LESSONS FROM THE STORMS

2006 LAITY ADDRESS
George "Buzzy" Anding

Bishop Hutchinson, Provost Cottrill, Secretary Rhoads, members, guests and friends of the Louisiana Annual Conference, and my brothers and sisters in Christ:

My report to the conference begins at page 60 of your Preconference Report, and the reports of the various ministries that are supported by your Board of Laity follow in the succeeding pages.  I encourage you to read these reports, if you have not already done so, to be informed about what our laity are doing to help make and equip disciples and spiritual leaders in our conference and elsewhere.

The members of your Conference Board of Laity are listed in the Conference Journal, and you lay delegates were introduced to and heard from many of them in the laity session yesterday.  These officers and members are partners in ministry with all of you, and deserve your support and encouragement as they seek to carry out the missions and ministries with which they are charged.   At this time, I ask all members of the La. Conference Board of Laity to stand, so that you may recognize them and their efforts for you and with you.  I would also like to ask the following to stand and be recognized:  District 1000 Club Representatives, and those District representatives and all others who participated in the fundraising efforts for the D/M Scholarship Fund, the 1000 Club, United Methodist Men, United Methodist Women, Lay Speaking Ministries, Youth and Young Adults.  Please recognize their efforts with me.

As noted in my written report, last year three of our faithful officers and disciples resigned from their positions, including our Conference Lay Leader, Ned Randolph; our Associate Conference Lay Leader, Jim Anderson; and our Lay Speaking Ministies Chairperson, Joanne White.  We have this year recognized the service and leadership of those individuals by presenting them with plaques expressive of our gratitude to them, and I ask them to stand so that you can again express the thanks of our conference for their sacrifice and service.

There are a number of accomplishments of our lay ministries that were still in progress at the time the Pre-Conference Report went to press.  Rather than reiterate what you can find and read in the Pre-Conference Report, I would like to briefly highlight and bring you up-to-date on just some of the accomplishments of those lay ministries.

Through the leadership of Mr. Joe Page and our seven district lay leaders and superintendents, and even in this hurricane affected year, a new record amount of over $31,000 was raised for the Daughenbaugh-Matheny Scholarship Fund.   As the result, we were able to award scholarships to all of the twenty final qualified applicants, in the increased amount of $1200 each, and still have money left over to apply to future scholarships.  Congratulations to all those who participated in that effort, and  particularly to the Monroe District, which raised the largest amount, $7951.21, of all our districts.     

The Bob Lay Memorial 1000 Club, led by Mr. Fred Banks and with the able support of its district directors, was able to give $65,000 to Fairfield United Methodist Church in Shreveport, to aid in its relocation; and has this year set a goal of $150,000 to aid the hurricane-damaged churches of the New Orleans District. As the result of bylaws changes which were approved at conference last year, this fund-raising effort will continue through the end of 2006, and you have brochures before you setting forth that goal and providing information which can be useful in your fundraising efforts.  If you need additional brochures, they can be made available through your district lay leader, your district 1000 Club chairperson, or through Steve Stephens, the Conference Director of Church Extension and Transformation, at the conference office.  Fred and his group are working with Steve to finalize the selection of next year’s call, and Steve has promised me that this information will be available to you by the end of the summer.

Many of our laity were blessed to participate in this year’s Bishop’s Laity Retreat, which involved fellowship, fasting and faith development under the leadership of our Bishop, Rev. Carole Cotton Winn and Rev. Craig Gilliam.  Our sincere thanks go to all of them for leading us in such a meaningful faith-building experience.

