by Steve | Mar 31, 2023 | In the News
By Thomas Lambrecht —
As The United Methodist Church goes through this season of disaffiliation, there is much change ahead. Many disaffiliating congregations are uniting with the Global Methodist Church, forming a new Methodist expression that continues our historic Wesleyan, orthodox understanding of Christianity. A much smaller number of disaffiliating congregations are remaining independent or joining networks of churches that are forming. Those remaining United Methodist also anticipate much change in both how the church is governed and the message that the church promotes.
In this time of change, it is important to grasp the reality that God is working in all of these situations to do something new. While some may want to pass judgment on the “new thing” that God may or may not be doing in someone else’s church, God’s verdict is the one that counts, and we may not know that verdict for decades or until we get to heaven.
In the meantime, how can we ourselves participate in the new thing that God is doing? Isaiah has some suggestions.
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland,
To give drink to my people, my chosen,
The people I formed for myself, that they may proclaim my praise”
(Isaiah 43:18-21).
We can begin by releasing our focus on the past. “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.” Whether we are forming something new or renewing something currently in existence, we can certainly learn lessons from what happened in the past. It will be important to apply those lessons to the new thing that is forming.
However, we cannot live in the past or focus on the past. We cannot dwell on what happened in the past. Many have experienced painful circumstances during this season of disaffiliation. Relationships have been harmed or even broken. People and congregations have been treated unfairly. The process of disaffiliation has been costly, both in financial resources and in emotional and spiritual resources.
But if we bear a grudge over how we were treated in the past, we will never be able to move forward into the new thing God is doing in and through us. The word “forgive” in Greek means “to release or let go.” We can move into a spirit of forgiveness toward those who have hurt us, releasing them – and ourselves – to move forward unencumbered into a new reality. Why would we want to carry with us into a new season the baggage of a hurtful past?
We can focus on the new thing God is doing. “See, I am doing a new thing! … Do you not perceive it?” The exhortation that Henry Blackaby put forward in Experiencing God rings true to our current situation: Find out what God is doing and join him in his work.
Some are part of starting a whole new congregation. Others are revitalizing an existing congregation with new mission or programs or priorities. Some are even forming new annual conferences, districts, and a whole new denomination. Wherever we find ourselves, where can we see God working? What is God doing in the arena where we serve?
A focus on the new thing God is doing can provide the momentum and guidance we need to carry us forward and recover from the trauma of recent experience. The important question is, “How can I join in to what God is doing, joining him in his work?” It will take every person putting in our time, resources, and abilities to participate in the Body of Christ to form or reform the new thing God is doing. Sitting on the sidelines or, worse yet, taking potshots of criticism at those doing the work will not help God’s new thing to come into fruition. We can focus on what God is doing and join in.
We can rely on the promises of God’s provision. God is making a way for us, even when it seems like there is no way. God is the way-maker and promise keeper. We just need to keep looking and asking him to show us the way forward. For each of us, the way may be a bit different, depending upon our unique circumstances. The way may not be easy (through the desert or wasteland?), but by God’s grace it will be doable.
Furthermore, God promises to provide for us on that way. “I am making … streams in the wasteland to give drink to my people.” Water brings refreshment and new life. And don’t we need that refreshment and new life right now, as we begin to come out of this very difficult season? That refreshment is mostly spiritual, as we sense God working in new ways in and through us.
Water is also symbolic of the Holy Spirit, the presence of God with us now. “’Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this [Jesus] meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive” (John 7:38-39). We can count on God’s presence with us, as we travel the way God makes for us into a new reality. As Moses said, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” (Exodus 33:15-16).
God promises to be with us, to never leave or forsake us. He will help us get where we need to go, as he creates a way for us through difficult circumstances and sustains us on the journey.
We can acknowledge who we are as God’s people. The point behind the new thing that God was doing in Isaiah’s time – and in ours – is to form a people for himself. We are God’s people, belonging to him. There is no higher status than that!
Knowing who we are and whose we are gives our lives and ministry purpose and meaning. We are not calling the shots. We are responding to God’s working in our lives through his Spirit. We are attempting to live our lives the Jesus way, informed and formed by God’s Word. We have a unique identity, different from how the world sees us or sees itself.
