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What Is Your Favorite Bible Verse?

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Submitted for publication

I start with the note that the following are my thoughts and my conclusions.  I will also note that I made no use of any AI technology in the creation of this manuscript. (I offered some thoughts on the use of AI technology in “The Questions We Ask AI – The Questions AI Answers”)

While I am presently working on some ideas related to science and faith topics and a need to address the future, I thought I would present something a little less serious but still of importance.

What is your favorite Bible verse?  Was it a verse you learned many years ago in Sunday School or Vacation Bible School?  Was it one that inspired you?  Perhaps it was one that comforted you?  Was it one that offered guidance when you were faced with a problem?

Now, I will be the first to admit that I am not a big fan of memorization.  I suppose this is because of the amount of chemical related information I must know.  I have memorized some of that information, but I also know how to find the information I need as well.

As you will see in the following paragraphs, many of my favorite verses come from encounters in life.

Many years ago, I was watching a football game involving the University of Tennessee Volunteers.  The Vols had lost six straight games, and the alumni and fans were not too happy.  During the game, one individual held up a placard that said, “Luke 23: 34”.  I have no idea how many people turned to their Bible that day but when they did, they read, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

I began singing in the church choir when I was a sophomore in college and this would lead me to singing in an off campus “coffee house”.  It was there I learned “Turn, Turn, Turn”. 

It was when I was teaching in Missouri and helping build a computer network, that I discovered the relationship between the song and Ecclesiastes 3: 1- 10.  It would be much later that I learned that Pete Seeger wrote the music and adapted the verses of this unique passage from the Bible.

When I first heard the group Jefferson Airplane sing “Good Shepherd”, I heard the words “O Good Shepherd, feed my sheep.” I marveled at these words and how they seemed to echo words from the Gospel of John (John 21: 1 – 19). 

In looking at the history of the piece, I discovered that the rock and roll piece that I heard evolved from a mid-20th century blues-based folk song.  And that folk song had evolved from a 19th century Gospel hymn with roots in an early 1800s hymn written by John Adam Grande, a Methodist preacher from Tennessee (Some of this was first written in “For What It’s Worth”)

The lyrics for the rock and roll songs “Along the Watchtower”, written by Bob Dylan and “Crossroads” by Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Jack Bruce (aka Cream) also have roots in Biblical phrases.

In one of Tom Clancy’s novels is a note that the motto for the Central Intelligence Agency comes from John 8: 32 – “Seek the truth and the truth shall set you free.” It is perhaps a fitting verse to know when one is involved in education.

We must be careful though when we speak of our favorite verses.  Many will quote “that money is the root of all evil.”  But the actual verse is “the love of money is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 2: 10)”.  Removing the first three words changes the meaning of that verse rather dramatically.

As I noted in “What Is in Your Heart?”, some will say that “God helps those who help themselves” is one of their favorites, not knowing that it is not found in the Bible but rather Ben Franklin’s “Poor Richard’s Almanac”.

Others will quote verses or parts of verses that justify hatred, exclusion or justification for their actions and behavior towards others.  But such verses reflect more the mindset of the speaker rather than the actual words of the Bible.

While many of the verses that I have come to consider my favorite ones have come from music and literature, there have been times when others have come to me because of time and place.

A few years ago, I traveled to the Detroit area for a job interview.  As I was driving across the plains of central Kentucky back to my home in Whitesburg, KY, I saw the Appalachian Mountains rising before me.  I was reminded of the worlds of Psalm 121: 1 – 2.

I look up to the mountains; does my strength come from the mountains?

No, my strength comes from God, who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.

Those words, with the mountains rising before me, led me to turn down the job offer in Detroit and continue with the job I had in Whitesburg.  Shortly after that I received the invitation to serve the small United Methodist Church in Neon, KY, and begin my service as a lay minister.

There are verses which bring us joy; there are verses which bring us comfort; there are verses of celebration, and there are verses that offer hope and guidance.

What are the verses that echo in your mind and heart?  What are the verses that give you joy, comfort, and wisdom?  I would invite you to spend a few moments and think about those verses, then put them down on paper and send them to the church to share in a future newsletter.

Will We Have a Future?

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This will appear in the June issue of the Fishkill UMC newsletter.

