The Center and the Horizon

On opposite sides of my office door there are two very different, but equally meaningful pictures. On the left Is a picture of the labyrinth on the floor of the Chartes Cathedral. “Solvitur Ambulando”… “It is solved by walking” has been a meditative prayer for me for years. This picture reminds me to take the time to walk to the center…the center of pastoral concerns, the center of potential conflict, the center of a message or sermon, the center of my relationship with God and others, and the center of myself.


Though the path is winding, there is only one way in and one way out, and God keeps meeting me in the center. God keeps showing up, and I continue to be in awe that God cares. I wrestle with a deadly grip of worthlessness. Maybe you’ve felt the same? No matter how much I produce or write or build or counsel, it never seems enough. I don’t know why I sometimes ask what things would be like if I wasn’t here, but I do know that when I walk to to center of things, God is amazingly present, beyond reason or rationality, to remind me that I am loved and many friends and family surround me with grace.


It is solved by walking…


Then there is the other picture. The Horizons Pavilion at Epcot was one of my favorite attractions growing up. To see the potential of human innovation, drive, and invention is inspiring. The theme song that played throughout the attraction, “If you can dream it, then you can do it,” has equally been a prayerful mantra of mine.


You can never catch the horizon, just like you can never exhaust knowledge or love, but there is a tension. The horizon doesn’t really exist. You can see the line where heaven meets the earth, but the only reason your eyes lie to you is because your perspective Is too small. When you broaden your vision, what looked like a barrier melts away.
But the tension again continues. I can go so far as the moon and still see only one side of the Earth. The tension Is only relieved when we look at our lives as being bigger than a singular moment. I can see the other side of the Earth, just not at the same time. Not all at once. That’s what time is. It’s God’s way of making sure not everything happens at once.


So, right now is important, but so is all of our “right nows” woven together by God’s grace into a single story that calls us to walk to the inward center, and to journey to the edge of what’s out there. What we will discover Is that God Is amazingly and inexplicably In both places reminding us that we have eternal value.


I pray that your 2022 will be a “centered horizon.” God loves you

Welcome, Proclaim, and Share

He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance” (Acts 28:30-31).

The Book of Acts seems to end on a whimper. In a book where we’ve seen Jesus ascend, the Holy Spirit rush about like the sound of a violent wind, Peter’s conversion in seeing all things made clean, and Paul’s conversion from Pharisee to most influential Christian theologian the world has ever known…you might expect more from an ending of a Book so monumental to our faith. You might expect Peter on the mountaintop seeing the Promised Land, or the Chariots of Fire coming down to bring Paul to heaven, but that’s not what we have. It’s more the ending of Seinfeld than the ending of MASH. Paul is under house arrest in Rome and He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.”He welcomed all, proclaimed the Kingdom of God, and shared Jesus. Lord, could it be that simple?

Now, some of you are “on to” the grand metaphor that we’ve been walking through over the last few weeks. Offering a worship series on the Book of Acts, a book where the church is trying to figure itself out by the power of the Holy Spirit was absolutely on purpose, not that a sermon series is ever by accident, but it was important to read the birth of the church in such a time as this. Many of you know that The United Methodist Church is having a special General Conference next week in St. Louis, which will be a global gathering of the largest Protestant denomination on the planet to discuss the church’s understanding of human sexuality. The church has been wrestling with this gift of God for a long time, and news not only from our denomination but others as well reveal that we haven’t yet figured things out. So in the spirit of “tell it to me plain, preacher,” I’ll firm up the metaphor this morning.

Next week in St. Louis the church will gather to hear a report on the Commission on the Way Forward, and their official report offers what’s called The One Church Plan and the Connectional Conference Plan. There are two other comprehensive plans that may be presented in some way, shape, or form, namely The Modified Traditional Plan, and the Simple Plan, along with a smattering of other legislative items. The reason I haven’t talked about the plans specifically from the pulpit is because the plans may be amended or combined or thrown out, or nothing may happen at all. What I thought was more appropriate is to spend time looking at scripture and diving into our example of what it looks like for the church to figure itself out by the power of the Holy Spirit, which is what the Book of Acts is.