Our identity first and foremost is as God’s chosen people. Within that awareness, we have a sub-identity as part of the Wesleyan/Methodist family. And within that family, we have individual identities as denominations and congregations. In our focus on the smaller identity, we must never lose focus on the overarching one. Everything we do is in service to being part of God’s people.
This identity is something God is forming in us. Through his individual formation of each one of us as a disciple of Jesus Christ, we become formed into a group, a congregation, a denomination. We are not “holy solitaries,” as John Wesley put it. We are formed into a people of God, a community of faith. The attraction of being part of a denomination is that it helps us understand ourselves as part of something larger than our individual selves or our individual congregation. It helps us visualize ourselves as part of the larger people of God, working and serving together around the world.
Acknowledging ourselves as God’s people enables us to fearlessly grasp the new thing God is doing among us.
Finally, our ultimate purpose is to proclaim God’s praise. We are not building our own kingdoms, but Christ’s. We are not exalting ourselves, but Jesus. We are pointing, not at what we have done, but what God has done.
Keeping the focus on the praise of God and the proclamation of his glory helps us keep our priorities straight. It helps us know our place in the universe. And it puts the new thing that God is doing in proper perspective.
God’s new thing is not primarily for us, although we do benefit. His new thing is for the sake of a broken and needy world. And primarily, his new thing is “for the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:12).
Let us by God’s grace and in his time put the past behind us and strive to bring to fruition the new thing that God is doing in Methodism today, that we might exalt our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim the praise of our glorious God!
Thomas Lambrecht is a United Methodist clergyperson and vice president of Good News.
by Steve | Mar 24, 2023 | In the News
By Thomas Lambrecht —
In two decisions just released, the Judicial Council has clarified several matters related to the upcoming 2024 General Conference and addressed some shortcomings in the Congo Central Conference.
Another General Conference
In Decision 1451, the Judicial Council ruled that the General Conference session to be held in 2024 was really the postponed 2020 session. In doing so, the Council in effect lengthened the 2017-2020 quadrennium to include the years 2021-24. It mandated that the same budget should continue that was approved for 2017-2020. It allowed all officers in place to extend their terms until the next General Conference (2024), when they should have expired in 2020. So, we are currently in an eight-year quadrennium. (See my previous article on this decision.)
Now, in Decision 1472, the Judicial Council is mandating a “make-up” General Conference to be held sometime in 2025-27, prior to the regular General Conference to be held in 2028. They base this decision on the tortured logic of Decision 1451 that allowed them to postpone the 2020 General Conference, rather than taking the more common-sense step of cancelling it altogether. “The Constitution ‘establishes the minimum frequency at which the General Conference must convene, not the actual year when this occurs,’ by setting the number at once every four years in ¶ 14. JCD 1451. Since ¶ 14 stipulates one session per every four years, another regular session of General Conference is therefore required.”
It should be noted that the Judicial Council already violated its “once per every four years” statute when it allowed the 2020 General Conference not to be held for 8 years. There was no regular General Conference held during the quadrennium of 2017-2020, just the called special session in 2019. And rather than insisting that the “postponed” 2020 Conference be held as soon as practicable, it allowed that conference to be scheduled in the very last year of the 2021-2024 quadrennium.
This decision continues the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic to reverberate through the general structure of the church, rather than seeking a return to normalcy at the earliest possible moment. The General Conference generally meets before the next quadrennium to set budgets and elect officers for the quadrennium to follow. It therefore does no good for the 2020 General Conference to meet in 2024 to set budget and elect officers for a quadrennium that expires at the end of 2024!
Rather, the 2024 session of General Conference would set budgets and elect officers for the 2025-2028 quadrennium. However, the mandate of another General Conference to be held in 2025-2027, followed by another General Conference in 2028, means that the actions of the 2024 session (as well as one held one to three years later) will have limited lifespan.
It should be noted that four of the nine Judicial Council members (one short of a majority) registered their dissent from this mandate for an extra General Conference. Member Beth Capen points out in her dissent that “Our very structure is quadrennial and any attempt to hold a Regular Session of General Conference in less than four years will have a chaotic structural effect and the consequences will likely be far more egregious than the difficulty that has been experienced by the denomination’s need to continue to exist within the confines of rules and legislation that were subject to amendment in 2020.”
