Striking Down DOMA Is a Landmark, Not a Destination

Today the Supreme Court has taken a giant step towards equality by striking down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). This is truly a landmark case. It is likely the turning of the tide towards legalization of same-sex marriage in more and more states (though it's important to remember that it does NOT change marriage laws in states that have not legalized it). But we must remember two important points today.

1. History teaches us that laws change some minds but not all minds. This very week a celebrity chef has lost her job because of allegedly racist comments and Marissa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo, was subjected to sexist comments at a shareholders' meeting. The civil rights movement was supposed to change these kinds of things. Progress has been made, but clearly much work remains to be done. Similarly, striking down DOMA is a landmark but not a final destination.

2. The DOMA decision is a secular decision, not a Christian decision. The law of Christ (to love God with our whole being and to love others as ourselves) is not the same thing as the law of the land. Even when (and I hope it's a when not if) the laws of all states are changed to recognize full equality our churches will still have to wrestle with what God and the Bible say.

As a Christian who supports full inclusion, I believe today should be a day for celebration. Tomorrow should be a day to get back to work. For perhaps the first time in western history, the faith community as a whole is far behind the world around us in treating all people as sisters and brothers with the same rights. We have a lot of catching up to do. As a faith community, the Supreme Court decision should remind us of how much work there is to do and also give us confidence that progress can continue to be made.

Schism? Why bother?

Let me get right to the bottom line. If the United Methodist Church is going to break in half we better do it for the right reason. LGBT equality is not it. We've disagreed on this ever since the word "homosexual" first made it into the Book of Discipline in 1972. I don't see any reason why we should split now more than 30 years after that fight began.

Biblical authority is not it. I'm working on a post now that shows how this is a strawman. Short version: We all agree that the Bible is authoritative. Our disagreement is about how the Bible is authoritative.

Use of the Quadrilateral is not it. We've misunderstood and misused it almost from the moment Outler started talking about it.

I'm convinced that the core problem in the UMC right now is one of identity. We don't know who we are. If you were to ask 100 United Methodists why they are United Methodists instead of, say, Lutherans, I bet you'd get at least 75 different answers. Adoption of a purpose statement helps, but when that statement is so broad that it can serve as a statement for any Christian church (at least I hope the Great Commission could be adopted by any Christian church) it doesn't help much. to be United Methodist should mean something besides simply being Christian. But what is it?

I don't agree with them on much, but the Confessing Movement is right - we need a confession of faith. We need a statement that says what is at the core of what Methodists believe. We need a method of adopting such a confession at General Conference by a supermajority (say, 75%) so that it is broad enough that no one group can control the content. It should be voted on line by line, point by point, so that no single issue causes a whole group to vote it down. It should be a very short confession, at least in my opinion, exemplifying Wesley's "Catholic Spirit". And it should be in the Constitution so that changing it after it is adopted is possible but extremely difficult.

If we adopt a confession and a group within the UMC can't sign off on it then we should split. Then we would be splitting for the right reason - because we have fundamental differences of opinion that prevent us from working together for the glory of God. I am fully convinced that we do not have such fundamental differences of opinion. We have a lot of loud voices that have stopped listening to each other and would rather be right than work towards solutions.

The Bible and Homosexuality

I would like to look in greater detail at a whole number of issues that I don't have the time to do right now. I hope to do so later either on this blog or a new one that I'm planning that will address issues of the greater church. For now, please consider the following links to resources that I've found helpful. Some may be helpful for you too.

You will find my sermon at stpaulslenexa.org/media.

A great place to start is Religioustolerance.com. The authors definitely have their own point of view, but they really do strive to present multiple sides to the same issue.

Matthew Vines is the nephew of one of our church members. He also just so happens to be an incredibly well researched and articulate speaker on the subject. His YouTube video of a presentation he made at a United Methodist Church in Wichita went viral and sparked the formation of his own website and non-profit.

Paul Among the People is an outstanding book by Sarah Ruden. Ruden is a classics scholar who brings her understanding of ancient Greek literature to bear on what Paul said to the first readers of his letters. Her focus is Paul, not specifically the Bible and Homosexuality, but her chapter on this topic is fantastic.

Adam Hamilton, pastor at Church of the Resurrection, delivered a great sermon last fall. He comes from a slightly different perspective than I do. The sermon is 45 minutes so he has a chance to share stories of church members and to get more specific than I have with particular passages of Scripture.

There are many, many more wonderful resources. Please feel free to share them in the comments are email me.

The Easter Story Continues

Just for fun, here's a link to the whole Chicken Lickin' Dog story. The storyteller in this video is not the friend of my parents that I referenced, but she does a pretty good crying dog!

Now to some more serious stuff. Below, from the Common English Bible, is the shorter and then longer endings of Mark.

[⁹ They promptly reported all of the young man’s instructions to those who were with Peter. Afterward, through the work of his disciples, Jesus sent out, from the east to the west, the sacred and undying message of eternal salvation. Amen. ]

You can hear in this passage echoes of the Great Commission from Matthew 28. It's a post-resurrection explanation of how Christianity spread throughout the known world.


