Tag Archives: biblical obedience

Renewed in the Waters of Grace

14 Thursday Jan 2016

Posted by in Justice, LGBTQ, Reflections

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A scripture text from Baptism of the Lord Sunday still rings in my ears. To a people living in exile, the prophet Isaiah speaks of courage to believe that God is still up to something. “Do not fear,” comes the word of the Lord, “for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”

We hear these words as we remember and renew our baptisms. We come to the baptismal font knowing that God is actively involved in redeeming our lives and this world. Fear loses its threatening grip in the shadow of such immense promises. If the Lord of Creation claims us and calls us to live in the freedom of such promises, who are we to let fear get in the way?

The Israelite exiles were on the edge of extinction when they heard the words, “Do not fear.” They were scattered and despairing of their future when the prophet reminded them of God’s covenant with them. They were “a tiny, miserable, and insignificant band of uprooted men and women,” according to Old Testament scholar Claus Westermann, when the prophet declared their new and different identity as a people supremely valued by God. “You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you,” God says to Israel in spite of their shortcomings.

The waters of baptism lead us to new life – a life surrendered to the God who knits us together in our mothers’ wombs, a life of belonging to the community of the redeemed, a life of learning at the feet of the Rabbi from Nazareth what it means to be fully human and how it feels to be whole. “When you pass through the waters,” the Lord says, “I will be with you.”

The Rev. Dr. Israel (Izzy) Alvaran, Western Jurisdiction Organizer for Reconciling Ministries Network, was our guest preacher this past November. His message was in essence his testimony. Here is a young man who felt called of God at an early age to become a pastor. However, he was also aware of the church’s ban on openly gay people being ordained. He had a dilemma – how to respond to the call of God knowing that the church would not welcome someone like him in leadership if his sexual orientation were made known.

Years later as he stepped into his first pulpit to preach, it was in the very church where he had been brought by his father to be baptized as an infant. It occurred to him in that moment that baptism is a means of grace in which God blesses us with the name “son” or “daughter,” in which God calls us “beloved.” The church and its clergy may administer the sacrament of baptism, but God is the One who calls us by name and claims us as God’s own! No one can take that holy identity from us. No one can remove the sign of God’s grace that rests upon us.

When Izzy came out to his parents recently he felt their unconditional acceptance. He reported, “I am overcome with grace to know they love me.” What the church will do with LGBT people who simply wish to serve God freely with their gifts remains an open question. However, the walls of fear are crumbling. Baptism does that. Embracing our identity as sons and daughters of God does that. Trusting in the God who sides with the oppressed and the marginalized does that.

We are to live as a people named and loved by God. The delight that God takes in you and me is akin to the delight I’ve seen in the eyes of grandparents as they interact with their grandchildren. For that reason, God’s voice through the prophet still rings in my ears, as God gathers together the whole human family at the water’s edge and says, “Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made,” come my beloved, receive grace, trust grace, be renewed in the waters of grace, preach grace, practice grace, live grace, breathe grace!

Words (c) 2016 Mark Lloyd Richardson

Building an Altar for All

21 Thursday Nov 2013

Posted by in Peace with justice, Reflections

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P1010306I am a United Methodist by choice, since I did not grow up a Methodist. I am a Minister of the Gospel by calling, and that calling originates in my relationship with God. It is a calling I received before choosing the Wesleyan path of discipleship for my own. It is a calling to serve a higher purpose of bringing a message of reconciliation and hope to a broken and hurting world. It is a calling to bless and not to curse, to heal and not to harm, to speak and not to be silent to injustice!

There is a crisis of conscience in my beloved church. Although we say that we discern matters theologically using the lenses of Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience, I believe that on the question of whether homosexuality is compatible with Christian teaching we disregard everything but a few select verses of Scripture. We certainly disregard current and historical understandings of human sexuality, we disregard the prevailing views of major mental health associations, and most importantly we disregard the profoundly painful experience of exclusion that is resident within the voices of LGBT Christians. These are our sisters and brothers in Christ. We effectively slam the doors of our churches on them when we say that their sexuality is inconsistent with being Christian.

