Lectionary Scripture Focus - Isaiah 50 verses 4-9a NRSV
The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens-- wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught. The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward. I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting. The Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me. It is the Lord GOD who helps me; who will declare me guilty?
Reflection on the Scripture
I heard a Bible commentator say this week:
We are trained from birth to move from the lesser to the greater, from what you have to having more, from not having power to having power, from rags to riches. The movement of God however is absolutely opposite, that is from riches and glory to rags and powerlessness. It feels so absurd to us except when it comes to the people we deeply deeply love. And that’s when it’s called out of us. We live by two logics. We live by the logic of the world and we live by the logic of relationships and love, the last of which is the character of God.
In 2003, I was functioning as the judicatory administrator of the Community of Christ for the western half of the states of Oregon and Washington, the state of Alaska, and Canadian Province of British Columbia. That year, I faced a situation of need by a lesbian couple. Ultimately the situation ended up being a test of church policy regarding committed same-sex relationships and solemnizing those relationships within their faith community. I knew the couple and respected and loved both for the persons they were. I had no problem understanding their desire and need to come before their faith community in Eugene, Oregon to have their church family witness their vows of love and commitment to one another. Yet in the paternalistic hierarchical church structure of that denomination, everything had to pass the smell test of up-line church administrators and authorities in a tradition that has yet to resolve this simple matter. If things didn’t pass the smell test, then I was assured that I could kiss my professional ministerial behind goodbye.
So with a mortgage needing to be paid, two kids closing in on the start of their college studies, fear of all the various ways the church hierarchy could take out their distain on me, and not wanting to have a hell of a lot of my time taken up traipsing all over the Pacific Northwest to put out fires started by the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth by supposedly “Christian” people offended at gay love, I caved and insisted on a modification of the “commitment service” that I swear to you I will never ever tolerate or participate in again!
As the field officer administrator on the scene and charged with reviewing and approving the order of service, I caved in by telling the presiding ministers for that service that when it came time for the couple’s vows and exchange of rings, they would have to move off to the side of the rostrum and let the couple preside over their own exchange of vows and rings. I remember that moment so vividly when it finally happened in their standing room only church. I remember the symbolism that was intended. And then I remember how utterly offended I felt toward myself and my faith tradition for its ungodly lack of compassion that forced such an unforgivable scene like the one taking place before me.
And then I remember the equally offensive behavior of a lay minister in the congregation who before the day was out had faxed the order of service and his own “witness” of the event to the church hierarchy in Independence, Missouri. And then I remember how my name was plastered on various websites for allowing a gay marriage to take place. I also remember how the following day I received a call from my supervising general officer warning me about the outrage felt toward me by the First Presidency of the church and how I had done an end run around them and church policy and how the service hadn’t been a “commitment service” but a “wedding” instead. I was furious at such childish immature behavior.
Not knowing what to do and stunned by the intensity of my own feelings, I got off the phone. When my head cleared enough to think, I thought, “I won’t sit still for this kind of behavior and I won’t be treated like this. These supposed prelates of God were not at the commitment service. They had no opportunity to witness the profound beauty of God’s Spirit that attended the moment and attended the couple. Who were these supposed spiritual authorities to sit in judgment of what happened?” It was then that I picked the phone back up and called my superior and made it as clear as I possibly could that if there was any communication back to me or anyone else under my supervision that I or they were to be in anyway disciplined or counseled that they had done something wrong or inappropriate, then I would resign immediately and I would be very loud and outspoken doing so. There was no longer a place for this way of handling such things.
As I look back on that day nearly nine years ago, I realize that the untoward antics of church hierarchy never ceased in the years after that incident and I am all too glad to have finally ended “official” ties with the organization. I’m also glad to be done with the unsavory manipulations of far too many general officers in that tradition. It’s no wonder that organized religion has lost faith and face with society and culture and is losing ground at such a frightening pace that it will become nothing but a shadow of its former self in the not too distant future.
