Reverend Rob Renfroe
rrenfroe@goodnewsmag.org
By Reverend Rob Renfroe –
Just one week earlier the two men had come to Jerusalem. On what would later be called Palm Sunday, they entered the city with Jesus. Their hearts swelled as the crowds shouted his name and called him king.
They watched him enter the Temple as if he owned the place. He called the moneychangers thieves and with fire in his eyes and authority in his voice, he chased them out of his Father’s house with a whip.
For three days he taught in the Temple Courts. Huge crowds hung on his every word.The two men could see it – how Scripture would be fulfilled. The Messiah was here. The time was now. The day of deliverance had come.
But then everything went wrong. Thursday night he was arrested. Friday he was crucified. Saturday he was dead in a tomb. Sunday morning, devastated and confused, Cleopas and his friend left Jerusalem, walking along the road that led to a village called Emmaus.
As they walked, One they didn’t recognize joined them. “What are you talking about?” he asked.
Cleopas answered: “About Jesus of Nazareth, and how our chief priests and rulers had him condemned to death and crucified. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.”
Maybe you’ve been on an Emmaus Road of your own. You dared to believe in something almost too good to be true. For a moment, it seemed that your world was going to change. Life would get better. Everything would become right. You could see it and how it would happen.
But then Friday came. Your hopes died on a cross of despair and they were buried in a dark tomb.
You look back on your life and you find yourself saying, “But I had hoped for a marriage that was a blessing, not a battle.” “I had hoped to overcome the pain of my past.” “I had hoped for a life that was more than going to work, putting bread on the table, accumulating some stuff, watching the years go by, and wondering why my life never changes.” “I had hoped. God knows I had hoped for so much more.”
Emily Dickinson wrote: “Hope is the thing with feathers/ That perches in the soul/ And sings the tune without the words/ And never stops at all.”
But sometimes hope does stop singing, doesn’t it? What do you do then?
If you care about The United Methodist Church and are committed to a faithful future for the people called Methodist, you have probably found yourself thinking, “But I had hoped.”
After nearly fifty years of disagreeing about sexual ethics, I had hoped we would be done by now. But it hasn’t happened.
After some vocal centrist leaders made public statements at General Conference 2016 that it was impossible for us to live together and we needed to separate, I had hoped they would join with traditionalists and support a plan that would put an end to our fighting. But it didn’t happen. Instead, these same leaders got behind a proposal that could never pass and that belied their admission that we could not be one church.
At the special General Conference of 2019 when the majority once again affirmed the traditional position, I had hoped that vote would be the end of our disagreement. After all, that’s why the Conference had been called – once and for all to determine the church’s position and settle the matter. Either centrists and progressives would leave the church or accept the results of the vote. Instead, they took out full-page ads in newspapers across the country condemning traditionalists as hard-hearted, mean-spirited homophobes.
After a diverse group of leaders miraculously brought forth the Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace through Separation, I had hoped General Conference would adopt the plan in 2020, and by now we would be well on our way to forming a new missional church that is Christ-centered and faithful to the Scriptures. But COVID made a physical meeting impossible, and the Commission on General Conference decided that a virtual meeting could not fairly and fully address the Protocol.
So here we are. Some of us personally, looking at our lives. All of us in terms of the church and its future. Here we are, walking down a road to Emmaus, saying to ourselves, “But I had hoped.”
What do you do when even hope is gone? You learn what Cleopas learned.
You learn that on Friday they can crucify your hopes. You learn that on Saturday your dreams can be buried in a cold, dark tomb. But on Sunday you learn no matter what has happened, Jesus Christ is Lord. You learn, wherever you are and however you feel, whether you know it or not, Jesus is walking with you. You learn that, in a way you didn’t see and couldn’t imagine, Jesus was working for your good all the time. You learn that he is the Lord over the past, the present, and the future. You learn that your job is not to understand the plan but to walk in faith and in faithfulness. He will rise. He will overcome. He will be with you. Walk that way. Live that way.
Why has a separation that is so obviously needed been delayed? Why is the future we have worked for, prayed for, and sacrificed for been so long in coming? As understandable as they are, these are the wrong questions to ask.
The question is always: What is Jesus doing and how can I join him? And the right response is always hope. As Emily Dickinson wrote, the right way forward is to sing the tune, even when we don’t have the words. Our eyes may be blinded for a moment, but Jesus is with us. He will make himself and his plans known. He will achieve his will. If a cross and a tomb couldn’t stop him, neither can a General Conference’s postponement.
Do not be discouraged. Do not give up. Jesus will have the last word. And that word will be good.
Rob Renfroe is a United Methodist clergyperson and the president and publisher of Good News.
This may be a naïve question, but why do we have to wait for the progressives and centrists permission to form the Global Methodist Church?
Did Jesus get permission from the priests before he entered the Temple to drive out the moneychangers?
Maybe we need to get some fire in our eyes and authority in our voices!
Excellent and encouraging article, Rob. Thank you.
Blessings
Jeff
Wonderful post. I have been on the “Walk to Emmaus,” and teamed three straight years in a row. I’m addicted to the water. COVID happened and the walks were suspended, we hope to gear up in the fall. At our monthly small group reunion lunch, the question “what next,” always comes up. What will happen to Emmaus after the split?
It has become harder and harder, especially over the past year to find Emmaus family who is still members of the UMC, they have left in large numbers. These are all men and women who were deeply devoted to serving their local church in the UMC. The actions of liberal bishops since the 2019 SGC were the catalyst for these departures. They saw what we saw when we left the UMC to start our new church, that the UMC had broken faith with God, and the Body of Christ.
When a denomination becomes more focused on social justice causes, instead of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, it begins drifting further and further from the light.
Thank you for your question. Starting the Global Methodist Church right now would not help because there is not a practical mechanism for local churches to leave the UM Church and retain their buildings and assets. Without the Protocol, departure requires a very high payment, beyond the reach of most congregations. Calling for separation now without the Protocol would severely limit the number of congregations able and willing to join.
Thank you for the reminder of not losing hope.
While I think Rob did an outstanding job of laying out how we a s Christians should view this situation now, I agree with RB’s idea. My mother always said “Can’t never could do anything.” By nature I lean heavily conservative. But one thing I have learned is that Conservatives always want the perfect scenario to exist before they step out and do anything. This has seriously impeaded their ability to achieve greatness. And, conversely, Progressives have acted without having facts in their corner nearly on a daily basis. And, as one can see, it has garnered them 50 years of controlling the conversation on how churches should be run. So, I think that if Conservatives want to make any ground, they need to jump away from the entanglements of the UMC by whatever means necessary and call it a leap of faith. I see all the time independent churches being birthed without overthinking the risks. They may meet in schools and gymnasiums for awhile, but they have their church. So, I conclude that if you don’t want to take risks for the church then this passage describes you: “Oh ye of little faith.” Just think where the Global Methodist Church would be had they taken the leap of faith 25 years ago when they first considered the separation idea. They would likely be larger than the UMC by now.
Very encouraging words. Thank you.
Excellent article. I do have a concern regarding the use of the word “Global” in the new church name. With the whole “Global” political reset that’s been coming against our country and western society by the socialist, communist, progressive left, why would we choose to adopt a name that sounds similar? I realize that a large portion of what will eventually be the new traditional/Biblical Methodist church extends globally beyond the US, I still would prefer not using the word “Global” in the name.