Many of the officers elected at General Conference, jurisdictional and central conferences, and annual conferences, have four-year terms. Those terms were extended to eight years by the postponement of the 2020 General Conference. But if another General Conference meets in 2026, does that mean the terms of those elected in 2024 would only last two years?
Capen gives the example of Judicial Council members, who are elected to eight-year terms. Under the Judicial Council’s reasoning, only the Judicial Council members whose terms expired in 2020 will be replaced by electing new members in 2024. They would actually have served 12-year terms instead of eight. If another General Conference is held in 2026, the members whose terms expired in 2024 would be replaced at that time (since it is in effect the “postponed 2024 session” of General Conference). They would actually have served 10-year terms instead of eight. Those elected in 2024 would be replaced at the 2028 General Conference, having served only four years instead of eight. Then, those elected in 2026 would be replace at the regular 2032 General Conference, having served only six years instead of eight. Are you confused, yet?
On the other hand, if the officers elected and budgets approved in 2024 are really for the whole quadrennium 2025-2028, then there is no compelling reason for the General Conference to meet again in between, save the overly legalistic, rigid reading of the Constitution proposed by the Judicial Council.
This same chaos and confusion would affect the election of other General Conference officials, such as members of the University Senate, General Commission on General Conference, general secretaries of general boards and agencies, and board members of all the general boards and agencies. It would also affect annual conference officials, including the election of lay members of annual conference, the conference chancellor, members of the conference Board of Ordained Ministry, the Administrative Review Committee, and other annual conference agencies, as well. Most annual conferences have ignored this train of thinking and have adapted the terms of office to fit the exigencies of the current situation. But it shows how unworkable the Judicial Council’s thinking on these issues is.
Finally, there is the matter of cost. We have been told that it costs $10 million to hold a General Conference of the normal length. By mandating an extra General Conference session, the Judicial Council just added $10 million in costs to a budget that is already projected to be cut by one-third from that of the previous quadrennium. Is it fair for a small group of (in this case) five Judicial Council members to commit the church to spend that amount of money?
All these problems could have been avoided by taking the simple step of Judicial Council cancelling the 2020 General Conference and designating the 2024 General Conference as that very thing. That would have put the operating schedule of the church back on its normal quadrennial footing immediately. Instead, Decisions 1451 and 1472 are prolonging the chaos, confusion, and pain caused by the original decision to postpone the 2020 General Conference until 2024. The Judicial Council has not served the church well in this matter.
Filling Vacant Delegate Spots
In the same Decision 1472, the Judicial Council reaffirmed that persons who are elected as delegates to General Conference, but whose status has changed since their election, are no longer eligible to serve. This most commonly applies to laypersons who become ordained clergy. In this time of disaffiliation, it would also apply to clergy and lay members who have left the denomination. Unfortunately, some delegates also die or experience health problems that makes it impossible for them to continue serving.
Ordinarily, when a person dies, resigns, or is no longer able to serve as a General Conference delegate, they are replaced by the next elected reserve delegate. If there are four General Conference delegates, there would also be four Jurisdictional Conference delegates who act as reserves. Then there are normally four Jurisdictional reserves, who could also move up. Two-thirds of the delegation would have to remove themselves from serving for there to be a problem at General Conference. It is more likely to be a problem at the Jurisdictional level since there are fewer reserves available there.
The Judicial Council made clear that delegates going off the delegation need to be replaced in order by the reserves below them. Only in the case when the delegation runs out of reserves may the annual conference hold a special election to elect more delegates and reserves. Again, this is more likely to affect the jurisdictional conference delegates than the General Conference ones, but it is helpful to have this clarity.
Issues in the Congo Central Conference
In Memorandum 1471, the Judicial Council stated it did not have jurisdiction to decide on complaints that Fair Process procedures for clergy and lay members in the Congo Central Conference had been violated. The Council noted that “since April 2020 to current, numerous clergy and lay members of the Congo Central Conference have submitted complaints to the Judicial Council” about the fact that the Congo Central Conference had not established an Episcopacy Committee, a Committee on Investigation, or a Judicial Court.
Five members (a majority) of the Judicial Council (including all three African members) admonished the Congo Central Conference about its need to establish the required committees and court, along with ensuring that clergy and lay members are treated fairly and have the right to appeal any action against them. These are all required by the Book of Discipline but have been ignored in the recent history of the Congo Central Conference. As noted in previous Perspectives (here and here), this has resulted in clergy being defrocked without trial or removed from all appointments and in laity being excommunicated from the church.
