Whose Side is God On?

With humanity comes “sides.”  They include political, theological, ethnicity, gender, etc. etc.  There are as many ways to be divided into opposing camps as there are issues and diversities on the planet earth.  We like to think that we are right and that God is on our side.   As United Methodists who discern our beliefs based on Scripture, tradition, reason and experience, we have Bible verses that support our “side.”  But does that necessarily mean that God is with us and not with the people with whom we disagree?  In our heart of hearts we know that God is bigger than this but somehow it is much easier to make God into our own image than to grapple with the God-presence in the “other.”

                

The Book of Jonah in the Old Testament is about the most outrageous four chapters in the Bible.  It proclaims, it screams, it sets off neon-colored fireworks in the sky that say “God is on everyone’s side!!!” and God goes to great lengths to embrace all in the circle of divine love.  In chapter one of Jonah we see the prophet fleeing from God because he does not want to preach repentance to the evil city of Nineveh. Jonah would prefer that they get what they deserve for their sins and be destroyed.  God would prefer that they get a second chance and be forgiven. God extends that same grace to Jonah by saving him in the ocean using a great fish as a life boat and to the good-natured sailors on the boat by calming the sea.  God is on everyone’s side working for salvation and the good of all. 

What would it look like if we, God’s children, took a page out of the Book of Jonah and worked toward the acceptance and good of all?  Do our partisan camps accomplish the work of the salvation of the world or does it create more division and strife among us?  Do you really want to look like Jonah, who at the end of the book (chapter 4), is pouting on the hill under a tree because God did not kill the Ninevites?  Can we instead rejoice that God wants everyone to be saved and join in that cause, putting aside our need to be right, our need to be God’s favorite, our need to see the other “side” lose?  God’s love is outrageously inclusive and sometimes offensive when we try to put God in a box and insist that we own God exclusively.  Who on the other “side” can you embrace this day with prayer, forgiveness and good will?   What sword and shield of self-righteousness can you lay down for the cause of God’s purpose of inclusive salvation?

Call to Prayer and Action

Grace and peace to you from The Lord Jesus Christ!  Our hearts are heavy once again at the news of another shooting in our nation.  This time at the Navy Yards in the Washington, DC area.  The flags are flying at half mast and so are our hearts as we grieve the death of the hard-working people who perished. Please pray for the families and the workers there but also pray for the family of the perpetrator.  Pray for the day when people who have troubled hearts can get the help they need before things like this happens.  Reach out to people who you perceive need help.

In addition our nation watches with horror as the people in Colorado have been devastated by flood waters.  We remember that from previous hurricanes and people helped us.  May we take special offerings in our churches for flood relief efforts. One hundred percent of our gifts to United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) goes to help the cause.*  Monies collected can be sent to our conference office.

The conference cabinets, lay leaders, staff, and I call all of you to prayer and action.

Bishop Peggy A. Johnson

*Download the UMCOR mobile app for up to the minute news on your phone or go to www.umcor.org. 

Telling Someone You Believe in Something

When my husband and I arrived at our first student appointment in southern Indiana in the fall of 1978 this church had just been rebuilt after a devastating tornado that had destroyed many homes and businesses. The new church was something of a "pre-fab" but it was adequate for the small congregation of people who lived on this hill and it was totally new. But Ray, a church member, was not at all satisfied until he got the bell back. When the tornado hit on that fateful day in April the church bell that hung in the church steeple for over a hundred years went flying across the countryside and landed in a field. After the tornado was over the church bell was recovered and brought back to the church. The new church did not have a steeple that could hold that heavy brass bell and Ray wanted the bell to be rung again. He collected money for several years and the church built a stand-alone bell tower next to the new church so that once again the bell could be heard on Sunday morning. By the time we left that appointment the bell tower was built and dedicated. It was Ray's happiest day since the tornado. For Ray it was more than a bell calling people to church. He said "when you ring a bell you are telling people that you believe in something."

Truly our churches believe in something!  We believe in The Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting.  We ring our bells calling people to worship and we call people to faith in Christ because we believe in this great truth and we serve God in the strength of that faith.

This week we as a nation are called to ring bells on Wednesday, August 28th at 3 pm.  Why? To remember 50 years since the March on Washington during the Civil Rights movement when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his great "I Have a Dream" sermon that he delivered to thousands of people at 3 pm.  He believed in something.  Dr. King believed that equal rights for all people in the United States could become a reality.  In the 50 years since that day many important strides have been made toward this dream of equality.  So we should ring our bells to celebrate this great movement in our society.  But we should also ring a bell tomorrow to tell people that we believe in something else: that the work is not yet done and that there are still more barriers to equal rights that are yet to be overcome in our country and in this world.  Ring a bell to say that you believe in Dr. King's dream and that you will work to see his dream come to full fruition wherever it is that you live and work and worship.

Fanatic for Christ

by Bishop Peggy Johnson

The Apostle Paul writes to the church of Corinth that he is a “fool for Christ” (I Corinthians 4:10).  He describes his foolish behavior as one who willingly submits to poverty, disrespect and fatigue.  Other “foolish” activities includes blessing those who insulted him, enduring persecution, and speaking kindly to people who lied about him.  It is foolish by the world’s standards because in the world we want to win, be wealthy, comfortable, respected, honored, and treated kindly.  As followers of Christ we are signing on to be treated as Christ was treated.  This is truly counter-cultural and appears to be, fanatical.

