Exploring how our Methodist history informs who we are and what we might become was a "new thing" for me.  Now other new things call:  an upcoming trip to Israel, and then a Leave of Absence from Epworth which will allow me to fill the pulpit at St. Paul's United Methodist Church from July 1 to September 30.  So, this blog will be taking a Leave of Absence as well.   

I hope you will continue to reflect on how the past shapes our present and our future, and I pray that the Holy Spirit will keep your eyes and heart open to the new things that God is doing in and through you, for the transformation of the world.

Grace and Peace–
Pastor Carol

On April 23, 1968, the United Methodist Church (UMC) was created by the union of the Evangelical United Brethren (EUB) and the Methodist Church.  The questions asked by the bodies formulating the Plan of Union had everything to do with how we would live faithful lives together.  They covered a multitude of organizational and ethical concerns—most importantly, how to address the racism enshrined in the Methodist Church’s jurisdictional structure.

The Central Jurisdiction was created in 1939 to avoid disunity in the church over race and was rightfully a major concern prior to the Uniting Conference.  Unfortunately, the Plan of Union did not erase the tarnish of hypocrisy that accompanied that institutionalized racism.  This week—just past our 44th anniversary—at the 2012 UMC General Conference, delegates are again addressing questions both organizational and ethical.

As in the past, contentious issues bring the threat of disunity.  We would do well to remember these words written prior to the Uniting Conference of 1968:  “When you postpone doing the right thing, you only make it more difficult to do it later. . . .To those who contend that to try to do more now would be to divide the church, it is appropriate to reply: ‘It would do no such thing. It would reveal a division which already exists.’ Disunity is deplorable but hypocrisy is disastrous. And if we institutionally assent to what we individually deplore, we are guilty of hypocrisy.”[1]  Only by upholding Christ’s promise of freedom and full humanity for all can we avoid that hypocrisy and live lives worthy of the Gospel.

 To think about:  What does a life worthy of Christ’s gospel look like?

Holy Week provides many opportunities for quiet, meditative worship.  Solemn Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Vigil services underscore the nature of the events at their center.  Easter Sunrise services reflect the quiet waking of the world, with gradually growing light and birdsong.  These are in marked contrast to the wild and boisterous camp meetings of Methodism’s past.

Camp meetings met the needs of far-flung frontier Methodist societies.  Several days of passionate preaching, fervent singing, and heart-felt testimonials raised emotion to a fever pitch.  Sinners were convinced of their souls’ mortal danger and the already converted were bolstered in their faithfulness. An observer said of one meeting that “men roared and bawled, women squealed like pigs about to be killed; many, having fallen into convulsions, leaped and struck about them.”[1]

In the 1800s, the desire for respectability and settled faith communities with resident preachers began to take a toll on camp meetings and their emotional outpourings.  Lorenzo Dow offered a more sinister explanation, charging that as some Methodists became more affluent, they were unwilling to associate with the poor and ordinary people who attended the camp meetings.[2]  As Methodism gained a more settled nature, its worship, too, became more formal.

For many United Methodists, Holy Week offers expanded opportunities for corporate worship.  Some churches hold daily services, including Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil, and Easter Sunrise observances, bracketed by traditional Palm Sunday and Easter celebrations.

In the Methodist tradition, corporate worship—from meeting in small groups to engaging in boisterous camp meetings—is both a means of grace (which reveals God’s grace to us) and an act of piety (through which we show our reverent love for God).  John Wesley insisted that God has required it.  As his “General Rules” state, “[Methodists] should continue to evidence their desire of salvation . . . by attending upon all the ordinances of God [such as] the public worship of God.”[1]

“But,” some say, “I can worship while walking in the woods (or on the golf course) or praying at home (or watching a televangelist).  It’s what’s in my heart that matters.”  Wesley acknowledged that “we need daily to retire from the world . . . to converse with God.”[2]  He agreed that “the root of religion lies in the heart.”[3]  But this does not negate the need for corporate worship.  “[Christianity] is essentially a social religion . . . to turn this religion into a solitary one is to destroy it,” Wesley argued.[4]

We use the word “corporate” (from the Latin word corpus or “body”) for a reason.  When we worship together we bring together the Body of Christ.  United Methodists must treat corporate worship as nothing less than this, and we must continue to build on our heritage of worshiping together.

To think about:  Why should you be part of the worshiping community?

What is your reaction when you see a new song listed in the bulletin—a smile or a groan?  Do you miss the old hymns or long for more contemporary sounds?  Music is so important to our definition of worship that “hymn wars” can result as factions lobby for their favored style.  But congregational singing didn’t always occupy the revered place in worship that it now does.

John and Charles Wesley were great believers in hymns as a powerful means by which worshipers could both learn theology and express their faith.  Charles Wesley wrote hundreds of hymns for children and adults.  The order of one collection mirrored the phases of the believer’s faith journey.  Another was devoted solely to Communion hymns.  John Wesley rejected complicated tunes and “formality,” but he expected congregations to follow his “Directions for Singing.”[1] Fervent Methodist hymn singing had its detractors, however; some felt it was “music of the ‘common sort,’ not entirely suitable for the worship of Almighty God.”[2] Sound familiar?

Today, music in many styles remains an important part of United Methodist worship.  Our body of worship music continues to grow and change as the church becomes more global in scope and incorporates new social influences.  While we should treasure and continue to sing our traditional hymns, we should also be open to new songs.   We should embrace them as the growing edge of our tradition, remembering that the hymns we now consider part of our heritage were new and different when the Wesleys introduced them to 18th century England.

To think about:  How can you support the inclusion of new music in worship?

