Who Am I? Let me ask a mirror!

   Can you state your name and date of birth, please? How many times is this question asked in a modern American hospital on a daily basis? A hundred times? Not close. Easily many thousand times, considering it is required before any medicine or medical procedure is offered. Just the other day I heard one patient exclaim they were most exciting about being discharged to go home in order, "so I don't have to tell people my name and birth-date all day long."
   The truth is, more than just in hospitals, check-out lines, or the airport, the world is regularly asking us to verify our identity. Who are you? Where do you call home? What do you stand for? But, do any of us know the truest answers to these questions on our own?

   Saint Clare of Assisi, who lived in Europe as a Franciscan Sister from 1194-1253, wrote frequently about living in the world but not becoming of the world. Like us, she knew that we must spend time with God, apart from the busyness of the world, in order to stay grounded in our true identity. Of all of the ways of describing the best practice for living this out, she found the mirror to be the most helpful illustration for what. She would advise others to place themselves in front of the mirror, to let the light mirror you, and to look upon the mirror of perfect love each day.
   It sounds like a Disney fairy tale, but we are not able, on our own, to see clearly about ourselves. We are always wavering between being too kind or too harsh with ourselves. Instead, we really do "find ourselves through one another eyes," as Richard Rohr put it.
   We cannot do life apart from the company of others and apart from the the true, clarifying light of Jesus Christ shining into the world. Jesus said, “The eye is the lamp of the body. Therefore, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light" (Matthew 6:22). It is all a matter of learning how to see who we truly are and it takes much of our life to accomplish it.
   Pray for God to lead you into deep relationships where the truth can be told in love. Pray to God to speak to you in moments of silence, that you might hear of your own Belovedness. Pray about joining one on one discipleship, and allow the Word of God to work in your life as a mirror.
   Grace and peace, Scott

A Big Tent: Reflections on General Conference

My contribution to an Exhibit about
what is great about my local church!

   I've been in Portland for seven days now. General Conference is still working and news and rumors are happening around me, even now, as I sit and write this during a plenary session. Elected as a reserve delegate, I've been included as a voting delegate at six different sessions, so far. One of the days I've been seated in the legislative committee that is at the epicenter of conversations around sexuality and gender and on another handling petitions about the local church. I've observed the large meeting sessions, sat near the small committee groups as they've worked, had meals with great folks I've not known before, and been inspired by music and some great preaching. What I've experienced in these days prompts these reflections:

• Everyone here means well, though not everyone agrees on how to interpret the Scriptures. I have witnessed kindness from all sorts of people. This has been a blessing and a reminder of our shared humanity and need for grace.  
• We are a worldwide church. We all know this, but sitting alongside delegates and guests from every corner of the world drives it home. Going forward presents challenges in working as a global entity, but affords us such advantages in witness and reach.
• The Central Conference delegates from around the world are sharp. They arrive prepared and engaged. They will continue to rise as leaders of direction and vitality in our connection.

   The Rev. David Watson, a United Methodist professor in Ohio, wrote in an article last month a word of reminder: the United Methodist Church is a 'big tent' denomination. John Wesley made room for people of all sorts of theological bents. Instead of arguing incessantly, he spent his energy laser-focused on raising up leaders and people to grow in grace and act in obedience to God. Even the merger of two denominations that formed the UMC in 1968 allowed for lots of people along a spectrum to gather in one large place. This is one of the very best things of our connection: everyone is welcome and, on our best days, we are intentional to not do harm to those sitting next to us who might think differently. I pray that we are all led by the Holy Spirit to pursue Scriptural Holiness.
   I am so very thankful for my family who has allowed me to travel and to the church and staff who have covered for me; I believe our service here has sought to serve God faithfully.
   Grace and peace, Scott

The World is not ending today...can you see it?

   The year was 1493. The world was massively changing. In just the year before, Columbus set sail from Spain to find a new passage across the center of the Atlantic Ocean going west. Fifty years earlier, Johannes Gutenberg had quietly invented the printing press. It was this invention that prompted the printing of the The Nuremberg Chronicle in 1493. It was the first book to successfully integrate illustrations and text. It contained illustrations from around Europe and also from the Holy Lands, along with history lessons that followed the story of humanity as it was told in the Bible. This was a really big deal. This should have been cause of celebration, as the new technology of being able to print rapidly, compared to copying by hand, could help change lives through offering information to thousands of people. This was great...except the author, Hartmann Schedel, only saw the tragedy and suffering around him. He finished the book with a very pessimistic outlook on the world. Then, he literally included a few blank pages at the end for people to use to record the remaining days and moments of history, because he was sure the world was doomed! I guess he was wrong on his outlook of things. Think about all the changes that someone born in that same year would live to see...

• the first newspaper published
• massive contributions in the world of art, music, sculpture
• the Reformation of the Church led by Luther and Calvin and others
• the invention of the watch, enabling coordination of people and advances in science
• use of new lenses in telescopes that allow for tremendous increases in observing deeper into space

Rabbi Edwin Friedman wrote about this when he said, "In order to imagine the unimaginable, people must be able to separate themselves from surrounding emotional processes before they can even begin to see (or hear) things differently." God wants to do a new work around us. God wants to restore and redeem the world. Read it in Isaiah 43:19.

   We must pray to God for God's Spirit to lift from us the fog that our own fears and worries and lack of clarity allow to cover over the good that is happening around us. God is at work. This is true for the world, for the church, for our families, for our selves.
   Grace and peace, Scott

General Conference and Bonaire UMC

   The United Methodist Church does not have a Pope, or President, but it does have a legislative body, like the American Congress, that writes rules and amends our policies. Grounded in what is best about Methodism, it is made up of both laypeople and clergy, with each getting equal representation. General Conference meets every four years and is the only entity that speaks for The United Methodist Church. The 2016 General Conference of The United Methodist Church gathers May 10-20 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon.
   During the 11-day session, the delegates will revise The Book of Discipline, which regulates the way local churches, annual conferences and general agencies are organized. They will also revise The Book of Resolutions, a volume declaring the church’s stance on a variety of social justice issues. In addition, the assembly approves plans and budgets for church-wide programs for the next four years and elects members of the Judicial Council, which is our equivalent of the Supreme Court.
   All of this is important to United Methodists everywhere, but takes on an even different perspective because of last summer. At Annual Conference in June 2015, the week before moving to Bonaire, I was elected to represent the South Georgia Conference as an alternate delegate at the 2016 General Conference. This was humbling and a surprise. South Georgia sends four clergy and four laity delegates, along with two clergy alternates and two lay alternates. In addition to General Conference in May, we will serve as voting delegates at the Jurisdictional Conference held at Lake Junaluska, NC, July 12-16. We will meet with prospective candidates for Bishop before delegations from all 13 conferences in the Southeastern Jurisdiction vote and elect the five new Bishops. Bishops are elected to serve until retirement, and are appointed to conferences four years at a time. Our Resident Bishop, James King, will retire after eight years in South Georgia, at the end of August.
   I covet your prayers for these eleven days, in so many areas.

• For my family, as school winds down. 
• For the church, that people stay healthy and that things stay great. 
• For the Conference itself, that the women and men gathering in Portland would be led by the Spirit, be grounded in God’s love, and be clear in their witness to the world - for the world will be watching. 

Grace and peace, Scott