The annual United Methodist Day at the Phillies happened once again .  On August 17^th over 1,200 United Methodists from the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference under the capable leadership of United Methodist Men’s conference president, Ross Brightwell, came to cheer on the home team.  A mass choir led by the choir of Camphor UMC and six other Eastern PA Church choirs,sang the National Anthem and “America the Beautiful” before the game began.  We were greeted by a well-known personality: the Phillies Phanatic.  He is the green fury mascot for the Philadelphia’s major league baseball team and his claim to fame is that he is a super-enthusiastic  fan of the team. With his crazy antics and dramatic body language it is clear that he is a fool for baseball.  He is willing to look silly, fall on the ground, run around in circle and expend enormous amounts of energy in what must be a very hot costume on a summer night. Why?  Out of love for the Phillies!!

How can we be a little more fanatical about our faith?  When was the last time you were a “fool for Christ”?  When did you show someone without faith what your faith in Christ means to you?  Was joy and exuberance on your face?  When did you allow someone else to have your money, your time, your place of honor out of love for Christ?  When did you face persecution and criticism because you followed the way of Christ?   If you do then you stand in line with many of the saints who have gone before you and you surely are light and salt in this world.

John Wesley was a “fool for Christ” when he wrote the Covenant Prayer:

I am no longer my own, but Thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,
Exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father Son and Holy Spirit,
Thou art mine, and I am Thine. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
Let I be ratified in heaven. Amen.
(The United Methodist Hymnal #607)

Profiling

In the Gospel of John when the disciple Philip finds Nathanael to tell him about Jesus, Nathanael retorts with “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”  (John 1:46) This was first-century profiling and for sure it was around long before that.  Profiling goes back to perhaps the Garden of Eden.  Sin entered the world when self-will challenged God’s will and when “me, myself and I” are on the throne someone who is “other” is less-than and in comes all the evils of bigotry, prejudice and discrimination.

Profiling is a word we have heard quite a bit since the George Zimmerman trial began.  He was on trial for the murder of a 17-year old African American young man, Trayvon Martin, who was on his way home from a trip to a convenience store.  The verdict has been a cause of stinging pain around our country and there needs to be soul-searching and some action if we truly believe this is wrong and it has to stop.  To do that we have to all own up to our profiling ways.

I am guilty of profiling. I attended a class reunion and saw some folks who I did not know that well during high school but who had done well for themselves.   I asked one of them where he grew up.  Since we attended a consolidated high-school that housed students from many strata of neighborhoods, people were pigeon-holed into their “class” based on the neighborhood.  This classmate had done well in life and when he told me he was from the poorest part of the county I immediately felt that profiling “ping” go off in my head.  Can anything good come from that neighborhood?  Apparently so.  He is one of the most successful graduates that ever came from that school.

Can anything good come out of Nazareth….just the Son of God….just the place where God chose to call home.  Archeologists say that in Jesus’ day Nazareth could not have had more than 500 people in the town.  It was 80 miles north of Jerusalem in the area of Galilee. There were no major roads, no trade routes, no waterways to bring commerce and culture.  Yet that is exactly where God tends to dwell and do his “power-made-perfect-in-weakness” debut.   God primarily works there because that is where people let God in more often.  It is harder when people have too much stuff.  They start thinking they don’t need God.

A Call for Prayer

Grace and peace to the Eastern Pennsylvania and Peninsula-Delaware Conferences.  

I have just heard about the “not guilty” verdict in the George Zimmerman trial.  He was the Florida man on trial for the death of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year old African American youth who was shot last February.  I ask that we pray for all of the people involved at this time.  This has surely been a deeply disturbing verdict for many and others are in agreement with the verdict  When the community is strongly divided there is cause for deep concern and serious prayer.  When a young person is dies and there is violence in our land we are all hurt.  Please lift this matter up in prayer and have times of conversation and discernment about steps forward toward how we can heal as a nation.

Reflections on the United Methodist Ministers with Disabilities after the July 10-12th Meeting

Bishop Peggy Johnson attended the Ministers with Disabilities meeting, July 10-12, with EPA representatives, Rev.Dave Goss (left) and Rev. Paul Crikelair (right).

by Bishop Peggy Johnson

How wonderful they are….these sturdy, spirit-filled souls called by God.  They are often looked down upon by the able-bodied part of the Body.  Many are working hard at minimum salary churches, or asked to take disability benefits or early retirement.  Next to many of them are faithful spouses and sometimes faithful golden retrievers.  They are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, low vision, have mental health or mobility challenges.  They are young, mature, Caucasian, people of color, from all over the Connection and theologically diverse.

They are powerful beyond belief: insightful, spirit-filled, and familiar with life on the margins and have the unique heart that it brings.  Many are serving on Disability Committees in their annual conferences but rarely are asked to do other kinds of things.  Their identities are so much more than being the “disabled one.”  The church needs to wake up to their giftedness.
Bishop Johnson at the Ministers with Disabilities meeting with Peninsula-Delaware representatives, Rev. Bill Downing and Rev. Ruthann Simpson.


Pastors with disabilities work twice as hard as any other, endure countless careless comments, face skeptical personnel and review boards, and find that the accessible accommodations needed are often sadly lacking when they arrive at a meeting.  They are often gracious and forgiving.  Nonetheless, they are always pushing and encouraging the church to do better, often at their own expense so that the doors of the church can open wider, so that the one that follows them can have an easier road.

Pastors with Disabilities: you are a sign of God’s presence. The incarnated Christ’s nail-prints did not disappear at the resurrection and our bodily human frailty is still a paradoxical, God-inspired sign of the “power-made-perfect-in weakness” reality of how things really get done in the world.  All people, no matter our physical, mental or emotional state, are vulnerable to this mystery and dance between ability and disability, strength and weakness on an hourly basis.  May the church see that we are all a part of the disability community in Christ, who is our wounded, yet victorious Savior and comforter and power-giver.