#dreamumc

Sometimes the Church is so intent on being the sole bearer of God’s truth, it can throw out the gospel when it is proclaimed back to us by a non-believer.  When John Wesley talked about prevenient grace, he said that there is no person alive who does not have the spark of God’s grace working within them.  Even if a person chooses to never accept God’s full love for them in Christ, that person will never spend a moment in this life completely abandoned from the love of God, for God will always go before them, leading them into God’s love.  This is the hope we have at Christmas time…that this grace which goes before us will truly break our chains, will truly create a brotherhood and sisterhood of humanity where wars cease, ideologies no longer supersede human rights, and community-building is never the result of tearing someone else down.

The first song to be broadcast over radio, O Holy Night, has been a crowd favorite for Celine Dion and Southpark lovers alike.  The song was originally a poem by French wine merchant, Placide Cappeau.  He thought it should be a song, and so he asked his friend, the Jewish composer Adolphe Charles Adams, to create an original tune.  It was first sung in a French congregation on Christmas Eve 1847.  The carol quickly became a French favorite, until the Catholic church discovered that Cappeau had left the faith for socialist philosophy, and Adams had never believed Jesus was the Christ.  The church forbid O Holy Night from being sung in its chapels. However, the people loved it so much they continued to sing it wherever they could.

Eventually, an America abolitionist, John Sullivan Dwight, heard the song and penned an English translation, making it a favorite hymn of the Union during the War of Northern Aggression (that’s what Southerner’s call the Civil War).  There is a legend (almost identical to a legend about Silent Night) in which the French army began singing the song from the trenches, leading to the Germans singing back a Christmas hymn by Martin Luther, leading to 24 hours of peace between the warring armies.  This is supposedly the reason the Church allowed the song to be sung again in its chapels.

In 1906, Reginald Fessenden made the first vocal radio broadcast, reading from the Gospel of Luke and performing O Holy Night on his violin, making it the first song sent by radio waves.

Some people are surprised to find out they are ministers.  Aren’t ministers supposed to wear robes and never have fun and talk an additional ten minutes after they say, “So in conclusion…”???  But the truth is, all baptized believers are ministers.  When you sign up for the church, you commit to represent Christ through service – both in church and in your everyday life.  All Christians are called to discipleship, the ministry of following the God of compassion and justice into the world, of making the invisible love of God visible in our communities, of sharing the word of hope we have in Christ.  Laity (non-clergy) are all of the Christians everywhere, who do the work of the church and are equipped by the clergy who lead the charge.  As the body of Christ, we together follow Jesus into the world.

Most denominations (but not all) set aside certain members to help focus the ministries.  These people are ordained after demonstrating a personal call to this serve the church in this way, as well as the approval and authorization of the larger church body.  Deacon and Elder are terms taken from the New Testament to describe people in these positions of ministry leadership.  Not all ordinations ordain deacons (Baptists for example), and some ordain deacons only for a period of time, before they become elders.  In The United Methodist Church, deacons and elders are both orders of ordained clergy with different roles.  This denomination has rigorous requirements for ordination, including seminary and lengthy periods of discernment with the community that involve intensive paper-writing to answer questions set in the Book of Discipline regarding theology, call, and practices of ministry.

I’ll explain the orders, but get ready to be confused…  Elders, Deacons and Local Pastors have a common calling to lead the church in proclaiming the Word through preaching and teaching, and in biblical Service of sacrificial love for all.

Each has distinctive callings as well…  Elders are also ordained to administer the Sacraments of Holy Communion & baptism, and to Order the structures and worship life of the church on the local and denominational levels.  Elders are typically understood to be pastors of churches.  Elders are appointed by the Bishop (an elder who has been specially chosen to order an entire conference of the denomination), and elders go where they are sent.  This is called itinerant ministry.  

Along with Word & Service, deacons are additionally ordained to ensure ministries of Compassion, and of Justice that build bridges between the church and world.  Deacons are typically understood to be in specialized ministries, within the congregation as ministers to youth, children, music, or missions, and outside of the congregation in almost any job where they can bring theological depth and raise issues of compassion and justice in the world.  Deacons are also appointed by the Bishop, but they are required to find their own employment and then ensure it meets the Bishop’s approval.

