Wandering Elder

The United Methodist Church (of which I am a part) has elected an openly gay individual to the Episcopacy.  Karen Oliveto, a pastor in the Western Jurisdiction of the UMC was elected unanimously to the office of Bishop. My issue is not with her sexuality. It is with rules. By the rules of the United Methodist Church, which are collectively known as the Book of Discipline , "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" are officially prohibited from being ordained as pastors - let alone Bishop.  Oliveto came out to her congregation and denomination this past year, meaning she had already been ordained.  However at some point the question of her sexuality was either never brought up or ignored by her or by those in the process of ordination. Let me again say that her sexuality is not my concern.  What is  is that she seems to ( seems to ) have knowingly broken the rules of the Discipline and, as such, put the larger denomination in the odd position of having ordaine...

So, my thoughts this week have been returning to that which is less painful and more of the philosophic and musical. In particular, my thoughts have been surrounded by the music of Pink Floyd. I am a big fan of Pink Floyd and have been since I was in junior high.  I got into listening to Pink Floyd late in their career - my first tape  of Pink Floyd's catalog was A Momentary Lapse of Reason.  This was followed shortly by The Dark Side of the Moon.   And while they both came from the band Pink Floyd, they weren't the same  band in the sense of members or of attitude. Yet I love them both. I will admit that I am a fan more of the music that comes from 1971 and forward than I am of the music that came before.  Not that I dislike the even older stuff, but the music from Dark Side and forward (with a touch of "Echoes" from the previous album, Meddle ) captured my attention and my imagination in a way few other bands ever would. Some of that came from...

Given the news as of late, I found I had little to express but grief and sadness.  Not what you want to hear from a pastor, I know.  Even pastors have their dark moments.  Believe me. This morning I pulled a book off my shelf called Strength to Love .  It is a collection of sermons by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  The opening words of his preface hit home:  "In these turbulent days of uncertainty the evils of war and of economic and racial injustice threaten the very survival of the human race.  Indeed, we live in a day of grave crisis." Still too true. So I wish to offer a challenge to each of us that comes from the words of such a great man. The following is an excerpt from Dr. King's sermon, "A Knock at Midnight" which was written in 1963. "Even in the inevitable moments when all seems hopeless, men know that without hope they cannot really live, and in agonizing desperation they cry for the bread of hope. And there is the deep longing for t...

As the debate over the language of climate and the political correct ways as to how we talk about the weather continue, many of us sit and watch our grass die and listen to stories of drought, super-storms, record-breaking temperatures (both highs and lows) and wander around our back yard in December without a coat. The weather is changing.  So is the composition of our planet.  Weather patterns are changing.  But so is the way in which we drill.  Fracking is leading to earthquakes in Oklahoma.  Water is poisoned by mining.  Flint Michigan can't catch a break (I think if this water crisis had happened in, say, LA, it would have been fixed in a week), and we feel  the weather is different. Our environment is changing in so many, many ways.  On a different level, our social systems are changing - breaking down perhaps or reshuffling to be sure.  But in our technological advances we are isolating ourselves.  And we have become (at least...

Another shooting.  Another wave of “Our hearts go out…” and “Our thoughts and prayers are with…”  Not to say that they don’t or shouldn’t or that they haven’t.  The sad news among this terrible event in Florida is that we are becoming all too accustomed to this kind of bad news and seem to have learned how to react and what to say in the midst of such things.  We tweet, post, and so forth, then we go on. When will enough be enough?  Why have we become so violent in our speech and in our actions culturally in what seems such a short amount of time? Before we can even get to those questions, though, the very loud, very standard talking heads emerge saying that the gun laws are to blame for being too strict or too lenient.  That the people in the nightclub should have been better armed to shoot back.  Perhaps these voices will suggest that the people at the club are at fault for either their sexuality or that the lateness of their revelry provide...

According to the author of the New Testament book of Hebrews, the law (the Levitical code) which was imparted to Moses on the mountain was given to Moses not by God, but through the mediation of angels (Hebrews 2:2).  This might be something of a revelation for readers of the New Testament or of the Bible in general. Hebrews is not the first New Testament book to make such a claim.  Acts has Stephen make such a declaration: "...you who received the law as delivered by angels..." And the Apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians, "[the law] was ordained by angels." Some commentators argue that this is an acceptable Jewish  idea.  But is it?  Is what Hebrews claims a legitimate Jewish idea? There is the idea in the Old Testament as well as in a variety of Ancient Near Eastern cultures of what could be termed "divine agency" which is the idea that angels speak as proxy for God (see Judges 2:1 for example).  This idea is spelled out perhaps most...

The Trinity is a concept that would be best described as a mystery of faith.  It is not a doctrine spelled out in Scripture, though it is a doctrine the church has agreed is a binding one.  The word trinity itself does not occur in the Bible at all, and there are only glimpses of it as a concept in the Bible itself.  It is, however, a central tenant of our faith.  Yet it remains a mystery and, as a mystery, an intangible.  And intangibility is a hallmark of religion.  Intangible, incorporeal, ethereal, spiritual.  That which cannot be defined, held on to, or even seen.  Intangible.  Perhaps that’s why the church is losing ground – there is no gadget, no app, no hook, no gimmick, no thing . Worship has to be that which becomes the vehicle for experiencing the intangible.  Community has to be that which becomes the vehicle for experiencing the intangible. And much of that community and worship is built on other intangibles...