In the first week we talked about Rabbi Gamaliel and his interpretation of what one might do when there is tension. He said, “If this is not of God then it will die, and if it is of God you will not be able to overthrow it.” As a member of the delegation the first question I often receive from all over the place is, “How will this effect my church?” which is another way of asking, “how will this effect me?” It is an important question, but it shouldn’t be our first. The first question is “Is this of God, or is this not of God.” If we can wrestle with the first question, the second question begins to answer itself.

Next we heard about how God’s grace keeps outdoing itself when Philip baptized a Samaritan, and then Philip baptizes a eunuch, and then Saul, the great persecutor of the church, is converted when his enemy laid hands on him and healed him. In other words, God grace is radical and surprising. My prayer is that we will all be surprised for all of the right reasons. The human brain is amazing, but God’s grace is magnificent. It is the power of God to reconcile sisters and brothers, welcome the outcast, and lead enemies to heal one another. That is my prayer.

Then we talked about the Jerusalem Council and Paul’s response and interpretation of the Jerusalem Council. I lifted this up because we hear a ruling from an authoritative body, and we also have the blessing of having a story of Paul, in Paul’s own words, responding to it in a local church, so to speak. This is quite a gift if you stop to consider it. Of course, Paul doesn’t make it any easier on us. When there was a controversy of whether or not the people could eat meat polluted by idols. Paul says, in essence, yes you can, unless you shouldn’t. Those who are abstaining are weak in faith, but instead of telling them to get with the program, humble yourself and do not cause your brother to stumble. How is your faith journey lifting others up instead of tearing them down? The answers may be easy to hear, but living into them takes a lifetime. Paul seems to be less concerned about rules as he is how rules affect one’s neighbor. I lifted up this story because we will have lots of pronouncements coming from St. Louis next week, and what is more important than the pronouncements is our reaction to it, and I pray that our Christian activity is always rooted in love of God and love of neighbor, if you want to be Methodist about it.

Then we discussed the Ephesian riot where Demetrius, out of fear to what Paul would do with his financial bottom line, stoked a fearful frenzy, but because there was confusion, some were saying one thing and others another, the people had forgotten why they had gathered in the first place. There are many across the board that are using fear to rile people up. The “fill in the blank” plan is going to cause us to lose members, cause us to lose money, cause us to divide the church…etc.” Sharing information is important, but scaring people by misrepresenting something, is never the way.

Which brings us to today. Now it may seem that the Books of Acts ends with a whimper. It’s certainly not as dramatic as we might have thought, especially when we began with Jesus ascending and the Holy Spirit rushing about and tongues of fire resting on the heads of the apostles. But this relative ending offers great wisdom. At the end of it all Paul welcomed all, proclaimed the Kingdom of God and shared the teachings of Jesus. Or to put it another way, at the end of it all Paul was about bringing hope, building faith, and reaching out in love…which is our Asbury mission. This is our mission. This is our goal. After the votes are taken and petitions finalized I pray that we continue to be the church that calls Mr. Coleman to see how we might equip his vision for his students at Bossier Elementary. I pray that we continue to be the church that celebrates First Baptist’s new Emily Build, which continues Asbury’s Katy Build story. I pray that we continue to be the church that goes to Cuba to help equip the vision that God has placed on the hearts of Christians in a small town called Falla. I pray that we continue to be the church that says, “Hey, we’re building a wheel chair ramp this weekend. Who’s with me?” I pray that we continue to be the church with the most beautiful prayer garden that honors God’s amazing gift of creation. I pray that we continue to welcome all, proclaim God’s kingdom and share the teachings of Jesus, or in other words, I pray that we continue to bring hope, build faith, and reach out with love. Could it really be that simple? In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Who is Welcome?