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What is your vision for the future?  Do you fear the future or look forward to what it may bring?

My great-great-grandfather John August Schuessler and his twin brother, Nicholas, came to America from Germany in 1840.  I do not have any information about why they came to America or why they moved from New Orleans, their point of entry, up the Mississippi River to St. Louis.  One can assume that they sought to escape the turmoil and war that dominated Europe at that time and seek freedom and a better life in America.

It is a story that most Americans understand.  Many, if not most, Americans have roots in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, or South America.  They all came to America because they wanted to escape the troubles of their homeland and seek the freedom and opportunities that America has always offered.

Some 13,000 years before John and Nicholas came to America, another of my ancestors (we have members of the Creek Nation in our heritage) stood with his family and friends on the west end of the land bridge connecting Asia to North America.  All they saw was a wall of ice with an opening that suggested a pathway beyond the ice.  They knew nothing about what lay beyond that imposing wall of ice and it was probably simple curiosity that drove them to see what might be at the end of the corridor.

And while we know that many individuals made the passage across the land bridge before the ice melted and the land bridge disappeared under the waters of the Bering Strait, just as many or perhaps even more turned away, preferring the life they were living over a life in an unknown country.

Today we stand on the edge of an unknown country called the future.  It is a land clouded in the mists of uncertainty and the unknown.  We cannot see what might lie on the other side.

There are some today who feel that the future will bring Armageddon and the destruction of the world.  They do not fear the future because they have “been saved” and will be lifted to Heaven before the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (conquest, war, famine, and death) reek havoc upon those who are left behind.

But conquest, war, famine, and death are part of the human condition, and we have the capability to prevent them.  (We may not be able to prevent death, but we can work to improve the health of people, and we can seek research to find the cures for many diseases.)

To say otherwise is to say that you have no desire for the future and are, perhaps, only interested in your self-preservation.

There are those today who fear the future because the future brings change.  They have no vision for the future, and as the writer of Proverbs wrote, “those without vision will perish.”  The Message offers “if the people cannot see what God is doing, they stumble over themselves.” (1)

Heraclitus wrote, “No man ever steps into the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he is not the same man.”  Those who fear the change the future brings feel they can stop the flow of the river.  But when you build a dam to stop the flow of the river, you must spend all your time and resources keeping the dam intact so that it will not break and flood the present, destroying all one tried to save. 

Our journey into the future requires that we have a set of skills that allow us to adapt to the changes that come with the future and faith that will carry us through.  My great-great-grandfather came to America with a set of skills that would allow him to create a new life in America and a strong faith in God (as evident by the number of Lutheran ministers among his descendants).

In 1962, Robert Kennedy said,

The future is not a gift: it is an achievement. Every generation helps make its own future. This is the essential challenge of the present. (2)

Albert Einstein once remarked,

“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking.  It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” (3)

We cannot create a vision for the future when people try to take away the tools that will allow us to feed the people, find cures for the diseases that threaten the health of the people of the world(all the people and not just a select few), and remove the causes that allow people to seek conquest and war as the solution to the problems of society.

We cannot create a vision for the future when we, our children, and future generations, do not have the ability to develop the skills that will allow us to solve the problems that will come tomorrow (we can solve today’s problems but even those skills are stripped away).

We cannot create a vision for the future when secular and sectarian fundamentalists demand a society based on a single thought and obedience to those who have that one “true thought”.  The vision for the future will come when there are many thoughts working together.

During his visit to South Africa in 1966, Senator Kennedy said,

The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment [- – -]

Our future may lie beyond our vision, but it is not completely beyond our control. It is [ . . .] neither fate nor nature nor the irresistible tides of history, but the work of our own hands, matched to reason and principle, that will determine our destiny. There is pride in that, even arrogance, but there is also experience and truth. In any event, it is the only way we can live. (4)

Today we stand on the edge of an unknown country called the future. 

To borrow a thought from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, the future will either be the best of times or the worst of times.

The future will either be an age of wisdom or an age of foolishness.

The future will either be the epoch of belief or the epoch of incredulity.

It can be the season of light, or it will be a season of darkness.

It will either be the spring of hope or the winter of despair.

Everything lies before us but only if we step into the mists of uncertainty and the unknown.  To take those steps, we must develop the skills and abilities that will provide us with the abilities to solve the problems we encounter.

