Dawning Discernment of Weeks 5 & 6

Image by The Reverend Anna Blaedel at UM Forward

1. August 8th is going to be an awful day
2. I wish someone would open a safe space on that day
• A place where I could pray and weep
• A sacred sanctuary where I would pour out my ire at the other side,
• and then perceive God's grace minister in that brokenness
3. I bet others feel the same way I do
• That Thursday will be unbearably painful as old wounds are opened,
• and they wish they had a haven where they would find divine aid
4. I wish someone would plan something like that for me and all the people out there like me
5. Wait.  Maybe I'm supposed to be that person

After an early AM one-sided conversation with God (and a check-in to make sure my idea would be appropriate) I created a virtual vigil.

August 8th is the date of the church hearing regarding the complaint against The Reverend Anna Blaedel for being honest about who they are and who they love.  A collective action of witness will take place outside the hearing location.  The virtual vigil symbolizes the cloud of witnesses who will surround Anna that day in absentia.

Call to Fast, Pray, Read: Week Four

The praise band led us in singing Indescribable today.  The lyrics brought to mind Isaiah's description of God, the one who extends the sky, stabilizes the earth, and brings forth the cosmos.  Some part of me is certain that this perspective is true. We do worship an awesome, indescribable God, and we should resist the tendency to domesticate or diminish the divine into something more comforting.

After this praise song, the guest preacher shared a story of his brother's ministry in a maximum-security prison in the Congo.  The brother was a political prisoner; a dissident whose only crime was his opinion that no one is above the law not even the President of the DRC.

Hearing a positive example of the UMC in Congo was an important counterpoint to the accusation that African UMs are the primary reason why the denomination continues to discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community.  Love of enemy includes replacing a one-dimensional caricature with a more nuanced representation.  God is beginning that work in me.

After the story, the preacher issued a call for unity that focused on two points:
1)  We are filled with the power of God
2)  We should use that power to speak faith, hope, and joy into the lives of others

While he preached, I thought of John Wesley's understand of grace.  In his writings, Wesley equated grace with the power of God's love.  By faith, we can perceive that power and our perception evokes a response.  Typically, that response takes one of three forms: our faith is strengthened, we are convicted of sin, or we grow in love of God and neighbor.

The guest preacher taught a unity based on faith and love, which are the comforting sides of God's power.  However, to be true to UM doctrine the sermon should have included an example of bringing people together by rebuking, disturbing false peace, and calling for confession.

Isaiah rebuked the worship of the small gods represented by idols.  I am rebuking a form of church unity that is comfortable with discrimination.

Call to Fast, Pray, Read: Week Three

From http://lifemessenger.org/lifemessage/publications/the-blind-servant/

God of the Blind and the Deaf

The lessons of Isaiah 41 & 42 were feeling Other.

Prophecies directed at exiles of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.

Jewish tribes indebted to Cyrus and his Gentile liberality.

No me. Not mine. Not our historical conundrum.

Scriptural misappropriation would complicate discernment

I feared.

Until I found the ground of my faith in the words of Isaiah 42: 16-19.

The seeing and the hearing who confidently proclaim forward possibilities

Are not dependant on Isaiah's God, who is followed by the desperate and humbled.

I will glory in my lack of insight.

I will celebrate my failure to discern.

I will work with those similarly afflicted

Stumbling and hesitant

Yet expecting to be oriented

In God's time and manner

All of us-- leaders, members, disaffiliated, those who rule over them

We can not see or hear the way we should go.

Our only hope is in the God who guides those willing to admit their blindness and deafness

to the future.

Call to Fast, Pray, and Read Week Two

Christianbook.com VBS promotional video

αλλάξουσιν ισχύν (Isaiah 40: 31)

in case the reader missed it, the next verse repeats it

αλλάξουσιν ισχύν (Isaiah 41:1)

For the God-awaiting, and for the rulers over them, and for the one who brings justice

ισχύν

It appears miniscule floating in the middle of all this white space. To Isaiah, it’s central.

Strength, Power, Might, Force, Ability, Am/Is/Are-ness

This hard-to-translate-into-English-because-of-its-layers-of-meaning word, The Book of Isaiah repeats 15 times over 13 chapters.

That’s hard to miss in the Greek.

Isaiah is a prophet of justice proclaiming a power that can bring to life his prophetic vision. God, as the source of this justice-achieving power, is able to imbue humans with it.

