Without apology I am a Methodist, a United Methodist, that is, since 1968. Some years ago Ben Garrison wrote a book on this same theme. He titled it: The Methodist Church, Warts and All. The title doesn't need much explanation. Ben knew the church he loved wasn't perfect. He loved it anyway. So do I.
Ever since those two sweet old ladies (Carmen Pernell and Letha Ledbetter) gathered us all on Sunday morning in the church basement and taught us to sing “Climb, climb, up sunshine mountain, faces all aglow . . .” I have loved the Methodist Church. Beyond the world of our small nuclear “Methodist” family the Methodist Church has been the community of grace that shaped my life. It is a home to me and I love it.
“Let me count the ways,” sings the old love song. When I think of all the ways the Methodist Church has blessed my life it becomes the lead in to a “Litany of Praise.” The Methodist Church taught me that God “first loved me” and that I should love everybody. The first of these two precepts has been easier for me than the latter. God loves me unconditionally and I love him back (I know God may be more of a her than a him). It's harder to love everybody. Some people are easier to love than others.
I have to pray a lot about loving everybody. Some folks just make me mad and I know it is a sin for me to feel the way I do about them, so I have to pray about it and work at it. Today I'm thinking about the people who do not love the United Methodist Church, and I really do have to pray a lot for forgiveness about the way I feel about them.
They call themselves the Good News movement but they dwell on the bad news. They say they are the Confessing church but they act more like a criticizing (“nitpicking”) crowd. They have created an Institute for Religion and Democracy but they give religion a bad name and undermine the democracy – electing corrupt leaders. Now they come in the form of a misnamed Wesleyan Covenant Association to reform, renew, and save the United Methodist Church. They want to fix us.
Forgive me Lord, but I don't believe them. I am praying that you will forgive me for the way I feel about them. Forgive me for repeating myself. They will be offended by my prayers and maybe rightfully so. What they call reform seems more like an assault to me. They attack, attack, attack. What they call renew seems more like resistance to change, fear of the other and the unfamiliar, and nostalgia for the “good old days” that never were and never will be again. I think they are reactionary. It looks to me more like they want to steal the United Methodist Church than to save it.
Its harder to like people who don't like you. (I realize you know more about that than I do, Jesus). I am a bishop and a progressive. I have heard them bash bishops with my own ears. They say they love their bishop, and it seems to me like they have some skin in that game, but in their gatherings,they really do demonize most bishops. I have been there and heard them do it. It hurts because “I are one.” And I have so many friends and colleagues who are bishops. I love them (the other bishops) a lot. (Is there something wrong with me?) They seem more gentle and kind, and more learned and wise (except for me) than the people who are attacking them.
I am a progressive. (I usually, though not always, vote for Democrats.) The WCA people really don't like “progressives” and they say it a lot. I know, Lord, that they are talking about “liberal” theology when they dwell on the evil of us “progressives.” They talk a lot about “orthodoxy” and church history (“tradition” is the word they like), but I'm not impressed with how much most of them seem to know about either subject.
I know I shouldn't dwell on this. It isn't healthy. But there is a meeting coming up across the river from my home and the folks who don't love the United Methodist Church the way I do are on the warpath. They think they are more truly Methodist than I am and will resent everything I'm saying. I shouldn't blame them. I don't like what they say either.They have a funny way of showing their love for The United Methodist Church. They are more loyal to the WCA than they are to the church I love.
Forgive them, Lord. Forgive me, Lord. I want to get past the way I feel about this. I'm trying to love everybody. Its hard, Lord.
I hope they sing, “Shall We Gather at the River.” Real Methodists love that song.