There's a not so funny joke that claims all second marriages are the triumph of hope over experience. A lot of days, that is how I've felt about my return to church in general, and my adult choice of a denomination, the ELCA, specifically. After growing up an "in the pew every Sunday and in the Fellowship Hall every Wednesday" Baptist, I fell away, disenchanted with the jarring disconnect between the grace I found in Christ as opposed to the withering judgement I found in my fellow Christians.
Fast forward a decade and as a mother then with young children I was called back in to the churchgoing fold by the Lutherans. I was drawn in by their emphasis upon grace and their empowering stance declaring a priesthood of all believers.
After years of immersion in Lutheran ways I eventually washed back upon the shore, parched. The words were all still there but the Word often seemed missing. Despite professions of grace as gift there was that old disconnect again, centered this time around a struggle to offer rites and rights to partnered noncelibate glbt clergy and laity alike. Ongoing sometimes willful confusion between orthodoxy and orthopraxy darkly dominated my field of view.
However there do seem to be rays of light coming from the ELCA these days, if you know where to look.
One place to look is at reports documenting the votes from our various Synod Assemblies on memorials about the Task Force Statement on Sexuality. The numbers so far are demonstrating a grace filled shift.
It seems people in greater than ever numbers are beginning to understand how terribly they have been misled by proponents advancing strains of fundamentalist vitriol aimed at preserving power and the status quo on the backs of the glbt community.
That tired saw, "love the sinner hate the sin" has had the ugliness at its heart revealed. Considered in the light of radical inclusion it becomes impossible not to see "love the sinner/hate the sin" to really be saying "do not dare be who you are as created by God, or we will never accept you". From there it is only a short roll downhill to "your sin is a special exception to God's offer of grace". Past that there is the final tumble towards an inevitable sorting, judging and choosing "on behalf of" God that eventually shoves God aside altogether.
Holding a position well uphill from there is the growing list of Synod votes recorded trending towards widespread support for the acceptance of the Task Force Report on Sexuality's recommendations in large strokes, and the potential to vote out discriminatory denominational policies in somewhat smaller strokes. Reading the numbers I find myself cautiously optimistic about institutional progress being possible for the ELCA in ways I did not think possible even a year ago.
Then there is this. A blog written by TLU professor Phil Ruge-Jones.
God in the Grit.Taken from the site:"The theory--the main heresy of Christians is trying to protect God from getting into places that might soil God’s reputation. Many of us spend a lot of energy trying to keep God’s name from being soiled by being associated with what we find scandalous, by hanging out with the wrong kind of people, by showing mercy to our enemies, by acting with uncouth manners, by going and getting himself nailed up again. We want a God we could take home to mother without causing offense. But the thing is, God does not have any interest in staying out of the grit of life. God thrives on dwelling in all the wrong places. As I like to remember, God is as Jesus does. And Jesus was always getting into the gritty places of life--crossing lines to meet “those people”--usually to party with them-- always to love them. And he seems to work his way into me not in my strong and lovely places--neither of them--but in the broken down, smacked up, screwed over places. As those of you who know me surely have seen, there is a lot more square footage in the broken places than in the squeaky clean places so God must like a spacious dwelling."
Ruge-Jones is throwing some new rope down the well for serious Christians. Reading there is akin to drinking a glass of cool water after working out in the Texas heat. The words do more than quench a spiritual thirst. They soothe, they sharpen the mind and prepare the body for the work yet to come. I hope you will dip in and see for yourself.
It is a beautiful new day here in Central Texas. God can change the church the same way God changes the world, one heart at a time. There are signs all around of newness and life if we have the eyes to see them.
God is always doing a new thing. Can the ELCA step into God's light and join in the full dance of Grace? With the numbers of votes for radical inclusion mounting taken together with Ruge-Jones' words as exemplars of the ELCA putting a best face forward, I find reason to be hopeful. Again.
0 comments:
Post a Comment