αλλάξουσιν

Gamers have a phrase-- Power Up. It refers to finding an object in a video game that gives the player an extra ability. It might be heftier firepower, stronger shields, longer life, greater speed, claiming objects that make the game easier to play and winning it more likely is a power up.

God’s power, according to Isaiah, is something along these lines. Isaiah is not describing a human power, such as force of personality or strength of intelligence, but instead Isaiah’s message conceives of God’s power as an in-addition-to and other-than our natural abilities.

“Renews their strength” is not an adequate translation of αλλάξουσιν ισχύν. “Adds another ισχύν” to those they already have, is closer to the Greek.

I’ve spent this week contemplating how I’ve been powered up by God in the past. What kept coming to mind is the number of times that God gave me the ability to love my enemies and pray for my persecutors. Definitely not a strength that comes to me naturally.

I admit to a certain amount of grumpiness that in the midst of justice-seeking discernment of UMC next steps, “love your enemies” is the lesson God imparted. Apparently, I needed reminding.

I suspect that the ισχύν given is different depending on the needs of the individual. God has given me love of enemies. What power is God imbuing you with that will aid the movement forward?

Call to Fast, Pray, and Read: Week One

Paul Ratje/AFP/Getty Images

The invitation arrived last Sunday announcing a six-week intention to fast, pray, read
From June 24 to August 4 seeking The Will Of God
     During this season of disaffiliation, these collective interventions feel like the appropriate call

After joining the witness list, I began the assigned lesson: Isaiah 40-66

The Book of the Prophet Isaiah, Chapter 40, Verse One

First word: παρακαλείτε
     Looks like parakeet
     Sounds like Paraclete, which looks like
          παράκλητος, which is sometimes translated
     Helper-Comforter-Advocate
          Derived from
     παρα--  As in Close Beside
     καλέω-- As in Make a Call
                As if being close to the situation, the legal advisor makes the correct call and the client is  
               comforted
          Sometimes symbolized as a White Dove or as a Red Flame
     Never to my knowledge as a parakeet, a species of parrot with a potential lifespan of twenty
             years unless living in pet confinement, in which case the average lifespan is cut by three-
             fourths
                 One Part)      Inadequate Nutrition
                 Two Parts)    Poor Hygiene
                 Three Parts)  Cages

     Echoed in the final word of the first pericope: παρακαλέσει
As if Isaiah’s God is like a shepherd who comforts the pregnant ewes
        by advocating for a healthy diet and a safe shelter and the freedom to rest in green meadows and
        wander beside tranquil waters and then goes on to help them realize these rights

The first word of the prophecy is comfort.  The last word of the prophecy is comfort.
     As in, the Church called into being by the Paraclete will worship Isaiah’s God, and every one of its members will be close beside the comfortless, and its leaders will all teach the lesson that helping those in need of advocates is an act of worship, and this witness, spoken and lived, will distress the comfortable, who will confess and repent and will become a legal power that makes the correct call and protects the vulnerable, or they will leave the Church of Isaiah’s God and find a congregation that is not so distressing to their status quo.

Thus ends the first week of discernment.

2020 UMC General Conference: More of the Same

First United Methodist Church of Iowa City is holding a meeting next Sunday between members of the youth group and members of the Reconciling Ministries committee.  The youth want to share a statement they've written following the anti-LGBTQ vote at the 2019 UMC General Conference Special Session.  The Reconciling committee wants to meet and discuss next steps.  (I don't know if they will be steps to stay and fight or steps to walk away.)

I've committed to following efforts to create a progressive Methodist denomination and reporting them back to the group.  So far all I can report is the "wait and see what Judicial Council rules" response I'm finding everywhere.

I will also be sharing what the 2020 General Conference delegate distribution will be:

Southeastern	21.11%
Congo	17.63%
South Central	11.83%
North Central	10.21%
West Africa	9.98%
Northeastern	9.74%
Philippines	6.03%
Africa Central	4.64%
Western	3.02%
Northern Europe & Eurasia	2.32%
Central & Southern Europe	1.62%
Concordat	1.16%
Germany	0.70%

By my calculation, 28% of the delegates will come from progressive jurisdictions.  Please let me know before the March 24 meeting if my calculation is off.

