A Charge To Keep I Have

Buried near the end of the report on the Call To Action Steering Committee's final report to the Council of Bishops is a line so precious it couldn't be auctioned at Sotheby's at any price.

Ultimately, the message and ministry of the United Methodist Church is one worth saving, Mr. Alexander said.

Mr. Alexander, for those who may not know, is the head of the United Methodist Publishing House, so perhaps he can be forgiven for thinking his meal ticket should continue.

The report is a jumble of begged questions, undefined terms, and nonsensical buzzwords that are void of any sense of the Wesleyan heritage that Mr. Alexander believes deserves saving. Two related Wesleyan notions - stewardship as part of accountable discipleship, and the covenant prayer - might have led to a whole different series of conclusions. According to "Sermon 51" we recognize in faith that nothing we have - not our souls or bodies, not our senses or limbs, not the food on our shelves in our homes, not even the wisdom we gain through education nor the money that we have to maintain our economic life - is ours. We are entrusted with them to be used according to the will of God.

God, of course, might just want to know if we have used these gifts entrusted to us in accordance with the grace bestowed upon us.

A couple things missing from that list include the denomination named "United Methodist Church" and the pews therein. We aren't supposed to worry about whether or not this denomination, or even the Wesleyan heritage, survives or not. Quite simply put - it isn't ours.

Wesley wrote and edited over the years a prayer that was used at year-end watch-night services. It has come down to us as "A Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition".

I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

thou art mine, and I am thine.

So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.

I would like to direct attention to one particular petition: "Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee". In other words, we covenant with God to be God's. Included in this is accepting that our services, vital at one time, may no longer be needed. It takes a brave soul to offer this prayer in full understanding that it includes accepting our own irrelevance. This is true not just for individuals, but for the entire denomination.

I do not think the survival of the denomination is at stake. At worst, one can envision a smaller, leaner United Methodist Church. Yet, even smaller, the Church could still very well be vital. It isn't about numbers, either of butts in pews or dollars in apportionments. Rather, what makes the church vital is the last gift mentioned by Wesley as that which is not ours, but something entrusted to us - the grace of God. The notion that our denomination is somehow lacking vitality because it is no longer the largest Protestant denomination in the country strikes me as odd; the idea that we need to devote the next decade to ourselves is a violation of pretty much everything John Wesley gave us as a charge to keep.