To take those steps, we must strengthen our faith so that we have the strength to move forward.

To take these steps, we must be a community of all people and not just a select few.

Notes

What Will You Do?

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This will appear in the upcoming issue of the Fishkill UMC newsletter.

In one of my first messages as a lay speaker, I stated that I saw Jesus as a revolutionary and a radical.  Paul Schuessler, my cousin and patriarch of the Schuessler family (my grandmother’s family) was visiting my church that Sunday.  Paul was also one of the many Lutheran ministers in the lineage of the Schuessler family.  Afterwards, Paul chided me for being so bold in my pronouncements about our Savior.  Yet, a year later, he would state that Jesus was a revolutionary and a radical.  When I asked him about this change, he just commented that such a change is possible with Christ.

As I have written before, I grew up in the South during the 50’s and 60’s so the schools that I went to were segregated.  Even in high school in Memphis, TN, from 1966 – 1968, I, along with my classmates, experienced the effects of segregation.  I doubt that my classmates truly understood that because it was the system they grew up in.  However, because of the moves my family had made, it was a bit easier for me to see and feel those effects.

And those effects, while not as obvious, were still present when I went to college.  In 1969, the Black Students Association of NE Missouri State College (now Truman State University) organized a sit-in of the administration building in protest to the lack of off-campus housing for black students.  Because I knew those who were involved in the protest, I was inside the administration building in support of their efforts.  It should be noted that I was the only white student inside the building.  The campus ministers, including the Wesley Foundation minister, were busy helping negotiate a safe conclusion to the standoff between the students inside the administration and the administration officials and police outside.  Most white students were on the outside but not in support of their fellow students. (note 1). 

I went into the administration building that evening because the people inside were my friends, and one needs to stand by their friends at times of need. 

Later that same spring, I would come to understand that my acceptance of Christ as my Savior allowed me to receive God’s grace. And this meant that my life could never be the same again. As Methodists, we understand that our lives can never quite reach the level of perfection of Christ; but that doesn’t mean that we stop trying.

I work for justice, freedom, and good not because it will get me into heaven but because it is what is expected of me because I am a citizen of the New Kingdom (Note 2).

What did you do when you sat in the synagogue and heard Jesus tell the people of Nazareth that he come to preach the Good News to the poor, to pardon the prisoners, give sight to the blind and set the burdened and battered free?

What did you do when Jesus fed the multitudes, not once but twice?

What did you do when the people sought out Jesus to heal them, their family, and their friends?  Did you help the four friends who found a way to lower their friend through the roof so that Jesus could help their friend walk again?

What did you do when the people gathered outside Jerusalem and pooled their resources so that all could share?

What did you do when Jesus turned no one away?  What did you do when Paul suggested that the message Christ gave was for all and not just a few?

What did you do when the early Methodists created the first credit union so that people could pay their bills instead of being thrown into debtors’ prison?

What did you do when the early Methodists created the first health care clinics to provide health care to the many people who did not have access to health care?

What did you do when the early Methodists created the first schools so that children could learn to read and write?

What did you do when the early Methodists opposed the sale and trafficking of human beings?

Because the early Methodists sought to change society and help those that society considered unworthy, they were considered threats to the organized/established church.  Our spiritual ancestors were considered outsiders and troublemakers because they sought to bring the message of the Gospel to the people!

Why was there no bloody revolution in England when there was one in France at the same time?  Some historians believe that because of the efforts of the Wesleyan Revival, England did not experience a bloody revolution like the French revolution of the same period (note 3).

Some years ago, I used the phrase “vision with action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world” in a message.  (from “What’s The Next Step?”)

Now, as it happened, eight months later I was at that same church and I used a phrase that Willie Nelson said, “one person cannot change the world but one person with a message could.” As I recall, he pointed out that Jesus and the message he carried on the back roads of the Galilee was one prime example. (from “What Does Your Church Look Like?”)

Two thousand years ago, we were given a vision for the future.  Some two hundred and fifty years, a mission was begun to make that vision possible.

John Wesley first expressed the vision of the church and its need to minister to the community in this interchange with Joseph Butler, Bishop of Bristol:

Butler – “You have no business here. You are not commissioned to preach in this diocese. Therefore, I advise you to go hence.”