Source: Here

Corporate Living #10

Corporate Living Principle #10 -- "Give way in small things that do not involve principles"

This principle assumes that the group can agree on which matters are trivial and which are non-negotiables. So if you find yourself wondering why so much time is being spent debating inconsequentials, the reason may be that you have a different set of priorities than those of the group.

If this is the case, then living well with this group of people may be a challenge for you. Maintaining your patience with the group may require divine intervention. Ask for that divine assist in the patience department.  

This is one way that corporate living can become a means of grace. When we recognize that --

• willpower alone is not strong enough to keep our attitude positive, and then
• admit our need for help with interpersonal relationships within the group, and then
• seek that help from God, and then
• discern that God has answered our prayer.

then corporate living becomes a spiritual exercise that strengthens our faith. I think of this as the heavy weightlifting spiritual exercise because of the way it builds up my faith muscles.

This is a prayer for patience over small matters, which is different when the disagreement involves a faith principle. When the point of contention is a large matter, then pray for the courage to do God's will. Imagine yourself in the Garden of Gethsemane with Jesus, praying so hard that the sweat pours off of you, and plead "Not my will, but yours be done."

Corporate Living #9

Corporate Living Principle #9: "Be willing to be criticized for our own good."

I have been following the #umcgc twitter feed seeking updates on what is happening at General Conference. I have also been following Facebook links to blog posts on General Conference. I am seeking evidence of someone receiving criticism, reflecting on its content, considering its source, weighing its merits, and only then responding.  

Such a process would be an indication that this person is someone who is willing to receive correction if their behavior and actions need to be improved. It would also reveal that the criticized trusts the person who gave the critique -- Trusts that the critic has their best interest at heart; Trusts that they share with the critic shares a common set of goals and values; Trusts that the critic will hold them to those shared goals and values.

In short, I am looking for a gracious response to constructive criticism that can serve as an example of Corporate Living Principle #9. I'll let you know when I come across one.

Corporate Living #8

This one is a good test of our attitude as a member of a group:  
Corporate Living Principle #8:  If you want to live well with others, then . . . 

"Be more inclined to compliment and encourage than correct."

How about it --  

• What is your inclination when you get with this group of people?  

• Think back over your recent interactions with members of the group. Did you spend more time complimenting or criticizing?  

• When was the last time you complimented someone in the group?  When was the last time someone compliment you?

• What was the compliment about? Someone's outward appearance or their inward resemblance to Kingdom of God values?

To be healthy, we need to have at least one group of people in our lives that nurtures our inclination to praise more than our tendency to complain. Be thankful that you've found such a group, and let the members know how much you value their positive influence.

Corporate Living #7

The seventh principle that guided the experiment in corporate living founded by Jones was: "Never criticize a member behind his or her back."  

For Jones, criticism should always be open and frank and always redemptive.  To help group members achieve this end, Jones suggested asking three questions before offering a critique --

1. Is it true? 
2. Is it necessary?
3. Is it kind?

I particularly like question two.  Wasted time nitpicking could be avoided if the group is in agreement on its priorities and keeps the debate limited to those points.

Is the criticism you would offer another an observation that the discussion has devolved into trivialities?  Maybe the fault does not lie with that person but with the group.  Debates on low priority tasks could be another indication that the group has lost its kingdom-focus. 

Recovering that sense of purpose will require admitting that the group has lost its way, asking for God's guidance, and trusting that God still has a redemptive purpose for the group.  A sense of hope for the future of the group will be a gift from God.  The means of grace are the spiritual practices that will communicate that gift to the group.

A corporate bible study on the contemporary meaning of Jesus' teachings on the Kingdom of God might be the means of grace that helps the group find agreement on the purpose of the corporate body, as well as agreement on what is necessary to achieve that purpose.  If I were planning such a bible study, I would start with the Beatitudes.

Corporate Living #6

Corporate Living Principle #6: "Look more to our duties than to our rights."

In order to live well with others as a corporate body, Jones encouraged his readers to value the privilege of being servants more than the privilege of being served. Again, Jones was writing about our membership in a Christian community that orients itself around Jesus' vision of the Kingdom of God.  

To get along with the other members of this group requires servanthood. In his writings, Jones gave personal examples of times when he surrendered the perks of being the founder of an organization. He swept the floor, ate a simple meal, or deferred to others because serving the needs of the organization was more important to him than defending his status or position.

Some implications of this principle:

• When members of General Conference are not free to prioritize servanthood because their rights are being abused, that is a sign that the corporate body has lost its kingdom-focus. This reality should lead to corporate confession, repentance, and resolution.