What gets me are all the people still willing to play the church game. I understand my beloved friends about the need for community, but so many churches are basically Sunday morning social clubs. Having said that, believe me I do understand the need. But given the choice between being enablers of a system and process that no longer works (locally or globally), that’s far too concerned about maintaining a human institution rather than becoming free of the encumbrances of the world and making apostles of each and every one of us so we can prepare the world for the coming of God’s just and peaceable reign – why do we choose to be enablers of something decidedly dysfunctional? If you're unsure or confused by my use of the "enablers" word, I would strongly urge that you watch Bill Maher's 2008 documentary "Religulous."
Join with me! Join with me in discerning what a church free of the encumbrances of organized religion is to be now and what it is to become. Join with me for the most incredible adventure of all time that awaits humanity worldwide. Not because of me or the church I’ve been called to establish, but because of something my professor/spiritual director recently stated, i.e. that there's a planetary shift in consciousness taking hold and what people want is not religion! What they want is spirituality!
If we offer spirituality, then we offer what it real and authentic. We offer what the scripture above identifies as sustenance for the weary. Yes, it means opening our ears and eyes to the movement and teaching of God. It means we may experience insults and distain so powerful that it's as though someone is spitting on us. But if we will not hide, if we will set our faces like flint. We will not be shamed or disgraced. For me, as is stated in the scripture, these words are my comfort: "Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me."
If we move the opposite direction of what competitive religions and their institutional realities or hierarchies tell us, then truly we offer the movement of God. It is opposite of what we have known for this kind of energy no longer seeks after getting more new members so there are more dollars for keeping the institution afloat globally or locally. Instead, it is a movement toward “the church universal and prophetic” -- one that goes from riches and glory to rags and powerlessness.
“The church universal and prophetic” is something that feels so utterly absurd to us – until we see people being drawn to it who are people we have come to respect and deeply love. For when that kind of thing is happening, when we see those we love and respect going seemingly off the deep end, it is only because they have profoundly encountered “Love” that calls them out, Love that is calling each and everyone us out from dead or dying systems or processes or faith communities. Such loved ones choose no longer to live by the logic of the world, i.e. the logic of a human institution, a logic which pits faiths and churches against each other. Instead, they (we) live by the logic of relationships fully and completely connected to the Divine, a love which is and can only be the real character of God.
If we move the opposite direction of what competitive religions and their institutional realities or hierarchies tell us, then truly we offer the movement of God. It is opposite of what we have known for this kind of energy no longer seeks after getting more new members so there are more dollars for keeping the institution afloat globally or locally. Instead, it is a movement toward “the church universal and prophetic” -- one that goes from riches and glory to rags and powerlessness.
“The church universal and prophetic” is something that feels so utterly absurd to us – until we see people being drawn to it who are people we have come to respect and deeply love. For when that kind of thing is happening, when we see those we love and respect going seemingly off the deep end, it is only because they have profoundly encountered “Love” that calls them out, Love that is calling each and everyone us out from dead or dying systems or processes or faith communities. Such loved ones choose no longer to live by the logic of the world, i.e. the logic of a human institution, a logic which pits faiths and churches against each other. Instead, they (we) live by the logic of relationships fully and completely connected to the Divine, a love which is and can only be the real character of God.
If the head of your faith, or the head of your religion, or the head of your denomination, or the head of your local faith community isn’t professing his or her love for those who are completely and totally other from them -- if they aren’t confessing or professing a love and understanding and affirmation of the others’ faiths and theologies and spirituality and saying they’ll do so with their dying breath, then run beloved -- run away. Run as fast as you possibly can. For there can be no pursuit of peace, no reconciliation of humanity, and no healing of the spirit until your life has been emptied of bigotry and narrow-mindedness.
Let us do what we must. Let the discernment of a church free of the encumbrances of the world begin. The time for beginning approaches. I hope with all my soul that you’ll be part of the discernment task since I’m far from the kind of smarts to do it on my own. If you’re uncertain you should participate, consider these words from scripture:
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
Brad Shumate, M.S., M.A., LMHC
Free of Encumbrance
Vancouver, WA
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