midst of love and outreach to be the changing factor in our own lives and the lives of others. God came into the midst of all that was wrong and we feel we can somehow run to a place where all is right ‘in our own minds’. That will be the only place it is right, in our own minds, because our ways will never be God’s ways, try as we might. We market the newest denominations as the better way while there is only One Way and that is the Way that became flesh and dwelt among us. The better way is not in a church created to draw those like-minded folks together in judgement over another. That has gone on for far too long. My thoughts are many but I will simply share a story in closing.
I first traveled to the beautiful country of Ukraine in October 1998. I traveled with the Ukraine Initiative which was a part of the then Central Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church. This group had begun working in Ukraine shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union. We worked there with the Order of Goodness and Charity which was overseen by a woman named Galena. Now Galena and her husband had been military officers in the Soviet Union. In that, it seemed like our motives for being there were always under scrutiny. On our first Sunday there we asked Galena if we might be able to worship in a local church. It was obvious that this did not sit well with her but, nevertheless, she took us a a large ultra-modern church which had been built by a large American denomination that shall remain nameless. The first thing that I noticed as we pulled into the church’s parking lot was that there were elderly folks walking the recently harvested potato field that was next to the church property. They were gleaning the harvest, trying to find sustenance to carry them through the upcoming winter. Then I glanced at this building and felt such a sense of guilt and heartache. Remember the quickly passing fad where everyone was asking ‘What would Jesus do?’ I found myself asking that very question. That fad I believe fell by the wayside because it was just too difficult to love and do for others as Jesus would do and it was obvious as I looked at this monument to modern day ministry.
Over the years I continued to travel back to Ukraine for I had truly fallen in love with this country and these people. During a visit in 2002 I was leading a time of worship for our group who were staying together in a former Soviet sanatorium. Here we had been given the opportunity to minister to children who had been born into impoverished families who, leaving everything behind, had fled the Chornobyl region. We were also working with local orphanages and a cerebral palsy center. I had invited Galena to join us that Sunday and was pleasantly surprised when she arrived with her interpreter. I simply shared my heart that day. No planned message or altar call. I just saw it as a time to praise God for his goodness and for the fact that he would use even me in this place. We closed with me playing guitar and leading the group in singing ‘Amazing Grace’. The interpreter knew the song in Ukrainian so he sang along. Two languages yet one heart. I closed with a prayer. Almost immediately the interpreter asked me to sit with Galena. She asked me to specifically pray for her and said that she was attracted to this Jesus that I spoke of. Together we prayed. When I later asked her what brought her to that place she shared something that impacted me deeply. She said, ‘Many have come to our country and built their churches but you came to this country and loved our people.” How humbling. She wasn’t speaking of just me but of the Ukraine Initiative which had been serving the people of Ukraine at that point for nearly a decade. In the serving of others she found herself drawn to a place where she wanted to know this Jesus better.
My question today is this. How do we best serve God in building his Church? Is it in our judgment and division or is it in our mercy, grace, forgiveness and pursuit of justice for all whom God has created that none should be lost? Let us stop acting like the older brother of the prodigal son and let us become as the Father who would rush down the lane to embrace even someone like me.