[[⁹ After Jesus rose up early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. ¹⁰ She went and reported to the ones who had been with him, who were mourning and weeping. ¹¹ But even after they heard the news, they didn’t believe that Jesus was alive and that Mary had seen him.
¹² After that he appeared in a different form to two of them who were walking along in the countryside. ¹³ When they returned, they reported it to the others, but they didn’t believe them. ¹⁴ Finally he appeared to the eleven while they were eating. Jesus criticized their unbelief and stubbornness because they didn’t believe those who saw him after he was raised up. ¹⁵ He said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the good news to every creature. ¹⁶ Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever doesn’t believe will be condemned. ¹⁷ These signs will be associated with those who believe: they will throw out demons in my name. They will speak in new languages. ¹⁸ They will pick up snakes with their hands. If they drink anything poisonous, it will not hurt them. They will place their hands on the sick, and they will get well.”
¹⁹ After the Lord Jesus spoke to them, he was lifted up into heaven and sat down on the right side of God. ²⁰ But they went out and proclaimed the message everywhere. The Lord worked with them, confirming the word by the signs associated with them.]]

Here in the longer ending we see allusions to other stories from Matthew, Luke, and John. The doubt in verse 11 parallels the doubt in Luke 24:11. Mark 16:12 parallels Luke 24:13-34, the story of the journey to Emmaus. Verse 14 parallels John's story of the disciples gathered together in the Upper Room. 15-1 again parallels the Great Commission. 17-18 could be a  reference to Acts 28:4-5, which was written by the same author as Luke's Gospel. Finally Mark 16:19-20 parallels Jesus' ascension, which is told briefly at the end of Matthew and more fully in Acts 1.
 

Cleansing the Temple

Our challenge question today was "What clutter do you need to remove from your life to renew your relationship with God?" Just like we sometimes need to clean up the house, we also need to clean up our hearts. Lent is the perfect time to do just that.

As a church, rewriting our Mission Statement was one way of remembering how important our relationship with God is. Here's a sneak peak of language that will go on our website later this week about the mission statement: 

The mission of St. Paul’s UMC is to LOVE God and all others unconditionally, SEEK answers to our questions, and SERVE God by serving others.

This is not a mission focused on a task to be completed. It is focused on a culture that we hope to live out. We believe that as we live out this mission we begin to see the Kingdom of God break out among us. So how do we live out the mission?

LOVE – As reflected in our Welcome Statement, Love, hospitality, and welcome are primary virtues that we believe in. We affirm the Scriptural witness that Love is central to God’s identity (1 John 4:16) and to how God calls us to live (Matthew 22:38-40). We like to talk about Sundays at St. Paul’s as a family reunion. We are a large enough church that we don’t all know each other by face or name, but we do know that we all belong. When you come to St. Paul’s you become part of the family. You will be nurtured and supported in good times and bad times.

SEEK – If you have questions about faith and life then this may be the church for you. If you already have all the answers it probably isn’t the right place for you. We see ourselves as seekers on a journey. Christianity is more about the journey than the destination. So we seek! You’ll find this true in our adult Sunday School classes and evening small groups that ask questions not only about the Bible but also about current world events and faithful living in a changing world. You’ll also find this in Sunday morning worship. We don’t just ask what the Bible meant 2,000 years ago. We explore what it means for life today. Sometimes we come away with new insights, sometimes we come away with even more questions. In either case we know that our opinions are respected and that we are welcome to continue on the journey together!

SERVE – You will find St. Paul’s members all over Kansas City serving God by serving others. We regularly participate in serving meals, collecting food and other donations, working on Habitat for Humanity houses, giving blood, and helping the homeless. You will also find us outside of Kansas City on mission trips (generally 4 a year including 2 youth trips and 1 international trip).Those are just some of the ministries that we sponsor. We also encourage our members to serve on their own. We understand that God uses many tools to change the world. We are just one of them.

Practicing Patience

As I was preparing this week's message on the discipline of patience I had to learn patience myself! I started in an entirely different direction and ended up reworking and reworking all the way up until 8:00 Sunday morning. Part of my problem was that I kept rushing to the Easter story. But then I wouldn't be practicing the patience I was preaching about!

If you're at a time in life where patience is hard, you might look at this video. It's not about patience, it's about Good Friday and Easter. It's a good reminder, though, that in all of our trials and tribulations something better is on the way.

If you'd like to see a longer version of the Marshmallow Test video look here. And here's the link to the Wikipedia entry on the test.

If you weren't in worship, you can find the audio online here. And a reminder of this week's question: "Just as Jesus showed us patience and discipline in waiting, we should try to be more patient as well. In what part of life must you learn to be more patient?"

Jesus the Healer

The Choir's anthem at 11:00 worship was Fanny Crosby's wonderful hymn Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior. The lyrics are below.

As you read the lyrics, I encourage you to imagine yourself as one of the lepers that Jesus healed (Luke 17:11-19). What would you do after the healing? How do you respond in real life when you sense God working for good in your life? Then imagine one of the "untouchables" in your life as the one crying out to Jesus. Remember that as Jesus reached out to the lepers, Jesus wants us to reach out to all people.

 

Pass me not, O gentle Savior,
Hear my humble cry;
While on others Thou art calling,
Do not pass me by.

 

Refrain:
Savior, Savior,
Hear my humble cry,
While on others Thou art calling,
Do not pass me by.

 

Let me at Thy throne of mercy
Find a sweet relief;
Kneeling there in deep contrition,
Help my unbelief.

Trusting only in Thy merit,
Would I seek Thy face;
Heal my wounded, broken spirit,
Save me by Thy grace.

Thou the spring of all my comfort,
More than life to me,
Whom have I on earth beside Thee,
Whom in Heav’n but Thee.