A United Methodist Church
news article yesterday[2]
announced that for the past 40 years the denomination has kept one tradition
unbroken; namely we have fewer members this year than last. For the whole span of the existence of this
denomination, each year we have become a little older, smaller and closer to
the brink of extinction…every single year!
But…according to the report there
is good
news – we are more diverse now than before. If I read that correctly, it’s good
news that we’ve learned to play together, red and yellow, black and
white, but as a group we are dying.
Uh….how is that good
news?
It seems that finding we are
a little more diverse so we are a little more like the racial and ethnic mix
of our culture, and celebrating it as a win, while the total number
of disciples is evaporating before our eyes, is a little like the last gasp of
the Titanic.
In Titanic (the movie), the
ship is breaking apart and the string ensemble gathers on the deck playing Nearer
My God to Thee while people are leaping into the freezing waters to
die. When we publish the new hymnal we ought
to include #666 “Nearer My Diversity Celebration Dance to Oblivion – Clap Your
Dead Hands, Trees of the Field”!
Perhaps we have forgotten
that there is little in Scripture that instructs us to monitor the diversity of
our group.
In fact, I seem to recall
Scripture explicitly tells us to ignore our diversity altogether:
There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free,
male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28(NLT)
What Jesus actually instructed
the first disciples to do was look outward from their
little group – not inward, and be about the business of carrying genuine
Good News to whomever they encountered. And by instructing them, he was giving us our
marching orders as well; those orders are commonly called, The Great Commission:
Jesus came
and told his disciples, “I have
been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the
commands I have given you. And be sure
of this: I am with you always, even to
the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20(NLT)
Wrangling in General
Conference, Annual Conference, Districts or Facebook, about diversity of race,
ethnicity, gender-issues or sexuality may be interesting and call for a
thousand-and-one committees and splinter caucuses…but it hardly keeps pace with
a forty year loss of 6 million members, while the U.S. population has increased
by 123 million.
I’d say we’ve been straightening
the pictures on the living room wall while the house is burning down around us.
That’s not following Jesus;
it’s not making disciples…and it’s not even in the same universe with
transforming the world.
What it IS….is irrelevance
of the highest degree…and if we don’t change, it will simply be reduced to a
three letter word: sin.
For You Today
When you encounter someone
who wants to argue about diversity, remember what Will Rogers said about
wrestling with a pig – don’t do it; you’ll both get dirty…and the
pig loves it!
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