“Are We Lost?” based on Luke 15:1-10

September 11, 2022
by Sara Baron

In
simpler times I have heard the parables of the lost coin and the lost
sheep in simpler ways. One can take the perspective of the 99 sheep
or the 9 coins and be rather irked at the ways the 1 is celebrated.
One can take the perspective of the seeker, and join in the joy of
finding the one. One can take the perspective of the outside
observer and wonder if leaving 99 sheep unattended is really the best
way to move towards having 100 sheep, or if throwing a party worth
more than the found coin is the best use of money.

Of
course, there is the most obvious option of taking the perspective of
the lost sheep and being grateful for the shepherd who comes looking
and rescues one from peril (or perhaps pulls you out of a great
tasting meadow, who knows?) Identifying with the sheep is a little
easier than the coin, but nevertheless, the awareness that when we’re
lost we need help is an easy one to turn to.

These
times, beloveds, are not simple times.

In
this time when I read the story of the lost sheep and the lost coin I
think to myself, “are we lost or found?” and I find that the
answer is “I don’t know.” Or, more honestly, the answer is “Yes,
we are lost. Yes, we are found. Yes.”

I
remember preaching in 2016 about the articles I was seeing about how
the 2016 election cycle was doing heavy damage to our country’s
mental health, and therapists were urging people to engage in breaks
from the news, in meditation, in breathing exercises. They were
worried about the stress destabilizing us individually and
collectively. I remember seeing what they were talking about, in
myself and in this church. Tempers were shorter, nuance got lost,
there was more right/wrong and us/them thinking. Schenectady Clergy
Against Hate grew out of that the time, because of the radical
increase in hate crimes.

Here
is the bad news. At this point I think of 2016 as a simpler time.

Sure,
there were oodles of stress. Sure I saw myself, others, and the
church community get worse at basic functioning. Sure, The United
Methodist Church was a dumpster fire. Sure, polarization was at all
time highs. But, that level of communal chronic stress was at that
point relatively new. (We didn’t know it then.)

For
me, the Trump presidency was a daily kick in the gut, or more
specifically in every value I hold dear. And, because I’m not
actually interested in dismissing people because they think
differently from me, I’m aware that for those whose values were
upheld by the Trump presidency, the squeals of horror and outrage
about everything he did ALSO shook them to the core. And, let us
never forget, that foreign adversaries have taken advantage of
differences between us to further polarization, because it benefits
THEM for us to have more HATE in our society.

So,
the stress of the election didn’t settle down. Things kept getting
worse. Then there was the 2019 General Conference of The United
Methodist Church when our denomination doubled down on homophobia and
it became clear that our church at large is not centered in the love
of God. That was a blow, at least to me.

Then
the COVID pandemic began, and we’re sure sick of talking about it,
not to mention living it, I know. But it is relevant here. The
pandemic shook every single part of our society and our lives. And
nothing is the same.

And
quite often we HATE that. Fine, quite often I hate that. It is
disconcerting. It is depressing. It is overwhelming. And then
there are the STILL present challenges of determining where the right
balances are between risks of infecting others with a serious illness
and risks of disconnection and loneliness (which itself can also be
deadly), and the simple deciding is exhausting.

The
stress level has been rising since 2016, sometimes just a slow steady
beat upwards, sometimes in leaps. There are PHYSIOLOGICAL facts
about stress. It makes us less creative. It makes us less
compassionate. It pushes us into black and white thinking. It leads
us into in-group thinking, and making enemies of others. It makes us
selfish.

None
of which look anything like following Jesus. Right?

That’s
a little squirmy for me. That the impacts of stress impede the
capacity to follow Jesus. Because I don’t really get to control
the world and the stresses it throws at me, nor at us. All
of which gets me around to why I think the answer is “yes, we’re
lost.”

But
perhaps you’d like to hear why I think the answer is ALSO, “yes,
we’re found?”

The
starting and ending point of “we’re found’ are quite simple: I do
not believe it is possible to wander away from God. Or, at least, it
is not possible to wander beyond the reaches of God’s love. And, as
God is everywhere, anywhere we are is with God, and God knows where
we are, so we are found. (By God.)