Again, the accomplishments and goals of all our ongoing ministries are set forth in the Preconference Report.  Additionally, a number of new initiatives are planned for the coming year.  Mr. Fred Loy will chair a committee to explore and implement ways to raise additional funds for the Bishop’s Appeal, to provide additional financial support for displaced clergy, mission zone staff funding and other needed hurricane relief not available from other sources.  Mrs. Carolyn Dove is chairing a new committee seeking to improve communications among our laity and their leadership, including the revamping and improvement of the laity portion of our conference web site.  Dr. Sarah Kreutziger and I will co-chair a committee working toward publication of informational and educational manuals for new charge and district lay leaders.
These achievements have been accomplished, and these initiatives will be undertaken, even as we devote much of our other time and finances to hurricane recovery and restoration.  The perseverance of our laity and clergy to continue the missions and ministries of the church in the face of physical disaster, and to carry on the work of God’s kingdom in the most trying of circumstances, has served as a shining example of true discipleship to our communities, and even to the world.  Indeed, these countless acts of selfless, sacrificial service and love stand as, and teach us, important lessons from the storms, which we would do well to hear and heed as we consider what it truly means to be the church, even in such difficult times.         

In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, together comprising one of the greatest natural disasters in history, the question posed to us in our traditional hymn of gathering, “And Are We Yet Alive,” takes on new and profound shades of meaning --- both existentially and spiritually.  To paraphrase Charles Wesley, “What troubles have we seen, what mighty conflicts past, (hurricanes) without and fears within, since we assembled last.”

These storms have not just destroyed homes and churches and businesses.  These storms have staggered many of us to the very core of our faith, our hope – even our lives.  If we have not been their personal victims, we have certainly shared in the anguish, the fear, the distress, and the sorrow of those victims, and our lives have been profoundly changed in the process. 

“Yet,” as Charles Wesley continues in his great hymn, “out of all the Lord hath brought us by his love; and still he doth his help afford….”  Just as we witnessed the incredible devastation wrought by these aberrations of nature, we have also witnessed the incomprehensibly loving response of God, through the peace we have received from praying and knowing that He is with us still; and through the loving acts of kindness and the gifts by countless numbers of His disciples from our communities, from all over our nation and even from around the world.

Don’t misunderstand me.  I know that it has not been easy; and I know that it will not be easy.  We know that we face years of recovery efforts that will continue to tax us financially, spiritually, and in many other aspects of our daily lives.  But we also know that God has not deserted us, will not leave us, and will continue to restore and redeem us.  In fact, as you and I have witnessed and borne witness, we as laity, in partnership and ministry with our clergy, will be the loving acts of God, His acts of recovery, restoration, rescue and redemption.

As we in Louisiana have been the personal witnesses and recipients of God’s love through the loving acts of 10,000 and more disciples who have responded to our needs, we are able and eager to report to the rest of the world that God didn’t send these storms to test us, or to punish us.    Rather, as Christ witnessed and modeled, and as we have seen and experienced, love is God’s fundamental action, the fulfillment of all of His commandments and his ultimate goal for our lives. And God, in an act of the most remarkable love for his creation, has through Christ and His Holy Spirit given Himself into our hands, and has chosen to make Himself known not just in the occasional awesome acts of a distant and fearsome deity, but also in the form and daily actions of the men and women who know Him, who love Him, and who in gratitude and love have chosen to serve Him and His children.      

We – you and I – in our daily witness and walk, have through the grace of God and the guidance of His Holy Spirit been given the opportunity and authority to be the instruments of His love, His strength and His redemption.   Think about that for a moment, and how significant it is.  As Dr. Odell Simmons reminded us Sunday evening, the mantle of God’s authority has been passed on to all of us – laity and clergy alike.  And as Rev. Cliff Wright told us in a powerful laity breakfast message this morning, we – you and I – have been entrusted with Christ’s ministry of reconciliation and love to the world. Rev. Peter Gomes, the chaplain of the Memorial Church at Harvard University, puts it this way:  “By God’s love for us in Jesus Christ we are become in ourselves, in our own persons, in our daily work acts of God, evidence, living proof that the God who acted in the lives of the prophets, the martyrs, and the saints still acts in the likes and the lives of us.”      
Bishop, the laity of this great church are here to report and to witness to the lesson that, through the storms, after the storms, and through and after whatever storms may come, we believe, we know, that God has never left us; and that through our grateful responses to His grace and love for us – through our personal responses to his Holy Spirit guiding our lives – and through our acts of loving discipleship and Christian service – He will continue to be with us, will rescue us and others from the storms, and will repair and restore this broken and suffering part of His creation.

