[Luke 9:35,36]
This was my 13th General Conference as a delegate or a bishop. The first was 50 years ago in May 1968, when our United Methodist Church was born. The vivid memory of that day haunted and blest me while I was in St. Louis. “Lord of the Church, we are united in Thee, in each other, and now in the United Methodist Church.”
I stand today between that memory and an anticipation. Two weeks from today, his grandfather and his pastor and I will baptize our great-grandson, Thatcher William Frankenberry.
In the liturgy of baptism a question is asked and the family will answer it for Thatcher who will later answer if for himself. “Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice and oppression in whatever form they present themselves?”
Evil, injustice and oppression have invaded the church, and this is not the first time. At the Christmas Conference in 1784 when the Methodist Episcopal Church was born, a question was asked and answered. “Why has God let loose the Methodist preachers on the continent of North America? To reform the continent BEGINNING WITH THE CHURCH and to spread Scriptural Holiness over the land.” That was our first mission statement brought from Wesley and the Methodists in England.
Beginning with the church indeed!
Our church again has an infection, but the spirituality of Methodists all over the world to follow Wesley’s General Rules, has injected an antibiotic and is already bringing healing. “Do no harm, do all the good you can and stay in love was God.”
Signs of healing:
1. 15,000 United Methodists under 35 years of age signed a petition in one night and presented it to the General Conference, pleading for inclusion.
2. Thousands of gay and lesbian United Methodists have said, “We are not going anywhere.”
3. 300 United Methodist pastors in the North Georgia Conference, with their bishop, put a paid ad in the Atlanta newspaper today, apologizing to our LGBTQI brothers and sisters for the harm done to them by our church.
4. This old bishop has been concerned about young clergy many of whom I have ordained. But they have been checking on me all week to be sure that I am ok. I have been concerned about them. They have been concerned about me.
Fifty years from now when our United Methodist Church is 100 years old or has been drawn into unity with others, our great grandson Thatcher,, God willing, will be 50 years old. Whatever sexual identity God has given him, I pray that he will be living out his baptism as a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.
As part of what the Letter to the Hebrews calls the Great Cloud of Witnesses, his Great Grandmother, (now called Greaty by Thatcher’s sister Julia], and I will be watching from the balcony, and to quote Julian of Norwich, “All will be well and all will be well and all things will be well.”
Whenever a Methodist Annual Conference gathers, we sing Charles Wesley’s Conference hymn. My eyes mist every time I sing it. I am singing it now with misty eyes.
“And are we yet alive, and see each other’s face?
Glory and praise to Jesus give for his almighty grace!
What troubles have we seen, what mighty conflicts past,
Fightings without and fears within, since we assembled last!
Yet our of all the Lord hath brought us by his love;
And still he doth his help afford and hides our love above.
Then let us make our boast in his redeeming power, which saves us to the uttermost, till we can sin no more. [UMH #553]
“When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone." [Luke 9:36]