True Source

I’ve been in a conversation with someone through Facebook about dreams and revelations recently. Her question, why don’t we just credit the good message, to a good deceased ancestor? Why do we say it is God that gave the good message?

That’s a fair question, and one that deserves a good story.

There is a woman who has a son.

As a child each year he would give her a gift, some expression of love and appreciation for her, because she was his mother. As time passed the son matured, and moved out on his own. He lives far away from his mother, so it is harder for him to deliver the gift to his mother in person, but his love remains and the tradition continues.

Now the son goes to his computer and orders flowers, and gives instructions to have them delivered to his mother.

The florist receives the instructions from the son and prepares the bouquet. Now the florist also needs to prepare many bouquets for many other mothers to be delivered on time. The florist employs the services of a delivery company.

When the delivery is made to the mother, she is surprised and delighted by the beauty of the bouquet and the thoughtfulness of someone. She tells the delivery person “thank you.” Has she thanked the person who gave her the gift? No, she has only thanked a servant, a hired hand.

She brings the bouquet into her home and looks for a card that will tell her who has sent the bouquet.

The name of the florist is listed on the envelope,

but the card inside contains a message from her son.

If she calls the florist to say thanks, just as she did to the delivery person, the true gift giver still has not been properly acknowledged.

To properly acknowledge the gift she must call or write her son, to express her thanks, and appreciation for the gift.  When she tells others about what she has received, she will tell her friends that her son sent the gift, not that the florist gave her the flowers.

For her to thank only the florist and the deliverer is to fail to acknowledge the initial giver of the gift.

This principle applies to spiritual matters as well as material things.

Speaking only for myself, I can explain why I would acknowledge a dream or revelation as something as coming from God, rather than my good aunt Barb, or some other deceased relative.

It boils down to what I profess to believe.

The Nicene Creed is the summation of the Faith within the Anglican Communion. The first Statement is

“WE believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.” 

The question is to whom shall we properly attribute the source of revelations, and dreams. Scripture tells us that dreams and revelations are one of the ways in which God has spoken through the ages to humanity.

For a Christian, it boils down to acknowledging the true source of all good things. Some refer to this as “giving glory to God”, or “glorifying God”

Consider perhaps how many have understood a very famous “revelation” in the United States spoke of by Martin Luther King, just before his assassination. “I have been to the mountaintop….Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.” In his speech he also referred to his more famous speech delivered several years later, “I Have a Dream.”

Martin Luther King spoke of his conviction of God’s desire for all humanity and repeated a single phrase, “I have a dream,” with many amplifications. Now, as I see it, within the Christian tradition of the U.S. I believe we hear his message, as a form of revelation that reaffirms a scriptural tradition which is found in the book of Acts, even more than just a dream rooted in “the American Dream”.  

So the question remains for you to answer.

When you have significant dreams, who you think deserves the praise?

The challenge of everyday faithful living in the Christian community is to keep our focus on our purpose, our calling in God.  Do we remember to thank the true source?

This hymn sums it up pretty well for me.

To God with gladness sing, your Rock and Savior bless;

into his temple bring your songs of thankfulness!

O God of might, to you we sing,

enthroned as King on heaven’s height!

He cradles in his hand the heights and depths of earth;

he made the sea and land, he brought the world to birth!

O God Most High, we are your sheep;

on us you keep your shepherds eye!

Your heavenly Father praise, acclaim his only Son,

your voice in homage raise to him who makes all one!

O Dove of Peace, on us descend

that strife may end and joy increase!

James Quinn (Hymnal 1982 #399)

Feminism in the Church

"I'm Not a Feminist!NOT!"

I’ve been very clear about that with many people. I’m NOT a feminist. I’m absolutely not one of those women who goes around breaking barriers and challenging authorities for the right to do anything that women have never done before.

And yet, I am reminded that I am indeed a feminist. By the fact of my birth, my gender places me in the ranks of 50+% of the world’s population. I worked in banking saw the glass ceiling of the management and lending officer training programs in the 70's keep good women from advancing. I've worked in political campaigns of women candidates for congress and saw their battles end in disappointment as they challenged conservative male incumbents with the worst congressional records of attendance. I’m a woman who grew up listening to music which included a repertoire of “I am woman hear me roar.”

But I also chose to be a stay at home mother, rather than immediately enter graduate school, because I saw it as my first responsibility raise up young men with values to pursue peace and justice in their christian lives. As a mother raising my two boys in the 80’s I would tease them with the “wonder woman” twist not just to see them roll their eyes, but more importantly to reaffirm my own power as a woman of ability and accomplishment. It was sort of a mind trick I played with myself for a while when I would begin to feel like my own career had been put on hold, and I was at a loss for my own identity; something other than "Robert's and James' mom." So Yes, I am a feminist. I'm just not a cutting edge "in your face" feminist. I think of myself as more of a heritage feminist. I've accepted as given my opportunities, even as I've worked in small ways to continue the tradition.

The way I read any text, scripture or otherwise is read through the lens which I take so entirely for granted. Coming to that realization is not so completely new, just something that I need to remember. It came home to me recently in this way:

As a Pastor in the United Methodist Church I take our Wesleyan tradition seriously and with pride. I am a student of John Wesley’s sermons. Preparing sermons for my congregation will often include background reading of at least one John Wesley sermon. I was doing just that, reading Sermon 98, “Visiting the Sick” as I prepared to preach on the text Matthew 25:31-46.

In his sermon he calls the people to take seriously the call of Jesus to visit the sick as an act of compassion. He urges the wealthy especially to break out of their protective zone to reach out to the sick and lonely. Then, as he goes point by point in his argument he says, to paraphrase "this is worthy work for women also." (Italics added). At that I snapped my head to attention. All the time I had read the text I was carrying in my head the present day church, the one that I have become so familiar with in America. It sunk in to me all at once that the primary audience seemed very certainly to be Men. At that point I was really ready to give a big AMEN, because what Wesley preached in the eighteenth Century seems just as relevant, probably more relevant, now than in his day.

I am referring to the call of discipleship which is equally valid regardless of gender. John Wesley was a Feminist. And so am I!

I’m especially proud to serve a congregation in a community that has a long history of being served by women pastors. That history reaches back even before 1956 when women were granted full rights as elders by the General Conference. My male colleagues in the United Methodist Church are of kindred spirit with John Wesley (being Feminists) and for that I am also deeply grateful. We may disagree about some specific policies of and social issues adopted by our Denomination through the General Conference, but my experience is that we are also capable of cordial dialogue and civility in disagreement. That is evidence to me that the Holy Spirit is at work in each of us.

Grace and peace,

Barbara