Let's Practice What She Preached

We are all honored by the President’s selection of our General Minister and President, Sharon Watkins, to deliver the sermon at the traditional day-after-the inauguration service at the Washington Cathedral. We Disciples may be justly proud, but the honor goes to her. And a mighty sermon it was!

Dr. Watkins invoked both the thrust of the gospel and the crisis of the decisions facing the new President and his Administration. And she did it without bowing to the gooey piety and sexism that may have marked another religious presentation at the swearing in ceremony itself. She called on the President to hold his ground on America's--and our faith’s --deepest values, and not to be drawn away from his ethical center. "Stay centered on the values that have empowered us to move through the perils of earlier times."

How did she suggest he do this? Her central illustration was the old Cherokee story of the two inner wolves. One was anger, vengefulness, resentment, self-pity and fear. The other was compassion, hope, truth and love.

"Which one wins, grandfather?" asks he grandson.

"The one you feed," he replied.

Dr. Watkins went on to take a quick look at the attitudes and policies which grow out of feeding the noble wolf. They are simply put: compassion, reaching out toward others--even our enemies--seeking peaceful alternatives, putting down the sword, imaging a world where liberty and justice prevail, welcoming the tired and poor of the world---an image enshrined by Emma Lazareth and displayed on the Statue of Liberty.

In concrete specific terms this clearly means a commitment in law, as well as in theory, to both domestic and international policies centering on mercy, good-will, justice and peace.

It strikes me that these are the very policies and actions that have been spelled out in the clear convictions articulated by our denomination year after year as we have honed them to sharply put points in our General Assemblies. In these gatherings, through their statements, we have fed the noble wolf biennial after biennial.

We now seem faced with the temptation, not to feed the vicious wolf, but to increasingly starve the noble one. We seem afraid that too much ecclesial protein may cause indigestion among those of our diminished number who take a much more cautious approach to the very issues Dr. Watkins, by implication, asked the President not to abandon. Let’s hope we are not reduced to mush in a world in which the Lord of the church asks for the kind of ecclesial response our General Minister and President asked of President Obama.

But that’s just my opinion. What’s yours?

SWEETNESS and LIGHT?

A colleague recently reminded me of the huge difference between the Christmas stories in Luke and Matthew. Luke’s account is sweetness and light. It starts with the beautiful recitation of Gabriel’s visit to Mary. There are angels who sing to shepherds, telling them not to be afraid. There is “Peace on earth good will to all.” Mary treasures the message in her heart, and the shepherds return home praising God.

Matthew’s account is dark, foreboding and sinister. Wise men get to Herod, who is “frightened” that a rival had been born in Bethlehem. After their visit to a “house,” they take a return route that bypasses Herod. Mary, Joseph and the child flee to Egypt, whereupon Herod orders the murder of all the male infants in Bethlehem. Rachel weeps for her slaughtered children. Not until they hear of Herod’s death is the Holy Family safe to return.

Guess which story everybody reads at Christmas eve services? A few innocuous verses about the wise men might be sandwiched in, but the darkness of the rest of Matthew’s account is ignored. We don’t want news of trouble, especially at Christmas. We want sweetness and light.

Like most of you, I want to hear the positive about my world. Take all that grim stuff and bury it. If I have to deal with it, I will, but if I can keep from having it hit me in the face, life will be much easier. What is more, there may be family disagreements about the meaning of these grim tidings.

There are scores of churches these days that only traffic in the positive. You won’t hear a discouraging word at the Crystal Cathedral, or at Joel Ostein’s’ mammoth converted arena in Houston. So we are all tempted to go happily along as if there was no ungodly prolonged war in Iraq, no devastation of Palestinians with weapons we have provided, no bread winners who have lost their jobs their homes and their hopes, no increased distance between the rich and the poor, none of the despair and poverty I recently encountered in Kenya, no Gays and Lesbians still treated like non-persons. And if any of these things inadvertently crosses our path, we pretend that it is not a matter good middle-class Christians should deal with.

Heaven help us if it ends up on our agendas and we have to take a position. So we are reduced to studying it, discerning the various ways we may think about it, writing long balanced documents about whether it is this way or that. After all Christians might disagree, and that would be discomforting....

Certainly in today’s world we are hearing crashing overtones that sound much more like Mathew’s perspective than Luke’s. So what is the role of the church—our church?

As you might guess, I have been musing about the move to disarm Assembly resolutions. I still must withhold final judgment, since we are not yet certain what shape the recommendation will take when it comes to Indianapolis in July. At this writing it appears that there will be a severe limit to the number of issues we will discuss. What is more, no matter how critical or timely an issue might be, we may be prohibited from discussing it again for the next six or possibly twelve years.

Several things are not yet clear.

1-Obviously the move to have more discussion both prior to the Assemblies and during them is on target and necessary. Congregations, ministers groups, Regional meetings seminaries, General units all need to be involved in intelligent give and take on important issues before the church and the world. Every matter before the GA must be preceded by a clear analysis produced by our best theological minds. While congregations need to be heard from, all wisdom doesn’t come from groups of local church members who may operate more out of political presuppositions than a clear understanding of the meaning of the gospel. If everything had been left up to congregations, we might still have segregation across the South.

2-The case has yet to be made for our dealing with critical issues one year and assuming that nothing can be said about them for the next several.

3-Who will filter what we are actually permitted to discuss, and what will be the criteria? What will be the open appeal policy?

4-Finally, when all the study documents and discussion groups have finished their important work, will there be an up and down vote on the substance of a matter, or will we end up saying, “it might be this and it might be that.” In the latter case it will be obvious that the General Church had managed to finish off our taking positions on critical matters. So, many of us will go outside the denomination for clarity about the implications of the Christian faith.

But that’s just my opinion. What do you think?
Charles Bayer

Epiphany is a modern icon by Janet McKenzie. This icon and other religious art can be found at Bridge Building Images.

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