The Council also noted that they had been referred to a purported 2020 Book of Discipline adopted by the Congo Central Conference. Since the most recent general Book of Discipline is the 2016 one, the Council declared that a 2020 version does not exist. This calls into question whether the changes adopted by the Congo Central Conference – most notably a shift to lifetime episcopacy – are still valid. The Judicial Council did not rule on that question since it was not before them.
One hopes that the Congo Central Conference will work diligently to bring its structure into compliance with the requirements of the Discipline, for the sake of fairness and brotherly love in the way that members are treated.
Thomas Lambrecht is a United Methodist clergyperson and vice president of Good News.
by Steve | Mar 21, 2023 | Magazine Articles, March/April 2023
By Rob Renfroe —
When it comes to how to handle our time together leading up to General Conference, we United Methodists need to do better. As those presently remaining in the UM Church research which option forward suits them best, our conversations seem to be led by persons who are committed to accusations and outrage. Some are committed to portraying those on the other side as possessing the worst possible motives. Others are always deeply offended, actually indignant, because someone has dared to criticize the denomination they have chosen for themselves. It has been wisely stated, “No one can think clearly with their fists clenched.” And right now, we have a lot of clenched fists in the UM Church.
How might we do better? First, let’s focus on what the leaders of the various movements say and write. Everyone in the UM Church may and should have a voice about the future of the church. But it’s foolish and counterproductive to be outraged about something said by a person who is not particularly knowledgeable about the issues and who has very little influence with others.
I often read that traditionalists have said that the UM Church will change its core doctrines. Maybe some have, but not any traditional leader I have spoken with or whose writings I have read. To attack traditionalists for statements made by persons who are not in places of leadership, who are not thought leaders in our movement, or for that matter not even privy to our thinking – well, that is a waste of time.
I have come across statements made by some “uber-progressive” United Methodists who seemingly want to gain notoriety by being provocative on Twitter or Facebook. If after being in literally scores of meetings with progressive and centrist leaders over the last two decades, I don’t know this person’s name and a little research does not reveal that he or she has any following or influence, rather than being outraged with what he or she has written, I move on and think, “Well, the remaining UM Church is going to have fun with that one.” Every voice has every right to speak. But not every voice needs to be engaged, “exposed,” or criticized. We would do better to see the views of the leading thinkers of each movement within the UM Church as being representative of that movement. And we would do better interacting with those views. It’s likely to be a more civil, thoughtful, and healthy conversation.
Another way we can do better is to lessen the usage of the term “misinformation.” At present, labeling something as “misinformation” is often nothing more than a lazy way of not engaging with someone who thinks differently than we do. And to be clear, an opinion that differs from ours is not misinformation. It’s a different belief, a different way of seeing reality than we do. Those who throw that term around would do well first to think, “Hmm, there just might be another side to this issue. And, horrors, I could be wrong.”
I have been accused of misinforming many times. When I ask for specifics, few are forthcoming. Or after the offense has been spelled out, it’s simply that I believe differently about an issue than my accuser does. Once I was charged with giving out misinformation because I said I believed the decline in the membership and attendance of the UM Church would be even more rapid after it decides to marry and ordain partnered gay persons. That’s not misinformation. I may be right, or I may be wrong. But it’s an opinion based on the pattern we see in every other mainline church that has made that change. The right response would be to make a case for why the UM Church will be different than the Episcopalians (ECUSA), Presbyterians (PCUSA), the Lutherans (ELCA), or the United Church of Christ (UCC). That would have been a worthwhile conversation and my accuser might have convinced me that I’m wrong. Instead, because he went to the misinformation trope, I went away thinking he wasn’t a serious person and he cared much less about the future of the UM Church than he claimed. I think the same thing when bishops and others dismiss everyone who criticizes their actions as being the purveyors of misinformation.
Traditionalists should be just as careful to engage with what they believe are false statements made by progressives and centrists. Blanket dismissals and catch phrases such as “misinformation” do not help us understand those with whom we disagree or motivate us to correct what we believe they have misrepresented. United Methodists of all theological persuasions are sufficiently intelligent to follow thoughtful debates and determine for themselves what is their best course forward. Those of us in positions of leadership owe it to them to do better than dismiss each other’s views as “misinformation.”