Wesley – “My lord, my business on earth is do what good I can. Wherever therefore I think I can do the most good, there must I stay so long as I think so. At present I think I can do the most good here. Therefore, here I stay.” (Frank Baker, “John Wesley and Bishop Butler: A Fragment of John Wesley’s Manuscript Journal)

And when the church becomes a part of the community, its impact is wide. Bishop Earl Hunt, who served as President of the United Methodist Council of Bishops spoke of the impact of the church in a community.

“. . . whenever the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is turned loose in a community to help human beings and meet their needs and lift up the name of Jesus Christ, that church becomes indispensable in the community.”  (Pages 173 – 174, New Life For Dying Churches! Rose Sims) (note 4)

We, the people of the United Methodist Church in the 21st century, see a world that is not unlike the world of Israel two thousand years ago or England some two hundred and fifty years ago. 

We see poverty and the widening gap between the classes; we are beginning to see health care denied because people cannot afford it; we are seeing the oppression of many simply because they seek freedom, or they are somehow different.

What will you do?  Will you stand aside?

Or will you remember what those who came before you did, and do the same?

Notes

Note 1        see Side By Side | Thoughts From The Heart On The Left (https://heartontheleft.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/side-by-side-2/) for information about this protest

Note 2       from “The Changing of Seasons” | Thoughts From The Heart On The Left (https://heartontheleft.wordpress.com/2010/10/24/the-changing-of-seasons/)

Note 3       Notes on the Methodist Revival and the non-English Revoltuion are in Generations | Thoughts From The Heart On The Left (https://heartontheleft.wordpress.com/2018/06/23/generations/)

Note 4       from The Family Business | Thoughts From The Heart On The Left (https://heartontheleft.wordpress.com/2011/05/27/the-family-business/)

What Will Be Our Faith Legacy?

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I am a little bit behind in my writing. This was my contribution to the Fishkill UMC December newsletter. Some of this appeared in earlier posts.

Back in 2024, I wrote about the legacy of the wise men and how science and faith were linked in our lives today by the journey of wisemen to Bethlehem two thousand years ago (1).

Our faith journey comes from many different sources.  Some found their faith in the Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Islam, or Christianity, others found their faith in the non-Abrahamic faiths of the East; other found their faith in non-traditional forms.

Others may have never accepted a path of faith, choosing to seek their own path.  And others may have rejected the faith of their past or are still seeking to find their faith (2).

I choose to walk with Jesus Christ as my personal savior.  As I have written before, my mother laid the foundation for my journey with Christ by insisting that my siblings and I be in church every Sunday, no matter where we were.  And one Sunday in 1962, I began to think about walking with Christ.  It was this contemplation that led to my earning the God and Country award in 1965.

The legacy of my faith is through the Evangelical United Brethren Church (EUB)and its predecessors and the efforts of Jacob Albright, Martin Boehm, and Phillip Otterbein.  I am a member of the United Methodist Church (UMC) because of the merger of the Methodist Church and the EUB church in 1968. These denominations merged because each shared the beliefs of John Wesley.

The Wesleyan approach was open, inclusive, and a practical theological vision of the Christian life as opposed to the restrictive, exclusive, dogmatic approach to matters of faith and practice seen in traditional churches.

Our legacy was and still is to preach outside the normal boundaries of a church. Methodism began as a spiritual movement to renew a decaying institutional church and serve the outcast, the marginalized, and the poor, those that traditional Christians called the “unwashed rabble”.

The early Methodist movement was everything the traditional church wasn’t.  It was often messy or unregulated.  It was based on small groups, it empowered women, gave enslaved persons a sense of freedom, and created a vision of justice and liberation.

In 18th century America, Methodism was a “volatile, alienated, defiant, and charismatic” movement that empowered “those who were demeaned and degraded” with a revolutionary sense of God’s liberating loved (“Religion in the Old South”, Don Matthews, University of Chicago Press, 1977).  Methodism was seen as a threat to the establishment of the time because it was revolutionary, inclusive, heart-centered, and Jesus-fired (3).