One of the things I most love about our “Becoming the Church” study on the Acts of the Apostles in my congregation is seeing the early church wrestle in the midst of differing interpretation of the Holy Spirit’s activity.
 
For example, In Acts 8, an Ethiopian Eunuch asks Philip, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” What an interesting question. Why did the eunuch ask such a thing?
 
Well, in Deuteronomy 23:1 we read, “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.” So, it says pretty clearly that, according to Deuteronomy, the eunuch is not welcome, and never can be.
 
But then you read Isaiah 56:4-5 which says, “For thus says the Lord: To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths and hold fast my covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.” So, if you’re reading Isaiah, the eunuch is certainly welcome, and will hold a place of prominence higher than sons and daughters.
 
So, is the eunuch welcome? Well, do you lean into Deuteronomy or Isaiah? Does fellowship depend on one’s body or the body of Christ?
 
Those who lean into Deuteronomy have a perfectly Biblically-based reason for saying “No” to the eunuch. Those who lean into Isaiah have a perfectly Biblically-based reason for saying “Yes” the the eunuch. Both groups are Biblically right.
 
So…what does one do? Can Deuteronomy and Isaiah be in communion with each other?
 
All I know is, Philip baptized the eunuch, the eunuch went on his way rejoicing, and Philip continued proclaiming the Good News..

Ashes to Ashes…

Last night for our Ash Wednesday service I used a new piece of pottery a young child made for me. The artwork was a beautiful white and gold representing Christ’s majesty and perfection. It’s size and shape made it perfect for holding ashes. This morning when I cleaned the dish, I noticed that the ashes had seeped into the small cracks inside the bottom of the cup. The imperfections now clearly are noticeable, but this neither diminishes it’s beauty or purpose.
 
After hearing of yet another school shooting, I couldn’t start my “to do” list as if it was a normal Thursday. I just spent time staring at the pottery thinking about the soul-disturbing picture of a mother who returned from receiving ashes to hold a child sobbing beyond her own body could support. Was she embracing her own child? Were they consoling each other over a lost son or daughter or friend?
 
Ashes to ashes…dust to dust…
 
Ash Wednesday reminds us of our broken humanness, the cracks in what could be a beautiful piece of God’s handiwork. God’s grace holds the fissures together, but they are still there. Sometimes the cracks in the pottery are so large that the pottery can no longer be a vessel for anything. Averaging more than 2 school shootings a day so far this year is a crack too large to ignore. “Thoughts and prayers,” albeit well intentioned, has become as impotent as our holy imagination to recognize that this reality doesn’t have to be.
 
We have an addiction. Have you ever tried to intervene with an addict? Suggesting that someone has had one too many sounds to them like they aren’t valued, like you are going to take every whiskey bottle on store shelves and pour it down the drain. They become angry. They blame. They tell you mind your own business because they are not a child.
 
There is a great crack in our jars of clay, and the grace needed to forgive those who ignore our addiction is seeping away like water in a cracked cistern (Jeremiah 2:13).
 
I am well aware that our salvation is not won by elected officials, but I pray they have the courage to throw away the 30 pieces of silver some have been offered before any more blood is spilled.
 
If you don’t want to hear this from a United Methodist pastor, then hear me as a constituent. If you can’t hear me as a constituent, then hear me as an American citizen. If you can’t hear me as a citizen, then hear me as a father who last night wept when I placed ashes on my young daughter’s forehead telling her in the tradition of the church that one day she will return to the dust of the earth…as will you.

You Can, Unless You Shouldn’t

How can scripture inform the way we share our faith in the midst of disagreement? Christianity isn’t easy. “You can unless you shouldn’t, and you shouldn’t unless you should,” is the heart of Paul’s ethics in Romans. Romans is the last of Paul’s writings after spending years planting and leading churches, being inside of jail cells, and arguing with church leaders about the Gospel. The Romans message is quite different than his early writings because of this lived experience. Paul’s faith matured to realize that Christ did not come to establish a new, unchanging Law; rather we are called to improvise with the Holy Spirit based on the way Christ is shaping and forming us within a faith community. Another way to say this is that Paul offers “Accountable Permission,” as the cornerstone of our shared Christian lives.

