Unity On the Cheap Side

I believe we have cheapened Christian Unity in the United Methodist Church by departmentalizing it and defining it by petty causes, crusades and the words of men. We have taken Christ out of the center and replaced it with literally God knows what. Just take a look at what we spend time talking about as a denomination and you will se what we think unites us. If you sat on the conference floor(at least in East Ohio) for an day and watch and listen to the arguments and resolutions and took good notes, I think at the end of the day when you asked yourself, "What does any of this have to do with Jesus and loving Him with all my heart, soul, and strength in real life?", the answer would be, "Very little."

We are so worried about our words instead of THE WORD! We spend so much time worrying about what phrases are in our rules and by-laws. It seems so pharisaic to me. It's like we are so worried about what we think we forgot to stop and look for what God really thinks about things! I just don't see us taking time to submit ourselves to Christ for direction because we are so worried about getting our own two cents down on paper for resolutions and the discipline. Just take a look at how thick our discipline is! I really believe many of us know our discipline better then we know our Bible and I hear far more about the discipline when we are together than I do about Jesus. Sometimes I think we believe Roberts Rules of Order came from the Bible...like we made up a new book.."The Book of Roberts." I have looked and it isn't in there.

There are consequences for replacing Christ with other things. I have thought long and hard about it and I would like to throw out what I believe are a few of the things that are consequences for not putting Christ first. Number one has to be distrust. Our pastors (myself included), have a hard time trusting each other because we do not know if the other people we are supposed to be working with really have the same goals we do. In fact, we know they don't so we don't trust them. Jesus said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." (Mk 3:24 NIV) WE are divided by all of our agendas that may or may not really be about Jesus. If we really believed that the leadership of our church was most concerned about glorifying Christ and him crucified it would be the start of a revolution. But that is not what we see.

What we see are many of our key leaders moving away from Jesus as the center. A good example of this is Bishop Sprague. This Bishop of the United Methodist Church has gone to great lengths to spell out his basic beliefs in his book called, "Affirmations of a Dissenter." In print, he has clearly stated he does not believe in the orthodox substitutionary view of atonement. (pg.44) For those who may not know what substitutionary atonement is, it is the belief that the blood shed by Christ on the cross is able to justify us to our sins or pay for our sins. Bishop Sprague makes it clear that he does not believe the blood of Christ shed on the cross pays for our sins. He is clear he doesn't believe sins need to be atoned for. This can only be a stake in the heart of Christianity!

How can people who trust Jesus for their salvation follow such a person? Simply put, Christians believe these things and when the leaders of our denomination teach stuff like this how can we trust them? This is especially true when the other Bishops of our denomination are noticeably silent about it! By not dealing with it they affirm it, and the people in the pews see this and so do the pastors. It makes us question the trustworthiness of the people we follow who are supposedly safeguarding the theological integrity of our denomination. The foxes are guarding the hen house.

The IDEA of Christ is different than Christ himself. I have heard so much rhetoric surrounding the idea or spirit of Christ. What about Christ the man who was also a God? What about the man who was physically and brutally nailed to a cross and whose blood is able to wash our sins away. Whose blood can justify us to the sins that have held us in bondage and were destroying us.

Our world does not need the "spirit" or the "idea" of Christ...they need the resurrected Lord who bestows on his church the power of the Holy Spirit. They need a savior who is able to transform, guide, and deliver on his promises. And the church needs that savior too! United Methodists desperately need to know that the leaders of our denomination care about this risen savior. They don't need to know about Jesus as a sort of model boyscout. They need the incarnate Christ who spoke mercy to repentant sinners and condemnation to unrepentant religious people. United Methodists need to offer the world more than just an idea...we need to offer them Jesus.

I think that is part of what has been so frustrating at Annual Conference...it just seems like we are focusing on the nice idea of Christ, not Christ himself. If we were serious about a risen Christ I think we would take worship a whole lot more seriously! I think we would take ourselves much less seriously. We need to reclaim the incarnate Christ in United Methodism.

Does Diversity Really Bring United Methodists Together?

When I was a student at United Seminary, I couldn't help but notice they had a statement that was supposed to define them and it said, " Unity through Diversity," It's funny how that statement has stayed with me over the years. At the time it seemed like a very strange thing to say and after years of pondering the meaning of it, it not only seems strange but ridiculous! In my opinion, unity does not come from diversity but despite the fact that we are diverse. Just look at Genesis and the tower of Babel. The people were working together and God realized if they all had the same language and goals they would accomplish much (Genesis 11:5-9) so he decided to give them diverse languages so they would not work together. Somehow in United Methodism we seem to have in some weird and almost indefineable way bought into the strange philosophy that being different makes us the same. Like somehow if we just celebrage being different it will bring us together! To me this is crazy. It would be like saying that school rivalries bring students together, or trying to say that the differences in culture between the European and Native American cultures brought them closer together, the differences between men and women make marriage easier. As I see it, this is obviously not factual. Just look at history and we can see diversity brings distance and seperates people instead of bringing them together. United Methodists have tried to use cheap slogans and the methods and tools of the world to bring us together..."Open Minds, Open Doors, Open Hearts." These cheap and cheezy slogans only emphasize my point...we count on the words and power of men to do what only God can do.

That is not to say that we cannot celebrate diversity! I think we should, but we cannot try to lift it up as the thing that brings us together because it isn't and to say so is simply misleading. What brings us together is a common bond. There is an old phrase that says, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." History bears this out and so does life. Only a common bond can bridge the huge gaps that divide our culture, our families, our friends, loved ones, races, nations, and even churches. Only a common bond could bring these diverse and unique things together for the common good because otherwise human nature will naturally try to seperate groups and organizations.

Paul understood this when he wrote, " You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:26-28NIV) I personally don't believe Paul got into this thing for the purpose of bringing equality to the Greeks, slaves, or women. I think he got into it because he had a real, legitimate encounter with Christ and it changed his life. Because he knew Jesus, he saw everyone as someone in Christ. Take Christ out of it and it all falls apart and Paul understood that. He understood the truth of the matter, it is Christ that unifies us and levels the playing field of race, sex, culture, class, and every other diversity we have. It is ONLY Christ that could do that.

Has anything changed since then? I would say no, nothing has changed since then despite the theologians who have tried to remove a crucified Christ from the church, despite attempts on our part to seperate out social issues from the Christ, despite bureaucracy, the discipline, and everything we do. The crucified Christ is still the reason we come together all during the week to serve and folks if it isn't; we are building on sinking sand.

What Really Unites Us?

I would like to suggest that it is not our discipline that unites us as much as it is our faith that unites us. So much of United Methodism is focused around the words of men...what we think...what we print...what we want. Has anyone really stopped to ponder what God wants? I think the first step for United Methodists to change is a sincere and heartfelt repentance to begin. We must stop worrying about pleasing each other or the world and start telling God we are sorry for not really caring what he wants or needs. We need a heartfelt time of confession and repentance for putting our agendas and our words above His Word.