Even as we express such trust, though, we must also admit that, in the midst of such chaos and calamity, we have often become physically and spiritually fatigued.  We have prayed for God to continue or renew our strength, but sometimes it just does not seem possible that it will happen. 

Dr. Ernest Gordon, for many years the Dean of the chapel at Princeton, was more famous for the book he wrote about his captivity and time as a Japanese prisoner of war on the River Kwai during World War II.  Gordon said that during the early part of their captivity, he and his fellow soldiers were very religious, reading their Bibles, praying together, singing hymns, witnessing and testifying to their faith, and hoping and expecting that God would reward them and fortify them for their faith by freeing them, or at least giving them inner strength to bear their imprisonment.  When God didn’t deliver, they became disillusioned and angry, and some even lost their faith.  They didn’t lose their love for one other, however, and after a while, responding to the needs of their fellows – caring for them, protecting the weaker ones – they began to discern again the spirit of God in their midst.  They discovered – they learned the lesson – that compassion and the selfless service of others revealed anew the presence of God with them, and gave them the inner strength they needed to endure.

Hugh Martin in his book, The Beatitudes, writes that “(t)he strength that God gives is available to those who care for others, for they are showing the spirit of Jesus.  The power of God’s spirit fortifies them.” 

Bishop, we have learned a surprising lesson in the last few months.  We have learned that we serve others not just because they need it, but also because of what happens to us when we do.  We have realized that, when we are at our lowest points of Katrina and Rita fatigue, even the small and simple acts of kindness and thoughtfulness to our brothers and sisters, to God’s children, energize us, and give us the inner strength we need to carry on, even in the toughest of times.  It has been revealed to us that the inner strength of our faith is not just the capability to endure hard times -- it is also the spirit-given desire and the capacity to give of ourselves in loving service to others, and to each other; and that when we do so -- when we look not for what we can get, but for what we can give -- it is then that we find true strength and help in the time of even our greatest need.

Finally, Bishop, and despite our occasional grumblings and misgivings about sending our apportionment dollars to the far-flung reaches of the world for purposes and ministries with which we are not familiar, or about which we may not be sure, we have truly witnessed and learned the lesson of connection; that we are not isolated in our discipleship; that our brothers and sisters across United Methodism and around the world are truly in partnership with us in mission and ministry; and that they care and respond when we have need.

Rev. Darryl Tate, the director of our Storm Recovery Center, has reported that over 10,000 volunteer teams have responded to our need, from more than half the states around our nation and from as far away as Bermuda and South Africa, working for a reported total of at least 859,000 volunteer hours in the recovery effort.  One small village church in Liberia even took up a collection from the meager resources available to them, and sent our conference a twenty-dollar bill as their loving and truly sacrificial contribution toward our needs.  We have indeed been blessed to be a part of such a loving and caring connection.

My friends and family in Christ, God has saved us from our sins, and he has saved us from the storms – not just Katrina and Rita, but all of the storms that we may face in this life.  But these lessons from the storms of nature teach us also that we have been saved, justified, made right with God, not just into a state of being, but into a state of action.

 On the night before He died, Jesus gave to his disciples, to his church, what he called a “new commandment” to “love one another.”  He said, “just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”  And how did our Lord model that love for his disciples?  He got up from the supper table, took off his outer robe, tied a towel around himself, poured water into a basin, and proceeded to wash their feet – to perform the most menial act of service, to those who had pledged their lives to serving him.  And He said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” – “just as I have loved you.”

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the world watched as many of you got into boats and rescued hundreds stranded by flood waters.  The world witnessed as you opened your homes and your churches to house those displaced by the hurricanes.  The world took note as you participated in work teams to help rebuild the homes, businesses, churches and parsonages damaged in the storms.  And God smiled as you performed countless other acts of kindness and compassion, both large and small, in witness to the fact that you have heard and heeded the commandment of our Lord to love one another, even as He loved us.

