Readings FIRST LESSON The first lesson is from Let Your Life Speak by Parker J. Palmer Then I ran across the old Quaker saying, “Let your life speak.” I found those words encouraging, and I thought I understood what they meant: “Let the highest truths and values guide you. Live up to those demanding standards in everything you do.” Because I had heroes at the time who seemed to be doing exactly that, this exhortation had incarnate meaning for me—it meant living a life like that of Martin Luther King Jr. or Rosa Parks or Mahatma Gandhi or Dorothy Day, a life of high purpose. So I lined up the loftiest ideals I could find and set out to achieve them. The results were rarely admirable, often laughable, and sometimes grotesque. But always they were unreal, a distortion of my true self—as must be the case when one lives from the outside in, not the inside out. I had simply found a “noble” way to live a life that was not my own, a life spent imitating heroes instead of listening to my heart.
SECOND LESSON The second lesson is from Luke, Chapter 10, Verses 1 to 11;16 “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.” |
This Week's Sermon Date: July 4, 2010 Title: No Matter What Message Delivered By: Rev. Dr. Joe McMurray I want to begin this morning with an update from the General Conference that I attended with Bill Hazelton. First, let’s go back to a couple of weeks ago when there were about 12 to 15 of us that met regarding the proposed structure changes in UFMCC. There were actually several things we discussed, and most of our conversation, technically, concerned the newly defined roles of Moderator, Elder, and the Board of Administration which will govern UFMCC as we approach the next decade or more. Most of us at that meeting stood in approval of these proposed changes, which, in part, promised a leaner, more efficient Fellowship. It turns out that most of the lay leaders representing their congregations, and most of the credentialed clergy throughout the world who were present, also supported those changes—enthusiastically. And for the most part, the changes were all approved. One change that does affect us directly: several years ago, the General Conference voted to reduce the overall tithes and assessments that the local churches pay to the Fellowship from 15% to 10% (which is what most other denominations pay), over time. Other votes in subsequent Conferences, had reduced the term over which the reduction would happen, and at one point, had even frozen that reduction at 13% for a limited time. Next year, our reduction was to be reduced from 13% to 12%. This Conference, fearful of the potential losses that the Fellowship might continue to face in the future, passed a resolution to reduce next year’s tithes to 12.5% rather than the scheduled 12%. I will state that the Fellowship has been working in balance for the first half of this year, unlike other years, so that’s a very good sign. We will have time over the coming weeks and months to examine what the changes might mean to the structure and implementation of UFMCC polity and process. As we said at the forum on June 20th, these structural changes do not impact local church governance or structure.
But something else we must consider concerns another topic that arose during the forum. These were the non-technical aspects of our relationship with UFMCC—some of the practical, but mostly the spiritual connections we have, and how those might go forward. I will admit that over the years, structurally, despite the changes we approved at the Calgary Conference in 2005, and the further changes that have been implemented since, I had not seen the direct benefits of the UFMCC toward the local churches I have served. Though there were resources of all types developed, including educational, theological, and those pertaining to the creation and development of worship, it felt that the main dynamic of the Fellowship was to keep the local churches out of trouble—to come to their aid only when there was a problem, and even then, their track record didn’t seem to be that good. For many years, UFMCC seemed to be a self-indulgent denomination, willing to wallow in its misery and dysfunction and spend its time singing its own praises while the local churches continued to dwindle. It felt, in some ways, to be a movement whose time had come, and perhaps gone. Well, I am happy to say that from all appearances, those days are over. My assessment of the future of MCC has changed dramatically after this conference. Over the past few years, multiple resources have been developed which can help the local church in practical ways, regardless of size, to implement plans to thrive and grow. There is a new Theologies team that will help our churches begin to dialogue in constructive ways about what we believe and how we implement our beliefs in practice. Other resources have been developed and are being developed regarding music resourcing. Other programs, such as “Creating a Life that Matters” have had great success in melding the people of the church to even closer and more meaningful relationships. The “Would Jesus Discriminate?” campaign has been very effective, particularly in places where MCC is most needed in the US. This General Conference will probably go down in MCC history as one of the