But,
in case that isn’t actually enough for you (although, it is rather a
lot), I’d like to point out what you are doing RIGHT NOW. You are
listening to a sermon. Now, I don’t know all of your personal
reasons for why you do that, but I know some things. I know you have
lots of other things you could be doing, and when you do this you are
making a choice. There seems to be strong evidence that you would
listen to a sermon because you are interested in what makes a good
life and/or in how to live a Godly life and/or in considering how to
get from the world as it is to the world as God would have it be. It
could be you are looking for reasons for hope, or looking for
analysis of what’s going on, or to make meaning of the world, or to
make meaning of life, or maybe you are mostly doing this because
other people you like also do this and you want to connect with them.

Those,
dear ones, are really beautiful reasons to do a thing.

I
remain shocked that this thing we know as church exists. Hear me
out! So, a bunch of people connect with each other and are connected
by their shared commitment to God and living as followers of Jesus.
So they create spaces to work together and worship together. They
give significant gifts of time to caring for the needs of the church
and the community, to learning together and playing together and
doing important things together.

Then,
and this is the one that keeps on shocking me, they give MONEY to the
church. Enough to PAY STAFF even (AND take care of the building,
another miracle). Staff to help take care of the resources (sexton,
building), staff to take care of the community (breakfast cook),
staff to take care of the communication and connections
(administrative assistant), and even staff to take the time to listen
to the world and the Bible and the people and try to help make sense
of things (pastor.)

I
am amazed that you all do this. It is INSANE.

You
realize how much time, energy, money, and frustration you’ve given to
this place right? When people say “church family” they may in
fact be reflecting that some of the demands family puts on our lives
is similar to the demands church puts on their lives.

But
this is also GOOD NEWS. Because in the midst of this world, people
are giving of themselves in hope that what we do together is part of
building better lives and a better world. Lives are changed here, by
friendship, by theology, by study, by singing, by hope. We are more
together than we could ever be apart.

And
even now, even when everything is different, even when showing up is
in multiple mediums and often feels SO strange compared to what we
knew in the past – even now, you all keep on caring enough to
listen, to try, to work towards good. And that’s about as “found”
as I can imagine existing. I am, quite honestly, profoundly moved
that you exist and keep on keeping on.

There
is a final piece to this though. It isn’t just that we are lost and
we are found, as two separate pieces. It is also that we are lost
and found, both at the same time, and that has its own truth. This
week I got an email from a clergy coach who talked about this, and
while I want to share everything Rev. Lauren Stephens-Reed said, I’m
condensing to this:

leading
innovation is about getting people to co-create the future with you.
This
kind of approach is warranted when your purpose is clear but the
future is not. Is there any better descriptor of – any greater need
in – this time in the Church, in the world?

I
do believe our purpose is clear. We are co-creating the kindom of
God with God. We work together to promote the idea that the kindom
and its values are important, to help each other learn in order to
build the kindom, and to help each other live its values. We don’t
know everything, but we do know that some of the prime values of the
kindom are love, justice, compassion, and inclusion, so we work on
those. We are going it TOGETHER because we believe we are more
together than apart.

So,
we don’t know how to get to the future.

That’s
OK.

God
does, and God will lead us, TOGETHER.

We
are lost dear ones, and we are found, dear ones. And it is hard but
it is OK. Thanks be to God. Amen

Rev. Sara E. Baron
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305
Pronouns: she/her/hers
http://fumcschenectady.org/
https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

September 11, 2022

Uncategorized

Lament / Prayer / Dreaming

July 24, 2022
by Sara Baron

“A
History Lesson”

In 1968
the Methodist Church merged with the Evangelical United Brethren
Church to form The United Methodist Church. Both of the predecessor
denominations had social creeds, statements about what justice looked
like. This had started in 1908 when The Social Creed was passed in
the Methodist Episcopal church calling for end to child labor, a fair
wage, and safety standards.^¹
Initially, the statements of both churches were included in the
Discipline, but the 1968 merging conference created a study committee
to create a unified statement, the first edition of the Social
Principals which state where we – as a church – stand on a wide
variety of issues.^²

The
committee came to the 1972 General Conference with language that
said, “homosexual persons no less than heterosexual persons are
individuals of sacred worth.” (It seems worth noting that the
Stonewall Riot was in 1969, and may well have influenced the
intentional inclusion of this statement.)