In his Daily Bible Study series, the great Christian author and commentator, William Barclay, tells this story about John, said to have been the only apostle who lived to a ripe old age.  It comes from a history of the early church written by Jerome the historian.  It seems that as John reached his final years in Ephesus, and could only with difficulty be carried to the church in the arms of his followers, he eventually reached the point that all he could say, and would say, at their worship gatherings was, “Little children, love one another.”  Eventually, the church fathers, wearied with always hearing the same words from this great disciple, asked John, “Master, why do you always say this same thing, time after time?”  “It is the Lord’s command,” John replied, “and if this alone be done, it is enough.” 

Friends, we are called by our Lord not to be foot shuffling Christians, but foot washing Christians.  We are commanded not to sit, but to serve.  We are justified and saved not just to be fed, but to go out into the world and to feed His lambs.  God in Christ has instructed us that, in the end, the question will not be about how much time we spent in doctrinal debate or in the resolution of intellectual disputes regarding the mysteries of faith, but rather how much time we spent in loving and serving one another and all the rest of God’s children. 

The lessons of the storms, the witness and model of thousands of disciples showering God’s love upon us in countless acts of Christian charity, have revealed to us again -- as Christ witnessed to us ages ago -- that we are called to love one another, as he loved us; and if that alone be done, it is enough. 

“Are You Going On . . .?”
Ordination Sermon
Louisiana Annual Conference, June 6, 2006

Bishop William W. Hutchinson

Philippians 2: 1-11

Was it really a mouse that burned down Luciano Mares’ house?  Or was it just the wind?

This past winter this 81-year-old from Fort Sumner, New Mexico told the story of how a little mouse got caught in one of the glue traps he’d set in and around his home.  He was quite pleased to have captured the rodent, stating his extreme dislike for mice.  “I have an awful hate for those critters.”  The field dwellers had been bothering Mares for some time.  When the mouse got caught in the glue trap he was still moving.  The glue was sticky; and Mares couldn’t pull the mouse off.

So, according to Mares, he went outside and threw the whole deal – mouse and trap – onto a pile of burning leaves.  The mouse, now ablaze, scrambled to safety, then headed back for the house and disappeared inside a window.  About 90 seconds later, the house was on fire.

Just how did the mouse run away, still trapped in the glue?  Mares said, “The fire melted the glue and he got away.” 

Now he is trying to recover from the fire and figure out what the future holds.  His nephew, who is helping him in the recovery says, “We’re really devastated.  We lost all photos of our family, all his papers.  He’s a veteran of World War II.  He’s been through a lot.” 

An almost unbelievable story isn’t it!  But let it teach us a lesson.  Don’t throw a live mouse into a pile of burning leaves.  But let it also give us an incentive.  I’m going to throw a burning mouse into this Ordination service and see if it starts a fire for us!

Every person who is being ordained here tonight, or who is having his credentials recognized and being accepted into full connection as a United Methodist elder has been asked this question, “Are you going on to perfection?”

Though I’ve been asked that question myself and have heard it asked year after year, and now am asking it on behalf of the church of those being ordained, it is still a question I ponder greatly.  What does it mean to be “going on to perfection?”  What does it mean to be “made perfect in love in this life?”  What does it mean to be “earnestly striving after it?”

I’ve thought and thought about that recently.  And the scripture text that keeps coming to my mind is one well known and quoted often.

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any incentive of love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.  Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Have this mind among yourselves which you have in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.”

- Philippians 2: 1-11, RSV

Now you would think that would be easy to exegete.  “Have this mind among yourselves which you have in Christ Jesus. . .”  And, if I could exegete it in all its fullness I firmly believe I could tell you what “perfection” is.  Perfection is being like Christ.  If I have the mind in me that was in Christ Jesus, then I would be like him.  And if I am like him, then I am indeed “going on to perfection” for he is perfect.  Doesn’t it make logical sense then to say, “Perfection is being like Christ.”

