John Meunier

I didn’t really grow up in a church, but we did attend a Unitarian Universalist Church for a while.

This news story about the 50th anniversary of the UUA was like a trip back to my childhood. The story opened like this:

A recent Sunday service at the First Unitarian Church of Baltimore ended with an apology.

Laurel Mendes explained that religious doctrine had been duly scrubbed from the hymns in the congregation’s Sunday program.

But Mendes, a neo-pagan lay member who led the service, feared that a reference to God in “Once to Every Soul and Nation” might still upset the humanists in the pews.

“I didn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable by reciting something that might be considered a profession of faith,” said Mendes, 52, after the service. “We did say `God,’ which you don’t often hear in our most politically correct hymns.”

Welcome to a typical Sunday in the anything-but-typical Unitarian Universalist Association, a liberal religious movement with a proud history of welcoming all seekers of truth—as long as it’s spelled with a lowercase “t.”

Ah, yes. Good memories. This is why I find folks likes Marcus Borg so troubling. I’ve already been to the end of the road he’s walking down.

Another great summary of UU belief is in this video:

One of the many John Wesley factoids that gets thrown around is that he openly defied the Church of England’s parish system by preaching in parishes where he was not invited by the local parish priest.

Those who like to endorse or defend a relaxed attitude toward our own rules often bring up this case.

I’ve read that argument, but never really looked into it. Here’s what James Pedlar says about it:

Wesley’s itinerant ministry was challenged by some, because it meant that he crossed into the parishes of other priests of the Church of England, sometimes preaching in their territory without their permission. Wesley’s quote about the world being his parish is usually seen as his missional justification for preaching the gospel wherever he was. But he also knew that he was exempt from the parish boundary rules as a fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford. He had no parish of his own, and was free to preach where he liked. He used this to his advantage.

Have you been to the General Board of Discipleship Lectionary Planning Helps page recently?

The commentaries on the Scripture passages are thought-provoking and helpful. The others worship planning ideas would be good for any worship leader or preacher to consider.

A great resource.

Bill McBride’s blog includes a 12-minute video, which I can’t figure out how to embed here, of his experiences as a member of the trial in the Amy DeLong case.

Post here.

Although the members of the jury that handled DeLong’s trial are generally silent, there is one name that participates actively in news articles and blog posts. He is juror Bill McBride, a pastor and a blogger. The following are glimpses of his comments.

“The word ‘penalty phase’ really has no place in a church that should always have its mind and eye toward restoration and reconciliation.”

“… the goal of the ‘trial court’ was to rebuild covenant, seek to ‘Do no harm’ as Wesley stated.”
There is perhaps a misunderstanding of Wesley’s “Do no harm” rule.

McBride seems not to realize that his version of doing no harm also collides against Wesley himself when the latter wrote, “After diligent inquiry made, I removed all those from the congregation of the faithful whose behaviour or spirit was not agreeable to the gospel of Christ; openly declaring the objections I had to each, that others might fear and cry to God for them.” And again, “I met the classes, but found no increase in the society. No wonder, for discipline had been quite neglected, and without this, little good can be done among the Methodists.” It is known that Methodism in the west is decreasing rapidly. If McBride would ask Wesley why, he would receive an answer that would shatter his own “Do no harm.”

Bill McBride’s blog, is here, if you want to read about his experience of being a juror.

We were watching The Dark Knight tonight when the Joker started talking about human nature. He said humans were at the core selfish creatures who will turn to murder and butchery when order breaks down and panic sets in.

My daughter raised an eye brow and made a comment to suggest my view of human sinfulness sounds a lot like the Joker. I knew this was yet another case in which I had failed to describe what I mean. It may also be a sign that I also do not understand what I am trying to describe.

Sin, it seems, is something we just don’t understand. Original sin even more so.

Saying human beings are corrupted by sin does not mean they are incapable of any actions that we might describe as good. Some hyper-Calvinists might say this, I suppose, but my understanding is less radical than that. Our will is diseased. It is chained. It is broken and damaged by sin. No longer able to see or hear or sense the things of God, we are cut off from the light and cast in a landscape of shadows and darkness and clouds.

The grace of God — perhaps sometimes nothing more than a residue of the grace that brought us into being — glows in this darkness. It leads us. It warms us. It strengthens us to stand up under the weight of our chains.

Am I off the reservation here?

Mainliners, Catholics, and Evangelicals have released a joint document about Christian mission and evangelism in a pluralistic world.

Read the document here.

From John Wesley’s journal, Dec. 24, 1760:

I visited as many as I could of the sick. How much better is it, when it can be done, to carry relief to the poor, than to send it! and that both for our own sake and theirs. For theirs, as it is so much more comfortable to them, and as we may then assist them in spirituals as well as temporals; and for our own, as it is far more apt to soften our heart, and to make us naturally care for each other.

Faith isn’t about reaping rewards in the hereafter; it’s about entering into the reign of God now.

So says Larry Hollon over at Huffington Post in the course of connecting country music to John Wesley to social action.

Just before reading that post, I read one by Wes Magruder that tried to move from this either/or thinking to bring a little both/and to the discussion.

When I think about who Jesus was and is, and what he accomplished, I no longer think merely in terms of my relation to God, but in terms of God’s relation to me, to my neighbors, to the Powers That Be, and to the entire creation.

Because of Jesus, not only am I saved, but the whole world is beginning to be saved. And that can happen when we engage in evangelism and social action. In fact, maybe they are one and the same …

How is it that we never seem to be able to get out of the personal salvation vs. kingdom of God box?

Jesus Christ came to gather up the lost into the kingdom of God. The reign of God is not set against personal salvation. Personal salvation is not set against the kingdom. They are the same thing.

If people are not being saved, then the kingdom is not present. If people are not living as kingdom people, then they are not saved.

Why is that so hard?

But the LORD sits enthroned forever,
he has established his throne for judgment.
He judges the world with righteousness;
he judges the peoples with equity.

Father, it is you who judges the nations. Let me trust in you. From my small seat the world seems so full of injustice. The evil prosper. The wicked gloat. Those who do not know you go on from victory to victory while your people suffer. O Lord, make me an instrument of your justice. Give me courage to speak your word in a world that does not see your throne or hear your decrees. Teach me to see clearly, to speak with boldness, and to act with courage.