Early Methodists found ways to feed the hungry and established free health care clinics to provide medical care.  Because people were denied basic financial services and put into jail because they could not pay their bills, the early Methodists created the first credit unions.  Because children worked in the mines and factories six days a week, the early Methodists created Sunday schools to educate them and their parents.  Because of the efforts of the Wesleyan Revival, some historians think this is the reason England did not experience a bloody revolution like the French revolution of the same period (4).

But where are those efforts today?  How do we respond to the questions Dr. Tony Campolo asked?

What do we do about the poor?

  • What do we do about education or the environment?
  • What do we do when the system that is in place ignores the little children of this country in favor of big business and greedy corporate interests?
  • What do we do when other Christians tell the parents of gays and lesbians that their children’s sexuality is their fault, that they somehow have lived a sinful and wrongful life?
  • How is it that we have allowed Christianity to become so judgmental when our own Savior never judged anyone? (5)

We have seen Christianity coopted by the secular realm.  People who claim to be Christians act as if they were the religious and political authorities who opposed Jesus two thousand years ago.

Evangelical pastor Russell Moore told NPR in an interview that multiple pastors had told him they would quote the Sermon on the Mount, specifically the part that says to “turn the other cheek,” when preaching. Someone would come up after the service and ask, “Where did you get those liberal talking points?”

“What was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, ‘I’m literally quoting Jesus Christ,’ the response would not be, ‘I apologize.’ The response would be, ‘Yes, but that doesn’t work anymore. That’s weak,’” Moore said. “When we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we’re in a crisis.” (6)

What will those who proclaim the legacy of Christ but see his teachings as subversive say when they read in the Book of Acts where those who came before us pooled their resources so that all would have enough?

As we enter the season of Advent and begin preparing for the coming of Christ, I ask you consider your legacy.  Why did you begin your journey with Christ?  What will be the legacy you leave for those who follow you?

Will our legacy be one of hatred and ignorance?  Will it be one of exclusion?  Will we forget that we were once immigrants, strangers in a strange land?

Or will it be one of hope and promise, of redemption and acceptance, of liberation and freedom for all, no matter what path they walk?

Notes

  1. The Legacy of the Wise Men | Thoughts From The Heart On The Left – https://heartontheleft.wordpress.com/2020/01/01/the-legacy-of-the-wise-men/
  2. Seeing the future | Thoughts from The Heart On The Left -https://heartontheleft.wordpress.com/2023/12/02/seeing-the-future-3/
  3. Generations | Thoughts From The Heart On The Left – https://heartontheleft.wordpress.com/2018/06/23/generations/
  4. Evangelism and the United Methodist Church | Thoughts From The Heart On The Left – https://heartontheleft.wordpress.com/2024/06/07/evangelism-and-the-united-methodist-church/
  5. Generations | Thoughts From The Heart On The Left – https://heartontheleft.wordpress.com/2018/06/23/generations/ and references within.
  6. From an interview with Tony Campolo posted on Beliefnet.com on 12 November 2004) – Evangelism and the United Methodist Church | Thoughts From The Heart On The Left – https://heartontheleft.wordpress.com/2024/06/07/evangelism-and-the-united-methodist-church/
  7. Christianity Today Editor: Evangelicals Call Jesus “Liberal” and “Weak” | The New Republic – https://newrepublic.com/post/174950/christianity-today-editor-evangelicals-call-jesus-liberal-weak

Evangelism and the United Methodist Church

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Editorial note – The ideas expressed in this piece are mine and are based on materials and ideas that I have written and presented in the past.

This was first published in the June 2024 issue of the Fishkill UMC Newsletter.

I was baptized in the Evangelical Reformed Church, and I was confirmed in the Evangelical United Brethren Church.  Thought my heritage, through my words, through my thoughts, and through my deeds I consider myself to be an evangelical Christian. 

But the term “evangelical Christian” has taken on a rather negative connotation, in part because of the actions of many who use the term as a means of identification.

Today, many proclaim themselves to be a “evangelical Christian” but their actions suggest that they neither understand what evangelism is or what it means to be a Christian. 

Theirs is a view defined in black and white, and you must accept it.  It is their view that the Bible is the source of all knowledge, even when the early Christian church did not hold that view.  They loudly profess to have been saved from sin but you and I have not, and, as a result, we are going to live the rest of our lives in Sheol.

