Text: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Over the last several weeks, we have been exploring what it means to be United Methodist.
We’ve talked about some of the core beliefs we affirm, how we came to get our distinctive United Methodist flavor by emphasizing faith and love in action, and both standards for teaching those core beliefs… but also the love, grace, and humility that leaves room for opinions and difference around practices and positions.
After all, as our scripture for this morning reminds us – we could have all the right answers, and do all the right things but if we don’t love – we are nothing.
As long as we seek to love God and love our neighbors, we can join hands for God’s work in the world.
Does that mean that anything else goes?
Absolutely not.
I shared with you last week from a portion of John Wesley’s sermon, “Catholic Spirit,” in which we talked about those core essential things and how love gives us guidance for how we relate to others who disagree.
But he is very clear at the end of that sermon that holding such a charitable spirit that leaves room for others does not mean you are indifferent to other’s opinions.
And, it doesn’t mean that you are unclear in your own thoughts, practices, or community, “driven to and fro, and tossed about with every wind of doctrine.” (“Catholic Spirit”, John Wesley’s Sermons: An Anthology, p. 307)
In fact, he says if you have a sort of “muddy understanding” with “no settled, consistent principles” that “you have quite missed your way…” (p. 308).
In other words, do your work.
Take responsibility for what you believe, how you act, and the community to which you belong.
Don’t simply parrot what someone before you has taught, or change your perspective when a new pastor comes along.
You are responsible for diving into the gospel of Jesus and figuring out what impact it has on the world.
This is the work of theological reflection.
A theologian is anyone who studies God.
Now, I am a theologian. I have a Masters of Divinity from Vanderbilt University and spent three and a half years studying scripture and ancient texts and history and the thoughts of other theologians.
But YOU are a theologian, too.
A theologian is anyone who “reflects upon God’s gracious action in our lives.” (BoD, p.80)
And United Methodists believe that every single one of us is called to this work.
Every generation has to wrestle with what it means to be faithful in a changing world.
We have to figure out how to communicate the good news of our faith to people who are hurting and lost and broken.
But we also need to figure out how to see the problems and challenges around us like the climate crisis or sexual abuse or global migration and ask what our response should be.
And to do that, we need more than just the basic teachings of our faith, or doctrines.
Doctrine is important, because it helps us remember the core of Christian truth in ever-changing contexts… But our task is to test, renew, elaborate, and apply those teachings in the world.
You see, we take the love of Christ for this world and we figure out how to share and live out that love right here and right now.
There are a couple of important things that the United Methodist Church believes are important to remember, and I think that we can think about these through the description of love that the Apostle Paul offers to us in his letter to the Corinthians.
First, as we do this, we should be willing both take apart and put together our understanding of faith in love. In other words, don’t strut around with a big head forcing your beliefs on others, but ask if this position is still true, credible, and based in love. At the same time, we should always be looking forward for where new truth is flowering and helping to creatively put together a message for tomorrow.
Second, the work of theology is both your responsibility and our responsibility. It is about “plain truth for plain people” – every Christian… young and old alike, is called to grow and learn about how to follow God into this world. But we also believe that it is in our conversation and sharing and work together that all of our individual reflections are strengthened. This is why we come together at our church conferences, and annual, jurisdictional and general conferences to make decisions. Like a love that isn’t always “me first” and that cares for others more than self, we believe everyone has something to contribute and we should be aware of how everyone is impacted.
Third, this work of reflection has to be grounded in what God is doing in the world. We believe that God so loved this world that Jesus came to make a home among us… in a particular time and in a particular place. And we believe that God is still present in our time and in all of our diverse places. Paul tells us that love should not be envious or boastful… and I think about how important it is for us not to force a practice from one culture onto another, or for a culture to give up their own practices to be more like another.
Last year, some of us read together, “I’m Black. I’m Christian. I’m Methodist.” and were surprised by stories of how many of these black leaders felt as if they had to become more white in order to be faithful and found great strength as they reclaimed their own identity.
