Johnny One Note

I was recently referred to as "Johnny One Note." The person referring to me with this moniker intended it as a slam. From his perspective, all I talk about is the report of the Commission on a Way Forward that The UMC will address in February of 2019. Or, more accurately, the LGBTQ+ issue that is the presenting issue of the Commission's work. Indeed, in this blog, I have been speaking to this issue. My objective is to stimulate thinking (as opposed to reacting) around this issue.

I understand my role as a pastor to include (1) teaching us to live faithfully as the followers of Jesus. That includes teaching us the ways of God that Jesus taught (the Kingdom). My role also includes (2) teaching us to think theologically, that is, to allow Jesus' teachings to inform and shape our thinking, including the positions we hold. This blog has been an attempt to get us beyond black-n-white, emotionally driven thinking. It is an attempt to help us see beyond what we think is the issue (LGBTQ+ issues) to the deeper, underlying issues. It is an attempt to stimulate open conversation that seeks to hear and be heard so that we can love as Jesus loved even though we don't agree with one another. I do not intend to tell people what or how to think. My intention is to foster thinking and conversation by sharing my own thinking.

Failure to do this kind of work (my teaching role and the difficult conversations) allows us to live out of our default human nature. We unconsciously follow our natural inclination, using God and the Bible to defend the positions we already hold with no thought of the Kingdom. We withdraw into a religious world we have created in our own likeness for our own advantage and comfort.

While the Johnny One Note moniker was intended as a slam, I embrace it as a compliment. I do have one consistent note that I play: living faithfully as the followers of Jesus, allowing his teachings to shape our hearts and minds so that our actions and relationships are an expression of the ways of God that he taught (the Kingdom of  God). For me, to live faithfully as the follower of Jesus is to live out of grace and love to all people.

So going forward (assuming you'll continue to read this blog), you will hear that "one note" of living faithfully as the followers of Jesus over and over again. I'll move beyond the Commission of a Way Forward and LGBTQ+ issues. There'll be other issues to which I'll speak. But what I have to say will always be me singing that "one note."