The Legacy We Leave Behind

After a week of meetings in Grand Junction, Robin and I travelled to southwest Colorado. Our route took us through Moab where we took in some of the amazing scenery. At one spot, we saw a bunch of petroglyphs etched on a single big rock: there was bighorn sheep, feet, centipedes, a birthing scene, horse and rider and birds. The variety of images were etched at different dates: anywhere from 1 AD to 1880!

What is it about we humans that cause us to want to leave our mark somewhere? Petroglyphs, graffiti, a stone fence, children, a building, a piece of art or book—the drive to leave something that will live long after we are gone is strong. 

Our life is but a small speck in the great expanse of time that humans have existed. 

James 4:14 reminds us of that fact: “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”

What is the legacy you will leave once your brief time on earth is done? Will you be remembered by the material things you left behind, or by the lives you touched and changed? We all live in social circles: families, neighborhoods, work teams, church groups. What mark are you leaving? Do you love others in ways that help them live into their best selves? Do you work to break down the divisions between people? Are you working side by side with others so justice can be realized for those without it? Are you offering tenderness and compassion in places where harshness and apathy seem to have the upper hand?

Perhaps you will never leave behind an etching on a rock that someone will gaze upon hundreds of years later. But may the seed of love you plant in someone’s heart bear fruit for generations. 

From Death To Life

It has been two weeks since the vote at General Conference. I watched in the days after as churches and pastors in the Mountain Sky Conference received flowers and casseroles from mainline denominational neighbors. A friend from San Francisco sent Robin and me flowers. A neighbor came to the door (we had only met once) with a plate of cookies. She could not control her sobbing as she passed them to us.

This seemed so familiar, but how? Then it hit me:

This is what we do for each other when there is a death.

Grief hung heavy over The United Methodist connection following General Conference. I had the privilege of serving communion at St. Andrew United Methodist Church the Sunday after GC. The entire youth choir lined up to take communion with me. Some had tears in their eyes. Others were sobbing. Many fell into my arms, yearning for comfort.

What, exactly, died on February 26, 2019?

While the headlines read that the UMC has doubled-down on its anti-LGBTQ stance, the harm of the vote extended far beyond LGBTQ United Methodists to include their families, their friends, their mentors, and so many others. It has cracked the connection not only between conferences, but also our United Methodist-related institutions, who now wonder how they can remain a part of a denomination that has firmly institutionalized discrimination. But even more, it has caused The United Methodist Church to reject essentials that make United Methodists methodists:

OUR THEOLOGICAL TASK: The Book of Discipline reminds us that the theological task of United Methodism is critical and constructive, contextual and incarnational, and essentially practical. It includes “the testing, renewal, elaboration, and application of our doctrinal perspective in carrying out our calling ‘to spread scriptural holiness over these lands.’” But by a slim majority, the ability for United Methodists to engage the theological task across our various cultural contexts was restricted and thereby our ability to spread scriptural holiness has been hampered.

THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION: Wesley drew from his Anglican tradition a method for theological reflection (Scripture, Tradition, Reason), but added a fourth, Experience. While we first turn to scripture for a foundation for theology, it is held in conversation with the other three. However, at General Conference, this methodology (which has enabled us to live with the wide spectrum of theological perspectives and honor each as faithful) has been rejected to a biblical literalism that is far from our Wesleyan roots.

GRACE: Perhaps what has distinguished us from other religious traditions has been the Wesleyan focus on grace: prevenient grace, justifying grace, and sanctifying grace. As I used to tell my United Methodist Doctrine students, we really are about grace, grace, and more grace. This grace has enabled us to experience the wideness of God’s love, which leads us deeper down the path of holiness. This grace has been reflected in how we conduct ourselves in community, in particular when we disagree or have experienced brokenness: how can grace help us build up not only our individual relationships, but mend the places broken by sin? However, GC 2019 replaced grace with rigid rules and punitive punishments. Instead of seeking restorative justice grounded in an understanding of God’s grace, GC 2019 has banished the centrality of grace from the way we order our common life together.

This is why the decision at General Conference is creating such backlash and dissent—it is no longer a Progressive-Traditionalist disagreement about the role of LGBTQ people in the life and ministry of the church. It is a struggle for the very ethos of Methodism itself that crosses the theological spectrum found in our church.

This is the season of Lent. How appropriate that we take this journey with Jesus at this time. In Lent, we confront the reality of mortality and death. Yet, we also know that death is never our end. God will roll away the stone. New life will be offered. Resurrection is within reach.

