Why I can’t ignore General Conference
May 16th, 2016
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"Oregon Convention Center in Portland" | Bigstock/photo.ua
When they told Mordecai what Esther had said, Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.” — Esther 4:12-14, NRSV
I’ve tried so hard. I’ve been diligent in my efforts and concise in my execution of my carefully laid out plan. This plan has been laid out since 2012, and frankly I thought it would work.
I’ve been trying to ignore General Conference 2016.
Sure, it’s been difficult. I’m an avid social media person who enjoys engaging people for all things church. But after my times as a delegate to GC2012, I have been tried and tested in my faith in the aftermath. I even left the denomination for a season in the wake of the fiasco that was General Conference. So this time around, I thought I was prepared; I thought I was ready. I had planned to just shut it down and not have a voice in this. But there is that old saying: “When you make plans, God laughs.”
You see, I received a message on Facebook from a person who follows me on social media. He described me as an “open and honest minister” (I’m humbled to be described that way), and he asked for my prayers after an exchange where someone made a disparaging comment about our LGBTQ brothers and sisters in Christ.
As I read the message I couldn’t help but think of Esther’s exchange with Mordecai in the book of Esther. “For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter… Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for such a time as this.”
Perhaps all of us have been given a voice for such a time as this. The divisiveness we face in The United Methodist Church could perhaps be put in a different light if we didn’t degrade or threaten one another with schism and provocative rhetoric. Perhaps relief will rise from another quarter, but I want relief to come to this beloved denomination, the denomination that has given me so much.
So I’m going to watch, and wait, and pray earnestly that God might show up as God did at Pentecost. It is my hope that we might re-claim that Pentecost promise as a people known as Methodists. We’re a rambunctious bunch, but perhaps we’ve been created for such a time as this.