Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Getting Ready for Minneapolis!

REALLY LIVELY BIBLE STUDY TODAY!! On the future of the UMC! I was advocating for the Centrist Progressive position, and a Traditionalist took exception.

Actually, no. I was taking the Traditionalist position, and a Centrist Progressive took exception. Just ate some pavement while I was taking a walk.

Actually, no. I was trying to take no position and EVERYONE took exception.

Actually, no. A chicken, a possum and Tom walked into a bar; the chicken and the possum used the door (thanks to Sean). Actually: A nose piercing gone horribly wrong.

Actually, no. Here is the real talk: Since my prostate cancer surgery last July 8, I have gained 25 lbs. I used to walk 4+ miles every day, and over 5 many days. Since July I have
walked a total of about 3 miles...so no wonder I have gained the weight. But, I feel awful. And so, I have been saying for a number of weeks now: got to get back to walking. This week, for some reason, it happened. Today was my third consecutive day doing three plus miles, and I was within 100 yards of my door when I stepped on the edge of the sidewalk, rolled my ankle, and ate some concrete. Could have been a LOT worse. I did not break my nose or cheek. I do not bruise but will have a black eye, I suspect. I am sore. But, God willing, I will lace them on again tomorrow and head back out.

Which is why I think this does help me with Minneapolis. I think there will be days when we are face down on the concrete. I hope not, but I suspect it will be the case.

Further, today, lying prone on the sidewalk bleeding, two cars drove past slowly, perhaps thinking to stop, but not stopping. Later, as I ambled the last 100 yards to home, a jogger come the other way saw me, bleeding, and kind of sped-up to get past me. I have new insight to Luke 10: it may have been the blood.

In Minneapolis we MUST tend to each other. We have to see the hurt and help. Do No Harm means also not letting the wounds go untended.

In the next few blogs I am going to share some materials I have been teaching here on why I am a Centrist/Progressive. And why BIBLICALLY I find myself in that position. Which is to say: I think part of the impasse of the last however many comes to a stalemate of authority. The Traditionalists have discounted Reason and Experience in favor of a monolithic reading of the text (I use that term carefully and theologically; as in stone tablets, as in the letter of the law; as if the Law is one thing). The Progressives have abandoned Scripture and Tradition (as anachronistic, misogynist, oppressive). What we have not been able to do is find biblical grounds to counter a monolithic reading and provide a LIVING word that retains authority in what has been described as the Quadralateral.

I think the case for a Centrist to Progressive position is thoroughly biblical and I will share that line of thinking in the next few entries.

If you would like to see the whole piece now, email me at tsteagald@yahoo.com and I will send it to you electronically.

Now, another dram of bourbon as I change my bandages.

Saturday, February 1, 2020

No Argument Zone

I am officially declaring this blog a no argument zone.

My goal is to share my best thoughts, deepest prayers, purest love for Christ and his people, for the Church and its mission--in service of my determination to be the best pastor to the folk under my charge (and whoever might happen by here).

I will not debate, will delete argumentative comments.

I will share as I can my reading of Scripture, but in a spirit of humility and love: working out my own salvation with fear and trembling; working to count others as better than myself; doing nothing from selfish conceit...

I take a cue from Jack Lemon, whose priest character in Mass Appeal: "I have baptized you, counseled you, married and buried you; but I have never really cared enough to risk losing you" (his defrocked associate had chided him: "there has to be something more important than what your congregation think of you").

I too believe that "we must be allowed the freedom to shape this thing that has shaped us," and indeed I believe Scripture not only grants that freedom but in fact demands it. When the truth is not spoken, people are kept silent, inactive.

As Richard Hayes said, "Scriptural imagination is the faculty that enables us to see the world through the lenses of the Bible’s images and stories—and to be transformed by what we see. To exercise scriptural imagination does not mean living in a fantasy world where we ignore the daily realities around us; rather, it is to have our eyes opened to recognize that the story Scripture tells is the true story of the world. To look at the world through scriptural lenses is to have our vision corrected so that our illusions are stripped away and we see the world as it really is: created by a loving God but fallen into disobedience and alienation. Through the lenses of Scripture, we also see this real world redeemed and transformed by Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. With our vision thus corrected, we can join Paul in discerning “that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). Additionally, scriptural imagination enables us to inhabit the story that Scripture tells. We read the Bible not just to find devotional tidbits, “illustrations” of something we already knew on other grounds, or general principles to shape our lives. Instead, we read it to learn the unfolding story in which we too are characters, and to understand the role we are called to play in it." (Duke Divinity Magazine, Spring, 2013)

Those who are in Charlotte are invited to come to our church on February 5, 2020, at 9:45 or 6:45, for a presentation as to the biblical/theological background to the impending "divorce" in our denomination.

On Sunday, February 9, after church we will have a congregational meeting to discuss he administrative side of the question. Again, you are welcome to attend (lunch will be served but you have to make a reservation).

Fishing for the Future

takemefishing.org I was supposed to go fishing this afternoon.  Didn’t happen, though. Bummer. I love to fish, though I do not...