I am not sure what will spring forth from this death, but I know that God is not through with us yet. May we be open to what God has in store for us, for “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5)

Entering Lent

Due to last week’s weather, Sunday will be the first time some of our Mountain Sky Conference churches have gathered since General Conference. Enter the sanctuary with hearts full of tenderness for one another. There has been a wounding of the Body that has impacted all of us. Come together with all your emotions and bring it to God in prayer. 

Psalm 91 reminds us: “If you’ll hold on to me for dear life,” says God,

    “I’ll get you out of any trouble.

I’ll give you the best of care

    if you’ll only get to know and trust me.

Call me and I’ll answer, be at your side in bad times;

    I’ll rescue you, then throw you a party.

I’ll give you a long life,

    give you a long drink of salvation!” (Psalm 91: 14-16-The Message)

I give thanks that we have entered the season of Lent. It is a rich spiritual journey from brokenness and death to healing and new life.  May we fast, study, pray, serve, and listen for God’s still small voice. Even though we might feel bound in a tomb of death, may we trust that the God who raised Jesus from the dead will offer us and our church the same. 

Since General Conference I have found myself drawn to the hymns of Charles Wesley. I offer this as a prayer for these days we are living:

Jesus, Lord, we look to thee;

let us in thy name agree;

show thyself the Prince of Peace,

bid our strife forever cease.

By thy reconciling love

every stumbling block remove;

each to each unite, endear;

come, and spread thy banner here.

Make us of one heart and mind,

gentle, courteous, and kind,

lowly, meek, in thought and word,

altogether like our Lord.

Let us for each other care,

each the other's burdens bear;

to thy church the pattern give,

show how true believers live.

Free from anger and from pride,

let us thus in God abide;

all the depths of love express,

all the heights of holiness. (Charles Wesley)

With love,

Bishop Karen 

Clothe Yourselves in Love

Praying for the clergy and laity of the Mountain Sky Conference as we prepare ourselves for perhaps one of the hardest worship services most of us will ever participate in.

Colossians 3:13-14 reminds us: “Bear with each other, and forgive each other. If someone does wrong to you, forgive that person because the Lord forgave you. Even more than all this, clothe yourself in love. Love is what holds you all together in perfect unity.”

Many hurtful things were said this week, not only at General Conference but throughout our connection, as the church wrestled with whether all persons have a role in the life and ministry of the church, including LGBTQ people. The vote tally continued to reveal what we all know to be true: we are not of one mind when it comes to our understanding of homosexuality. By affirming the TP plan, shock waves of trauma and harm have been felt throughout our church.

Coming together tomorrow will be hard. Across our area, there are many differing emotions: for some it is relief, as GC affirmed their personal understandings. For others, there is weeping and grief, as the church made it plan that they and the people they love are not welcomed and valued in the church.

What are we to do?

Care for one another. Let love be your guide as you hold tenderly those who are hurting. There has been a fracture in the Body of Christ and it (we) are in need of healing. Offer a healing service. Share a reaffirmation of baptism that reminds us of God’s love for each one. Do what we United Methodists are known for: have a hymn sing. Our hymns reflect what we believe to be true about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Grace, Sin, Redemption, and the Community of Faith. Let’s remind ourselves of who we are as United Methodists. Follow that up with what we Ums do even better: have a potluck.

Do what you know how to do best, and what GC was unable to affirm: within our pews throughout the Mountain Sky Conference are a theological mix of people who don’t always agree with each other. Yet, the bonds of love, grounded in scripture, overcome local church divisions and keep us united in mission. Pass the peace to one another. Again. And again. And again.

Someone asked me on Friday at a gathering in our conference if I wanted a Progressive Methodist Church to emerge. I said a very loud and emphatic “NO!” I was raised in this denomination, it taught me that God’s grace is wide and generous. It taught me how to engage scripture through the lens of tradition, experience, and reason and that this blesses us with a variety of understandings that enrich our common life and shared ministries. My life has been blessed by those who don’t think like me: traditionalists have taught me about disciplined discipleship, conservatives remind me of the importance of church tradition, progressives keep pushing me to look to the margins of each community and start ministry from there, centrists teach me how to hold the tensions of our differences and still find unity.

To narrow down who is in and who is out of the United Methodist Church by imposing a “theological correctness” veers us away from our Wesleyan heritage. I value the breadth of theological understandings found in our conference, and I will continue as your bishop to do what I have done since I began to serve here: to support all our churches, pastors, and laity—no matter where they are on the theological spectrum—so that our churches can be well-equipped to be vital faith communities that offer the life-saving and life-transforming message of the Gospel in tangible ways throughout the neighborhoods and areas where they are located.

The evangelical witness of our denomination was damaged this week. Tomorrow, may we clothe one another in love and let our lights shine bright throughout our conference so hurting and hungry people will find healing, hope and sustenance.

With love,

Bishop Karen