For example, “As Christians, should we or should we not eat meat that has been polluted by idols,” is the question Paul addresses in Romans 14. According to the Jerusalem Council, the answer is clearly “No”— “Therefore I [James, the brother of Jesus] have reached the decision that we should not trouble those Gentiles who are turning to God, but we should write to them to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from whatever has been strangled and from blood” Acts 15:19-20.

The answer seems clear. When the Roman Church asked Paul to settle this dispute, he should have looked in their discipline to see that the matter is settled, and eating this meat is clearly forbidden. Except, that is not what he does…

“Let us therefore no longer pass judgement on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling-block or hindrance in the way of another. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. If your brother or sister is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died. So do not let your good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The one who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and has human approval. Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual edification. Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for you to make others fall by what you eat; it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble. The faith that you have, have as your own conviction before God. Blessed are those who have no reason to condemn themselves because of what they approve. But those who have doubts are condemned if they eat, because they do not act from faith; for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” Romans 14:13-23.

Paul does not offer “to each his own,” nor does he outright forbid it according to what church leaders had urged. He says that permission is granted unless it causes someone to stumble, and those for whom this is a stumbling block are not to pass judgment on the other. Beautifully and prophetically he writes, “Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God.”

So, what is a church to do at a seemingly impossible impasse? Can we offer permission with great accountability? Can we live by Paul’s difficult “you can unless you shouldn’t, and you shouldn’t unless you should” ethic? We could make things easy, just choose a side, and proclaim the other is wrong, where one side is said to be polluted with idols and the other ignorant holy-rolling abstainers…

But that doesn’t sound like the Gospel…

To those who are soon making difficult decisions, for God’s sake, don’t destroy God’s work for the sake of “food.”

Pokémon…Go?

pokemonYou have to catch them all! Many have taken up the challenge to catch all of the Pokémon out there in the real/digitized world with infectious zeal and reckless abandon. With all cultural explosions, whether long-tenure game changers or fiery and fleeting, I always try to make sense of its attractiveness through a theological lens. Although the Pokemon game in its current state will probably have a short shelf life, the technology is here to stay. How should we think about this emerging digital connectedness from a Christian perspective?

What can the church learn?

Community. Like many other app store offerings, this app encourages connecting with other players. You can certainly fly solo, but to get ahead you have to connect. It also creates a feeling of FOMO—Fear of Missing Out. What’s the church’s FOMO quotient from Sunday to Sunday? Is there personal lament for being out of the loop or maybe a tinge of longing from others when your presence is missed on Sunday morning?

Accessibility. The game is free to play (assuming you have a smart phone). The technological economic gap (those not able to afford the upward mobility) is for another post for another time. For now, there is little barrier to becoming a participant. What barriers exist in communities of faith? Many say, “Come as you are,” but the translation is “Come as most of us are coming,” whether this mantra pertains to dress or politics or race or musical taste.

Diversity. The pokeman you seek to find are quite different from one another. Sometimes erring on a target audience means we miss the people God is actually sending to us. Every church on the planet gets excited about young adults in the sanctuary, but are churches truly interested in Millennial salvation, or is 18-35 year old outreach simply a means of preserving the institution for another generation.

Healthy Competition. In the Pokegym you battle others to gain points. There are serious bragging rights for ending a battle in victory. In the church we call it “Accountability.” Not that accountability is a competition, but it is a challenge of sorts. Encouraging your sister or brother to pray, read scripture, and reach out in service, and in turn, for them to challenge you, helps us to grow in our love of God and each other.

Location, location, location. The game is sending people into places they might never have seen. The heart of church leadership is leading people where they would not go alone. Are we brave enough to go to the other side of town to connect with those outside of our comfort zone?