That, to me, is not evangelism and, to be honest, it is the very attitude that almost drove me from the church, and which is probably driving many people away today.

But I didn’t leave because there were those who showed me that the church could be a force for good, a force for justice, and that it was possible to be a representative of Christ on Earth. It would be very difficult for me to leave today just as it is very difficult for me to watch others tell the world that the Gospel is about the rich and the powerful, the mighty and privileged.

Contemporary evangelists see the “Great Commission”, Go out into the world, and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28: 19 – The Message), as a commandment to get other people to become Christian.

If we read Clarence Jordan’s Cotton Patch Gospel translation of the “Great Commission”, we read,

As you travel, then, make students of all races and initiate them into the family of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to live by all that I outlined for you.”

I think that because Dr. Jordan was working with the original Greek version of Matthew, this is more reasonable interpretation of the original work and speaks to what we, as evangelists, are to do in today’s world, teach the people.  Instead of forcing or requiring people to become Christians, we need to teach people to live in the manner that Jesus taught the Twelve.  As Dr. Francis Collins noted in his book, “The Language of God”, each person must make their own decisions concerning the existence of God and what one believes.  By teaching people, we give them the opportunity to find Christ on their own.

Tony Campolo, noted evangelist, Baptist minister, and conservative Christian, feels that the concept of evangelism has been hijacked by the political motives of the “religious right”. He feels that the Gospel message, of reaching out to the poor, the sick, the homeless, and the oppressed, has somehow been lost in the politics of the times.

Dr. Campolo asked,

What do we do about the poor?

What do we do about education or the environment?

What do we do when the system that is in place ignores the little children of this country in favor of big business and greedy corporate interests?

What do we do when other Christians tell the parents of gays and lesbians that their children’s sexuality is their fault, that they somehow have lived a sinful and wrongful life?

How is it that we have allowed Christianity to become so judgmental when our own Savior never judged anyone? (From an interview with Tony Campolo posted on Beliefnet.com on 12 November 2004)

What Is Evangelism?                                                                   

Evangelism can be defined as declaring the good news about all that God is doing in the world; but it is much more than simply challenging individuals to yield to Jesus, letting Jesus into their lives, and allowing the power of the Holy Spirit to transform them into new creations.  It is also about proclaiming what God is doing in society right now to bring about justice, liberation, and economic well-being for the oppressed. (From Tony Campolo’s forward to Clarence Jordan’s Cotton Patch Gospel: Luke and Acts)

An evangelical Christian is one who presents the Gospel message of hope, justice, and freedom from oppression to the world. If that means taking action to relieve poverty, heal the sick, feed the hungry, house the homeless, give aid to the needy, and free the oppressed, so be it.

Henri J. M. Nouwen wrote,

Only when we have come into touch with our own life experiences and have learned to listen to our inner cravings for liberation and new life can we realize that Jesus did not just speak, but that he reached out to us in our most personal needs. The Gospel doesn’t just contain ideas worth remembering. It is a message responding to our individual human condition. The Church is not an institution forcing us to follow its rules. It is a community of people inviting us to still our hunger and thirst at its tables. Doctrines are not alien formulations, which we must adhere to, but the documentation of the most profound human experiences which, transcending time and place, are handed over from generation to generation as a light in our darkness. (From Reaching Out by Henri J. M. Nouwen)

Senator Cory Booker stated,

Don’t speak to me about your religion; first show it to me in how you treat other people. Don’t tell me how much you love your God; show me in how much you love all her children. Don’t preach to me your passion for your faith; teach me through your compassion for your neighbors. In the end, I’m not as interested in what you have to tell or sell as in how you choose to live and give.

Many churches today give people exactly what they want.

They give them a sense of “being filled with the Spirit”; they give them a sense that their sins have been cleansed. And they certainly give them messages that bring purpose to their lives without making them feel guilty about what they have done. They hear that the poverty of this world, the death and desolation that come to this world are only signs of God’s return, of Christ’s Second Coming. They find in these new churches comfort and sanctuary.

The Gospel Message                                                                     

But this is not the Gospel message! The Gospel message is not meant to make you feel good; it is meant for you to hear and then act.

“Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness, and pride of power and with its defense for the weak… Christianity has adjusted itself much too easily to the worship of power. It should give much more offense, more shock to the world than it is doing. Christianity should take a much more definite stand for the weak than to consider the potential right of the strong.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Barbara Wendland, a United Methodist layperson in Texas, pointed out that many of the things that make us comfortable in church often make us less effective as a church.

Patriotism is effective if it reminds us of our nation’s commitment to justice for all people, yet flags and martial hymns in worship tend to glorify war rather than remind us that we have been called to be peacemakers. We may find that tradition provides a sense of continuity, but it can also make it difficult to bring about change.

Emotion can inspire us to do God’s work in the world, but wrapping oneself in a blanket of emotions can often block critical reasoning. The church can only be effective if it keeps reminding us how far we must go before God’s will is done on this earth. An effective sermon on poverty and disease in our own community should leave us feeling rightly uneasy about not doing more to help and it should inspire us to do that little bit extra. (From Connections, April 2005)

The Gospel message cannot be pared down to something that fits on a bumper sticker. The Gospel is meant to transform us, not protect us. Unfortunately, this is not the message of many of these big churches. Without the cross, without reason, the message presented is sugar coated and self-serving. People come to these services because they are not required to do much more than that.

The Gospel message is to be shared, not hoarded, and we must work to find ways to share it. This is something we are often unwilling to do. We hesitate to respond as Jesus would have us respond because it is so radical a notion. We would much rather focus on a quiet, private, personal relationship with the Lord rather than follow the teachings that call for a public, prophetic witness. We like being on the mountain, we do not want to come down and must work in the valley. We can live with reports of poverty, sickness, and oppression; we just would rather not have to deal with it.

Our heritage                                                                               

Today, the United Methodist Church is considered a traditional and mainline denomination, not an evangelical one. Yet, evangelism was the hallmark of the early Methodist movement; our growth in America came during the major revival periods of this country’s history, driven in part by the evangelical fervor of Methodists. But we are no longer considered an evangelical church.

Methodism began as a spiritual movement to renew a decaying institutional church and serve the outcast, the marginalized, and the poor.

John Wesley did not start a church. He wanted to renew a church that had become narrow, moralistic, cold. He wanted to renew it through new hearts, a courageous spirit, community that included the least & the unwanted, and passion for Jesus.

John Wesley understood that it was the primary purpose of the church to present the message of Salvation through Jesus Christ but a church blind to the needs of its members or the community that it was in could not do its work. You cannot preach the power of the Saving Grace of Jesus Christ when people are hungry, homeless, or suppressed by an indifferent society. John Wesley also understood and preached that it was the responsibility of everyone having accepted Jesus Christ as his own personal Savior, had to go out into the community.

John Wesley understood the need for the church to present a message the people understood. A church blind to the needs of its members or its community cannot do its work. You cannot preach of the power of the Saving Grace of Jesus Christ when people are hungry, homeless, or suppressed by an indifferent society. John Wesley also understood that an individual, having accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior, had the responsibility to show that he had done so. This meant helping the community.

Our unique and combined heritage is more than simply meeting in a church somewhere on a Sunday; it is a heritage of being in the field, of being involved with the people, of being God’s representative here on earth at this time and place. As United Methodists we believe that we are saved by grace alone through faith, and we are saved so that we can do good works. All that we do follows as a response to the radical grace of God.

Let us remember that we are the inheritors of a movement that gathered in the homes of believers and invited not just believers but non-believers to be a part of their community. Let us also remember that we are also the inheritors of a movement that faced intense opposition and persecution, and I am not necessarily speaking of the early, post-Easter Christians.

Methodism here in America was often marked by the clergy of other denominations denouncing Methodist preachers for “preaching delusions,” “working to deceive others,” spouting heretical doctrines,” and “promoting wild singularities”. These “wild singularities” included dramatic preaching, exuberant worship, and weekly class meetings where members shared their inner most selves.

Ours is a heritage of evangelism, not the evangelism of today which seeks to control the human spirit and tell others the right and wrong way to do things. Ours is an evangelism based on what Jesus did and what John Wesley did. Ours is the evangelism that brings the Good News to the people so that they can find Jesus for themselves.

