United by Grace

Today is the 50th birthday of the United Methodist Church.  Formed by the merger of the Evangelical United Brethren and the Methodist Church on April 23, 1968 in Dallas, Texas, the denomination was birthed with a prayer that included these words: "Lord of the Church, we are united in thee, in thy church, and now in The United Methodist Church."  Since I am serving at a Presbyterian church, publicity here about this significant date has obviously been non-existent, but the celebrations have been rather muted even in local United Methodist congregations and across the denomination as a whole.  This is not because the date just slipped up on us, catching us off guard, but because the UMC has been roiled by controversy over various hot-button issues for decades, and because even as we mark 50 years of union, we stand on the brink of "divorce."

I'm not going to re-hash the arguments, nor am I going to expound upon my own position, but it seems to me that we are better together than we are apart, no matter where we find ourselves along the theological spectrum.  When General Conference meets in a special session to deal with these matters next year, it could well mean the unraveling of our union, and this brings no small amount of grief to many of us who identify with this particular branch on the Wesley family tree.  I have no brilliant insights or creative solutions to these divisive matters, but my hope is that we will not cease to work and pray that our common faith and heritage will somehow be used by the Holy Spirit to bridge the gap and move us in a real way forward.  May the words of the following hymn by Charles Wesley be a prayer for the people called United Methodists as we ponder what it would mean to "... ever toward each other move, And ever move toward Thee."



Jesus, united by Thy grace,
And each to each endeared,
With confidence we seek Thy face
And know our prayer is heard.

Still let us own our common Lord,
And bear Thine easy yoke,
A band of love, a threefold cord,
Which never can be broke.

Make us into one spirit drink;
Baptize into Thy Name;
And let us always kindly think,
And sweetly speak, the same.

Help us to help each other, Lord,
Each other's cross to bear;
Let all their friendly aid afford,
And feel each other's care.

Up onto Thee, our living Head,
Let us in all things grow;
Till Thou hast made us free indeed
And spotless here below.

Touched by the lodestone of Thy love,
Let all our hearts agree,
And ever toward each other move,
And ever move toward Thee.

To Thee, inseparably joined,
Let all our spirits cleave;
O may we all the loving mind,
That was in Thee receive.

This is the bond of perfectness,
Thy spotless charity;
O let us, still we pray, possess
The mind that was in Thee.

Grant this, and then from all below
Insensibly remove:
Our souls their change shall scarcely know,
Made perfect first in love!

With ease our souls through death shall glide
Into their paradise,
And thence, on wings of angels, ride
Triumphant through the skies.

Yet, when the fullest joy is given,
The same delight we prove,
In earth, in paradise, in heaven,
Our all in all is love.