The Spiky World and The Great Plains-- reflections on the Joint Clergy Session

The Spiky World
It is a Spiky World.  The spikes are made more obvious by the Great Plains that separate them.  A Spike grows where wealth, innovation, and political power coalesce. People who are unwilling or unable to relocate to one of the world's Spikes will increasingly find themselves living in a Great Plains of limited government services.  

In the plenary sessions, Diana Butler Bass described church life in the Spike of Washington DC—tolerant, pluralistic, and inclusive.  In our small group we described church life on the Great Plains—sorrowful, stressed-out, and abandoned.

The Great Plains
The compassion evident in the members of my small group as they spoke about the collective grief experience of Nebraskans and Kansans living in small towns is my strongest takeaway from our discussions.
School and Post Office closings, business failures, property devaluations . . . such occurrences weigh down the spirits of folks on both sides of the State line.

A commitment to minister to these failing towns was expressed by everyone around the table.  A common realization that church must take a different form was also acknowledged.  The deployment of pastors to these depopulated spaces on the Great Plains will look more like the sending of missionaries whose ministry is subsidized by other churches.


Preferred Futures
Great Churches, Great Leaders, Great Disciples-- some in the Spiky World, some on the Great Plains.  We will need an organizational plan for the new conference that keeps churches in the Spikes connected to churches on the Great Plains.  Economic realities will require a sharing of resources; the wealth and political power of the Spikes serving the needs of the Great Plains without requiring those churches to adopt spiky innovations that do not fit their ministry.

The Church can not create a Transformed World of equal opportunity, however they can advocate for government policies that address everyone's needs and respect everyone's rights while the free market system produces higher Spikes and broader Plains.

Sabbath Rest

Chapter 13 of The Story is about Solomon’s rise and fall.  In my sermon I contrasted the temple-builder with the 12-year-old Jesus visiting the temple.  A phrase from Hymn 358 influenced the final theme of the sermon, Sabbath Rest.  I tried to express what the term means to me—“relationship with God,” “spiritual life,” “an interior life,” “A regular practice of time spent alone in the presence of the true God,” “to rest their souls in the Lord of the Sabbath,” “a new inward relationship with God and it’s changing his outward behavior,” “to feel connected to that which is sacred,” “reach out to the Holy.”

Wesley used phrases such as “spiritual respiration” and “the life of God in the soul of man” (from the book of that title by Henry Scougal).  What term(s) do you use?  Do your conversation partners always understand what you are talking about or do you sometimes get blank expressions?

Receiving a pastor in the name of a pastor

According to The New Interpreter’s Bible, the phrase εἰς ὄνομα προφήτου found in Matthew 10:41 is a Semitic expression that means “because one is a prophet.”  Wesley’s Notes gives a similar definition— “That is, because he is such.”

Hence the NIV translates Matthew 10:41—“Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward.”

The definition of εἰς ὄνομα προφήτου from Joseph Henry Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament is more expansive and thought-provoking-- “By a usage chiefly Hebraistic the name is used for everything which the name covers, everything the thought or feeling of which is roused in the mind by mentioning, hearing, remembering, the name, i. e. for one's rank, authority, interests, pleasure, command, excellences, deeds, etc.; thus, εἰς ὄνομα προφήτου, out of regard for . . . . the name of prophet which he bears, equivalent to because he is a prophet” (Biblos.com).

What, I wonder, is roused in the mind by the name “pastor”?  When a congregation receives you in the name of a pastor what do you hope is being raised in their minds?  What would you like them to receive with open arms and enthusiasm?  What pastoral reward will the hospitable congregation also receive?  What would you add to Thayer’s list?

rank—ordained elder

authority—to serve the mission of the Church and lead members to do the same

interests—Wesleyan spirituality

pleasure—Koine Greek

command—planning worship, preaching and writing

excellences—finishing what I start

deeds—a book and an app

etc.—ongoing research on Greek testament and today’s means of grace especially advocacy as a work of mercy and pastoral leadership as a prudential means

The least of these-- who are they?

The New Interpreter’s Bible offers a balanced summary of the scholarly disagreement regarding the identity of “the least of these brothers of mine” in Matthew 25: 31-46.  Are the least one “(a) the world’s needy generally or (b) specifically Christians or Christian missionaries”?

The NIB concludes that originally Jesus was speaking about the needy in general, and that later Matthew focused this universal theme to a single point— “the reception of Christian missionaries.”  In order words, both interpretations can be supported.

Reading the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick, and imprisoned as itinerant evangelists was an unfamiliar perspective, but the reading rang true as I considered the entire parable with this interpretation in mind.  The deprivations faced by the parable’s least ones were potential hazards risked by Jesus’ preachers.  Doing for (or neglecting) one of these brothers is doing (or not) for the Heavenly Judge.  The nations who care for one of the Gospel-bearers are welcomed into the Judge’s heavenly kingdom.  The nations who neglected the least of these are punished by the Judge.

Wesley’s Notes for Matthew 25: 40 first favors the Christian specific interpretation and then posits a universal implication—“What encouragement is here to assist the household of faith But let us likewise remember to do good to all men.” 

As United Methodists, we should teach the dual-identity of the least of these rather than favoring one interpretation over the other.