best and one of the most defining conferences we’ve had. I’m grateful to have been part of it and for representing this church. Thanks again to Bill Hazelton, who gave up his personal time to attend and to be your voice. There will be more forthcoming about what took place in Acapulco. And some of our processes, programs and ministries, over time, will reflect the positive work that UFMCC is doing. This is truly a time to rejoice for the Fellowship, and for our place within it. Please pray with me: God, we thank you for ever learning opportunity you present to us—those we fiercely resist and those we eagerly accept. We are grateful for all our connections, particularly with our mother church and those we entrust to guide us to a denomination and a church of great quality and deep faith. Help us to do our part in creating and giving from our expertise; and let us humbly accept the occasional help we need to continue to make this place a priesthood of all believers, and a house of prayer for all people. May my words and all of our thoughts be filled with honor and praise to you. Amen. “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the God of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest.” This metaphor for evangelism, for preaching the good news to a people hungry to know God, still applies somewhat to us today. At the General Conference, we discovered a new spirit in the Fellowship. We discovered that the rumors of our demise have been greatly exaggerated. We discovered that those who placed bets on the dissolution of MCC or, at the very least, the merger of MCC with another denomination so as to “save” itself, have lost their shirts. Yet though some stark realities do face us as a denomination, it’s still important to acknowledge that we’ve come a long way. Though our early growth in the movement of MCC was swift and miraculous, we also faced great setbacks in subsequent years. At the onset of the AIDS pandemic, many members and friends were lost. Yet out of that horrible experience, came new opportunities for us to grow and change. We grew. But we did not change. It took us quite a few years to discover our errors in planting, but not our errors in nurturing. That, too, has held us back. And now, at this General Conference, we have finally opened our eyes to see even more of how the wonder and faithfulness of God can bring us into the future. It’s taken us a while. But all good things develop over time. Parker Palmer didn’t always have the answers either. He’s an accomplished theologian who has learned his life lessons along the way, being inspired by those who were able to do what he had found so unreachable: “Let the highest truths and values guide you. Live up to those demanding standards in everything you do.” These kinds of truths, values and standards often may seem burdensome to us. We could justifiably say: “If I spent all my time keeping in alignment with all these things, I’d be exhausted before the end of one day!” But a few fair questions, in light of this observation, would be: “Why am I not already in alignment with these principles? Why must I expend such a vast amount of energy to keep on track? Am I that far out of whack?” And I think the answer to that question, for most of us, is a resounding “Yes! We are out of whack.” Our complacency, as reflected by the values to which we say we subscribe, is astonishing. That it would take such a concentration of time and energy to tell the truth, to be honest about who we are, to uphold the values we respect, and to adopt those standards across the spectrum of our entire lives—across the board—says a lot about what we have become by failing to nurture ourselves in the proper ways, by failing to learn the lessons we’ve been taught, by our unwillingness to change and adapt, even as all of life around us changes and adapts. So the stagnation of what has occurred on the denomination level is also a stagnation that has permeated our churches; and the stagnation that has permeated our churches has occurred because it has permeated our lives. Let me give a little personal testimony here. As you all know, I am not perfect. There are times when I mess up some of the little things. And then there are other times—when I have screwed up big time. But in each of those times, in being honest and forthright about them, I have tried to own my participation. I have attempted to correct what has gone wrong; I have attempted to reach out to others who said they felt devalued or who have personalized what I have said, to reassure them that those situations were not meant to be about devaluing or personalizing. That is the truth. Some of those who fit into these categories have accepted my offer of repentance, or have asked me to forgive them for the ways in which they, too, were complicit. But others will not let me back in. In matters that concern me, their hearts have turned to stone. They have no interest in hearing me, believing me, or trusting me again. I find that rather sad because I am a person who can own what is mine. But it takes two to tango, as it were. Has this ever happened to you? Especially over things that, in the whole scope of life and death, in the whole scope of life experience, are really very tiny in comparison as to the most important things in