Here’s something else we need to do better. Church. The UM Church has declined every year since its origin in 1968. There are some bright spots, but most serious United Methodists, regardless of theology, agree that the UM Church is top-heavy, institutional, and stymied by bureaucrats who do not want the budgets of their favorite board or agency to be cut. The UM Church needs to do church better.
But so does the Global Methodist Church. The GMC simply cannot be UMC 2.0. It cannot do ministry the way the UM Church has done it and believe the results will be different simply because we have the right theology. Too many of our heroes from the past two generations have fought, suffered, and been vilified to provide us with the opportunity the GMC now possesses. We must seek God, pray for the guidance and the power of the Holy Spirit, and commit ourselves to existing for those who do not yet know Christ. Getting out of the UM Church was never the point. Being in a place where we can fully devote ourselves to spreading the Gospel was always the goal.
I am happy that early indications are that the GMC will be different. The first three convening annual conferences of the GMC were held in January and February, and none of them felt like “business as usual.”
The Mid-Texas Annual Conference held the GMC’s first-ever convening conference. Was it different, even better, from a typical United Methodist annual conference? You decide. It had one business meeting lasting an hour and a half. The rest of the time was spent in worship, preaching, and Bible study. The altar was opened, and people flooded to pray for the GMC and to pray over each other. Tears were common and the power of the Holy Spirit was present. The Conference ordained 28 persons. The first person ordained in the GMC was an African American woman. The second was a Hispanic man. The third was a 20-something mother of a newborn. At the same time, a youth convocation was held where dozens of young people gave their lives to Christ. You can decide if that’s better than the typical UM annual conference. But it’s a great start for those who want to do church differently.
The following week the West Plains Annual Conference gathered to celebrate its new beginning in the GMC. Nearly 75 percent of the churches in the Northwest Texas Annual Conference have disaffiliated and most have joined the West Plains Annual Conference of the Global Methodist Church. Business as usual? No, there was little “business” at all – about an hour’s worth. The remainder of the conference was spent in worship, Bible study, and vision casting, highlighted by a final commissioning service that sent pastors and laypersons into the mission field that is the world to make disciples of Jesus Christ.
The next week the East Texas Annual Conference held its convening conference. Two hours were utilized for business. The rest of the time was spent in worship and in workshops that focused on doctrine, evangelism, discipleship, worship, and effective social witness. Ninety persons were ordained either as deacons or elders. And seven new, start-up churches were received into the fellowship of the Global Methodist Church. Again, not bad for Methodists who want a different way of doing church together.
I am encouraged by what I see in these first three convening annual conferences. This is not business as usual. I want to believe that God has given GMC leaders a vision for a different way of being church. That is what I and many others for decades have worked for and prayed for – a Christ-centered church that is awakened to the will of God, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the needs of a lost world.
We can do better. All of us. In how we end our time together and in how we live into the future. We must do better.
Rob Renfroe is the president of Good News.
by Steve | Mar 21, 2023 | In the News, March/April 2023
By Keith Boyette —
The process of church disaffiliation has completed its second wave, with churches disaffiliating through special sessions of their annual conferences in the fall. This piecemeal process of disaffiliation is not what we had hoped for when I joined other traditionalist, centrist, and progressive leaders to announce the Protocol for Reconciliation and Grace through Separation agreement three years ago. If General Conference had met in 2020 or even in 2022, there would have been a uniform process for disaffiliation that would have allowed annual conferences and local churches to make an informed, prayerful, conscience-driven decision on where their congregation could best serve the Kingdom of God.
Unfortunately, we have a dysfunctional situation that is causing increased conflict and power plays to block disaffiliation in some places. Despite the challenges, over 2,000 churches have already disaffiliated from The United Methodist Church (UM Church) and many more are in the process to do so during this year.
Now that two waves of disaffiliation have been completed, people wonder what progress the Global Methodist Church is making in its formation.
The GM Church began operations on May 1, 2022. In its brief life, it has welcomed more than 1,200 persons as clergy members and officially welcomed 1,100 local churches that applied to align with it. The GM Church is already larger than the Congregational Methodist and Free Methodist Churches and should soon pass the Wesleyan Church in size. These clergy and churches are from Angola, Bulgaria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, England, Panama, the Philippines, Slovakia, and the United States.
