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

When Love Grows Cold

The lectionary readings for September 28 include a familiar text: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, where Paul reminds us that the body of Christ is inherently, necessarily diverse. With uncompromising language, Paul emphasizes that Christian unity is not based on uniformity, but in fact is healthy because differences are recognized as necessary for a community’s wholeness. No one can be excluded from the Body. In fact, those who may have more power, prestige or privilege need to note that in God’s realm, the focus radically shifts:

“But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.” (1 Corinthians 12: 24-26)

I think this scripture ought to be read and meditated on by every delegate to General Conference. Actually, it should be read by every United Methodist as we approach the special General Conference.

There are voices who are seeking to limit who is in and who is out of the Body of Christ. There are some who would rather leave the denomination if we follow the lead of all mainline denominations in the United States and include lgbtq persons in the life and ministry of the church. John Wesley had stern words for those seeking to break relationship (and thereby the body of Christ) with others: 

“It is evil in itself. To separate ourselves from a body of living Christian, with whom we were before united, is a grievous breach of the law of love. It is the nature of love to unite us together; and the greater the love, the stricter the union. And while this continues in its strength, nothing can divide those whom love has united. It is only when our love grows cold, that we can think of separating from our brethren. And this is certainly the case with any who willingly separate from their Christian brethren.” John Wesley On Schism

Has our love grown cold, church?

In a world that is torn by divisions of race, class, ethnicity, political persuasions, sexual orientations, gender identities, and more, the Church of Jesus Christ ought to provide a vital and living witness that diversity need not divide but can and should be celebrated. We ought to bring hope in these fractured times, as we reach across our differences in love.

I am praying for not only for our denomination, but every local church where there is brokenness. May the fire of the Holy Spirit burn in our churches, lighting the flame of Love in each of us. May it open our eyes and hearts to recognize the image of God in others, even in those we disagree with. We each are created as a beautiful and blessed child of God. Where there is tension because of differences, may we lean more fully in love toward one another.

May we be surprised by what God does through Love.

What Will Your, What Will Our, Legacy Be?

This month I’ve been spending a lot of time with our United Methodist history. I visited the United Methodist Archives one afternoon at the beginning of the month. Everywhere you looked, there were pictures, artifacts, and papers about who we’ve been. Tomorrow, I am preaching at John St. UMC in NYC, which is the oldest United Methodist congregation in the United States, begun in 1766, thanks to Barbara Heck, an immigrant who noticed that her fellow Methodist immigrants were

growing laxed in their spiritual disciplines. Upon coming into a room where some were playing cards, she seized the cards, threw them in the fire, and told one of them he better start preaching! The meetings commenced and Heck designed a simple chapel for them to meet in.

Besides the sanctuary, John St. has a small museum of Methodist memorabilia. They will be bringing into the sanctuary a chair used by the first bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Francis Asbury, for me to sit in. All of this makes me, being such a Metho-Geek, simply swoon!

But I’ve been thinking a lot about our local churches. Each one carries a rich history. Not just baptism and funeral records, but stories of turning points in the life of the congregation, when discipleship helped everyone grow more faithfully as followers of Jesus. There are also difficult stories, when disagreements and tensions caused the cord of fellowship to not just fray but break.

What stories does your community tell? What objects help communicate the power of the story?

Our churches, however, are not merely museums of the past. It is important to know the past, so that we can understand how we are impacted by it and learn from its lessons. But churches are a living, breathing organism known as the Body of Christ. You are making history together, one that will be told by generations to come. Will they speak of a group that was willing to take risks of faith, sharing the Gospel’s Good News to those who have never heard it before? Will they hear of a wide and generous hospitality, that spilled out into the surrounding neighborhood? Will there be some who, when they were children, will speak lovingly of a nurturing community that put its resources into the generations that were still in grade school and high school, because they knew that a healthy future for the church was dependent on how they cared for the children of their day?

And as we ponder our denomination, what will we leave behind for archivists to sift through? Will there be testimonies of individuals and churches that boldly dreamed of a church that dared to live out the Gospel mandate to love God and neighbor so deeply that divisions melted away, releasing God’s love in tangible, transforming ways throughout the world? Will future scholars note how the Holy Spirit descended upon the denomination, and hearts were on fire as never before to share the Good News of Jesus Christ so that a broken world was made whole because the people called Methodist made this Good News visible? Will they speak of a time of tension in the life of the church over human sexuality that was overcome because people dared to see in one another the image of God, and chose love over division?

What will we leave behind? Each of us has a role to play in the future direction of our church, and the unfolding of Beloved Community. What is God asking of you?