When All Is Said and Done and the Dust Has Settled

The report of the Commission on a Way Forward being considered in the February, 2019, special session of the General Conference has created angst within the hearts of many in The UMC. The driving question - and fear - is "what will happen to The UMC?" Will The UMC split the way other denominations have split over the LGBTQ+ issue? Will it splinter into multiple pieces? Will The UMC as we have known it be gone? What will happen to my local congregation of The UMC?

Many factors contribute to this angst and fear, but three in particular. The first is that most people (as a friend recently pointed out) have already made up their minds about the LGBTQ+ issue. Their position is clear in their minds. No conversation (or blog!) is going to change that position. The second factor is a sense of powerlessness, i.e., we have no "voice" in the decision. The elected delegates to the special session will make the decision. That reality leads to the third factor: what they decide will impact us and The UMC. We have no way, at this time, to know the nature of the impact or the impact on our local congregation. That unknown fuels the angst and fear even more.

Underlying the angst and fear is the question (or fear!): what if they decide something that does not align with my position?

When all is said and done and the dust is settled, three realities will be unchanged.

First, who God is will be unchanged. God will still be God. God's faithful love is not affected by any vote.

Second, who we are will be unchanged. We will still be the beloved children of God, claimed by grace in Christ Jesus. We will still be the followers of Jesus.

Third, FUMCA will still be FUMCA. FUMCA has been a witness to Christ in Arlington for 140 years. We will continue to be FUMCA. We will continue to do ministry in our community. We are not going anywhere.

When all is said and done and the dust is settled, the determining factor in what lies ahead will not be the decision that will be made by the delegates to the special session in February. The determining factor will be our response to their decision. Our power - our only power - is in how we choose to respond. This power over our own selves is all the power we have or need.

The ability to choose - what we call free will - is God's gift to us. Through this gift, God empowers us to be the partial architects of our own lives. But this gift is also an awesome responsibility. We determine what kind of people we will be by the choices we make.

So how do we choose? What shapes our choices?

For those of us who are the people of God and the followers of Jesus, the ways of God that Jesus taught (the Kingdom) shape our thinking and, thereby, our choices. The Spirit guides us (Galatians 5:16, 25).

Unfortunately, the ways of the Kingdom are not the only shaping influence to our thinking. Our thinking is shaped by our default human nature, by the environment of our early, formative years, by the culture in which we live, by our ethnicity, by our socio-economic status, by those around us, etc. These multiple influences on our thinking are why the biblical writer described the discipleship process as putting off the old self and putting on the new self by the renewing of the mind (Ephesians 4:22-24). The Apostle Paul said it this way: do not continue to conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is the will of God - what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2, NRSV adapted). Apart from the teachings of Jesus and the guidance of the Spirit, we cannot discern God's will. We will unconsciously confuse what we already believe with God's will.

So how do we deal with our angst and fear around this issue? We reclaim our power to choose.

When all is said and done and the dust is settled, some of us will choose to live in relationship with one another (unity) even though we hold different positions on this issue (not uniformity). This choice is our way of being faithful to God's call on our lives. We choose to live out of our identity as the people of God and the followers of Jesus, living the ways of God (the Kingdom) that Jesus taught. The choice to live in unity is our refusal to allow a single issue to define who we are.

When all is said and done and the dust is settled, others of us will disagree with the decision that will be made. We will choose to withdraw from fellowship with those who hold a different position on this issue. We view this loyalty to our position as our way of being faithful to God's call on our lives. We too seek to live out of our identity as the people of God and the followers of Jesus. We view the decision that will be made as a threat to and a diminishing of that identity - something we cannot tolerate.

Either way we choose, we are not powerless. We determine - by how we choose to respond - who we will be. Our choice reflects what faithfulness looks like in our mind.

I pray the choice we make reflects the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:1-11) and the guidance of the Spirit.