• "Respecting the office" is not a duty that should be required of a member of a kingdom-focused group.

• To encourage affable relations within the group, the members should clarify what their duties and responsibilities are to the group and to the Kingdom of God.

Corporate Living #5

Corporate Living Principle #5 -- "Rejoice that the strength of any is the strength of all."  

This principle is Jones' remedy for the jealousies that can sometimes arise as members of the group compare their contributions to the group to that of others. If a person feels envious of another's accomplishments or talents, Jones suggested concentrating on this reminder -- "You are striving to get a corporate job done."

Someone with this attitude would have to agree that getting the corporate task done well is the priority and not personal promotion. Achieving the corporate goal might mean that some individuals' skills are more relevant to the job at hand than those that we possess.

Steps to a more positive attitude could include:

• Consider the task at hand and the skills that will be needed to complete the task.

• Take an inventory of your strong and weak points within the context of the project, and then look for ways that your weakness can be supplemented by the strength of someone else.

• Give thanks that someone with the necessary ability is a member of your kingdom-focused group.

• Contemplate 1 Corinthians 12:12-27, "Moreover, you (plural) are Christ's body, and part of the membership."

Corporate Living #4

Corporate Living Principle #4: "Since life is lived corporately, I should contribute to the whole."

With this point, Jones was trying to shift our focus.  Instead of identifying what the group has to offer us, how it can enhance our status, or create opportunities for our personal gain, Jones argued that Christians should focus on what actions we can take that will improve the group.

Two lines of reflection occur to me based on this principle

1.  Am I contributing to the group?
1. If yes, then what is the quality of that contribution?
1. Does it reflect the Kingdom of God?
2. Does it reflect the best of my abilities?
2. If no, then why am I holding back?
1. Do I feel inadequate?
2. Am I waiting to be asked to participate?
2.  What are the needs of the group?
1. What do I love about this corporate body?  How can I strengthen that attribute?
2. Where does it lack a kingdom focus?  How can I redirect the body so that the Kingdom of God is its priority in all areas of activity.

Today, I am particularly mindful of the call to divest the UMC pension fund from fossil fuel companies.  Our pensions are one example of a contribution made to the corporate body.  General Conference has the responsibility to direct the investment strategy of the pension board.  That duty includes instructing the board on the values that pension investments should reflect and uphold.  I hope the delegates will send a clear message to the pension board that stewardship of God's creation is a value that should guide our investment strategy.  Earth care is a value that reflects a Kingdom of God priority, and this commitment requires us to stop benefiting from investments in fossil fuels.

Corporate Living #3

The third corporate living principle according to Jones is "Fix your loyalty to the Kingdom of God."  In other words, the group that deserves your greatest support is the group of people that is helping you transform into a person who embodies the values and priorities of Christ.  All lesser loyalties must give way to your loyalty to this kingdom-focused group.

This principle raises some questions for self-reflection.

• Are we a member of a kingdom-focused group?
• What does it mean to be loyal to the Kingdom of God?
• What are the values and priorities of Christ?
• What does a life look like when it reflects those values and priorities?

The answers to such a line of questioning can lead to different responses.

• Some will admit that no, they are not a part of such a group, and either
• wish they were, or
• realize that they do not want to be involved with such a group
• Some will feel grateful that they have the support of such a group, and either
• ask for the grace to persevere in their commitment to the group, or
• ask for the grace to strengthen a wavering loyalty to the group

In terms of living as the corporate body of General Conference, this principle can serve as a reference point as plans for the future are made.  Delegates can debate whether or not the plan under consideration is one that makes the Kingdom of God a priority and that encourages others to fix their loyalty to the Kingdom.  I imagine delegates will have differences of opinion regarding what it means to be loyal to the vision of human existence that Christ taught us.  Discovering points of consensus around this subject would be worth the effort if that consensus could help General Conference work more efficiently.

The Principles of Corporate Living: Right the Injustice

Gather Us In

Our opening hymn for worship this morning was "Gather Us In."  For those of you unfamiliar with this hymn, I found a video of someone playing a version of the tune.  Below are the lyrics to the hymn and alongside that are my reflections and reactions as we sang.

The UMC as sinking ship

the bi-vocational future for clergy

The Desire of Ease

Some reflections on another one of the temptations that Wesley urged the Methodists to resist.