The Same Household of Faith

The Old Rectory, Epworth, home of the Wesleys (1695-1735)

A special called session of General Conference of the United Methodist Church began meeting this morning in St. Louis with delegates from across the worldwide "Connexion" gathering for a day of prayer, worship, and communion before the fighting, oops, I mean, conference business begins.  There have been pleas for the Holy Spirit to surprise us, hymns sung in many different languages, and a powerful moment in which Bishop Kenneth Carter, president of the Council of Bishops, and Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett led worshipers in looking into each other's faces and saying, “If I have done anything intended or unintended to harm you, please forgive me. May the peace of Christ be with you.” 

This followed a reminder from Bishop Wallace-Padgett that no one had yet specifically called for prayer for the LGBT members of the United Methodist Church, the very people whose ministry and life within the church is being debated so fiercely.  The Book of Discipline affirms that everyone is to be regarded as being "of sacred worth" but adds a caveat -- "The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. Therefore self-avowed practicing homosexuals are not to be certified as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in The United Methodist Church."  There has been a tremendous diversity of opinion regarding homosexuality in almost every denomination, and the UMC has been no exception.  Just how are we to understand human sexuality as United Methodists, first and foremost, in light of scripture, and then in light of the tradition of the Church, reason and scientific learning, and the reality of experiencing the Holy Spirit?  How to interpret and understand this and how to hold fast within the tension has been at the heart of the struggles in the UMC for decades.  For many years, the arguments have raged, and members of the very same household of faith have hurled insults with the accuracy of daggers at each other.  Love has at times been in very short supply, even at the table of the Lord.

I ran across a letter that the young Oxford don John Wesley wrote to his brother Samuel on November 17, 1731, in which he defends himself against those who find him and his very precise habits strange.  Unlike most fashionable gentlemen of the day, John wore his own hair, saving himself the cost of having his hair cut as well as the expense of maintaining a well-powdered wig so that he might give that money to the poor.  This eccentricity along with his very serious and "singular" demeanor apparently rendered him "uneasy" in company where he was perceived as being very formal and perhaps lacking in humor.  He was often the butt of jokes and teasing of others at Oxford, but he seems to expect it and almost to take it in stride, telling Samuel that Dr. Thomas Hayward warned Wesley and the others ordained with him that in becoming priests they were "bidding defiance to all mankind" and that "whether his hand be against every man or not, he must expect every man's hand should be against him."  John writes that it was no surprise if non-Christians were opposed to those seeking to live holy and disciplined lives but goes on to lament that opposition was not confined to such as they.  Perhaps as a dig at Samuel himself for not always understanding him, he goes on to ask:

But is it not hard that even those that are with us should be against us; that a man's enemies (in some degree) should be those of the same household of faith?  Yet so it is.  From the time that a man sets himself to his business, very many, even of those who travel the same road, many of those who are before, as well as behind him, will lay stumbling-blocks in his way.  One blames him for not going fast enough, another for having made no greater progress, another for going too far -- which perhaps, strange as it is, is the more common charge of the two.  

How great a stumbling block are we Methodists laying in the way of those who look to us, expecting to see love and grace and compassion among us but find instead broken relationships, self-righteous banter, hostility if not downright hatred, and a conspicuous lack of holiness of life and heart?  We who have been of the same household of faith have vilified each other and torn each other down rather than building each other up in love for far too long.  I don't know what the results will be of this special called General Conference, but I do know that we are falling short of the glory of God when we fail to look at each other and see in our sisters' and brothers' countenances the very image of God.  It would behoove us (good archaic word there) to reflect upon these words written by Charles Wesley and make them our prayer for our dealings with our fellow Methodists and indeed, with all people who on earth do dwell --

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.

Help us to build each other up,
Our little stock improve;
Increase our faith, confirm our hope,
And perfect us in love.

Up into thee, our living Head,
Let us in all things grow,
Till thou hast made us free indeed,
And spotless here below.