Training. If you want to win, you’ve got to train. Too often many think of baptism as an ending rather than the beginning of discipleship. How are Christians “training” to meet the challenge of the Holy Spirit’s moving? God is alive, which means God is on the move. Can we keep up?

What can the Church teach?

Being Upright. St. Augustine’s definition of sin is an inward-turned soul. Pokémon Go leaves us to be slaves of a screen. It’s not really in the real world. It causes our hands to hold a phone rather than embracing each other. During Holy Communion we hear, “Christ delivered us from slavery to sin and death…and cell phones.” (I’m paraphrasing).

Authenticity. Even though the game sends you out into the world, there’s no encouragement to interact with it. It’s like a misguided mission project. You fly in, build a well, and fly out. You follow your GPS, nab a creature, and then you’re on to the next find. It’s like walking through a garden to get to where you want to go, and missing the opportunity to relish in a flower’s beauty.

Narrow Identity. When you start the game there are a few pre-selected avatars you can use. You have to fit a predetermined character. It’s like a church membership program gone awry, where instead of making disciples, we make conforming members. In Christ we discover a beautiful diversity in who God created each person to become. Many gifts, one Spirit.

These are just initial thoughts, and there’s certainly more to say. What do you think the church can learn from trying to “catch them all?” How can the church offer a different narrative and speak meaning to such a popular phenomenon?

Vision

Castle“All” is a big word. Well, it’s a small word with big importance. You may be surprised to know that “all” in Greek, the original language of the New Testament, means . . . all. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” is a bold statement. This verse reminds me a picture I used to have on my desk (it’s in a box somewhere, and I hope to find it soon) of Walt Disney walking the barren, swampy land in Orlando. Superimposed in the background is Cinderella Castle. Walt was able to see what others either didn’t or couldn’t.

 

If “all” really means “all,” then Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, helps us accomplish what many can’t even yet envision. This power certainly pertains to living through the midst of trial and hardship. These words also keep us humble in moments of prosperity and abundance. But I like to think of Paul’s words as a challenge. What is Christ calling us to accomplish that isn’t yet clear? What is the vision God is calling us to step out in faith to realize? Can we see a kingdom in the midst of a swamp? In other words, it’s one thing for our mission, worship, and fellowship to offer hospitality and spiritual growth for those who call church home, but is our kingdom work making room for those who haven’t yet found this holy place? Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” What vision is God offering to you?

Beast of Burden

Mockingbird Cover“All God’s creatures have a place in the choir,” as the old Bill Staines song reminds us. The question is, who assigns the part and what song does it sing? Yesterday during General Conference there was a protest on the floor calling attention to oppression, violence, and exclusion, but there was something about it that stirred my soul to ponder my uneasiness. It seems that the black body continues to be a beast of burden for both the right and left politic.

From The Faith of a Mockingbird:

Macomb County was certainly divided along racial lines; but on a person-to-person level, people were relatively civil and peaceful to one another. To Kill a Mockingbird forces us think about how our social systems work and how people work together within those systems. For example, we can compare two very different groups—the choir members of First Purchase AME church and the jury members of Tom Robinson’s trial.

First, let’s consider how a choir does what it does. A choir is a collection of vocalists, each using his or her individual voice for the purpose of sharing music. Individual voices are important, but only as they pertain to the group as a whole. The music isn’t always pretty—sometimes discord is purposefully composed into a piece to give it depth and movement. The most important thing is that the individual voices work together as one entity in order to share what the composer has written. There is a beauty in a choir’s purposeful unity that goes beyond the composed harmony. Individual voices, each with their own gifts, are all pointed in the same direction, which offers us a model of how we should come together in unity as diverse children of God.

