January 23, 2012

Dear Colleague in Ministry,

I was talking with a United Methodist friend about how our pastor preached about justice as a core theme of the biblical witness on the Sunday when he offered us the opportunity to support ministries of justice through the Human Relations Day offering. He said, “What’s that?” I told him about the ministries this offering supports and he was impressed. But then he asked why they didn’t have that offering at his church. I explained that it happened each year on the Sunday before Martin Luther King Day, but churches could choose to do so on any Sunday. He asked how he could give. I sent him to the website.

I’m puzzled by churches that choose not to give their members the opportunity to give to the six special Sundays with offering. They support incredible ministries. And research shows that they don’t detract from giving to the general fund. They actually enhance it. To help people grow in generosity they need opportunities to give. These six Sundays provide six such opportunities

If your church missed this one, it’s not too late. Choose another date. Or let this one go and get ready for the next one - One Great Hour of Sharing in the middle of Lent. Abundant resources are available to help tell the story.

Grace and Peace,

Bill Mullette-Bauer

Living in God’s Grace

As unpopular as the word "stewardship"* may be in churches and in the broader culture, there's another "s" word that's probably even less popular: "sacrifice." So it may come as a surprise that the latter cropped up so often during this past week's Presidential Inauguration. (note: Tanya wrote this just after the inauguration in 2009) For example, in his benediction, the Rev. (United Methodist) Dr. Joseph Lowery prayed that all Americans would find "...a willingness to make sacrifices, to respect [God's] creation, to turn to each other and not on each other." President Obama opened his address by saying, "I stand here today . . . mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors." Willingly and -- with great sadness -- unwillingly, many have relinquished their God-given freedoms for the sake of others and/or "for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim."**

With all of the freedoms that we enjoy as North Americans -- and especially as North American Christians -- why would we ever choose to place limits upon them? Many of us can worship wherever and whatever we want, live wherever and however we like, consume whatever and however much we desire, etc. If it's bad stewardship to waste God's gifts, why should refrain from using any of them to their fullest? This week's reading from 1 Corinthians suggests a simple answer: agape love. When we practice agape love, we choose to place limits on our freedom to partake in God's gifts (e.g., food, God's creation, geographic and social mobility, etc.), so that others may enjoy God's gifts as well. (And, if truth be told, our freedoms exist because of the agape, self- sacrificing love of God and of countless others who came before us.) What a privilege we have: the choice of actively helping agape love to survive in the world today, so that it may thrive for all times to come.

In God's Grace,

Tanya Barnett & Tom Wilson
Northwest United Methodist Foundation Staff

Footnotes
*For example, some church leaders (e.g., Brad Leeper) suggest that "stewardship" carries too much unwanted baggage and should be replaced with other words like "generosity"; some environmentalists (e.g., Larry Rasmussen in Earth Community, Earth Ethics) suggest that the term is too pejorative and should be replaced with terms like "creation-care" and "sustainability."
**From "sacrifice" in the Random House Unabridged Dictionary.

Every year, Radical Gratitude journeys through this post-Epiphany season of Ordinary Time, encouraging readers to touch the bedrock of Christian stewardship: God - "from whom are all things and for whom we exist" (from this week's reading from 1 Cor. 8:6) - who is radically present in their daily lives. During this season, we persistently ask questions like: where do you experience God's Grace in your daily life? Then, throughout the rest of the year, we build on these bedrock experiences of Grace, persistently asking questions like: when you experience God's Grace, how do you respond to it? In the Wesleyan tradition, one of the chief responses to experiencing God's Grace (and, therefore, one of the chief aspects of Christian stewardship) is to "save" or "conserve all you can." (This is the Wesleyan stewardship response that we'll explore during the upcoming Lenten season.) On the surface, this may sound like a strange response to Grace. Why should we reign in our appetites in the face of lavish Grace? When we explore what John Wesley* really meant when he called his followers to "save all you can," we know that he probably meant something more along the lines of: "help to preserve God's gifts of Grace, so that others may enjoy them too." (This is very much in keeping with Paul's message in this week's text from 1 Corinthians.)

Footnote
*John Wesley is a key founder of the United Methodist tradition.

Rev. Dr. Laura Mendenhall:*

"[O]ur freedom does not release us from our responsibility for our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are bound to live within the limitations imposed by love."