Licensed Local Pastors (LLP’s) are not ordained.  Early in the Methodist movement, John Wesley broke the rules (so to speak) by ordaining men (when he had no authority to do so) in order to ensure the sacraments could be provided to Methodists in America.  LLP’s break the rules (so to speak) in that they are granted special permission to administer the sacraments in the church where they serve.  LLP’s are often bivocational or second-career ministers, typically serving in small rural congregations that cannot afford the salary requirements of an elder.  They are appointed by the Bishop, are not guaranteed employment by the church, and only have sacramental authority in the location they are appointed.

So that’s what it looks like on paper, but the reality is that our denomination is remarkably inconsistent in implementation. You have ordained elders serving in roles that would best be defined as deacons (i.e. chaplains, campus ministers, seminary professors and administrators, even many Associate Pastors are so specialized that what they are doing looks like deacon’s work).  These are called “extension ministries,” and I believe this provision makes absolutely no sense if you are going to ordain deacons.  You have deacons not being hired for jobs (like chaplains or campus ministers) because they don’t have sacramental authority, and deacons whose work in the local church begins to look so much like an Associate Pastor that it becomes difficult to distinguish them from an elder.  You have LLP’s appointed to large congregations with a large staff, hardly extraordinary circumstances that would require sacramental authority, especially when an LLP is working alongside a deacon and elder at the same church.

There is a gap between our theology and practice of ministry as a denomination that will most likely never be solved.  Instead of head-butting and struggling against one another, the deacon in me says, “Let’s build bridges and work together…let’s be the body of Christ for the world.”

Today’s reading is Malachi 3.  While this chapter is overflowing with substance for discussion and thought provocation, the part that always captures my attention is

Will anyone rob God?

In context, this question is about robbing God by denying the tithe. We rob God when we decline to participate in God’s ordained pattern of support for ministry and aid in fighting selfishness and materialism.

About a month ago we started offering a GPS in our weekly worship guide.  GPS stands for “Grow, Pray, Study.”

Today’s scripture reading is Philippians 2.  I preached on a passage from this chapter yesterday, but today, reading the entire chapter, it got real for me as a reader and student of the bible, not just as a preacher.

This is what really caught me this morning: Philippians 2:13 says

God…

Can you retire from discipleship?  After years in ministry, I’ve seen a phenomenon of active parents disappearing from the church after their kids go to college.  I’ve seen older adults whose primary involvement in the church is to take field trips and bring in speakers to talk about special interests that have nothing to do with spiritual development.  There’s a mentality of we’ve heard it all, we’ve done it all, now it’s time to kick back and enjoy ourselves.  In Christian theology, the Antinomian (Auntie Gnomey-Anne) is the one who puts so much emphasis on freedom in Christ that they throw out the call to follow Christ in obedient discipleship.  It’s important to take Sabbath, it’s important to allow others to love and care for you, but the Christian faith has never allowed for a permanent retreat from works of piety (loving God) and works of mercy (loving others).

In the 1730’s, John and Charles Wesley found that some of their Methodists were becoming still.  The Stillness Movement was an antinomian idea that we should not worship, pray, read scripture, or even do good works to others because we would think that our good deeds saved us instead of God’s grace.  It’s pretty counter-intuitive to the scripture that asks, “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  By no means!” (Rom. 6:1).  This is not the exact attitude of those who would retire from discipleship today, but the effect is the same…good works of discipleship are seen as a burden to be freed from instead of a gift from God we are set free to enjoy.

Charles said of these people, “Many here insist that a part of their Christian calling is liberty from obeying, not liberty to obey.  The justified, say they, are to be still; that is, not to search the scriptures, not to pray, not to [take communion], not to do good, not to endeavor, not to desire; for it is impossible to use the means [of grace] without trusting them.  Their practice is agreeable to their principles.  Lazy and proud themselves, bitter and censorious towards others, they trample upon the ordinances and despise the commands of Christ.  I see no middle ground whereupon we can meet.”

This is no surprise to any who know me, but I sometimes slip into cynicism.  Though I have worked hard on this over the last decade, and I think I’ve improved (by that I mean I display less cynicism), but I still have work to do.

One of the things that brings out my cynicism the most is Annual Conference (AC). Because this year’s AC begins this Sunday evening, I have been giving thought to both…