However,
General Conference fussed over the language, and Don Hand, a delegate
from Southwest Texas suggested that the period be turned into a comma
followed by the phrase “though we do not condone the practice of
homosexuality and consider this practice incompatible with Christian
doctrine.”^³
It passed.

Thus
began the 50 years of EXPLICIT homophobia in The United Methodist
Church – 50 years and counting. The next General Conference –
1976 – added funding bans to prevent church funds from being used
to “promote” homosexuality. The 1984 Discipline Adopted as the
standard for ordained clergy, commitment to “fidelity in marriage
and celibacy in singleness” and “self‐avowed practicing
homosexuals are not to be accepted as candidates, ordained as
ministers, or appointed to serve in The United Methodist Church.”
I remain particularly horrified that the church wrote in “fidelity
in marriage and celibacy in singleness” in order to attack LGB
people, while claiming to do otherwise. It took until 1996 to ban
clergy from presiding at “homosexual unions” and to tell churches
they couldn’t host them.

At the
same time, occasionally, the UMC would make attempts to remind others
that they should be in ministry “for and with all persons” (1996)
and ask “families and churches not to reject or condemn their
lesbian and gay members and friends.” (2000.) Isn’t is great the
church asked people not to reject people while actively rejecting
people? In a great turn of irony the 2008 General Conference adopted
a resolution to oppose homophobia and heterosexism. (FACEPALM.) You
can’t make this stuff up, can you?

Meanwhile,
over the course of these years, the AIDS crisis raged, suicides
stayed common, and LGBTQIA+ kids were kicked out of their homes and
onto the street. Clergy were defrocked, and people called by God
kept their calls quiet (or lived in death spiral closets),
individuals were rejected from their churches and families, and the
church’s attention remained on an odd definition of sexual purity
INSTEAD of focusing on income inequality, poverty, colonialism,
sexism, racism, or climate change.

In 2012
there was an attempt to acknowledge that people of faith disagree
about homosexuality. It failed. 49% to 51%.

Meanwhile,
as you may well know, individuals, churches, communities, and
sometimes even Annual Conferences refused to obey unjust laws. Many
organizations were founded by people who worked for inclusion, many
churches became Reconciling (26 years ago here), clergy refused to
obey rules about homosexual unions and marriages, Bishops refused to
deny people ordinations, people of God simply refused to obey unjust
laws.

And
those who wanted control, those who wanted to have authority over
OTHER people’s bodies, other people’s love, other people’s sex lives,
were really, really upset that they could pass the laws but they
couldn’t crush the dissent.

In 2016
this came to a boiling point at General Conference, and instead of
passing more laws from both sides of its mouth, the church created a
Commission to create a new way forward, and called for a Special
Session of General Conference in 2019 to receive and act on their
report. The Commission called for a moderate way forward, “The One
Church Plan” which let Annual Conferences, Bishops, clergy, and
churches be led by their own consciousness and faith. It aimed to
remove explicit homophobia from church policy but protect those who
wished to live it. Meanwhile progressives called for a FULL end to
homophobia with the “Simple Plan” and conservatives to a doubling
down on it all with the “Traditional Plan.” (While I’m teaching
this history lesson, I still can’t make myself explain all the
horrors of the Traditional Plan.)

The
2019 General Conference passed the Traditional Plan.

And, as
you may know, there was general outrage and horror, and even the
moderates in the USA got upset, and it became certain that The UMC
was headed to divorce, with the only questions being which side would
exit, where the moderates would land, and how the money would be
divided. And then, and I’m pretty sure you DO know this, there was a
pandemic, and here we still stand. 50 years of death and
destruction. And so, we lament.

“Where
are We Now?”

