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Wednesday, May 25, 2005
The Big Tent of The United Methodist Faith
By Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz
Ephesians 4:4-7, 11-12
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. 7 But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift.
11 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ
I had a wonderful conversation with one of our new families a couple of weeks ago in the foyer on a weekday. These folks were one of the 460 families who have been giving our church a try in the past twelve weeks we have been in our building.
We greeted each other in the foyer as they were on the way to have their pictures made and the fellow said they had been coming here recently and were enjoying the church. He said they are planning on attending our May new member sessions soon. And then he gave us one of the most profound compliments we can ever be given as a church.
He said he really likes this church and he does not always agree with everything he hears when he comes here. And he is planning on joining.
I told him that it was a good thing that he has differences at time with what he hears in church because otherwise it would be boring, and that we do not expect every person to think the same way on every issue.
In fact, that is one of the characteristics of being United Methodist—that we are able to disagree and stay together at the table. We expect each other to think and to let think.
We have a group of new members joining us today and with this group, our total of new members after twelve weeks in our new building will be 97 new members. That is another record for us as we continue to reach out to new people and invite them to consider Christ and this community of Christ.
In those membership information sessions we never say that here are the things you are required to believe and think as a Methodist Christian. We do say, here is what we are about and we would love to be your church if you decide to be here.
And we do say that to join means that you are signing on to let Jesus Christ be Lord of your life-to be your mentor and coach and commander in chief, the captain of the ship of your life; AND…as a United Methodist Christian you are promising to uphold God’s work through this church with your prayers, presence, gifts, and service and you will bring some pieces of paper to the altar table to symbolize those promises.
We do not say, here is the creed that you have to sign before you can join. The Methodist movement has never been a creedal movement ever since John Wesley started it 250 years ago. Occasionally people will contact us through our website and ask us to send our statement of faith. We do not have one in addition to the Apostle’s Creed and the statements about the lordship of Christ and about prayers, presence, gifts and service.
We are not a pray, pay, and obey kind of church. And the result of that is that we have some diversity of belief in our churches and in our denomination. Every four years our international church meets and it can speak to us and for us and when it does, some will agree and some will disagree, but we are all still united to Christ even with our different opinions.
When the council of Methodist Bishops voted over two years that a pre emptive war with Iraq did not meet the criteria of a just war and opposed our nation declaring war on Iraq, some people agreed with that and others did not. Did that mean that people who disagreed could not be in the church? No, it meant that we had differences of how we apply the Biblical statements about war and how we analyze the world’s needs.
We Methodists are a big 8.4 million-person family. We St Andrew members are a big 1500 member family. I don’t know how it is in your family, if you always agree on everything but that is not true in our family. My wife and I can disagree about some things and still be united in our love for each other and our love for Christ.
And that is just two of us. When we go to Texas to be with our extended families, we will see even more differences about our theological beliefs and our political beliefs but we are still a family and we still are united in our love and care for each other and there has always been room for people to differ respectfully.
That is how it was in the family of the early church community. The author of Ephesians talks about different gifts and abilities (and opinions—he doesn’t mention that but that was the case) and about people still having the same Lord.
There were differences of belief even among Jesus’ twelve disciples. One of the disciples, Matthew, was a tax collector. That means he worked as an agent for Rome and cheated his fellow Jews. Another disciple, Simon, was a zealot. What was that? He belonged to the sect of Jews who advocated a violent and bloody revolution against Rome.
How do you suppose those two got along? Do you suppose they ever argued? One scholar says that Jesus probably had to sleep between them for the three years they were all together so they would not kill each other.
The family of the first disciples had differences of opinion, but they were united in Christ. That is what I hope our church family can be like—a big tent where people can talk respectfully with understanding and engage in civil conversation.
This next week our church is privileged to host almost 600 people from other Methodist congregations across America—churches like ours that are growing and thriving, others that are stuck on a plateau and want to reach out to more people. If you took a poll of those folks and asked about each of the statements in our social principles statement about war and abortion and civil rights for gay and lesbian persons you would find 600 people at different places across the spectrum. And we are still United Methodists—or sometimes close to being Untied Methodists! when the typographical error takes over—and we are still united in Christ.
And there has always been a place for dissent in our worldwide denomination. That is one of the tensions in our world and in our churches right now—is there room for dissent or not? Can I be a Methodist or Baptist or Catholic and still have some differences with what my church officially teaches? That is the question that some of the more progressive Catholic thinkers like Notre Dame’s Father Richard McBrien are cautiously raising about the new pope—will he allow room for dissent now that he is the pope of all the people and not in the role any more of being the enforcer of correct doctrine? Time will tell the answer to that question.
Question is a good word. In our church there is opportunity to question and to say about an issue, “well here is the way that I see my faith being applied to that and it is different from how the official statement reads—or different from how Harvey Martz or Bishop Brown believes.
I hope we can be that kind of church that has room for differences and respects differences. We have just been through a very important study process with the book, The Heart of Christianity. It has been helpful to hundreds of people here. And for many others it has not been helpful and they have said this book does not speak for me. I have heard that and I want us all to hear that and what I have decided is that I will lead a study of another book that has a very different theological approach but is providing guidance for millions of folks. I am planning sometime in the next few months to lead a group reading The Purpose Driven Life which comes from a very different approach to the Bible and to God and also says some good things: God has some hopes and dreams for your life; God has created us so that we find meaning in serving and helping others and not just in grabbing and grubbing for ourselves. And we will find life at its best when we serve God and serve others.
That book will be helpful to some folks in ways that The Heart of Christianity may not have been. Is that a good thing? Does it let us be a big tent church?
If we can create that kind of big tent atmosphere and understand each other (first seek to understand before seeking to be understood) here at St Andrew we will be an even more exceptional church than we are. And we will be very authentically Methodist because that is the atmosphere that Father Wesley was creating, an atmosphere that said, “we do not have to think alike in order to love alike”. Agreeing on an idea or doctrine was not as important for him as agreeing on Christ. He was willing to differ and debate with people and had his most spirited debates with the Calvinists of his time.
I hope we can create a congregation where there is opportunity for civil discourse and dialogue and dissent. I saw that kind of church three weeks ago in Boston when I visited the building where many of the revolutionary meetings were held in 1774 and 75 and where Sam Adams made his speech that was the catalyst for the Boston Tea Party. Old South Church has been a place for 200 years where people could debate and disagree and put their faith into action. It was one of the gathering places for people like Sam and John Adams. It was in the 1840’s and 1850’s one of the birthplaces for the abolitionist movement as people applied their faith to the evils of slavery and said that our faith teaches us that this is wrong.
There was vigorous dialogue and disagreement there and there was the church in action. We will be hearing more about that in July when Sam Adams himself will make a guest appearance with us!
John Wesley said we do not have to think alike to love alike.
He said something else equally as important. He said, “If your heart is as my heart, then give me your hand.” Let us repeat that together and commit to being a big tent United Methodist congregation!