And hundreds of additional clergy and local churches are on the cusp of completing the process of disaffiliation from The United Methodist Church in order to align with the GM Church. Also, more than 50 new GM congregations have been launched globally with more being added each month. And the truth is, many more would have already joined the GM Church, or be well on the way to doing so, were it not for the obstacles UM Church bishops and conferences have placed in their way.
The GM Church’s primary focus is on its mission – to make disciples of Jesus Christ who worship passionately, love extravagantly, and witness boldly. It is a Church that intentionally empowers local congregations to have maximum discretion in the way they organize and deploy resources for ministry. The denomination maintains a small institutional footprint to ensure local churches have the resources to support the ministry to which they are called. The GM Church exists to empower local churches; to serve, not to be served.
Considerable time has been devoted to organizing for ministry in the various regions of the world. The GM Church currently has nine provisional annual conferences and districts around the world. These conferences and districts have presidents pro tempore and presiding elders appointed to serve. Some have already held convening conferences. Others are holding such conferences soon. It also has ten transitional conference advisory teams preparing for the launch of additional provisional conferences and districts in the coming months with more being organized monthly.
The process of organizing the church internationally involves registering the GM Church with the government of each country. It has completed this process in Bulgaria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Philippines, and Slovakia. Registration is underway in a number of other countries around the world. Ultimately, the GM Church will be registered in nearly all of the countries of Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe. The denomination is also in discussions with non-UM clergy and churches around the world, many of whom are steeped in Methodist heritage and traditions. For them, the GM Church offers an opportunity to join a new, vibrant movement grounded in the warm hearted Wesleyan expression of the Christian faith.
Navigating such a dynamic environment requires exceptional sensitivity to, and dependence on, the work of the Holy Spirit. The GM Church’s Transitional Leadership Council (TLC) is diverse, globally representative, and composed of exceptional leaders. Recently, Bishops Mark Webb and Scott Jones have joined the TLC, along with new members Rev. Arturo Cadar (Eastern Texas, Deacon), Rev. Bartolomeu Dias Sapalo (Angola, Elder), Rev. Dr. David Watson (Allegheny West, Elder), and Rev. Bazel Yoila Yayuba (Nigeria, Elder). The TLC will continue to guide the GM Church through its critical transitional period, even as it joyfully looks forward to the new denomination’s convening General Conference.
Of course, starting a new denomination requires significant financial resources. Thanks to hundreds of gifts from faithful Methodists from all around the world, at its inception, the GM Church received over $1 million as a substantial seed money grant from the Wesleyan Covenant Association’s Next Methodism Fund, which had been specifically raised for that purpose. In addition to this gift, individuals, local churches, and other entities have continued to generously support the Church in its transitional season. Through December 31, 2022, it has received $210,000 in direct contributions, enabling it to fulfill its calling in its early days.
As local churches join the denomination, they are now supporting the ministries of their provisional annual conferences and the general church through connectional funding. The TLC, when requested, has granted relief from connectional funding for congregations that have incurred substantial financial burdens as part of withdrawing from the UM Church.
The GM Church is also equipping and encouraging congregations to fulfill its calling to be a global missional partner with Christian movements around the world. It is a platinum sponsor of the Beyond These Walls conference that will be held at The Woodlands (TX) Methodist Church from April 27-29, 2023. It will gather Christian leaders from around the world, many of whom will be GMC clergy and laity, and will challenge us to share the good news of Jesus Christ with all people.
In this space, I can only focus on a few highlights, but all the people of the GM Church celebrate the way in which God is at work in our midst. We have much for which we give thanks. We have only just begun. We will keep our focus primarily upon our mission – to make disciples of Jesus Christ who worship passionately, love extravagantly, and witness boldly. God expects great things from us. By God’s Spirit, we strive to accomplish great things for God, all so that Jesus will be glorified.
The Rev. Keith Boyette is the Transitional Connectional Officer of the Global Methodist Church, its chief executive and administrative officer. A version of this article appeared in the GM Church’s Outlook (globalmethodist.org).
by Steve | Mar 21, 2023 | In the News, March/April 2023
By Kimberly Constant —
Every spring as nature awakens from its winter slumber and life bursts forth anew, the church revisits the heart of the gospel message. An old rugged cross. The discovery of an empty tomb. The wonder of a risen Lord. The promise of an eternal kingdom in which all will be made whole. Peace will reign. Love will flourish. Year after year we engage in our rituals of remembrance. Maundy Thursday.