J.B Phillips translates it like this:
“Let Christ Jesus be your example as to what your attitude should be.”

Eugene Peterson gives us this understanding:
“Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself.”

Speaking to a church he loved dearly – the first church he organized on European soil - and a church that loved him, Paul was trying his dead-level best to express his deep love for the Philippians and his concern for their sense of unity.  And in a high moment, when all his theological genius and his writing skills merged for one shining and brilliant insight, he gave us the perfect formula and vision into what it means to be perfect.  It is to be of the same mind as Christ Jesus and to be like him in our day to day action and activity.

William Barclay states the insight like this, “Christianity consists less in the mind’s understanding than it does in the heart’s love.”  (Barclay, W., The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, Westminster Press, p. 40)

Or, in the words of another Biblical scholar, “The most important element in the attitude of the New Testament Christians to Jesus is not their faith in Him, but their love for Him.”  (Interpreters Bible, Vol. 8, p. 143)

One can have faith in Christ and truly believe him to be all he claimed.  But one can only know and have the Christ foremost in their life if they have come to love him.  And loving him makes us want to be like him.  And to be like him we have our minds in sync with his mind, and so thus are enabled to move on toward perfection!

Barbara Brown Taylor, Episcopal priest and prominent preacher tells of when she was contemplating ordination.  She found a wise and moody priest who was highly sought after by seminarians.  She says, “We were all over him like bees on honey, because he seemed to have the right word for each one of us.  Sometimes we pestered him so badly that he had to slam doors in our faces and tell us to go away.  The first time he yelled at me I thought I would slide to the floor and die right there.  Then he took me into his kitchen and fed me leftover Chinese.

“I adored him, which was hard on him, I know.  One day I told him that my biggest fear about ordination was the perfection thing – impersonating Jesus in front of a whole lot of people who would see right through me- and he said, “Oh lovey, that’s not your job.  If you decide to do this, then you’re not promising to be perfect.  You’re just consenting to be visible – to let other people watch you while you try to figure out what real life is all about.”  (Awakened to a Calling, edited by Ann M. Svennungsen and Melissa Wiginton, Abingdon, pp. 55-56.)

I believe Brown Taylor speaks to a John Wesley historical question that she doesn’t even have to answer for herself – “Are you going on to Perfection?” 

Wesley might have said what she says in this way.  “Our role is to go out to preach the Word, set ourselves on fire with that Word, and the people can stand and watch us burn.” 

And so, collectively here this evening let’s try and figure out what that “real life is all about.”  Let me throw a burning mouse right into your laps. Let’s see if we can start a little fire of our own!

Being a United Methodist is at least two things:  1.) We are about methods and 2.) We are about holiness.  When our founder and spiritual father, John Wesley, began what was to evolve into the Methodist societies, he was a student at Oxford College. In order to satisfy his great desire for decency and order, he began a little study, prayer and meditation group that became known as the Holy Club.  While it wasn’t the most popular group on the Oxford campus, it was at least acknowledged as legitimate.  As the Holy Club went about their methodical way of practicing piety, the students around them began to make fun of them and called them, “Methodists.”  It was a name meant to bring shame and derision.  It was a name that stuck and that has become honored today as one of the major Protestant religious bodies in the world, some 76 million strong. 

Today, “Methodist”, a term meant for insult, is an honored title.  And if one wants to get our dander up and insult us today they call us “Holy.”  “Holy Joes”, or “Goody Goodies”, or “Holier than thou” are terms we react to with great negativity.  We are more comfortable being identified with the world around us than being identified as set apart from the world.  From “Holy Club” to “Methodist.”  And now I’m suggesting we should return from “Methodist” to “Holy.”

What I want to say to you ordinands, and all others listening in tonight are two things:

Do your work, but make it more than method.  Make your work holy!

