Where do we go from here?

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC 3/3/19

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^NRS Ezekiel 37:1 The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. ² He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. ³ He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?" I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know." ⁴ Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. ⁵ Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. ⁶ I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD." ⁷ So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸ I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. ⁹ Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." ¹⁰ I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. ¹¹ Then he said to me, "Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.' ¹² Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³ And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. ¹⁴ I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act, says the LORD."

I love this scripture. Let me set the stage for you. The people of Israel had not loved God with their whole heart, had not loved their neighbor as God had instructed and for that, they were conquered and scatter to the four winds. Ezekiel has prayed for hope for the people of Israel and God answers that prayer with this vision. Some believe that he was in the Megiddo valley, the sight of numerous battles for control of trade routes and country wealth. There God shows Ezekiel that God is in control and that no matter what, God can reclaim and redeem. Can you imagine this vision? It has been recreated in a dozen horror and/ or science fiction movies as the bones take on flesh and live again. What Ezekiel saw, we will live into if we are both faithful and perseverant?

I want to share with you that I received this week a thank you card from our District Superintendent. He was thanking us for our fruitfulness and our tenacity to keep on going no matter what. He was acknowledging that we now have had three years of sustained growth in average worship attendance and two years in a row where we have increased the number of professions of faith/ reaffirmations of faith. Jeff was also acknowledging the growth in children, youth and young adult ministries in the numbers of growth that we have experienced. In the last year, we have been renovating the church with new air conditioning units, new heating/ AC in the Agape house, new carpet in the chapel, new paint in numerous places and new carpet soon to be installed in the Agape House along with some renovation work in the kitchen there. We have groups focused on defining and implementing discipleship programs in the church, more adult education and small groups than ever before and we are focusing our attention on how to connect with neighbor. All in all, we have been sharing the good news of the Gospel, the love of Jesus Christ with the world around us. I haven’t even touched the surface of the activities and mission we are involved with in our local community, El Salvador and around the world. My friends, as your Pastor, I am excited to share that we are church.

We have much work yet to be done. Many of you have listened to news reports, followed Facebook accounts or spent time following the General Conference. I want to share with you what they outcome of General Conference is as I know it. First, I want to remind us that we are called to love God with all our hearts, all our minds and all souls and then love our neighbors in the same way. Some of you today are happy about the outcome of General Conference. Some of you are deeply hurt and saddened. To both of you I ask that you respect each other with kindness, patience and love. That is what we are called to do. General Conference passed the Modified Traditional Plan. That plan keeps the language concerning LGBTQ as if currently is in the Book of Discipline and adds teeth to the accountability of clergy, Bishops and Conferences to uphold the Discipline. In some ways, nothing changed in who we are and how we operate. It did not address membership, which means that everyone, regardless, is open to membership in the United Methodist Church. We as Pastors cannot marry same-sex individuals and openly LGBTQ persons cannot be licensed, commissioned or ordained as it is currently written in our Book of Discipline. So in simple terms, nothing changed in the way we are allowed to pastor our churches or appoint pastors to churches. What did change is that pastors, bishops, churches and annual conferences that violate those rules now face stricter consequences.

General Conference also passed a less restrictive “I want to leave” clause. John Wesley in his infinite wisdom was concerned that we would become more enamored with our buildings than our mission. Therefore, he instituted a trust clause that says that property, buildings and financial assets of the church belong to the Annual Conference, not to the local church. If a local church no longer desires or is able to be church, then the property reverts to the Annual Conference. That trust clause has been upheld in numerous court battles of churches that wanted to leave the denomination. General Conference passed a less restrictive rule for leaving than is currently in place. Before you ask, I am not sure what the exact language is so we have a little sit and wait in front of us.

All of this is subject to a Judicial Council ruling that decides whether the actions taken by General Conference are constitutional in accordance with our rules and regulations in the Book of Discipline. That will occur April 23-26^th in Evanston, Illinois when the Judicial Council meets. They had previously said that parts of the Traditional Plan, this thing that was passed by General Conference, was unconstitutional. If they find parts of it to be unconstitutional, then the original, language of the Book of Discipline will stay in place. Therefore, we wait and see a bit.

So what does this all mean, really? It means that our denomination is continually going through the pruning and growing process. It means that as a church we are going to be inviting to some and not to all. That part saddens me and should you, regardless of where you fall in this issue. We will likely see some of our denomination split and go in a different direction. We may even have to make a choice one day, which denomination we will live in, much like our Episcopal, Presbyterian, Baptist and Lutheran brothers and sisters have already done. If and when those decisions need to be made, we will be transparent as we discuss and then discern God’s will for us. For the moment, nothing we have been doing and are currently planning on doing will change.

We are called to love God and love neighbor. Everyone is our neighbor, even those who we struggle to agree with, connect with or like. We are called not to be the church of exclusion but rather the church of inclusion and this decision, though it may be seen by some as exclusionary, is not. At Sydenstricker, our prayer is that we continue to connect with people of all ages, races, genders, and persuasions. Our goal is to follow the Gospel that tells us to love God with faith and trust in God. What we have seen in the past few years, is when we do, we grow. We grow in discipleship, we grow in numbers, and we grow in connection. If we continue to trust God, putting God’s will in front of our own, we will be fruitful. I am calling on each of you to trust that God can even take the dry bones and bring life, that God can take us and make us fruitful and prosperous. We are called to be the church that welcomes all. We are called to love one another. Nothing less is acceptable. Let us move forward in radical hospitality and love.