Good Friday. Easter Sunday. We wash one another’s feet, we mourn at the foot of the cross, we rejoice in the good news of the risen Christ. All to evoke the germination of a real, miraculous hope.
But, year after year there is one element of the Easter story that fades as our familiarity with it grows. The element of surprise. Lost amongst the realities of life and a world that often seems unmoved by the events of that glorious morning, perhaps, like me, you long to reclaim the life-changing surprise of the empty tomb.
The truth is that the very first Easter provided not just one surprise, but a series of them. Stumbled upon by the most unexpected of people. Women. Women, who in Roman times, did not hold much agency or status, who often occupied the margins of society. Women who, against all odds, had been invited into the ministry of Jesus. Accompanying him on his mission to make God’s kingdom known. Staying near to him even unto the cross to bear witness to his suffering and death. Pushing through their grief and despair in the early morning hours after Sabbath to attend to him, one last time. We imagine they could not have fathomed the surprise that awaited them. Mired in grief, their minds churned over the most practical of details, perhaps as a means of maintaining sanity amidst the unrelenting pain. How, they wondered, could they care for Jesus’ body when there was a giant stone blocking the entrance to the tomb? It was a worry that was dismissed fairly quickly because where they expected to find a hindrance to their Lord, instead the women discovered the first surprise. The stone had been rolled away.
Their next surprise varies from gospel to gospel. No doubt the breathless shock of the morning generated some difficulty in clearly recounting the events that ensued. Whereas Mark recorded the women meeting a young man in white sitting inside of the tomb, Matthew mentioned an angel sitting on top of that rolled away stone. Luke, on the other hand, noted the presence of two young men who glowed. John wrote of two angels in white. This being (or beings) confirmed what the women saw with their own eyes. Jesus was not there. Luke, and potentially Mark if we follow the earliest manuscripts, provided this as the only encounter the women experienced that morning. In those gospels, the women returned from that bodyless tomb to give the news to the disciples. According to Luke and John, it was information that prompted Peter, and per John another disciple, to run and see for themselves the discarded strips of linen that had once encircled the body of their friend.
But Matthew and John (and later Markan manuscripts) made note of a more intimate encounter. Jesus, in all of his resurrection glory, appearing to Mary Magdalene (and perhaps to one of her other female companions). Matthew did not provide much detail aside from noting the amazement and reverence of the women as they fell at Jesus’ feet. However, John relayed an interaction between Mary Magdalene and Jesus that spoke to the tenderness of that staggering encounter.
In his version, Mary’s discovery brought forth a flood of tears. The terrible thought that Jesus’ body had been stolen. Perhaps vandalized. Turning from the tomb she noticed a man whom she mistook as the gardener. Not yet ready to surrender to hope, she asked aloud, was he the one who had taken away the body of the Lord? No. This was no gardener. This man was the Lord. A realization that dawned when he spoke her name, “Mary.” A name that means “obstinate” or “rebellious,” and also by some accounts, “love.” A name that encapsulates that most profound of meetings. The stubborn rebelliousness of humanity greeted with the unconditional, unending, undefeatable love of God.
What a thrilling surprise. Not just for Mary. Not just for the disciples who would hear about these events and later be met themselves by the risen Lord. But for us all. What an unexpected revelation. The triumph of Jesus over sin and evil and death announced not via a host of angels singing songs of praise in the early morning sky. Not via a sudden appearance in Pontius Pilate’s bedchamber or in the courtroom of the Sanhedrin. Guess what guys? You got it all wrong. Not even via an inbreaking into the room where Jesus’ nearest and dearest had gathered to mourn. Not yet anyway.
The first revelation of the resurrection occurred there, in that garden which was created to house the vestiges of death. To a woman who had once been inhabited by evil itself, Jesus revealed his triumph. His glory. His power. His love. All encapsulated in the beautiful pronouncement of her name. No trace of bitterness detected. No anger or disappointment or even sorrow on display. Just our Lord and Savior making his presence known. The truth of Jesus’ resurrection as humble and miraculous and surprising as his birth. As his ministry of reconciliation. As the company he kept. As the teachings he espoused. It was a moment which brought restoration to all of humanity. But also, in a particular way, to women, who for thousands of years had carried the weight of Eve’s actions, the first to fall prey to the temptation of the tree and the lies of the enemy in another garden long ago.