Fred Craddock tells a wonderful story about a student he had one time in an advanced Greek class that was reading the Letter to the Romans in Greek.  The class was small, because it was so advanced, consisting of about six students.  I wish he were here to tell it, but if you’ve ever heard Dr. Craddock preach, maybe you can imagine him saying this:

“One of the fellows in the class – one girl and five fellows I think – one of the fellows came in a little late and already had on his tennis outfit.  It was a one o’clock class.  I hated one o’clock classes (and wasn’t too fond of morning classes, really).  But he came in all ready for tennis.  Had on his little stuff with alligators on it – you know, the little shorts and the shirt matched and the socks matched and he had a can of tennis balls and his tennis racquet and New Testament and he shoved all that under his seat and opened his New Testament, and said, “Sorry I’m late.”  Well, I was a little aggravated.  You’re not supposed to come into a Greek class happy, and he obviously was happy.  You were supposed to creep like a snail and in great pain and ‘please don’t call on me’ – that’s the way you do it.  And he came bouncing in like ‘tennis, anyone?’  He stopped off at the Greek class on his way to the court.

So naturally I called on him, because we were in a place like Romans 9 that is tough as toenails.  If you get into the third-year Greek, you stay up a little longer that night because that is tough reading.  I called on him.  I said, ‘Would you translate the first four or five verses?’ So he did – beautifully.  Well, I have got to do something here.  I said, ‘Well, identify the nouns,’ and he identified the nouns, talked about each one of them.

You know, in the passage Paul says, ‘I’m telling you the truth; I’m not lying, God is my witness, my conscience is my witness, the Holy Spirit is my witness I have great sorrow – lupae.’  It is a word used to describe a woman having a baby.  Hey, I have great sorrows.  The words that were used to describe Jesus in Gethsemane, lupae, and unceasing anguish, odunae.  Just the sound of the word in its anguish, odunae, is the word used to describe the rich man in torment who didn’t share his food with anybody and he’s in anguish.  It’s with this word that Paul says, ‘I have this sorrow, this anguish.  I get up with it in the morning and go to bed with it at night, it never stops, and I could almost wish myself to be damned if it would save my people.’  I said to him, the student, the tennis boy, I said, “Tell me about that verb ‘I could wish,’ ‘I could almost wish.’”  He said, “Yeah, youcoma – that’s the first singular of youcomi.  ‘I desire a wish,’ but it’s an unusual form.” He said, “Some people call it inchoate, not imperative; some call it tangential imperfect, inchoate imperfect.  It expresses something that is almost but not quite.  ‘I could almost wish myself to be damned for their sake.’”  And Paul meant just that so I said, “Shut up.”  The student just translated so well.

When the class was over and he was getting his can of tennis balls and tennis racquet and was ready to go bounding to the court, I stopped him.  I said, “Would you stop a minute?”  He said yes.  I said, “What did you think about what you read from Paul?”  He said, “What?”  I said, “That ‘sorrow and anguish,’ and ‘could almost wish myself to be lost if it would save them.’”  He said, “Aw Prof, I consider that really unprofessional.  It’s not very professional.”  I said, “What do you mean?”  He said, “Well it’s not professional to get that close to people.  Pretty soon their problems are your problems.  You should keep your distance from people.  See ya!”

For a moment I almost envied him.  I don’t know if he went into ministry.  You know, it’s possible that he went into ministry as a professional and is still doing it as a professional.  But I felt heavy about it, because if he did he would miss that almost unbearable joy of almost hearing, every once in awhile, the groan of God and trying with all your art and craft to do something about it.”(Ibid, pp. 34-36)

Ministry is more than a profession.  It is more than work.  It is more than method.  It is being like Christ!  It is being Holy!
An article in Christianity Today captivated me, the week of March 27, 2006.  The article was entitled “Holiness Without the Legalism.” It talked about a new theological manifesto, written by historic Holiness churches, to rearticulate their key doctrine for today.  Listen to how the writer of the article ties this to us, the United Methodists. 