1.  Bensalem United Methodist Church, “Wesley’s Directions for Singing,” The General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church, http://www.gbgm-umc.org/BensalemPA/wesley.html (accessed March 28, 2012).
2. Kenneth Cracknell and Susan J. White, An Introduction to World Methodism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 185.

The need for affordable health care, especially among the poor, is not a new problem.  John Wesley addressed this issue in innovative ways in the 1700s.

While the few trained British doctors attended only wealthy patients, Wesley set out to provide health care for the poor.[1] He established medical clinics and dispensaries.  He wrote a home health care guide.[2] He advocated for preventive measures in diet and exercise that sound surprisingly contemporary.[3] And he urged Methodists to personally visit and tend to the sick.[4]

“Health care is a basic human right,” according to the UMC.[5] The 2008 Book of Resolutions devotes many pages to the topic.  In 2009, the John 10:10 Challenge provided ways to advocate for health care reform.[6] The 2012 General Conference will consider numerous petitions related to domestic and global health issues.

But Wesley would say that these initiatives do not relieve individuals of their responsibility to personally visit the sick, as Jesus says we ought (Matt 25:36 NRSV).  Even when health care is provided for all, Jesus’ instruction will stand.  As we press for systemic change, United Methodists must also serve individually as agents of physical and spiritual healing.

To think about:  How can you personally minister to the sick?

[1] Rebecca Hug, “Methodist Medicine: Wesley’s Advice on Health and Wellness,” http://my.brainshark.com/DS-Powerpoint-42172653 (accessed March 20, 2012).
[2] Richard P. Heitzenrater, Wesley and the People Called Methodists (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), 167.
[3] Hug, “Methodist Medicine.”
[4] Wesley Center Online, “The Sermons of John Wesley: ‘On Visiting the Sick,’” Sermon 98, III, Northwest Nazarene University, http://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley/the-sermons-of-john-wesley-1872-edition/sermon-98-on-visiting-the-sick (accesses March 21, 2012).
[5] The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church 2008, ¶162.V (Nashville: United Methodist Publishing House, 2008), 117-118.
[6] General Board of Church and Society, “John 10:10 Challenge,” The United Methodist Church, http://www.umc-gbcs.org/site/apps/nlnet/content.aspx?c=frLJK2PKLqF&b=5339487&ct=7244831 (accessed March 21, 2012).

We champion the separation of church and state.  We should not discuss politics and religion in polite society.  From these notions, we get the erroneous idea that political action doesn’t belong in church.  In fact, that is precisely where it belongs.

Early on, Christianity was an anti-imperial movement.  Its insistence on worshiping the One God (defying emperor worship), sharing resources (short-circuiting the Roman patronage system), and proclaiming a coming “regime change” were all stands against the prevailing social and political culture.[1] The church today is called to this counter-cultural role as well, especially when the poor are sacrificed to a mistaken notion of liberty.  John Wesley understood liberty as an expression of the image of God in each person.  This was the basis of his political ethic founded on the values of human rights, especially for the poor.[2]

As our country focuses on the presidential primaries, the United Methodist Church and each of us who are members of it have the responsibility and privilege to be active and critical witnesses for God’s kingdom.  We must test each candidate’s proposals by asking the two questions Wesley posed of all public policies and political systems:  “What is the consequence for the poor?” and “What is the consequence for human rights?”[3] If proposed policies will not ensure human rights and dignity for the least of us, the Church (and each member) must be a bold and prophetic voice against those policies, from the pulpit and from the ballot box.

To think about:  How can the United Methodist Church best address today’s political issues?

[1] Harvey Cox, The Future of Faith (New York: Harper One, 2009), 69-70.
[2] Theodore Jennings, Good News to the Poor: John Wesley’s Evangelical Economics (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1990), 219.
[3] Ibid., 221.

A new study shows that novelty-seeking behavior is not the problem researchers once thought, if it is combined with “persistence and a sense that it’s not all about you.”[1]

John Wesley warned against the craving for new things—what he called “the desire of the eye.”  He cautioned that our desire for novelty can never be satisfied, no matter how often we indulge it.[2] Indulgent spending is the same as throwing money into the sea, he said.[3] Spending money on wants rather than needs is the same as robbing the poor of the resources God gave each of us to use according to God’s purposes. Novelty-seeking can cause us to sin when we use our money simply to indulge our desire for something new rather than advancing God’s desires for the world.

But the new research says that when novelty-seeking is combined with persistence and “self-transcendence,” a greater connection to creation and humanity is forged and, with it, the ability to balance one’s needs with the needs of others.[4] When today’s United Methodist churches invest money in new technology, worship spaces, and programs, we need to ask where we fall on the novelty-seeking scale: are we just satisfying our “desire of the eye” or truly using God’s resources as God intends?  As individuals, we need to ask ourselves the same hard questions before we buy the hottest game, latest gadget, or newest fashions.  Only when that “something new” contributes to the building of God’s kingdom are we being responsible stewards of all that is God’s.

To think about:  How can I begin to decrease my spending on “desires of the eye”?

[1] John Tierney, “What’s New?  Exuberance for Novelty has Benefits,” The New York Times Company, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/science/novelty-seeking-neophilia-can-be-a-predictor-of-well-being.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=neophilia&st=cse (accessed March 7, 2012).
[2] General Board of Global Ministries, “The Sermons of John Wesley: ‘Original Sin,’” Sermon 44, II.10, The United Methodist Church, http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/sermons/44/ (accessed March 7, 2010).
[3] General Board of Global Ministries, “The Sermons of John Wesley: ‘The Use of Money,’” Sermon 50, II.1, The United Methodist Church, http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/sermons/50/ (accessed March 7, 2010).
[4] Tierney, “What’s New?”