Special to United Methodist Insight
The poet T. S. Eliot once said there are three things worth writing about: sex, politics, and theology. I have given some thought to this as part of my prayers for the forthcoming General Conference Sessions.
Sex, as I have experienced it, is a most wondrous biological gift, a divine mystery, and the most private part of my life. In our beginnings we had no control over who we might be as sexual beings. It simply was a happening, not a learned behavior, it is what it is. And it should be the most private form of revelation that can happen between persons. Some would tie sex to a chair and beat a confession or definition out of it with a rubber hose. “Lord have mercy!”
Wonky Donkey
Politics: A cynical friend told me that on the first day of creation two creatures met on the edge of the jungle, once and for all to decide who would be the dinner and who the diner. But a Methodist view of politics, or political-ness, is the way we order our lives to be with each other in community. Good politics assumes that both the weak and the strong have obligations to be with each other. Walter Brueggemann reminds us of how many times the little word “with” is used in scripture. Adam is with Eve, not above or below but in relationship. This little word is used always to allow equal relationships. It’s bit like saying Emmanuel, God with us now, not above, but with. The right politics turns our relationships into neighborliness. Indeed we will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand, armed with Paul’s great ingredients of faith, hope and love, with love winning the day.
Theology is the discovery and naming of the mystery that gives us life. Actually we do not find God, God finds us! And I know there is one closer to me than I am to myself. In this one we live and move and have our being. When I learned to focus on Jesus, the divine mystery was revealed to me. Jesus is the focal point that allows me to see and to know the goodness and mercy of God in all of creation—in every soul. Indeed, in Jesus I discover that my life is incomplete without persons to share life with. Theology is a way of seeing, of knowing, a relational way of being in the world with self and others.
The forthcoming General Conference will be a test of our maturity in such faith.
In my preparing for this event, as an 85-year-old has-been pastor, I have tried to honor our Bishop’s request that we pray daily to be led well—and Bishop, I have been doing just that! Our delegation is split 50/50.
Two bits of poetry have helped me a bit, both to get well and to hope. One is that word from the Psalmist, reminding us that “the one who sits in the heavens sits and laughs.”
The Wonky Donkey. My perverse side kicks in and I wonder how to avoid the HEE HAW in St. Louis.
“…I was walking down the road
And I saw a donkey,
HEE HAW!
He only had three legs,
one eye,
he liked to listen to country music,
he was quite tall and slim,
he smelt really, really bad,
and that morning he’d got up early
and hadn’t had any coffee.
He was a cranky
Stinky-dinky lanky
honky-tonky
winky wonky donkey…
HEE HAW!”*
Somehow this little book, now also put to music, came along just in time to say, let’s manage to keep our sense of humor alive-- without making complete bleeps (donkeys) out of ourselves.
I will not see you in St. Louis—but I know you will avoid the HEE HAW and make us proud.
Grace and Peace,
Bill Cotton.
*The Wonky Donkey, Words and Music by Craig Smith, Illustrations by Katz Cowley, Scholastic, Inc., 2009. Get this book.!