Hearing a choir sing can be a profound spiritual experience if all goes well. On the other hand, it can be a rather hellish experience when a choir isn’t unified. A single, overpowering voice can stick out and distract from the harmonies of the whole. Other times the sopranos are flat or the basses forget to count or the altos aren’t loud enough. (I believe tenors are a gift from God—they are never wrong.) In these cases, it’s easy to know when someone misses the mark, but it is much more difficult to know when the pitch of an a cappella choir as a whole begins to bend. If an a cappella choir begins in the key of F, but through the course of an unaccompanied piece they mistakenly modulate to the key of E, it is nearly impossible to be able to tell that they are no longer singing what the composer intended. Neither the choir nor the audience can immediately tell when the choir is missing the mark. The only person who can really tell is the one with the tuning fork.

Humans have a knack for getting slightly out of tune and veering away from what our Composer intended. This is why systematic racism and prejudice can sometimes be difficult for us to see. If we aren’t confronted with these issues in our daily lives, it often becomes hard for us to identify with the injustices of the world. Atticus says to Uncle Jack, “Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving [race] comes up, is something I don’t pretend to understand.”[1] Race wasn’t a divisive issue for Atticus like it was for many of Maycomb’s residents, and so Atticus just couldn’t understand their point of view on this issue. If we already consider ourselves “colorblind,” we may dismiss or have trouble identifying with the reality of racial tensions that still occur in our country today. For example, a 2004 University of Chicago study revealed that when job applicants submitted resumes with culturally white names, they received 50 percent more callbacks for interviews over those with culturally black names.[2] And in a study that looked at public schools during the 2011–2012 academic year, 74 percent of high schools in which blacks and Latinos make up a majority of the student body offer Algebra II, as opposed to 83 percent of schools in which whites are a majority.[3] Countless studies attest to the racial inequalities that subtly (and maybe not so subtly) exist in our country today—not to mention the studies conducted about gender inequality and the other races that fill America’s melting pot.

A choir missing the mark is easy to fix. You stop, wait for the conductor to reestablish the key, and start again. A jury that’s missing the mark is much more difficult to discern and even more difficult to correct. A jury’s job is almost counter to a choir’s job. A choir is given a piece of music with the hope they will sing what is written. A jury is given many notes from many perspectives with the task of putting them together into their version of a song of truth. Individually we can make great strides in reconciling racial tension, but sometimes that can cause us to become blind to the collective bias of our differences on a grand scale (end excerpt).

It seems to me that on the right side of the floor the African Delegation is being used as a bargaining chip of political maneuvering to maintain current Disciplinary language on human sexuality (if not to make the language more clearly defined toward hetero-normative). On the left side of the floor the Black Lives Matter movement was coopted to be a Trojan horse for a Queer demonstration that otherwise might have met great resistance. Sitting from the bleachers I feel as if the black body is being used as a beast of burden to plow someone else’s political field. Certainly the African Delegation is against inclusion and there are people of color fighting for gender and sexual inclusiveness, but there seems to be something terribly amiss.

This is why we need the gospel. The gospel is the piece of music that we are called to sing together. We don’t have to guess and barter and weigh truth—instead it is offered to us in the person of Jesus. Even though by definition a jury is never “wrong,” Tom’s conviction is clearly discordant with the gospel’s melody of justice. His story reminds us that every day we must stop, listen to our Conductor, and sing in tune with God and our neighbor as we work, play, and rest.

[1] Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 1960), chapter 9, page 117.

[2] Marianne Bertrand, “Are Emily and Brendan More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?” Capital Ideas 4, no. 3 (Spring 2003), http://www.chicagobooth.edu/capideas/spring03/racialbias.html.

[3] U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Civil Rights Data Collection: 2011-12, “Data Snapshot: College and Career Readiness” (March 2014), http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/crdc-college-and-career-readiness-snapshot.pdf.

 

Uber Revelation

gc geauxI’ve had an unexpected revelation at General Conference of The United Methodist Church. Psalm 139:14 reminds us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Although this verse is not new to me, I am surprised to see this verse come alive. I would love to say that I had this experience on the plenary floor at General Conference, but the back and forth between “point of order,” “call to question,” and “what are we voting on again,” isn’t a call and response litany lending itself toward spirit-filled transformation.

