All of us fall into one of two categories.
Some fear and grieve their sense that the civilization they know and love is
crumbling around them. Others fear and grieve that the world they dream of will
never come to be. Christians, because of the greatness of God, have good cause
to understand both, but to be afraid of neither.
To cross into the land and seize the
fruit, courage, faith and love will be required. Courage embraces risk and
cost. Courage isn’t assured of outcomes. Courage is about faith in something
larger than me and my secure preferences. Courage isn’t devising the cleverest
strategy to win the vote. Courage is being the Body in a world that doesn’t get
or love our beloved Lord.
Faith: do we realize that when we say “A
split is inevitable,” we’ve shrunk our vision of God down to an ineffectual,
co-opted weakling who can only baptize our limitedness? The true God is
magnificently larger than our inevitably blurry perceptions of God. The living
God embraces all of us in our dogged yet broken determination to be faithful
disciples. None of us understands or teaches infallibly. Mercy is required: we
can’t elude God’s, and so we never flag in our zeal to show mercy.
We are God’s church. It’s not ours. The
mark of the Church isn’t victory, or finagling votes, or even being right. They
will know we are Christians by our love. Love does not insist on its own way. Love
bears all things. Love doesn’t threaten. If God’s Spirit is in us, we bear
fruit. And so as we go to St. Louis, are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
gentleness and self-control evident in how we do our business or think about
the others?
The world is watching. Will we be nothing
more than a cross and flame pasted on top of the divisive ideologies people are
already burdened by? The world doesn’t need Christ or us Methodists to feed
their cultural frustrations and rancor. The world needs an alternative, pulling
off the impossible, loving and united in ministry in the thick of divergence on
things that really do matter.
God is watching. God looks around at us
and sees thoughtful, prayerful, biblically-focused, holy, broken, sinful, confused,
visionary, faithful followers of Christ who connect those dots differently on
human sexuality. Does Christ hope we get a divorce? Christ prayed and prays for
unity. His heart is larger than all of us. He doesn’t need protection.
I’ve blogged many times saying human
sexuality is not at the core of our faith. Many of my sisters and brothers
disagree – despite, as I’ve noticed, that even the most conservative books with
titles like Key United Methodist Beliefs
don’t mention human sexuality. For most of us, core beliefs are about God, the
Trinity, God’s saving acts, grace, and hope, not our fallen, broken responses
to the marvel that is God. If human actions are at the core, then I would think
that splitting up God’s beloved church would rise to the top of unacceptable
actions. Our core is Christ, the cross, his resurrection. He is our unity,
nothing else.
The One Church plan, which I support, is
terribly flawed and not the dream in God’s heart. It does invite people on both
sides to love, to work together, and even to repent of rejoicing in the wrong.
Both sides are sure the other side is wrong. If you think I am wrong or flawed
about any or many of the things of God, I do not mind. I don’t wish to be rid
of you. We can, with courage, faith and love, live and thrive in church with
people who are wrong. There’s nobody else anyhow.
I’ve received much mail in recent days,
telling me how to vote, threatening dire consequences if the vote goes wrong,
imploring me to read Bible verses. Today I received a holy letter, from 31
members of a church, thanking me for serving, expressing love, and pledging to
surround us and our church in prayer for peace. Period. Made me smile. I think
Jesus smiles. I believe in miracles and am praying for one. The miracle could just
be crossing over the river and finding the fruit, living into the fruit, being
Jesus’ church full of blessed, flawed, loving, wrong and wronged people.
Together.
