Shoved by Grace

For most people, the past four days passed by unremarked. For those of us in the United Methodist Church, who were paying attention, it has been literally life-changing. From Jan 23-26, the UMC held a Special Session of their General Conference in St. Louis to decide on a new plan for how the church relates to the LGBTQ+ community. The results, while somewhat anticipated, have been devastating for many of us in the church, our friends and family. But, somewhere, in the darkest hour of the darkest day, a glimmer of hope continues to shine through. Just for a little background, since 1972, the UMC Book of Discipline (our rulebook) has maintained that homosexuality is "incompatible" with Christian teachings. Confusingly however, we also like to say, "Open hearts, open minds and open doors." So, in other words, love the sinner, hate the sin. Along the way, the church has also made it clear that "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" shall not be ordained an...

One of my favorite things to do these days is to visit the new wineries that have sprung up like weeds in the Hill Country of Texas. Nothing like sitting out on a patio, enjoying the beautiful countryside, maybe listening to some local musicians, enjoying a new wine. Of course, some of these new wines are pretty dreadful, some our delicious. You never know what you're going to get when it is a "new" wine. Jesus talked about new wine. He warned us about putting new wine in old wineskins, which might burst. He was referring to how new understandings or new teachings cannot fit in our old paradigms. We must shift our paradigms to allow for new understanding. I see his wisdom and agree, but I am also I'm struggling with understanding how something that Jesus said 2000 years ago can still be so "new" to us today. Even in Jesus day, his teachings weren't really new. The prophets, stretching back over a thousand years had been telling the people o...

W ell, it's annual conference time again. Annual conference is the yearly (obviously) gathering of representatives, clergy and laity, from all United Methodist churches in regional conclaves called, confusingly, Annual Conferences. The annual conference is a time to celebrate ministry, ordain and commission new pastors, review budgets and do business, and set the direction of the conference for the future. During this time, my Twitter and Facebook feeds are abuzz with tweets and postings from many different conferences around the country. Most are of the self-congratulatory "rah, rah" type - "this worship is soooo inspiring", "wow, our Bishop really understands us", "we are doing such great work in the world." Rarer, however, are comments and reflections on how our church is failing in its mission to love the world, especially by letting down a large and growing percentage of our congregation who are LGBTQ and their allies. It breaks ...

I remember my first "sermon". I was 12 years old in St. Joseph, MO and our youth group had decided to do a drama for Youth Sunday. The drama we wrote consisted of three mini-sermons on controversial topics followed by the complaints and comments of fictional congregation members. Then we were going to read the story of Jesus' first recorded public sermon from Luke 4:16-30. We, the young radicals, were going to make the older generation face their own hypocrisy in response to the Gospel. My mini-sermon was on the role of women in ministry. This was 1976 and I had heard that women could be ordained in the United Methodist Church, but I had never seen one in the flesh. The other two mini-sermons were on euthanasia and interfaith dialogue. While I assume that the congregation was kind to our idealistic youthfulness, I do know that I didn't preach again for another 25 years! Standing up in front of a congregation and announcing that you have a word from God can be a ...