The
United Methodist Church these days is stuck. We’ve realized that we
cannot stay together – not when some of the church says that the
most important litmus test of faith is fidelity to homophobia at all
costs — and the rest of us … I don’t know, exist and don’t agree
with that immoral and theologically bankrupt assessment. On May 1^st,
after years (decades?) of planning, the “Global Methodist Church”
(GMC) launched, inviting churches and clergy to leave The United
Methodist Church and join the GMC. That church is designed for
those who think homophobia is faithfulness to God, although oddly
that isn’t on their website. Slowly, but rather consistently, some
churches are “disaffiliating” from The United Methodist Church
and joining the GMC. I wouldn’t call it a mass exodus, perhaps
because leaving involves paying a fair share of debts owed, ministry
shares, and shared pension liability, and perhaps because their
theology is shallow and deviates wildly from Jesus’s.

There
was a hope among many that the 2020 General Conference would pass
legislation to allow a mostly graceful way forward, allowing
churches, clergy, and even Bishops to leave The UMC. However, the
next General Conference is now scheduled for 2024, (2020 never
happened) and things keep changing. There is, unfortunately, little
hope that the denomination’s official homophobic stances will change
in 2024, but there is SOME hope that our Annual Conference might
become a part of the church that refuses to acknowledge such laws.

In the
meantime, we HERE remain committed to the Reconciling statement:

“We celebrate God’s gift of diversity and value the
wholeness made possible in community equally shared and shepherded by
all. We welcome and affirm people of every gender identity, gender
expression, and sexual orientation, who are also of every age, race,
ethnicity, physical and mental ability, level of education, and
family structure, and of every economic, immigration, marital, and
social status, and so much more. We acknowledge that we live in a
world of profound social, economic, and political inequities. As
followers of Jesus, we commit ourselves to the pursuit of justice and
pledge to stand in solidarity with all who are marginalized and
oppressed.”

We
continue to celebrate love and weddings for God’s beloveds, with no
boundaries around gender or sexual orientation. We continue to
welcome into membership all of God’s beloveds, and invite people to
be in leadership in the church when they are willing and able. We
work in regular and consistent opposition to both the unjust laws of
the church, the implementation of those laws, the homophobia and
transphobia of the country and the world, and the patriarchal, white
supremacist narrative that only some people matter.

And, we
know that there are beloveds of God who cannot stomach being with us
because we are a part of The United Methodist Church, and/or
Christianity, and the harm they’ve experienced from one or both.

We are
in-between. Clear on what we believe, but stuck without a good way
forward, aware of harm happening in the meantime, and yet still
hoping God can help us find a way forward. That’s what this time of
worship is about – praying for help in the midst of all that is
“where we are now.”

“A
Glimpse of God’s Vision”

I know
that no local church, no denomination, and no clergy person will ever
be perfect. We’re human, we’re finite, our perspectives are limited,
and our needs differ from those around us.

But
sometimes I let the perfect be the enemy of the good, and I forget to
even dream with God about where God wants the church to go (because
if we can’t be perfect, why bother???) I don’t have the full vision
of God wants, no one person does, but I am going to share with you
what I can see, so that it becomes part of the conversation that can
become whole.

I
believe that the GMC is predominated by wealthy, cis, straight, white
men who are angry they couldn’t control the movement of the Spirit.
That helps me see what I want the church to look like: economically
diverse, and careful to center the voices of people living in
poverty; diverse in gender expression and careful to center the
voices of those who are trans and non-binary; diverse in sexual
expression and careful to center the voices of those who are
LGBTQIA+; racially and ethnically diverse and careful to center the
voices of people of color and immigrants; with men, women, and
non-binary people, with carefulness in centering the experiences and
needs of women and non-binary people. My language here is very
careful, because I believe in community where all are welcome and
fully engaged members, but the hierarchies of the world enter the
church with us and unless we INTENTIONALLY invert the power dynamics
of the world, they’ll replicate themselves in the church.

And, of
course, I want to be a part of a community open the radical movement
of the Spirit. The GMC uses scripture as a means of control, to
limit people and prescribe their lives. I hope to be part of a
church that sees scripture as an invitation to dialogue about what
matters, what justice looks like, and how we might work together for
the common good of all of God’s beloveds.

