Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Dusty Sandals

This post is a special edition of Rocky Road Devotions, as a response to the recent news of the proposed “Protocol” suggested by a group of leaders in the United Methodist Church, as to how the church might be split-up, so as to put an end to the UMC’s struggles concerning human sexuality.  I sense a need to express thoughts that have been brewing for some time over this intractable stew and the attitudes and actions of those at polar odds in the making.


[1] 
Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Wherever you go, stay in the same house until you leave town.  And if a town refuses to welcome you, shake its dust from your feet as you leave to show that you have abandoned those people to their fate.”  Luke 9:4-5

For the Lord gave us this command when he said, ‘I have made you a light to the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the farthest corners of the earth.’”  When the Gentiles heard this, they were very glad and thanked the Lord for his message; and all who were chosen for eternal life became believers.  So the Lord’s message spread throughout that region.  Then the Jews stirred up the influential religious women and the leaders of the city, and they incited a mob against Paul and Barnabas and ran them out of town.  So they shook the dust from their feet as a sign of rejection and went to the town of Iconium.  And the believers were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.  Acts 13:47-51

Those first-century Christian radicals tended to live like Jesus taught them to live.  When sending his disciples out to spread the Good News Jesus told them to go to the surrounding cities, find a hospitable family with which to stay, and get busy telling the story.  But if the message was rejected, they were to shake that town’s dust off their sandals and move on.  The dust hanging in the air was a warning that rejecting the Gospel meant rejecting God’s loving embrace.
That’s exactly what happened at Antioch as Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, came to town and preached a sermon at the local synagogue about how God’s grace had been extended to even the non-Jewish nations.  It started a riot, and got Paul and Barnabas chased from the city.  But as they left, they did what Jesus had instructed; they shook the dust off their sandals and moved on with joy. 
Twenty centuries later Christians seem to have forgotten how to do that!  That is, at least some Christians in the United Methodist Church.
It’s no secret that progressive, centrist, and traditionalist Methodists have been at each other’s necks for a half-century over whether the denomination will be an evangelical/Biblical or socio-political movement.  The focal issue of late (since about 1972) has been the acceptance of other than traditional heterosexuality as normative.  Traditionalists believe homosexuality, trans or bi-gender, and even multi/self-identifying (non)gender proponents are attempting to re-define what God has clearly stated; that is, we are created male or female…clearly.  Progressives prefer the door wide-open, and all restraints removed on human sexuality.  In short, traditionalists believe the very idea of LGBTQ[2] as normative is sin, while progressives believe the historical orthodoxy of heterosexuality is open for individual interpretation without prejudice.  This is the immovable object of heterodoxy meeting with the irresistible force of cultural rebellion.
True Wesleyan practice holds what its founder held, a quite high view of Scripture, that our loyalty to Christ is lived-out with adherence to God’s Word, not trying to change God’s Word to fit the image of progressive cultural trends.
Progressive thought tries to scramble for the higher moral ground, proclaiming the love of Jesus as their marching banner; albeit a love which ignores the righteousness of the Christ, the One who will one day judge every action.  That is certainly a fly in the ointment of progressive thought.  To hold that one is following Jesus, when one is unquestionably following self-desires and cultural popularity, is a de facto denial of what Christ said plainly:

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.  Matthew 16:24

Progressives have little desire to be crucified daily, when one can be puffed-up daily with a platitude that elevates humanism’s I must be true to ME over Christianity’s I must be faithful to God.
In case you haven’t yet detected where my deeply-held conviction lies, let me come out front with the substance of my argument here:  I am shaking the dust off my sandals, abandoning progressivism (as if there was any embrace of it in the first place!), and moving on down the road with Paul and Barnabas in joy.
With that declaration I wish to hold up an admonition to my sisters and brothers in Christ who hold the opposing view.  If you claim to be followers of Christ, do like the first century Christians did – follow Him…not your disobedient bishops. 
According to The Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace through Separation the “separation” will be when the Traditionalists leave the United Methodist Church to form other denomination(s).  This is as odd as it gets. 
For a moment, pretend I support the Progressivist position.  And we go back in time to – well, pick a time in history when homosexuality was considered a normative alternative as opposed to heterosexuality – Oh…pardon me; you can’t find one?  Perhaps that’s because there isn’t a time frame such as that, even if you go all the way back to the Garden of Eden.  And since that is so, it is hard to imagine John Wesley presiding over a conference to wish the traditionalists Godspeed while he and his progressivist bishops actually do the Lord’s work. 
Considering Jesus’ instruction to not get embroiled in the disbelief of others, but to leave and continue your own work (working out your own salvation with fear and trembling), how is it that Traditionalists are blamed for ruining the United Methodist Church by imposing bigotry and homophobia on the United Methodist Church, which was founded upon, governed by, and operating within traditional orthodoxy according to Scriptural parameters?  Traditionalists (as I understand the term) wish nothing more than to continue within those parameters
My question then, for my dear friends in Christ who hold progressive convictions, presumably for the purpose of honoring and following Christ, is:
Shouldn’t you be shaking the traditionalist town dust off your sandals, instead of taking over and inhabiting what you didn’t build, and only acquiescing to separation if the traditionalists leave town…how is THAT denying self?
The sin in this takeover is it finds zero precedent in Scripture.  Perhaps the Scriptural precedent is being seen in the Traditionalists willingness to leave the home ground (as Abraham did when God called) and begin a new work, unencumbered by petty grabs for money, notoriety and power.  You can grab the house if you want to, but what will you have when it collapses around you (as it has done in the case of every other mainline denomination to embrace progressivism)?
It’s difficult for me to fathom why progressives want anything to do with Traditionalists, seen as stodgy and obtuse…weak-visioned orthodox troglodytes, prejudicially abusing the gender rights of liberated souls.  That does not seem smart or right, as this impasse has demonstrated.  Progressivism won’t hold anything together, but only does what it always does, fight against something.  Progressive doctrine is to dismantle every doctrine, to drive whatever wedges of separation exist deeper between whomever resists.  And the unfolding ultimate consequences, in this case, will be tallied in souls.
Here is how Jesus described such takeover attempts to co-opt tired, rigid, outdated and unsuitable mechanisms to do new things:

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins.  For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins.  New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.”  Matthew 9:17

For You Today
Remember the monsters of Nazi Germany, or Russian Czars, or Mafia, or any other group trying to push another out?  If you adopt the monster’s methods, you then become the new monster! 
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
[2] An acronym for Lesbian Gay Bi-sexual Trans-gender Queer

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