In this new garden, Jesus gifted a woman with the mission to be the first to tell the good news, the glorious news of his resurrection. The message of hope issued from the most unlikely of preachers. How remarkable!
What emerges from the somewhat varied tales of utter shock and awe that morning fundamentally finds consistency in its centering of the core truth of our Christian faith. Jesus is risen. That tomb was not his end. Nor is it ours. Sin and evil and death no longer have an unyielding hold on the human race. God has invited all of us to enter into God’s eternal kingdom. His grace has enabled a community in which all of us are rendered pure. Holy. Men and women from all different cultures and backgrounds made equal under the authority and lordship of Jesus Christ. Our unique gifts and attributes finding their best expression in concert with one another as we continue to spread the greatest news of human history. Jesus is risen. Indeed. The rest, as they say, is just details.
But maybe, like me, you wonder. Is it possible to recapture that element of surprise, that uncontainable joy of witnessing resurrection power, when sometimes it feels as if nothing has really changed? When sometimes we wonder if the surprise at the tomb still reverberates in a society that eschews surprise and mystery altogether, sacrificing them at the altars of human knowledge and scientific discovery. Incessant accomplishment. Never-ending work. How do we hold onto the wonder of the resurrection when sometimes it feels like we are living in a time in which hope grows more and more dim? By surrendering. Like Jesus, who did not succumb to death, but instead chose, willingly, to give up his spirit. Along with, according to Mark, a loud cry. A battle cry of victory expressing the surprising and glorious truth that Jesus willingly died on that cross for the sake of us all. Jesus chose to surrender so that in our own acts of surrender we too might overcome, as he did.
The surprise of Easter morning wasn’t something hidden away, only able to be discovered by the power of human knowledge or ingenuity. That surprise was waiting to be found by those willing to surrender. The ones humble enough to be surprised. Women who surrendered to the pull to make that early morning journey to attend to the body of one who was so dear. Men who were willing to touch Jesus’ side and surrender their doubts and fears and worship their friend as their Lord. Brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the years who each, in their own way, have humbled themselves and surrendered to the truth that human beings do not, cannot, have all the answers.
The surprise of that empty tomb still waits to be discovered by those of us willing to surrender to the truth that not all mysteries can be explained. Those of us willing to admit that maybe, just maybe, peace is not secured by fighting every foe. Wisdom is not earned by constant striving for more and more knowledge. Success is not won by the accumulation of accomplishments and things. But all of these and more are found in surrendering to the one who already has gained victory over anything in this world that stands against us. By surrendering to the one who already has accomplished for us that which we could never earn for ourselves.
Jesus tells us that he stands at the door, knocking. A surprise waiting to be discovered by everyone willing to surrender their way to his will. Not just once in a lifetime. Not just once a year at Easter. But every day. From moment to moment. In hospital beds and rush hour traffic and family reunions and voting booths and work cubicles and online forums. We can discover anew the wonder of his grace. The surprise of his mercy. The depth of his provision. In surrender. In humility. Allowing ourselves to remain open to the continual surprises of faith that lie before us. Reminding ourselves that, truly, there is nothing that God cannot overcome. There is nothing that can contain the glory of our God. Even a society that denies him is no match.
The surprise of the empty tomb and a resurrected Lord still wait to be stumbled upon in the most unexpected ways. By the most unexpected of people. In the most unexpected places. In rest. In relationship. In quiet trust.
As we journey together once more this Easter to the foot of the cross and the open doorway of an empty tomb, may we surrender. May we embrace the unexpected surprises that lie in wait. May we receive with fresh wonder the glorious truths. We are loved. We are forgiven. We are redeemed. We are recipients of a kingdom that will, without a doubt, defy our wildest expectations and offer up an eternity of wonderful surprises. All stemming from the best surprise of all. He. Is. Risen. He is risen, indeed.
Kimberly Constant is a Bible teacher, author, and ordained elder in The United Methodist Church. You can find out more about Rev. Constant at kimberlyconstantministries.com.
