(Ir)religiosity

Below is the manuscript — more or less, I tend to deviate quite a bit — of the sermon I will be preaching this morning, the first Sunday of Advent, at Quincy Community UMC.  It is based on the gospel text for this week (Luke 21:25-36)

There are probably two great “Fridays” people in the United States can readily identify.  Good Friday, of course, two days before Easter, marking the transition from one season to the next, and, perhaps even more popular, Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, the biggest shopping day of the year marking the beginning of the Holy season of Consumerism leading up to Christmas.  Today, we are in the midst of a transition, a cultural in-between time between the Fall season and the hectic Holiday season, the season of consumption where, if you are like me, you are tempted to spend money you don’t have, to buy things you don’t need, to impress people you may not even like.  We are in an in-between time:  between Black Friday, the biggest day of physical shopping, on the one hand, and Cyber Monday, the largest online shopping day, on the other.  Last year even amidst the growing economic crisis, on this same weekend, Americans managed to spend over $41 billion, an average of $373 per person.

We are in an in-between time.

Yet, as Christians, today marks another transition, another in-between time.  Today marks the end of ordinary time in the Christian year and the beginning of Advent, the beginning of our anticipation and celebration of God’s breaking into history through Jesus Christ.  This Sunday in particular, the first Sunday of Advent, we acknowledge a larger period of transition, between Christ’s humble coming in a manager in Bethlehem and God’s complete restoration of all creation in the future.  Today we celebrate God’s coming in Jesus so many years ago and at the same time we anticipate God’s breaking into history again, looking forward to the future redemption and salvation of all things.

So while the culture around us marks the transition into a time of unhealthy and unbridled consumption, we, as God’s people, celebrate and anticipate God’s liberating work in the world.  The question that I would ask all of us today, including myself, is whether we are marking God’s time today, or the time of Consumerism.  Do we look different from the rest of the world around us during this Advent season?  What are we celebrating?  Who are we celebrating? Read the rest of this entry »

To finish off my United Methodist History/Doctrine course last semester the entire class particpated in a “semester conference.  As students we were required to offer a few things we would change about the church (theology, polity, etc.) and a few things we’d like to see retained and passed on to the next generation.  I won’t mention my “changes” because frankly those took up too much of my floor time and I feel like a could write a book about them.  And I tend to be deconstructive by nature, which means it is good for me to talk about what I am for from time to time.

I mentioned two things that I felt should be kept in the Methodist tradition, two things I think have been abandoned for the sake of institutionalization and bureaucracy and two things that I believe lie at the heart of John Wesley‘s legacy:  Christian perfection and the General Rules.  Christian perfection seemed to get a lot of airtime that day so I chose to talk primarily about the General Rules which are 1) to do no harm, 2) to do all the good possible, and 3) to attend to all the ordinances of God (prayer, corporate worship, Eucharist, etc.).  Sadly, most Methodists haven’t the faintest idea of what these are and have probably never heard of them.  Which is unfortunate because I think they provide one of the best and most concise guides for following in the Way of Jesus.

So I was thrilled when I saw the title of Kevin Watson’s new book A Blue Print for Discipleship: Wesley’s General Rules as a Guide for Christian Living. Not only does Kevin share my admiration for the General Rules, he is also interested in discipleship, another area in which Wesley was a true innovator, and, unfortunately, an area where the UMC seems to be failing (at least in the US) given its recent decline.

Like any good Wesleyan, Kevin notes the primacy of grace in all stages of ones Christian life, the goal of which is to participate in the divine life for the sake and transformation of the world.  This divine grace permeates Kevin’s appropriation all three of the rules as well as his understanding of Wesley’s strategy for implementing them in practice, in community.  For Kevin, Wesley’s model, which he describes wonderfully in way that is very accessible, is the most effective way to empower persons to transition from “nominal Christians” to “deeply committed Christians” — those who live the radical way of Jesus in their own contexts and communities.  To me, this blueprint for discipleship, as Kevin calls it, is the real genius of Wesley’s legacy.  But unfortunately many Methodists and Wesleyans are unaware of that gift. Kevin’s work is a wonderful contribution toward the endeavor of recovering and reclaiming Wesley’s robust understanding of discipleship.

The real strength of the book is its attention toward Christian practice and affection for the local church.  Like I said, it is very accessible, short (just over 100 pages), complete with discussion questions at the end of each chapter and an appendix guide for small group study.  The book is full of helpful examples and anecdotes that situate the General Rules and Wesley’s ethos within the life of the church as well as Kevin’s own personal journey.  To that end, I think the book is an excellent resource for local churches that are seeking to revitalize or even implement for the first time, a serious discipleship program that takes seriously Wesley’s robust theological legacy.

Much ink has been spilled with the purpose of exploring Wesley’s theology.  And that’s wonderful.  But unfortunately, books like Kevin’s, books that explore the practical ramifications of Wesley’s blueprint for discipleship, are a rarity (in my estimation at least).  Folks tend to forget that that area was Wesley’s speciality.  It is my deep hope that his legacy can be recovered.   I think Kevin’s book represents and important and helpful effort to do so. An effort that indicates a robust understanding of Wesley’s theology at a theoretical level, but is very much rooted in the life of the local church as the most significant arena in which discipleship takes place.

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Today I’m on my way to Oklahoma City to attend Oklahoma Annual Conference and to (hopefully) be certified as a candidate for ordained ministry in the UMC.

Along with some others, I plan to tweet from AC and, if I feel inspired, to blog a bit.  Not sure if that will happen or not.  I’ll be pretty busy with meetings, catching up with some old friends, and leading worship at my former church on Wednesday night.

So, follow me on Twitter!  And if you’re up for it, follow the #okumc hash tag to keep up with all the goings on at Oklahoma Annual Conference.  If you’re not Methodist or just don’t care I apologize in advance for all the spam tweets you will be receiving this week.

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Kevin Watson, who blogs at Deeply Committed, has started an experiment to see how much social capital Methobloggers have. This experiment was prompted by the feeling among some Methobloggers that United Methodism does not always do as good of a job as it could at getting the Wesleyan message out there, particularly online. So, Kevin wants to see how many views a YouTube video can get if Methobloggers work together to promote it. The experiment is to see how many hits the video will receive in two weeks.

If you want to participate you can: First, watch the video below. Second, copy and paste this entire post into a new post on your blog and post it. Third, remind people about this experiment in one week.

Based on the results of the experiment, Kevin will get in touch with the folks at Discipleship Resources and let them know the ways in which Methobloggers are often an underused resource.

I think this is an excellent idea.  And I’ll be interested to see what comes of it.  The sooner us Methodists improve our presence and ability to mobilize online the better.

You can find the other participants in this experiment here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here and here, and here. And here. Oh…and here.

Today as we celebrate the divine rupture in human history over and against the narratives of consumption and rugged individualism, I find the words of the late Oscar Romero especially poignant.

No one can celebrate
a genuine Christmas
without being truely poor.
The self-sufficient, the proud,
those who, because they have
everything, look down on others,
those who have no need
even of God – for them there
will be no Christmas.
Only the poor, the hungry,
those who need someone
to come on their behalf,
will have that someone.
That someone is God.
Emmanuel.  God-with-us.
Without poverty of spirit
there can be no abundance of God.

(ht)