When I
listen to Jesus, I hear a lot of intentional inversions of the power
dynamics of the world, so I’m pretty sure he’s into that. I also
hear an amazing amount of empowerment, and reminders that together,
the people have enough to care for each other. The world believes in
scarcity, but the church is called to believe in abundance.

At this
moment in time, I see several intersecting crises that I believe we
are all called to be attending to: poverty and income inequality,
climate change, militarism and escalation of violence, and an
epidemic of loneliness. (In terms of analysis, the way we practice
capitalism seems fundamental to all of these concerns.) I hope that
when the church stops infighting about who is lovable in God’s eyes
(eyeroll) and acknowledges the answer “everyone” we might put our
energy and attention to enacting that by working on the current
crises. (I know, all too well, than when we move from explicit
homophobia to implicit homophobia and transphobia not nearly enough
will change. I know that, and I’ll keep working on it. But the care
of all people includes these pieces TOO.)

At its
worst, religion is the set of myths that empower the societal systems
that create injustice, inequality, hierarchy, and despair. I think
one of the tells of this use of religion is when it is focused on
control.

BUT, at
it’s best, religion lives out the love of God for all people,
dreams of a society of equity, justice, equality, and hope. I think
one of the tells of this use of religion is SHARED power.

While I
hope we will speak, act, live out, and advocate for justice in all
the crisis areas, I think we are best set up to change the world is
by being a place for humans to really connect,
to God and each other, and therefore changing the

epidemic
of loneliness. We are already a community. We already have a
building that can help people gather. We are already practicing
caring, and listening. Many among us have already have lives
transformed by being a part of this community, that is, by God and by
each other. Seeking to use our gifts and resources to connect with
others, and transform loneliness would ALSO increase our empathy and
lead us towards more valuable work in KNOWING that our well-being is
interconnected. I dream of a church where people are loved exactly
as they are, and listened to, and thus healed, and thus a source of
healing and love for the world around them. I think it is possible,
too!

To do
this, though, would require a rather different way of “being”
than we are now, and I am waiting to see how the Spirit moves in
others, to learn how we will move forward together.

1 https://www.umc.org/en/content/methodist-history-1908-social-creed-for-workers

2 https://www.umc.org/en/content/ask-the-umc-why-do-we-have-social-principles-where-did-they-come-from

3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_and_Methodism#United_Methodist_Church,
the word “doctrine” was changed to “teaching” by friendly
amendment before the amendment and statement passed.

Worship 7/24/2022

Sermons

“Words to a Warring Church’

February 4, 2019February 4, 2019
by Sara Baron

based on 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 and Luke 4:16-30

Don’t get distracted by the pretty love poetry, First Corinthians was written to a church that was fighting within itself, and this passage is about that. The Jewish Annotated Bible points out, “This letter, written in the mid-50s, reveals the divisions facing the Pauline churches over such central concepts as the Holy Spirit (ch 2), marital and sexual norms (ch 5-7; 11), relation with the Gentile world (chs 6; 8), worship practices (ch 12), women’s roles (ch 14) and resurrection (ch 15).”1 Paul clarifies right from the get-go why he is writing, “Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you should be in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you should be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters.” (1 Cor 1:10-11, NRSV)

The whole letter is written to deal with the disagreements – to offer advice on them and to remind the church HOW to disagree. 1 Corinthians 13 fits into the latter category, it is meant to instruct the church on what it means to follow Jesus in the midst of disagreement. It reflects the opposite of the described behavior of the members of the Corinthian church in the rest of the letter. They are said to be impatient, unkind, boastful and arrogant, boastful in wrongdoing, etc. All the things that love is NOT. “Love is patient, love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful…” After all, love is a reflection of God’s nature. The word for love being used here is “agape” or unconditional love. The church often talks about this as the love that is God’s love for humans, and when we seek to live out our faith, we seek to bear God’s agape love into the world for all people.