“From the 1840’s to the end of the 19th century, key leaders believed that the culturally dominant form of Methodism had slipped from its original commitments and formed splinter groups to revive the concern for holiness taught by Methodist founder John Wesley.  These groups served the poor and culturally marginalized, and taught them principles of holy living.  Some split with the Methodist Episcopal Church over the issue of slavery.  At the beginning of the 20th century, the Pentecostal movement sprang from the soil of these Holiness groups.”

In the mid 20th century these traditions got caught up in legalism, wherein holiness was described in behavioral terms rather than heart transformation! Instead of a transformed life, a life of “don’ts” was emphasized.  You know, “Don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t chew, and don’t go with girls that do.”  How long was your dress.  Could you wear sleeveless dresses?  Could you wear jewelry?  Could you wear make-up?  As the author says, “All of the things that tended to become the appearance of holiness but that, over the course of generations, lost the heart.”

Listen to this analysis of what has happened to us over the years.  “In any movement where the founders have a passionate heart that alters their behavior from the inside out, subsequent generations try to mimic the behavior without the heart transformation, and that moves to the following generations where we not only mimic the behavior, but we impose the behavior on others without understanding the heart transformation.  It’s so easy to write down the rules in the Book of Discipline and say, this is what you have to look like, and then we lose the power.”

But holiness is actually a message of love, a message of transformation and open-handed, grace-filled proximity to a God who is holy and who transforms us into being holy.

Does this have a word to say to us United Methodists here today?  Have we become guilty of this very thing of trying to write down all our rules in the Book of Discipline and live by legislation rather than by heart transformation? 

Pablo Casals, the famed Spanish violin-cellist, conductor and composer, once had a young man studying with him who wanted to be an exceptional musician and who worked hard at doing everything correctly.  One day he played a difficult piece for the teacher and was extremely pleased at how well it went.  He then waited for a word of approval.  Instead of praise Mr. Casals said, “You are playing the notes, but not the music.”  (Spain, R., How to Stay Alive As Long As You Live, Dimensions, p. 134)

Are we guilty of just playing the notes – living by rules and legislation- and not playing the music, the music of heart transformation?

Irenaeus, the early church father said it best hundreds of years ago.  He said, “He was made what we are in order that he might make us what he is himself.”  Have we allowed Jesus into our lives far enough that he can make us what he is himself?  Isn’t it the time and the day for us to become holy by transformation of our heart rather than by legislation of our book?!! 
Oh, I long for the day when we take the same time for transformation that we take for legislation!

I’ll always remember a night in the little Methodist church in which I was a member and the pianist for the services.  We had been involved in our spring revival and young Virginia Ballinger came forward at the invitation to give one’s life to Christ and we stayed way past time for the service to end.  She was giving her life to Christ – she was being transformed – and she was praying through what that meant.  Oh, people were restless.  They probably had some radio program, or some snowy television program they were eager to get home to hear or watch!  But we stayed until it was over!

Or I recall the day Kay and I sat outside the Nazarene church in Woodward, Oklahoma waiting for her grandfather, “Granddaddy Bressie” to come out so we could go to Sunday lunch.  We had been over at the United Methodist church, and true to form we were through with worship at 12:00 noon!  But not the Nazarenes, this holiness tradition.  We waited and waited in a steaming hot car and finally he came.  We asked him, “What were you doing in there all this time?”  He humbly said, “A man came forward to repent of his sins and we had to pray him through.”  Pray him through!  Did you ever!
I go to meeting after meeting and answer letter after letter and phone call after phone call dealing with legislation!  We think we can take care of anything through legislation! 

How can the United Methodists legislate morality?  Why should we try?  We’ll stay and work, work, work and read and argue – way into the night - and we come out from those sessions shaking our heads and wearing that invisible “martyr badge” for all the work we’ve been doing for the Lord.  And the result is that the Book of Discipline gets bigger and bigger and more and more complicated as we try to lock it all down!

