Tags
Christ, compassion, Dorothy Day, faith, grace, justice, LGBTQ, Methodism, worship
Retiring United Methodist Bishop William H. Willimon recently said, “The best training for being a United Methodist bishop is, fortunately, exactly the work that is done by any faithful Methodist preacher: Tell the truth as God tells it to you; try to miss as many meetings as possible; expect the church to be thoroughly tainted with sin (including your own); try to love Jesus more than the praise of your people, and keep believing that despite all of the church’s setbacks, in the end God is going to get what God wants! Hallelujah!”
Because I try to be a faithful Methodist preacher, and because I’ve always admired Bishop Willimon’s prophetic voice, I share here some words I recently wrote for our church newsletter:
Too often the church that claims to follow the Risen Christ into the world is mostly absent from the real human needs that exist in all communities.
Do you care whether your neighbors experience the presence of God in their lives?
Do you want all people (and I do mean “all”) to feel welcome in Christ’s church?
Do you desire to live more deeply into the heart and mind of God so that your life becomes the reflection of divine grace it is intended to be?
Do you hope to make a difference in the world through an act of daring surrender of your will to the will of your Creator?
Dorothy Day once said, “The greatest challenge of the day is how to bring about a revolution of the heart.” This applies to individuals and to the church as the body of Christ.
There is more of God than you or I can possibly know. We are daily being called into a deeper and fuller humanity in which the lines of race, gender, religion, nationality, class, and sexual orientation are blurred, and we all breathe the same air of divinely offered potentiality as God’s beloved children.
As for me, I am a progressive, evangelical, ecumenical, open and affirming, contemplative, socially active and globally concerned Christian!
I do not believe that faith is primarily a matter of what one believes – I believe faith is mainly about trusting in the God who loves us and calls us to love one another!
I do not believe that worship is either traditional or contemporary – I believe that worship is either relevant to our lives or not!
I do not believe that orthodoxy (“right belief”) is more important than orthopraxy (“right practice”)! Indeed, Jesus said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” ~ John 13:35. Servant ministry trumps theology any day!
I do not believe that Christians are the only people whom God loves, or that God cares more about straight people than LGBTQ people. I do not believe that heaven is reserved solely for followers of Christ, but rather that God will bring into God’s Realm whomever God chooses to eternally embrace (and that just might be everyone; we cannot fully know the mind of God)! Indeed, Jesus said, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold” ~ John 10:16.
Perhaps most importantly, I do not believe that church is mainly about having our personal or spiritual needs met; rather God’s message to the church is the invitation to surrender our lives to the Spirit whose grace transforms us and sends us out to be instruments of Christ’s blessing in a hurting world.
Bishop Mary Ann Swenson preached at the California-Pacific Annual Conference this June, saying that “People looked to Jesus, because Jesus looked for what God was looking for—justice, compassion, the kingdom come.” I say Amen to that!
Words (c) 2012 Mark Lloyd Richardson
Photo (c) 2012 Dallis Day Richardson (University of Redlands Chapel)
dreamprayact 
I loved this post. Your philosophy of inclusion is a wonderful antidote to all the haters and fear-based beliefs out there.
Thanks, Linda. There is a lot of fear and misunderstanding in this world, mostly due to insular attitudes in relation to the “different” and the “other.” I think we all struggle in some ways to overcome our own insularity and let the world in. Peace, Mark
Amen+
I’m happy this post resonated with you. Peace, Mark
I agree with you 100%. And I shall reblog this shortly. God in the Heart. And yes-in my experience He Always gets what He wants!!
Thanks for your kind words, Stephanie, and for reblogging this post. Peace, Mark
Wow Mark, I can say that I am challenged theologically by some of the thoughts shared in this post. I have come to the conclusions that the love of Christ as it appears in my life does not draw lines between one belief or another, yet I am challenged to understand the meaning of absolute Truth and what that looks like regarding the universal laws of Gods existence – The quantum-metaphysical-law that governs His divine spirit. I don’t understand love that excludes only love that includes. Me coming from Jewish/Catholic descent, understanding the “Other Flock: to be the gentile nations. I believe the exception is those who do not need a savior. – Those who say in there heart, there is no God and have no need for grace.
My challenge comes to me where much of the scriptural text does draw lines where these laws apply – definitely not the man made religious laws created in the past 2,000 years. I feel very comfortable not having to draw lines between me and others as a faith filled believer in Christ. I found the Truth of Christ by grace, not by what I have done, nor what I believe (other than His grace through Christs death). I am not the judge, only the discerning and the only way to even check what I discern is to guide it by the Word. I leave the line drawing to God, yet invite others by showing mutual respect and unconditional love to come see that the Lord is truly good.
Love what you wrote here: “Do you desire to live more deeply into the heart and mind of God so that your life becomes the reflection of divine grace it is intended to be?”
Having lost a son, I can only say (and believe with all my heart) there is nothing left in this old world but love. Everything else vanishes …
I agree that love outlasts and overcomes everything else in the end. Love even survives loss and grief. I am very sorry for your loss of your son. Mark
Thanks for your thoughtful response, Reno. It is true that Scripture is a guide for us, and it’s also true that we can only prayerfully seek to discern the will of God in it. Interpretations vary, as do even our various understandings of the nature and origin of Scripture. I’m sure I’m not telling you anything you don’t know.
In short, the “lines” we observe in Scripture – I’m not certain they are all God’s lines. Taking the whole Scriptural witness into account it seems to me that God loves creation and everything in it, even (and this is the most shocking thing of all) those who do not love God in return!
When I hear the word “Word” my mind immediately leaps to my Savior (the “Word made flesh”) who spoke forgiveness, mercy, grace, and peace, and of course also had a word of challenge for those who ignored and obscured God’s best in themselves and in the created world.
Thanks again for your very thoughtful comment. You cause me to think, and that is a blessing. Peace, Mark
Mark, I always appreciate your authenticity. This thing about Christ saying, I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides in me, and I in him… also my sheep hear my voice and come to me… there are many references to this language in different passages. I just think there is more going on in Go’s physical make up and existence than our short sighted understandings of heaven and hell and the way religious institutions and political organizations have used it to seduce the sincerity most of us have to come to light on the subject.
I often feel all that is in creation is relative to all that God is. My logic is simply, How can it not be? everything is a gift we did not gift ourselves, it comes from something and it must be relative from where it comes as most of my observances take note of in the nature of science and creation.
My point is: disease, cancer, attrition all seem to be a natural part of this existence as WE know it. The Biblical answer is “sin”. The scope of the Bible does not cover the metaphysical hungers of my curiosity on how is evil, darkness, sin, relative to God’s existence in anyway. The only answer I can render is that there is cycling of some sort going on. Christ came to share with us how we could avoid the cycling into darkness and be cycled into the light of Gods diving eternity.
One thing I believe passionately is that if God can create a universe, put himself into a man through a virgin birth, etc. Than he can clearly coordinate a culmination of literature that would express in the simplest terms what we must do to avoid the cycling into darkness and to be cycled into light.
For the most part, I take the Bible to be the inerrant “word” of God not so much because I like religion and all the ways it has been used to manipulate man. But because I know who God is and what He is capable of. I just want to be sure my soul does not succumb to the reality of this “spiritual cancer” and remains joined to the surviving spiritual organism that God is rather than the darkness that seems prevalent trying to destroy him and all that is in Him.
All these thoughts were not shared in a deductive rationally disciplined format of any kind. I realize they are not theologically sound. They are only personal thoughts which I do well to check by the simple guidance of scripture. I just want to know so much more than the scope of what the Bible reveals in surface understanding.
Beautiful.
Thanks!