Earlier in the letter, Paul worked with a common Corinthian saying, “All things are lawful”. He reflects, “‘All things are lawful’, but not all things are beneficial. ‘All things are lawful’, but not all things build up. Do not seek your own advantage, but that of others.” (10:23-24) Over and over again, Paul seeks to encourage the Corinthians to take care of each other, and use their power for the communal well-being.

Luke 4 contains another example of a faith community misbehaving. In this case it is said to be the synagogue in Nazareth, although historically speaking there are some reasons to be doubtful of the factuality of this story. Some of them are: we aren’t sure there was a synagogue in Nazareth; if there was, we don’t know that they would have been prosperous enough to have a scroll of Isaiah; and perhaps just as importantly, Nazareth isn’t built on a cliff.

This passage is almost certainly a creation of Luke, based off of a much shorter narrative in Mark that centers around the line, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their home town, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” Its OK that it is a creation of Luke, it lets him show of his themes, which I tend to greatly support. Luke emphasizes God’s love for the foreigners and Gentiles, and Luke quotes Isaiah who reminds us that the Spirit is working to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. For Luke, this is Jesus’s mission statement. For us, this is a part of our Communion Liturgy. For those who aren’t remembering it, the “year of the Lord’s favor” refers to the practice of Jubilee, in which every 50 years all debts are forgiven AND all land reverts back to the family who owned it. This system was meant to prevent intergenerational poverty, and to ensure that people’s subsistence remained possible. It was, by the time of Jesus, common for people to be imprisoned because of debt (a way to blackmail family members into paying up), or for family members to be sold to pay off debts. To the people of Jesus time (and Luke’s), who hadn’t seen a Jubilee in perhaps a millennia (we aren’t entirely sure if it ever happened, but we think it may have happened in the time of the Judges), this was probably a bit incredible.

Believable or not for those who heard it, the Isaiah passage emphasizes God being on the side of the poor, vulnerable, and oppressed, and working towards their good, and Luke believes this work is embodied in Jesus.

Now, within the context of this story, it is entirely too easy to assume that the Jews in Nazareth were upset about the inclusion of the outsiders, and feeling like their “special” status was threatened, but in the Jewish Annotated New Testament I have been assured by Amy Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler that this is not at all the case. After all, those were Jewish stories, and the Jews had very good relationships with Gentiles. Instead, the presenting issue in this narrative is that Jesus refuses to do messianic stuff. Mark explains this as Jesus being UNABLE, but in Luke it sounds more like Jesus refuses. Initially the crowd is quite pleased with what he is saying, but if he is doing God’s work (as described in Isaiah), but not for them. This is what enrages them. They want the good work of God too! They want freedom, healing, liberation, and debt recovery. Why wouldn’t they! Jesus choice not to help them when he helps others is what Luke reports as enraging them.

Having done adequate work understanding the texts on their own merit, I believe we are now free to excavate them for meaning for us today. I believe most of you have heard that The United Methodist Church is a bit, shall we say, Corinthian? For the uninitiated into the infighting in The United Methodist Church, let me offer a few disclaimers: 1. The fights in the church at large are NOT reflected in this congregation. After two years of careful study and conversation, in 1996, this congregation voted to be affirming and celebration of God’s LGBTQIA+ children, and we hold FIRM in that position today. 2. The General Church has pretty much always been a big fight for power, money, and influence. This is a discouraging fact (I’d love it if the General Church were a spiritually centered experience in collaboration and sharing agape around the world). However, it is a fact. In part this is true because we have a democratic process – we neither have a leader at the top telling us what to do NOR have complete freedom for our own churches. Furthermore, we are super diverse, and that means we often have very different values, and ideas of where power, money, and influence should be used. It isn’t ALL bad.

Now that I’ve offered the disclaimers, this month the Global United Methodist Church is getting together in Saint Louis to have a big old fight. (February 23-26). Officially, the church will be discussing, “human sexuality.” Really, the church will be fighting over whether or not people who are LGBTQIA+ are beloved by God. (Yes.) More deeply, I believe the church is still fighting over who has control of money, power, and influence, and the fight has been put on the backs of LGBTQIA+ people when really it is about whether or not the old-school power brokers (most commonly older, whiter, richer, Southern US, conservative, men) can make other people do their bidding anymore. (Thanks be to God, no.)

