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Today is Pentecost. The day Christians celebrate as the Birthday of the Church. You would think we would have cake. We had cake two Sundays ago to celebrate Confirmation. We had cake last Sunday twice--once to celebrate Senior Sunday, and again to celebrate the children’s Sunday School promotion. Certainly, the birthday of the church should be celebrated with as much pomp and circumstance as those other events. It’s a birthday, for crying out loud! But I’m afraid that this very important Christian holiday has gotten lost in the shuffle of Memorial Day observance, end of school events, graduations, and even the Alaska Missionary Conference Annual Meeting. You may need a little review of Pentecost and the scripture that was read from the second chapter of Acts. Pentecost was a Jewish holiday. It is 50 days after Passover (thus the "pente") and celebrates the wheat harvest. The scripture says "they were all gathered together in one place". It isn’t clear if it was the twelve disciple or a larger gathering, but they were together in a house, sitting down I suppose to celebrate the holiday when all of a sudden there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind that filled the house. And that’s not all—it wasn’t just the sound of the wind, but also, the scripture says, tongues of fire resting on each of them. And as if that weren’t enough, they began to speak in other languages as directed by the Holy Spirit. Can you imagine such a scene? This is dramatic stuff. It would appear that God was intent on getting the attention of these people and for what? Nothing less than the gift of the Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit that has sustained the Christian Church since then. Looking again at the scripture, let’s skip down to the response of the people who were observing what was happening with the Disciples. Some were amazed and perplexed and recognizing that this was extraordinary stuff inquired as to the meaning of these events. Others were cynical. I believe that God gets our attention in amazing ways. Remember Moses who was minding his own business and the sheep when he saw a bush that was burning but was not consumed? Once he stepped off the beaten path and opened his mind to this curious sight, he was had. That was the opening God needed to call him into service. Or think of Paul who was going about his business of persecuting the early Christians when he was literally knocked down by a bright light and finally understood the power of the Holy Spirit. I believe that God is continually trying to break through to us and even if it is in ordinary circumstances, when we recognize that God is trying to get our attention, it becomes extraordinary. And we can be amazed and perplexed and try to learn more about God’s will for us to be faithful disciples. Or we can be cynical like those who sneered at the Pentecost events and said, "They are filled with new wine." In other words, "no big deal—they’re just drunk!" Have you ever been anywhere where people were speaking a language you didn’t understand? Or worse, where people were speaking English and you still didn’t understand? Let me tell you about General Conference. As you may know, the United Methodist Church is a Global Church. At General Conference there were 1,000 delegates from all over the globe: half clergy and half lay people. Because the business was conducted in English, there was interpretation in a variety of languages including Russian, French, Swahili, Spanish, German, Korean, Portuguese, and American Sign. When a non-English speaking delegate came to the microphone to speak, we had to wait for the translation. It was interesting and somewhat frustrating because something is always "lost in translation." But these interpretations of language weren’t nearly as frustrating as interpretations of the scripture or John Wesley’s sermons or even the Book of Discipline that were different from my interpretation. Sometimes I am amazed and perplexed that we are reading the same Bible. I expect that many of you heard or read bits and pieces about General Conference through the secular news media and some of you may have logged on to the General Conference website to get a more clear understanding of what was happening. I want to share with you some of the observations that I made as I was sitting in the bleachers. I was the first reserve lay delegate and therefore was not a voting member at this conference. I was the emergency back-up for Lonnie Brooks of East Anchorage UMC. The first observation I made was that the bleachers were perhaps the most uncomfortable seating that could have been possible. They were this metal, collapsible structure that tried the perseverance of the most faithful observer. Even the use of this "handy-dandy $8 made especially for General Conference cushion" did little to ease the pain inflicted by these metal monsters. I will be a voting member in July at Jurisdictional Conference when we elect bishops and in addition to having a vote—I hope to have a real chair! The second observation I made is that I’m not political enough to think that General Conference is much fun. I had had as much of that kind of fun as I could stand after just a few days. But I was elected to go and I was faithful to the task. Our schedule began every day at 7 a.m. with a meeting of all the delegates from the Western Jurisdiction. 8 o’clock was worship and then business meetings until at least 10 each evening with breaks for lunch and dinner. One of the highlights was a recognition service for the African American Methodists who remained faithful to our denomination from 1939-1968. Part of our history is that before the Civil War, there was a schism in our denomination over the issue of slavery. It was couched in disagreements of interpretation of scripture. There are all those scriptures in both the Old and New Testaments about slaves being obedient to their masters and how slavery was an accepted part of life, which the South used to justify slavery. And there was an opposing point of view. The result was a split that lasted until 1939 when the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the Methodist Protestant Church united. Sort of. It wasn’t completely united since the African American Methodists were relegated to a separate jurisdiction. But even in the face of this discrimination, they remained faithful to God and to the Methodist Church and finally in 1968 were completely incorporated with the union of the Evangelical United Brethren and the Methodist Church to become the United Methodist Church. The service was a time of recognition for faithfulness, repentance and forgiveness. Another issue, but perhaps not a highlight was around the issue of homosexuality. Should we ordain these persons? How about marriage? Or civil rights? How are we to interpret the scriptures that address this issue? Could we agree that faithful Christians disagree on this issue? These and many more questions about this topic were all addressed on Tuesday of the second week in the plenary. For those of us who are open on all these questions and wore this stole to signify our support, Tuesday was a disappointing day. On Thursday afternoon of that same week, during the plenary there was a testimony to support homosexual persons as we dispensed with the business and many stood in support as several hundred persons silently walked throughout the conference making their statement for complete acceptance of all of God’s children. It was clear from both Tuesday’s and Thursdays events that we are a people who disagree. Even though there was never a resolution presented on the floor of General Conference that there be an amicable separation, that statement, nevertheless, made it into the national media. It was a sad thing to consider. On Friday morning at the Western Jurisdiction meeting we were all in agreement that we are United Methodists and United Methodists we’ll stay. No amicable separation for us! We believe strongly that faithful Christians can disagree on social issues. John Wesley was quoted: "Condemn no one for not thinking as you think: Let everyone enjoy the full and free liberty of thinking for themselves: Let everyone use their own judgment, since everyone must give an account of themselves to God." It was discouraging that in this time of war, disease, poverty and alienation, that the Church would focus inwardly and use its resources to marginalize members of its own body rather than releasing the resources of the church for healing of the world and disciple-making ministries. But it wasn’t discouraging for long. The wind of the Holy Spirit blew through General Conference. At the Western Jurisdiction meeting when instead of feeling discouraged, there was a feeling of new energy to respond to the call of God to be the church in the world. And again during the morning plenary of the whole body of General Conference, there came a feeling of hope when two persons from opposing perspectives shared information regarding how the rumor of separation had come about and then presented a resolution of unity. Which reads: AS UNITED METHODISTS WE REMAIN IN COVENANT WITH ONE ANOTHER, EVEN IN THE MIDST OF DISAGREEMENT, AND REAFFIRM OUR COMMITMENT TO WORK TOGETHER FOR OUR COMMON MISSION OF MAKING DISCIPLES OF JESUS CHRIST THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. You should know that I am not naïve and I understand that there were politics involved, but I am not a cynic and I believe that the Holy Spirit can redeem any situation and I choose to live in hope for our denomination to continue to be faithful to God’s call for us to make disciples for Jesus Christ and to do God’s will in the world. At the close of that session we joined hands and sang Blest Be the Tie That Binds. Faithful Christians disagree on many issues but through the Holy Spirit our hearts are bound in Christian Love. So may it be. Amen. |
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06.30.04 - United By the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-21)