But let our worship run past the prescribed time, or, heaven forbid, have to sit down at the end of a service because someone was touched by the Holy Spirit in the worship service that day and responded to the pastor’s routine invitation to give one’s life to Jesus, but no one had planned for it to happen this Sunday!  And when it happens you would think we have had our whole Sunday social calendar totally destroyed.

Make your work more than method!

Make your work holy – after you have begun to make yourself holy!
Thank God for the holiness churches that are calling us home!  And thank God the United Methodist’s have “shown interest” and have sent an observer to be a part of the dialogue.  I pray this will be a starting point for pastors and others who say, “that resonates with my soul, that builds a fire in my belly, that’s what it’s about.  Let’s get on with business.”

Holiness – Christ likeness – being made what he is!  Wouldn’t it be great if we became so committed to that that we put our differences and our legalisms, and our divisiveness, and our arrogance on hold until we could all become Christ-like!
My mother – who, by the way grew up and came to faith in a holiness tradition – asked for only one hymn for her funeral.  It is an old holiness hymn, firmly implanted in and revered by our United Methodist church, “Near to the Heart of God.”

Near to God’s heart is the place of holiness.  Jesus, our blest redeemer was sent from this place, God’s heart, to be near and with us.  This ought to be that for which we long and search.  How do we become Christ-like?  Our constant prayer should be the refrain of this marvelous humn, “O Jesus blest redeemer, sent from the heart of God.  Hold us who wait before thee, near to the heart of God.” 

If God will set the mouse of God’s spirit on fire in us and turn us loose we can burn down the state of Louisiana!  If we simply had the mind in us that was in Christ Jesus, then we could go on to perfection.  But we can’t go there without Jesus!  And we can’t go there by method.  We must go there by being made like he is.  We must be holy of heart, transformed to be like him!
Let me end this with a less than “holy” story.  In fact it is an Aggie story.  It’s safer to tell that kind of story than it is to tell a Cajun story maybe.  It seems there was a valuable player for the Aggie football team who received a failing notice in a necessary class shortly before the big game with Texas University.  The notice made him ineligible to play, and the coach and fans were in a panic.  They simply had to have him on the team!  The coach made an appeal to the professor involved and struck an understanding with him that there would be a one-question test given.  If the player answered the question correctly, he could play in the game.  If he failed to give the correct answer, he was off the team.
The professor said, “This is a very important test.  I want it administered before the entire student body and the faculty.  On

Wednesday at 12:00 noon please have everyone in the football stadium, and I will ask the question.”  So, at noon on Wednesday the stadium was filled to capacity.  The professor and student athlete walked to the 50-yard line, picked up the microphones and prepared for the question.

“Here is your question,” the professor said.  “What is 3 + 4?”  The student athlete drew a deep breath, began to walk around, scratched his head, kicked at the ground, then came back to the professor and said, “I think I have the answer.  The answer is 7.”

Immediately the entire stadium broke into a yell, “Give him another chance!”

Oh, I believe we’re constantly being given a second chance!  And in so many ways we need it.  If we’re going on to perfection, going on to having the mind in us that was in Christ Jesus, then we need a second, third, fourth, fifth chance!  Tonight we can start again.  Tonight we can say “Others are watching us while we are trying to figure out what real life is all about.  Others are watching us burn!” 

Tonight there is a burning mouse loose in our midst.  It’s the mouse of God’s spirit moving with wildfire.  Better run if you don’t want to be caught ablaze.  Or if you’re on fire and you know it, stand, lift your hands and cry out once again,

“Come Holy Ghost our souls inspire,
and lighten with celestial fire.
 Thou the anointing spirit art,
who dost they seven-fold gifts impart.
Thy blessed unction from above
Is comfort, life and fire of love
Enable with perpetual light
The dullness of our blinded sight.
Anoint and cheer our soiled face
With the abundance of thy grace.
Keep far from foes, give peace at home:
Where thou art guide, no ill can come.
Teach us to know the Father, Son,
And Thee, of both to be but One
That through the ages all along
This may be our endless song.
Praise to thy eternal merit
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
 - Latin, ninth century

Amen and Amen.