Finally, if we are going to connect the love of Jesus with the world, then we have to focus on what we do. We can say all the right words and have endless conversations, but as Paul would say, if we aren’t dealing with love – then we are just noisy gongs and clanging cymbals. We know what is true when we see the impact in real lives. United Methodists are all about practical divinity.
The Apostle Paul describes how our understanding of the truth changes through time as we mature and grow and put aside childish thoughts. We are continually doing our best to comprehend – knowing that today we can capture the fullness of God’s truth and love only partially.
But still we try. And we keep trying to do our best in faith, in hope, and in love.
As Paul wrote to the Philippians, we can focus our thoughts on what is excellent and true, holy and just. We can practice what we have learned and received from our mentors and teachers in the faith.
Our job as a theologian is simple: What can I say and do that is faithful to scripture as it has been passed down through tradition, and that makes sense in light of human experience and reason? (Book of Discipline, p.81)
These four theological tools we refer to as the Wesleyan Quadrilateral.
All four are important lenses to help us see how God is working and moving in the world.
As we explored a few years ago with our Bible 101 series, scripture is at the center and is the foundation of all that we do so, we had better be reading and pouring over scripture in our lives.
But… and… scripture itself is always being interpreted.
First, scripture is interpreted by other scripture.
You cannot take a single verse out of context but need to look at the fullness of the entire passage and story.
And, we come to see as we read the bible that there is an overarching story within the scripture itself… a story of creation and redemption, a story of mistakes and forgiveness, a story that ends in the restoration of all things.
In the gospels, religious leaders ask Jesus to interpret scripture for them and his response gives us a general guide for our own interpretation: how does this verse lead us to love God and love our neighbor? (Matthew 22:34-40)
Next, we have the witness of how people have interpreted that scripture through time. Tradition shows us the “consensus of faith” that has grown out of a particular community’s experience. (p. 85-86)
Not all contexts and communities are the same. The experience of Czech immigrants in the Midwest was very different than that of African slaves in the Deep South. Each community passed on the gospel and created practices of faith that show us how the scripture made sense in their lives. We also connect tradition with the theology of previous generations that have been passed down to us in creeds and writings.
Tradition shows us how communities have understood God, but we also each have or own unique experiences.
Who you are and what you have been through is always with you when you open up the Bible – tragedies and joys, gender, economic reality…
It is why you can read the same passage of scripture repeatedly over time and discover something new with each reading.
But Wesley also talked about how God continues to be revealed through our experiences and the fruit that we are bearing in the world.
One example is how he relented to license women as preachers in the circuits after he saw the call of God bearing fruit in their ministry.
Our final tool for theology is reason. As the Book of Proverbs reminds us, each person is called to “turn your ear toward wisdom, and stretch your mind toward understanding. Call out for insight, and cry aloud for understanding. ” (Proverbs 2:2-3)
We believe God reveals truth in many places, not only in scripture, and that we should pursue such knowledge and truth with our whole selves. Science, philosophy, nature: these are all places that help us to gain understanding and sometimes reveal even deeper truths within the written word.
Why does this matter?
Because as our Book of Discipline reminds us, every day, there are new concerns “that challenge our proclamation of God’s reign over all of human existence.” (p. 88)
A black man is murdered in public on a city street by a law enforcement officer.
A derecho destroys the infrastructure of a community.
A virus takes the lives of 8,501 of our neighbors in this state.
Where is God’s justice, protection, and healing?
What does it mean to love our neighbor in light of these realities?
That is the work of theology… seeking an authentic Christian response to these realities so that the healing and redeeming love of God might be present in our words and deeds. (p.89)
As we affirm in the Book of Discipline:
“United Methodists as a diverse people continue to strive for consensus in understanding the gospel… while exercising patience and forbearance with one another. Such patience stems neither from indifference toward truth nor from an indulgent tolerance of error but from an awareness that we know only in part and that none of us is able to search the mysteries of God except by the Spirit of God. We proceed with our theological task, trusting that the Spirit will grant us wisdom…”
Book of Discipline p. 89
May it be so. Amen.