It may seem simple or ridiculous, but I’ve seen Psalm 139 in the voice of my Uber drivers. Without a car I’ve been dependent on others for transportation, and thankfully the ride-sharing app, Uber, affordably and effectively meets this need.  It’s like calling your friend who happens to be three minutes away to give you a ride, and out of thanks you send her $7 over your cell phone. Each Uber driver has been so unique. Over the last two days I’ve ridden with an Iranian Crossfit instructor, vegan cheese maker, college history professor, woman who refused to see Deadpool because of the language (apparently the violence is permissible), bank teller, first generation Pilipino, and a woman who got yelled at by a drunk guy who refused to get out of the road…and not one of them were United Methodist.

I think all of our delegates should take an Uber ride before voting on legislation, and before the vote we should ponder how our “Yea” or “Nay” will bring his or her Uber rider into communion with Christ. Why would we want to bring them to Christ anyway? In Nazareth Manifesto, Sam Wells writes:

An obvious answer might be, ‘Because those people are going to die, and maybe they’ll go to hell, or oblivion, or nothingness.’ But if one says, ‘And what is so great about going to heaven, then?’ what kind of answer do you get? Heaven is the state of being with God and being with one another and being with the renewed creation. That is to say, heaven is not simply a matter of continued being: what matters is that the continued being is being with. In other words, a heaven that is simply and only about overcoming mortality is an eternal life that is not worth having. It is not worth having because it leaves one alone forever. And being alone forever is not a description of heaven. It is a description of hell (Sam Wells, A Nazareth Manifesto: Being with God, 43).

Jesus saves us from isolation—isolation from God and one another. Could it be that our conferencing, meant to bring us together as peculiar Wesleyan people, has the potential to leave us isolated? It’s all about bringing people to Jesus who helps us fall in love with God and each other. I just pray there’s room for the vegan cheese maker, Iranian Crossfit instructor, bank teller . . .

A Prayerful Mother

mothers day graphicEven though Mother’s Day isn’t mentioned in scripture, this holiday offers us a great opportunity to recognize our mothers, those who were like mothers to us, and the mothers of our faith throughout God’s story. One mother in particular calls me to remember God’s providence, power, humility, and grace.

In 1 Samuel 2, Hannah offers a prayer of thanksgiving to God after her longed-after son, Samuel, is born. She does not pray for Samuel to be a great athlete or leader, or to be the best in his class or a master craftsman. Her prayer is directed to who God is and what God does. She prays:

“He will guard the feet of his faithful ones,
but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness;
for not by might does one prevail” (1 Samuel 2:9).

I encourage you to read the whole prayer when you have a moment, but for now, “Not by might does one prevail,” captures me. Sometimes we think that the way to change the world is through power and control, or we think if we only had the right person in office things would be different. We are quick to equate success with never being in need, or we forget that every “self-made” person was once born from a mother, and was dependent on someone for food, shelter, and care.

If you really want to change the world, rock a baby to sleep. It is an exercise in humility and patience. If you really want to change the world, read a story to a child to stretch her imagination of what’s possible. If you really want to change the world, crouch down, kiss the skinned knee, tell him it will be ok, and mean it. If you really want to change the world, listen to her first heart break, and be there when it happens again.

Changing the world takes humility, patience, kindness, generosity, and the kind of strength that turns the other cheek instead of picking up a weapon. Now, hear me. I am not saying that this is a mother’s job. It’s not the dad’s job to bring power into the equation like a misguided pink and blue Yin-Yang. We are all called to nurture, provide, heal, and listen, but the mothers of our faith—Hannah, Mary, Elizabeth, Miriam, and maybe your own mother, remind us of that calling.

We will not prevail through might, but maybe we will recognize God’s victory through a mother’s prayer of thanksgiving for the child she never thought possible.