Jim Forest:**

"To be free means that your ties are freely chosen."

For Reflection

What are some of the freedoms that you most prize? What are some of the ways in which you actively steward them? Why do you choose to do so?

Footnotes
*Laura Mendenhall, "The Limitations Imposed by Love," from Day1.org; bold added for emphasis. Rev. Dr. Laura S. Mendenhall is president of Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, GA, and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
**Jim Forest, Praying with Icons (New York: Orbis, 1997). Mr. Forest is a member of the Russian Orthodox Church and serves as General Secretary of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation.

Reflections on the Lectionary

Stewardship reflections on readings for the fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

Revised Common Lectionary texts for January 29, 2012: Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalm 111; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28

In this week's passage from 1 Corinthians, Paul addresses a pressing problem among Christians living in first-century Corinth: whether or not to eat meat offered to idols. While most of us don't experience this problem today, Paul's response to the Corinthians still offers some fundamental insights into what it means to be a Christian disciple and steward.

Let's first look briefly at the problem itself. The basic conflict seems to be one in which some Christians feel perfectly free to eat meat offered to idols, while others don't. As Robert Spivey and D. Moody Smith reveal, this wasn't an easily avoidable problem for those who didn't eat this meat: "...in the ancient world, much of the meat sold in the markets had also been offered to idols, even if in a most perfunctory way. The slaughtering of animals was frequently accompanied by a quasi-religious rite or token sacrifice. Thus . . . Christians could scarcely have avoided the problem of whether to eat meat that had been so offered. It would sooner or later have been thrust upon them... ."* Meanwhile, those who feel free to eat idol-offered meat can do so with their new-found, Christian confidence "that 'no idol in the world really exists,' and that 'there is no God but one.'" (1 Cor. 8:4) What a tremendous freedom these non-abstainers enjoy; it is a demonstrable freedom from the trappings of having to pay (in both a spiritual and financial sense) homage to myriad, culturally imposed gods. (Just think of the freedom that we'd feel if we didn't have to pay homage to modern, culturally imposed gods of social, economic, or spiritual status - e.g., fashion, academic degrees, "net worth," "social networks," material possessions, etc.) In the meantime, there are the abstainers who (1) are too poor to afford any meat** and/or (2) too spiritually poor to know God apart from all-encompassing cultural pressures (a very difficult thing for anyone to do!). These more vulnerable sisters and brothers can only watch as their "freer" sisters and brothers consume whatever meat they please.

New Testament scholar Arland Hultgren writes, "The message of Paul for the church of today is that one may well have freedom in Christ, but it must be used with discretion and, in particular, with care for the sake of the vulnerable. . . . To relinquish one's freedom is not to lose it; it is one way of using it."*** Paul is issuing a call to better stewardship of God's gifts - even if "better stewardship" sometimes feels like loss, temporary or otherwise. Paul's call to those Christians who enjoy lavish freedoms is to consider giving up some of their freedom for the sake of those who - for financial or spiritual or other reasons - can't. And why should they/we consider such relinquishment? For the sake of life-building love (1 Cor. 8:1) - love for God (the Giver of all freedoms), love for others (those who are meant to share in God's freedoms/gifts/Grace), and even love for self (lest we allow ourselves to become cheap instruments for perpetuating idolatry).

Footnotes
*Spivey and Smith, Anatomy of the New Testament: A Guide to Its Structure and Meaning (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995), 319.
**Spivey and Smith comment, "Many poorer people could not as a rule afford meat, and could only eat it on public occasions." (319)
***Arland Hultgren'sCommentary on 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 from WorkingPreacher.org; bold added for emphasis.

Image by Annie Vallotton; source: Biblical Art on the WWW.

Telling the Story

Over the years I've encouraged pastors to follow a practice I learned from one of my mentors early in ministry. It's the practice of using the time of the offering to "tell the story." Here's a suggestion to introduce the offering this Sunday:

You’ve read about the religious intolerance and violence between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria. It’s a problem that‘s wracked the country for decades. But did you know that you are doing something to address the problem? Lay and clergy leaders – both Christian and Muslim – participated in a three-day seminar sponsored by our Board of Church and Society to work on ways to contain and heal the crisis.

Today as we bring our gifts, tithes and offerings, let’s do so in celebration of the ways we seek to bring healing to the nations and peace to all of God’s people.