In recent days, with a formal complaint being considered against a retired bishop of the church for conducting a same-sex wedding and a trial and punishment of a clergy colleague for officiating at the marriage ceremony of his gay son, it is clear that traditionalists within the church will not even allow ministry to all persons regardless of sexual orientation or gender expression. The Book of Discipline is being lifted up as the ultimate rulebook for appropriate forms of ministry, and within its pages it explicitly states, “Ceremonies that celebrate homosexual unions shall not be conducted by our ministers and shall not be conducted in our churches.”

Shall not.

Yet they have been and will continue to be because for some of us there is no way to be true to our calling as Ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ while excluding some from the means of grace expressed through our ministry.

Indeed more than a thousand United Methodist clergy across the United States have signed a statement (see Altar for All) committing themselves to fulfill their vow to be in ministry with all people by offering the grace of the Church’s blessing to any prepared couple desiring Christian marriage regardless of their gender. It is a form of biblical obedience for those of us who do not consider Scripture to be error-free truth devoid of cultural context.

So along with other United Methodist ministers I face the daily question: Do I follow the immoral remnant of discrimination written into the Book of Discipline decades ago or do I follow the words on the very same page under the heading Responsibilities and Duties of Elders that make me duty-bound “To build the body of Christ as a caring and giving community, extending the ministry of Christ to the world?”

I don’t see how I can do both!

Words (c) 2013 Mark Lloyd Richardson

Let Us Claim this Day for Love

26 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by in Peace with justice, Reflections

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scotus-domaTwo historic and significant rulings came out of the United States Supreme Court today – one striking down key provisions in the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and giving legally married gay and lesbian couples a pathway to receive federal rights and benefits already enjoyed by straight couples, and the other one ruling that California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in the state, could not be defended on appeal. It is a wonderful day for fairness and equality under the law! It is a day to celebrate that human rights must exist equally for all people regardless of sexual orientation! It is a day to acknowledge that marriage is at its core a covenantal relationship of love between two human beings!

Episcopal Bishop Steven Charleston writes of this historic day: “Let us claim this day for love. You and I, all of us who share in the witness of faith, let us stake our claim on the next twenty-four hours as a sacred space. Let it be a time of freedom. A time of peace. A time of healing for all people, without distinction, without restriction, a time set aside for those who need a place of safety in which they can recover, hope and be filled with the strength of dignity. Let us announce to the world: this is our time and these, all of these, are members of our beloved family.”

From a Christian point of view, I affirm the following:

1)    All of us are members of God’s beloved community;

2)    There is no distinction in God’s eyes between us;

3)    Each of us is free and empowered by God’s abundant grace to become the person we are intended to be;

4)    Each of us learns what it means to be fully human through the most trusting and intimate relationships we are able to fashion with another;

5)    Marriage is about love, and we love because God first loved us, not because we are so naturally good at it;

6)    Marriage is a covenantal relationship in which persons seek God’s blessing as they give themselves to one another for a lifetime;

7)    Marriage is about the deepening of love and commitment, not gender;

8)    It is far more important to the success of a marriage to have the qualities of integrity, honesty, compassion, forgiveness, humility, humor, and mutual respect, than it is to have one man and one woman.

There is so much more work to be done for equality and justice for all of God’s children, both in society and in the church. My own church, the United Methodist Church, is trailing behind other mainstream progressive denominations in this regard. I wish I did not have to say that – on the other hand, there are hopeful and courageous signs that we are becoming more inclusive and may eventually get it right. In the meantime though, “ecclesial disobedience” and “biblical obedience” will only increase. It is not possible for us to do otherwise!

More to come.

Words (c) 2013 Mark Lloyd Richardson

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