Our theological heritage was and still is to preach outside the normal boundaries of a church. Methodism began as a spiritual movement to renew a decaying institutional church and serve the outcast, the marginalized, and the poor, those traditional Christians called the “unwashed rabble”.

The early Methodist movement was everything the traditional church wasn’t.  It was often messy or unregulated.  It was based on small groups, it empowered women, gave enslaved persons a sense of freedom, and created a vision of justice and liberation.

In 18th century America, Methodism was a “volatile, alienated, defiant, and charismatic” movement that empowered “those who were demeaned and degraded” with a revolutionary sense of God’s liberating loved (“Religion in the Old South”, Don Matthews, University of Chicago Press, 1977).  Methodism was seen as a threat to the establishment of the time because it was revolutionary, inclusive, heart-centered, and Jesus-fired.

What Will tomorrow bring?                                                             

The United Methodist Church has been lost in the wilderness for the last thirty years.  It has struggled to find itself amidst the turmoil and change of society.  Against the turmoil and change of 18th century society, the Methodist revival begun by John Wesley sought to bring hope and renewal to the people.

That mission does not change over time.

Perhaps we, the people of the United Methodist Church, having found our way out of the wilderness should remember who we were and become those people once again.  Let us remember from where we came and once again bring hope and promise to the people.

Seeing the future

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This is my contribution to the Fishkill UMC December newsletter.

When I was at Tompkins Corners UMC, one of the members let me know that they were leaving the Methodist Church and the Christian faith and becoming a Muslim.  I had not had much contact with this individual before that but others in the church told me that they always seemed to be changing their denomination.  I cannot speak to why this person left the Christian faith except to speculate that they were seeking to find out who they were.

If that were the case, I would have understood their decision.  I have seen others leave the faith of their birth behind because they were searching for answers they felt were not being answered by Christianity. 

When I was in high school, I became interested in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) or Mormons.  I wasn’t thinking of leaving the Methodist church (because I had only been a member for two years) but there was something about this uniquely American faith that I found interesting, and I wanted to know more.  My own faith journey would cross the paths of the Mormons later when I was living in Missouri, Illinois, and Iowa.

Similarly, I was interested in the faith that we called the Shakers.  In this case, it was the music of the faith that I found interesting and challenging (our hymn, “Lord of the Dance” is based on the Shaker tune, “Simple Gifts”).  And I am constantly amazed that Shaker furniture, based on simplicity, can bring six figures in price at auction.

And while the Mormon faith has continued to grow, the Shaker faith has almost disappeared from the faith landscape.  No doubt, you have met one or two Mormon missionaries who are interested in bringing news of their faith to your doorstep.  But the Shakers did not have such an active plan to bring new members into the fold and it was the need for a constant influx of new members that was necessary if their faith was to survive.  Despite the uniqueness of the faith, or perhaps because of its uniqueness, the Shaker faith died, remembered only by its music and its furniture.

It is that view of the future that best defines faith.  Is there a future and does it apply to me?

In our faith tradition, Christ is born during the darkest time of the year, a time that speaks of no future.  And yet that is what the birth of Christ represents, a future.

Some have no need for such a vision.  They feel that their position in society and their wealth assures them of a fixed future.  They had no need for the vision of the future that Christ’s birth heralded.

The first to hear of Christ’s birth were the shepherds, the lowliest of society.  Treated as outcasts and with suspicion, the shepherds saw no future.  Christ’s birth and His mission would change that vision.

Those in power saw a future that was fixed and unchanging.  The Magi understood that the future was determined by a search for knowledge and wisdom.  They sought Christ to better understand the future.

In 1966 I was just beginning my faith and professional journeys and my future was cloudy and defined by others.  But others in the faith and academic communities helped me to define my future.

Each of us has had a similar experience.  We begin our journey of faith and vocation with only a vague sense of what lies before us and what we know is very much defined by others.

Had the shepherds not come down from the hills when they heard the angels singing of Christ’s birth, their lives would have never changed.  Had the Magi ignored the signs in the skies, they would have never left Baghdad and discovered a new world.

The Birth of Christ changed the world.  Today, we are the angels whose voices tell others of the Birth of Christ.  Today, we are the Magi who seek new worlds, both physical and virtual.  We are the ones whose lives were changed when Christ became a part of our life.  We are the ones who will help other see the future because Christ is born.