Tuesday, February 26, 2019
But in the following instructions, I cannot praise you. For it sounds as if more harm than good is
done when you meet together. First,
I hear that there are divisions among you when you meet as a church, and to
some extent I believe it. But,
of course, there must be divisions among you so that you who have God’s
approval will be recognized! When you meet together, you are
not really interested in the Lord’s Supper. For some of you hurry to eat your own meal without
sharing with others. As a result, some
go hungry while others get drunk. What?
Don’t you have your own homes for eating
and drinking? Or do you really want to
disgrace God’s church and shame the poor? What am I supposed to say? Do you want me to praise you? Well, I certainly will not praise you for
this! 1 Corinthians 11:17-22 (NLT)
Disclaimer
For
those of you who are not United Methodist, please forgive me for airing the
laundry; this is a watershed time for the children of Wesley, and these morning
devotionals are filled with prayer for my tribe. We will likely return to a more general
approach after the final vote on Tuesday.
This title (More Harm Than Good)
is an unlikely one for a denomination that has its root in the sweeping
Methodist revival across America in the 18-19th century, which
leader, John Wesley, is quoted as saying we must:
Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.
But as my tribe meets in St. Louis
to decide if we can live together any more, I’m wondering how much damage the
fracas will total when all is said and done.
For the past 50 years (ever since
the 1968 merger of Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren to form the United
Methodist Church) this denomination has been always at the forefront in social
justice issues. The current embroilment
is human sexuality, mainly whether the long-standing doctrinal posture that …homosexuality
is incompatible with Christian teaching will stand, or if we must
change to allow full-inclusiveness for LGBTQ persons, particularly in ordination,
i.e., clergy orders.
Admittedly, I have no simple
solution, nor do I think there is anything approaching a simple solution to
the dilemma that confronts the United Methodist Church. But there are two concerns that mitigate
against a Hallmark Movie ending to this debate under any circumstances:
Unity
Anytime you have two or more
groups which hold a significantly-different opinion (i.e. doctrine) about an
issue, you have an impasse; that is to say, a brick wall. Take, for instance, a marriage where the
husband is in favor of monogamy, and the wife favors an open marriage, where
she is free to date (and sleep with) other men.
Unless one changes his/her mind, there will always be contention and
unhappiness, or that which ends the so-called unity, namely divorce. There are no other possibilities.
Conscience
In this case, the progressive side
of the (so-called) “United”
Methodist Church is asking the traditionalist side to affirm that their doctrine
of homosexuality, trans-sexuality, bi-sexuality, cis-gender, and anything-goes-uality,
regarding gender and orientation is just as valid as heterosexuality.
Regardless of millennia of
ecclesiastic thought, debate and accepted Scriptural understanding, stated,
written, and practiced, progressives want traditionalists to now change their
minds and accept/practice/live with what is heretofore deemed sexual perversion.
I have no simple answers, but this
much is not in question – how can any group ask the other group to violate
moral conscience, and still call oneself a Christian?
For You Today
Please join me in praying for my
tribe’s delegates, for clarity of the Mind of Christ, as they vote later today…lest
we do more harm than good to the Body of Christ.
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