Foundations

June 11, 2019

My United Methodist denomination is experiencing what may be its death-throes. For the almost fifty years I’ve been a pastor, we’ve been studying, debating, and voting on various facets of human sexuality. Each General Conference (the only body that can officially speak for the denomination, meeting every four years to do so), the vote for acceptance and approval of same-sex unions, and eventually a full alphabet of sexual identities, creeped toward the magical flipping point. Until 2016, when the tide turned back as the African and Philippine delegations voted solidly for traditional Christian sexual ethics. 

Since our denomination is global, with equal (more or less) representation from the global church, the liberals who were used to gaining ground for the first time saw those gains, and the hope that “this would be the year” for full inclusion, evaporate. I predicted then that the next step would be to resort to ecclesial disobedience—a refusal to obey the Discipline (our book of law), and an attempt to make the whole system grind to a standstill by overloading our Judicial Council. That has been exactly what happened, and the special session of General Conference that was held last February tightened the rules even more. For the first time, I began hearing liberals talk of exiting the denomination. 

At our Annual Conference last week, we experienced the full wrath and organization of the liberal wing as they managed to completely lock out any conservative from representing us at the General Conference to be held next year. Since one General Conference cannot bind a future one to any actions it takes, their hope is to be able to overwhelm the voting and win back the gains they lost. It could succeed. Attempts to limit the influence of the international Church have been made, and will likely be made again. So much for inclusiveness. The growth of the African Church alongside the continuing decline of American United Methodism may be the only roadblock in the way of liberal success. 

This morning my Scripture reading included Psalm 11, of which the third and fourth verses say, “If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do? The LORD is in His holy temple, The LORD’s throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men.” The foundations haven’t yet been destroyed, but they are surely feeling the shockwaves of attack. It is tempting to throw up our hands in despair; after all, if they foundations are destroyed, what CAN we do? We can remember verse four: “The LORD is in his holy temple.” He sees, he tests, and our God will win the victory. Our hope is not in winning this fight. Our hope is not in the preservation of the institution. Our hope is in the LORD, and in his promises that no matter how badly the foundations falter, he will not. For this, and for his great mercies, we can be thankful today.