Unchained
2 Timothy 1:3-8
Welcome to Region 2 Conference. The staff, Board and congregation of All God’s Children MCC are delighted to have all of you in our home. How many of you are in Minnesota for the first time? How many of you expected you might still find snow? Minnesota is a wonderful place as the folks from All God’s Children and Healing Spirit MCCs will tell you. When I first arrived in Minnesota the church here gave me two tools to help me acclimate. The first was a book, “How to Talk Minnesotan.” I hold it next to the Bible in importance! And the second tool was the movie “Fargo.” Both have been invaluable. But just know that things go both ways here and so sometimes I have to help my folks understand me so I give out copies of “Southern Sayin’s for Yankees!”
Is anyone attending conference for the first time? I grew up in the United Methodist Church in Alabama. I remember attending my first denominational annual conference as a teenager. The hymn we just sang was one of Charles Wesley’s best and it was always sung as the opening hymn for annual conference,
And are we yet alive,
And see each other’s face?
Glory and thanks to Jesus give,
For this almighty grace.
That hymn was so beloved because in the early days on the American frontier, Methodist circuit-riding preachers often lived precarious lives. They rode long distances on horseback. They often braved the cold, the storm, the heat. They were vulnerable to attack from wild animals, bandits and disease. So each year when they would gather for their annual conference, it was always anybody’s guess who would show up. There was a real sense of joy and elation when they would see who had survived the rigors of ministry and was left standing.
I remember looking around that conference sanctuary as a teenager watching that gathering of pastors and laypeople sing. Not far from me were the pastors of two Methodist Churches that I had to pass on the way from my childhood home to my childhood Methodist church. As I watched them sing Wesley’s eloquent text of struggle and victory it occurred to me that they didn’t look too rough for wear. In fact, they looked bored. I imagined that anyone looking at me that day would have thought that I didn’t have a whole lot to complain about either. Of course, I knew that I had a secret that I wasn’t ready to even let linger in my own consciousness too long, much less risk any of those good people of God knowing anything. I didn’t get the impression that anybody else’s secrets were bothering them. Maybe we all were just good at hiding.
I compare that memory with tonight and so many of the regional and General Conference of which I have been part. I get the feeling we have a better idea of that early Methodist conference feel.
I remember the first time I walked into an MCC worship service in Birmingham. It was in a motel dining room reserved for worship. There were probably a dozen people gathered there and I was scared to death – scared of what this step meant for me, scared that this would be some weird group of people, scared that God might rip off the roof of the building and expose us all to the shaming eyes of the world.
Instead what I found was “home.” I didn’t even know until that moment how much I longed for such an experience. I thought I already knew the depth of God’s presence. I had already experienced such amazing grace in my life but that first worship service of MCC in Birmingham Alabama made me realize “there’s no place like home.” I’ve been clicking my ruby slippers ever since.
“I thank God for you every time I think of you in prayer.” That’s what Paul said about Timothy in our scripture reading. I know how he felt because I thank God for all of you. How grateful I am that there were brave souls who dared to create a worshipping community in a place where I could find them. How grateful I am that only a few months before a friend had loaned me his copy of Troy’s book, “The Lord is My Shepherd and Knows I’m Gay.” I didn’t dare dream such a church was possible where I lived but once I found it I have never looked back. I thank God for you. Wherever you are, in small towns or urban centers, in gay ghettos or homophobic hotbeds, in the heart of Dixie or on the shores of Lake Michigan, in Cajun heat or Minnesota nice, I thank God for you! Whether you are meeting in a motel dining room or in a borrowed church building – whether your congregation can barely afford a pastor or you have all the resources you need – whether you are the only affirming church in town or there are lots of GLBTQ-friendly churches – whether your congregation is high church or low church, charismatic or liturgical, smells and bells or Welch’s and crackers, I thank God for you!
Over the last few months we have received reports from the work of MCC going on in Eastern Europe, in Africa, in Pakistan, in Jamaica, and oh my God how our hearts ache with the violence, the hate, the rage that our people must endure simply to hold worship, to have a parade, to celebrate that they are God’s children. Because of MCC’s leadership and work across the globe, even though I am in Minnesota and have not stepped foot into most of those places yet I feel part of the work that is happening there. I thank God for you! On Sunday morning our Local Outreach Team will present a check from our congregation to the global ministry of MCC because we want to be part of making this world a better place for all of us.
Knowing that all of you are out there doing hard work, loving sometimes hard-to-love people, risking your lives so that our world becomes a safer place for all makes my heart sing. So when I look into your beautiful faces and see old friends and temporary strangers, I know that God is good (all the time).
What you do matters. Who you are matters. What you are doing in your community causes that crack on the windshield of hate to creep a little further towards the breaking point. Hate may not be shattered yet, but it is getting weaker. Who you are in your community puts a human face which prevents marginalized people from simply being an “issue.” We are people – neighbors, family, workers, leaders, church members. It is easier to rail against an issue. It is harder to rail against a face. [PP6] What you do and who you are means that the old dichotomy of violence, poverty and war as things we do to infidels, enemies and strangers is not our only choice. The gospel story that becomes alive in your skin and in your congregations offers hope that there is a better way. We are called to a peace that passes all understanding. We have been outfitted with grace, unchained from weights that held us captive for so long – released to live as holy, whole, creative, loving, welcoming and spiritually-aware people. God is good! God is good! I thank God for you. Amen!
Sources:
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/rakeman/1820.htm “Doctor and Circuit Rider” painted by Carl Rakeman, 1820.
http://a1259.g.akamai.net/f/1259/5586/1d/images.art.com/images/-/Judy-Garland---The-Wizard-of-Oz-Photograph-C10104016.jpeg