life? What does it say that we are willing to let go of our spiritual ties to one another so quickly? What does it say when we are willing to abandon our grounding in spiritual community over a misunderstanding? What does it say that we are so willing to desert the cross-section of our shared experience because we cannot simply and calmly speak to one another in truth and love? What that tells me, and again, I speak to myself as well as anyone else, is that we are spiritually immature. We have not reached the adulthood, let alone the puberty, of the blossom of life. We have been unwilling to let go of all of our systems of pain and misery, our attachment to co-dependency, and our need to hang on to whatever psychosis or fear we have because we are unwilling to let it go and move on. I need to tell you that in order to grow, and I mean really grow as a church, we must first grow up. This means we can no longer simply choose to ignore one another in MCC. We must all develop a tougher skin. We must hold each other accountable with respect, and be willing to leave our suffering at the door in a mature and adult way, and then move on with our lives and our relationships in Christian community. Because the last time I looked, we are supposed to abide all the rules and regulations we espouse as Christians, and as spelled out by the duties and obligations as members of this church. We all have opportunities here to help to heal and grow, and to mature spiritually, to become more wholly who God wants us to be. And we all have to do it. This is what is required of us as people of God. All of us need to give up some of the expectations we have of one another. As the spiritual authority of this church—that is my role here, and it is what you elected me to do almost two years ago—many things come with the job. Being right all of the time is not one of them. Just because I’m the Pastor, does not automatically make me a good person, does not make me a better person, and does not make me better than anyone else. Believe me, I have to work at this just as hard as do all of us. But it does mean that we must learn to treat each other with the respect we deserve. And we deserve to be treated with kindness, with patience; we deserve that in matters of business, as well as matters of the church, when we confront the issues and problems we face together. All of us deserve this. The young people of MCC who were well-represented at the Conference, offered this message to us dinosaurs—those of us who’ve been around a long time: “Change is coming. We are the future of MCC. So get used to the change, or move out of the way so we don’t run you down.” It was Jesus who said, “But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the realm of God has come near.’” This is what change brings. It allows us to put aside our own agenda and work for the common good, no matter what. The Israelites sought to escape the bonds of slavery, and God led them, through the leadership of someone who viewed himself as unqualified, in a call to justice, a call that was both political and spiritual—a call that led them through decades of hardship and turmoil as they made their way through the desert to the Promised Land. The Jews in Israel during the time of Jesus’ ministry, lived in an occupied territory. The words Jesus used as he sent out the disciples and followers to proclaim the good news—that God would bring independence and, ultimately, peace to a people so desperately in need—guided them from their oppression through what became an intense spiritual and religious movement that still lives today. And as we celebrate the 4th of July—the independence of the United States of America—another story parallels our lesson—the efforts of a people responsible for this nation to declare its independence from British rule, were called in more than a political way to determine freedom. It was a calling they answered; a calling they served that would be instrumental for the future of this new land. But the same is true for us today—not with other nations occupying our land, but with hatred, despair, anger, resentment and selfishness occupying our hearts. Humanity did not stand for it then; and we cannot stand for it now here in our own community. No matter what happens, no matter what others say, no matter if we are torn to shreds in the eye of public opinion, or beaten and hung from a twisted fence post. We are about to embark on a new journey in the Fellowship—and we can do that same thing right here in our own church, in many ways. There is new scholarship among MCC clergy. There are new writings and studies that we’ve gleaned from our experiences. There are examples we’ve learned as we’ve reached across the ecumenical and interfaith aisles and opened ourselves to the experiences of others. We discovered that we were not the only ones with an active and timely calling. And as a local church, we must also decide to stick to our mission, our calling and the ways we honestly believe we engage God’s word for good. This is what we may have to do to keep our freedom. But like those who preceded us, we must precede the future so that all God’s people might be free. May we continue to follow where God is leading. Amen.
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Selected Past Sermons