In First Corinthians, Paul is VERY concerned about the WAYS the church treated each other in their disagreements. He seems more concerned about this than about the answers that they come to. They were told to build each other up. This is a super duper hard thing to remember coming into General Conference. I believe we are all called to see each other’s humanity, and to see each other as beloved by God, even our disagreement. I do NOT believe it is acceptable to see another member of the church as the ENEMY. I believe that the way we disagree is important, and Paul’s teaching is very important.

And I really, really wish that the other side would stop doing stuff to make that more difficult. 😉

However, I’m going to play fair right now. I’m going to start by telling you what our side (the side for inclusion of all of God’s people) does that infuriates the other side (the side that likely thinks of itself as for “purity”). First of all, we disobey. The conservatives have had the majority power in the church since 1972, and have used it to say that “homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching” and thus “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” cannot be ordained or appointed and UM clergy can’t preside at same sex weddings. Because we don’t believe that these rules have authority in the eyes of God, we’ve disobeyed them.

Furthermore, we’ve protested them. We’ve gone to General Conferences, and other meetings, and protested, and people have been uncomfortable with that. In 2000, we (I wasn’t there, this is the “we” of the inclusivity movement) even shut down General Conference. Our Bishop at the time – yours and mine – chose to be arrested with the protesters in solidarity, which was one of the most inspiring things I’ve ever seen.

Our refusal to obey oppressive authority, and our refusal to be quiet about it has been a problem for the other side, and is taken as unfair tactics. Now, clearly, I disagree, but I thought it would be nice to share their viewpoint first for once.

On our side, the complaints are a bit different. First of all, our primary issue, is with the church claiming that some of God’s beloveds aren’t God’s beloveds. That said, James Baldwin once said (and Jan Huston was nice enough to post on my FB this week to remind me) “We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.” Thus, I do not believe that both sides are equally valid when it comes to discussing the humanity and right to exist of LGBTQIA+ people in the church.

Then there are the current tactics on the side of exclusion. These include: wanting minimum penalties for doing same sex weddings, kicking out Annual Conferences that ordain self-avowed practicing homosexuals2, minimizing the pension payments for clergy who are part of Annual Conferences that ordain self-avowed practicing homosexuals3, AND deciding to leave and form a new denomination (the Wesleyan Covenant Association) WHILE intentionally bankrupting The United Methodist Church4

That is, they want to kick LGBTQIA+ people and their allies out of the church, impoverish retired clergy, and bankrupt the denomination.

And Paul says I’m supposed to be loving.

And I think he’s right.

I sort of wish I knew how to be like Jesus in the end of the gospel, just walking away while fists are pounding and violence is imminent, like in a cartoon.

However, I’m willing to settle for a bit less. I’d like to be blessed with the ability to keep on loving, and keep on seeing God’s light in those with whom I disagree NO MATTER HOW BADLY THEY BEHAVE. I keep on praying, and practicing love, in hopes that I will be able to do so.

This feels like a lesson far larger than General Conference or The United Methodist Church. But it also takes a second step. I want to know people are beloved by God, no matter how badly they behave, but I do NOT think that means I have to let them walk all over me, nor over God’s other beloveds. Walter Wink teaches that when Jesus says “turn the other cheek” he means “use subversive methods to require your opponent to respect you.”

I want to learn to turn the other cheek in love. I hope you want to too! May God help us all open our hearts and minds to the agape love and wisdom necessary to do so, now and always. Amen

1 The Jewish Annotated New Testament: New Revised Standard Version Bible Translation, edited by Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 287.

2 See, the Traditional Plan and the Modified Traditional Plan in the ACDA: http://www.umc.org/who-we-are/gc2019-advance-edition-daily-christian-advocate

3 http://hackingchristianity.net/2019/01/confirmed-pensions-board-issues-traditionalist-plan-concerns-wespath-updates-faq.html

4https://snarkypastorrants.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-devil-in-details.html

Image is of the Love Your Neighbor Coalition logo.