Twenty-Second Monday after Pentecost
Thanks to Chris for his well thought out comment. I'm grateful for all the Environmental Sciences majors. I remained very concerned about the decline in arts and humanities. I read an extensive article in the New York Times a couple of days ago about major budget cuts in universities. The article noted that the first things to get cut are the arts and humanities programs. I should note that North Carolina's immediate past governor advocated the elimination of all scholarship money for majors in the humanities. More and more state universities have been dropping their Religion departments. At least from my point of view, I'm seeing STEM as becoming all important in both primary and secondary education, to the exclusion of arts and humanities. My guess is that total enrollments in arts and humanities courses at UNC, beyond any introductory courses or required course distributions, mirror the rest of the country in being in decline. I would rejoice to see in hard enrollment statistics to the contrary. I could rant on, but best to be positive and see this as an opportunity for the church.
Meanwhile, back to faith journey day.
Baptists are the bane of many a Southern UMC pastor. I could have said "ex-Baptists." I am talking about Baptists who convert to Methodism but don't convert their thinking. I should note that by far the major reason for conversion from Baptist to Methodist is marriage.
Here's an example from my ministry in 2005. I preached a sermon on the lectionary gospel for that Sunday, 1 Corinthians 7. As always with the lectionary, the preacher is not picking a text to hang a sermon on, but composing a sermon to create or amplify the congregation's understanding of the text. I try to let the text speak, to say what it has to say, even if what it has to say does not correspond to popular understanding or to my own thinking.
I had some focus on verse 14, "For the unbelieving husband is made holy through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy through her husband." I contended that the verse meant what it said. Salvation is not limited to those who are believers in Christ. In the NT salvation is much more of a family thing. Note for example the baptisms of whole households in Acts (Cornelius, Lydia, etc.) and 1 Corinthians 1 (Stephanas). Indeed unbelieving spouses could be saved through the faith of their spouse.
I had mixed but mostly positive comments after the service. One was humorous. Bill Casey said to me, "Thank the Lord. I'll be able to get to heaven through Frances." (Frances is a reader of and commentor on this blog.) More seriously, one church member told me that the sermon was life-changing for her. Her husband died an atheist and she feared his absence from heaven. On the other hand, a couple, who were visiting Baptists, assured me in no uncertain terms that they would not be returning.
On Monday I got the call from the District Superintendent, my boss, relaying the complaint of one of my congregation members, a former Baptist, about my sermon. The DS, an Asbury Seminary graduate, accused me of being believer in universal salvation (which I'm not), told me I would not have passed ordination if he had been on the Board of Ordained Ministry then, and said that I should the next Sunday preach a sermon on the atonement. He was not thrilled when I told him that I would preach on the atonement only if it were in one of the lectionary texts for the next week.
A couple of things were particularly galling. The church member did not come to me first, before going the DS. Second, the church member had not even been there that Sunday, had not heard the sermon. He had run in to the complaining Baptist visitor that Monday morning, who had told him about the sermon. I did call the church member and evoke an apology from him. He took Marianne and I out to lunch a couple of days later.
There are a couple of lessons here. First, be nice to pastors. Second, don't call the DS to complain about a sermon you didn't even hear. Third, preachers should not necessarily think that preaching what the Bible clearly says will overcome what church members think the Bible ought to say--or in other words, "what we have always been taught." Fourth, people will hear a controversial sermon. Their ears perk up. Fifth, and most important, a sermon can mean something deeply important and positive to a person's life, as in the case it did for my congregation member who was the widow of the unbelieving husband.
Faithfully,
Christian
1 comment:
Something like this happened to my mom a few weeks ago (for those who don't know, my mother is a United Church of Christ pastor serving a church near Philadelphia.) She did her first communion at this church, which she began to serve just this August. In these strange times, communion is strange, and as they practiced social distancing, wore masks, and did not sing, they did communion with these pre-packed kits that have a wafer and what sounds like a shot of grape juice in something that would resemble the containers that coffee creamer comes in at the convenience store. I didn't see this spectacle, but it sounded like the airplane food version of communion. My mom, known for her humor from the pulpit, tried to address the bizarreness of the situation in her sermon, and made some reference to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Later, she got a very formal and angry email from a member who, like in Dad's example, hadn't even been at the service (though she may have seen it on the Facebook recording) saying she had "defiled the Lord's Supper." Hmmmm. Mom wrote back something very nice (she is Southern too) and that was that, but she was shocked to have received such virulent comment. She's been out of the parish ministry for a very long time - most of her career as a college professor and librarian - and she doesn't think of herself as controversial. But it just goes to show that you never know where something will hit someone. Fortunately, in the UCC, there is no DS. There is a Conference Minister but no one but the clergy really knows who he/she/they are and they don't have any authority anyway. Churches, however, call their own pastors and the pastors serve at the pleasure of the consistory, so that's how you can get fired.
And Dad, I love the fact that you said you'd preach on atonement if that were the lectionary text. I think that the next time someone gives me an order I can not in good conscience obey, I will say I will only do so if it's in the lectionary for next week. The confusion caused would give me enough time to escape. :)
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