"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold" or "Let us all thy life receive"?

Charles Wesley

Since January, many of us at First Presbyterian Church have been reading and watching and discussing Adam Hamilton's book/video study called Christianity's Family Tree in which he looks at several denominations in order to highlight things we can appreciate and learn from each other.  In the final chapter, the one focusing on Methodism, he quotes Bishop Scott Jones as saying that United Methodists are people of the "extreme center."  Jones says, "The center is a very hard position to maintain because there are always people who are sniping at you from the extremes .... By occupying the extreme center, we see the value of both sides and try to carve out a position, ... that embraces the whole gospel."

This observation from Bishop Jones about the push and pull from the extremes echoes words written by John Wesley to his brother Samuel that I lifted up in my last post --

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.  

We've certainly been seeing examples of this sniping during this special called General Conference, online in Facebook groups, in comments on various blogs, and in person between United Methodists who disagree vehemently.  The very future of the denomination hangs in the balance as the Conference continues today and concludes tomorrow.  I am reminded of the grimly appropriate reflections of Irish poet W.B. Yeats in his poem "The Second Coming" --

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

I don't know if the center can or will hold -- or even if it should.  I don't know if that is the best outcome.  I am not arrogant enough to claim to be sure what God's best dream and hope for us is.  But I do know this.  These are days that are rancorous enough to make the angels weep, and many of us, no matter where our convictions lie, are being torn asunder as we pray and long for God's way forward to be made manifest in our Church and in our lives. 

One of the first places Charles Wesley's hymns ever rang out, 

The New Room, Bristol

As I sit in my office at First Presbyterian watching the live stream, our church bells suddenly peal out Charles Wesley's unforgettable hymn "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling," and through my tears, I find myself singing:

Come, Almighty to deliver,
Let us all Thy life receive;
Suddenly return, and never,
Nevermore Thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
Serve Thee as Thy hosts above,
Pray and praise Thee without ceasing,
Glory in Thy perfect love.

May we find our center in praying and praising God without ceasing, learning again, somehow, the way to glory together in that perfect Love.  Let us all that Life receive!