Awareness and Action

If you're looking for Lenten resources with a strong, Wesleyan "save all you can" emphasis, you might want to consider the following:

"Creation Waits with Eager Longing"

"Called to be in communion with God's creation, we must live in such a way that is sensitive to precious natural resources and in conscious relationship to the earth, creatures and each other. This 40-day ELCA [Evangelical Lutheran Church in America] Lenten reflection series will offer a holistic approach to how we live as earthly companions, combining God's caring relationship with creation to our journey in the physical universe. It emphasizes individual and communal solutions, resources for further learning and suggestions for how to act or become more educated."

Mission Moment

“God has shown God’s people the power of God’s works, in giving them the heritage of the nations.
The works of God’s hands are faithful and just.”
--Psalm 111:6-7a, An Inclusive-Language Lectionary

I grew up in Haiti, a country where a person's skin color did not determine whether one "belongs." When I moved to the United States, it was at first difficult for me to understand the importance of Black History Month. In time, I understood why it was necessary to celebrate the achievements of black people in a society where higher education and political, economical and (I dare add) religious power are considered entitlements for white people, the privileged ethnic group.

My involvement in The United Methodist Church has helped me appreciate and understand the significance of Black History Month. (As I heard and read about the Methodist Church's Central Jurisdiction, I wondered if I would still be a United Methodist today if I had to endure such a painful experience!) The more involved I get in The United Methodist Church leadership, the more I appreciate the sacrifices U.S. black Methodists made so that, as a black woman, I can make my voice heard today.

As we celebrate Black History month this year, let us honor what our country and denomination have done in the past. But most of all, let us focus our energy to become the church that Christ has called us to be. May we be a church that offers equal opportunities for all congregations and individuals to be in mission with the Triune God.

--Judith Pierre-Okerson, http://gbgm-umc.org

Newsletter Nugget

“Since the official desegregation of the Methodist Church with the historical dissolution of the Central Jurisdiction,” said Judith Pierre-Okerson, “The United Methodist Church as a denomination has made great strides toward fully including black people in church decision-making at all levels.

Pierre-Okerson, a director of the General Board of Global Ministries, continued. “It has combated and helped dismantle racism in the church and in society. Early on, after the desegregation of the church, the newly formed denomination was intentional in building up its leadership to mirror the kingdom of God. It strengthened and revitalized African-American congregations and embraced and nurtured other ethnic black congregations.”

However, Pierre-Okerson expressed concern about annual conferences closing and merging African-American churches and about the lack of opportunities for minority young adults.

She looks forward to a church that offers equal chances for all congregations and individuals to be in mission. “For in Christ,” she added, “there is no east or west, no ethnic majority or minority, no white, black, Native American, Asian, Hispanic or Pacific Islander.”

--Adapted from http://gbgm-umc.org

Offering Prayers

God of Love,
You give us the freedom to love
and to be loved;
the freedom to give
and the freedom to receive;
the freedom to unclench our tightened fists
and the freedom to open our hands --
and our entire lives --
to Your Grace.
With open hands, we freely come before You now
releasing some of the Grace
You have lovingly entrusted to us.
In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

(Inspired by 1 Corinthians 8:1-13)

from Radical Gratitude

God of the ages, as we celebrate Black History Month, remind us of the many people of all ages and colors who strive for equality. Show us how to be in mission and ministry with your children everywhere. In your holy name, we pray. Amen.

from United Methodist Communications

Awesome God, you sent Jesus to teach people firsthand the power of your love, grace, and authority. Jesus washed away unclean spirits and performed countless other miracles so that even the faithless would experience your love. You call us to be mindful and vigilant of the extraordinary miracles that you continue to work in our lives today. May this offering undergird ministries that show others your miraculous love, grace, and authority. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. (Mark 1:21-28.)

from General Board of Discipleship

Closing Thought

“Your ministry of leadership is grounded in the freeing gift of God’s grace. In Christ, you are no longer a slave in bondage to fear. Knowing yourself to be accepted as a child of God, you are free to serve in God’s love. As a responsible representative of God’s love, you are free to take initiative to test your thoughts, to honor your intuition, to see what requires doing, and to accomplish it. You can be faithful to your task because you believe God is faithful to you.”

--Peter L. Steinke