There’s a Chinese Prayer in the United Methodist Hymnal. On page 564 you find these words for Unity of Christ’s Body….
‘Help each of us, gracious God,
to live in such magnanimity and restraint
that the Head of the church may never have cause to say to any one of us,
“This is my body, broken by you.”’
Those of you who know me well know that I love working with wood and with restoration and remodeling projects. It provides a means for me to constantly learn and is an expression of my overall theology and world view.
I am a deep believer in God’s capacity to take that which seems broken or set aside as no longer useful and to transform it into something beautiful for a new day! When I sit with pastors and lay servants who are fully engaged in transformation ministries with the people of their wider communities I am always uplifted and humbled by how God’s transforming grace makes something new in the midst of lives and circumstances that others would walk away from. It is also a constant reminder to me to be attentive to my own attitude and impact on the lives of others. In times when I may become too rushed or inattentive I am called back to remember the prayer for unity of Christ’s body that is written above.
Several months ago Ruth and I had been looking for some way to create a small snack area in the family room in the lower level of our home. We had looked at box store cabinets and furniture and it had no character for what we wanted to do. Then one day we were walking through a great consignment shop on the north side of Fenton and we came across a very old bed set tucked away in a back corner. We had to dig deep to get all of the parts. We could quickly see the beauty of the quarter-sawn oak with its rich aged patina. The headboard, footboard and side boards were all intact, yet the legs had damage. To be used for its original purpose would require some work, and it would be a smaller size bed then most of use in the 21st century. The bed dated back to the early 1900’s.
We had a choice to make. We could simply leave the rich resources buried in a corner of the consignment shop until they became even more useless and got thrown out. We could put metal braces on the legs and try to make it work for a while longer in its original usage. Or, we could risk changing the focus and altering the framework enough so that it could provide use for another cause. The photo at the end of this blog shows the outcome.
We “broke” it apart in order to “heal” it for another use. We risked changing it, leaving behind that which was no longer useful, while repurposing the majority of the materials. Our Christmas photos of our children and their families were then taken in front of the beautiful new snack area. Yet, it is important to make clear that we worked very carefully in determining what could be broken and what needed to be maintained. It was not careless or callous. It was thoughtful, deliberate and focused upon new life.
On March 16th and again on April 8th all United Methodists in Michigan are being called upon to be in prayer for our General Conference which will take place on May 10-20, 2016 in Portland, Oregon. We are a part of the world-wide United Methodist Church, with every annual conference taking on a day to pray for our delegates, our bishops, our worship leaders, our volunteers, and all of the significant and weighty matters they will try to discuss and make decisions about.
In many ways we have been a large ocean-going medical cruise ship for over a generation, and now we are in need of carefully dismantling some of that ship in order to repurpose a more flexible flotilla of boats for God’s work in the world today. To do such an effort requires thoughtfulness about what can be used in new ways, what needs to be altered, and how do we change what can be changed for a new day.
Such work should not be done carelessly or callously, lest the prayer for unity become said to one of us, “This is my body, broken by you.” To be clear, there are some pieces of the old bed that we could not use again, but those were few. The biggest challenge is being able to see how to repurpose things in a meaningful way. As we approach General Conference 2016 we will be examining the potentials of streamlining the process for candidacy toward ordination. We will consider “term limits” for those elected to the episcopacy. We will look at truly becoming a world-wide church, including the potential of establishing the U.S. part of the denomination as just one central conference among the many. There are ideas around more flexibility in annual conference structures to be considered. We will seek to see if we can find a “third way” to live in unity while differing over understandings of human sexuality and identity issues. We will become impassioned over things we each care deeply about, yet may see differently. If we are rebuilding the boat together, while standing on a single plank of wood on the water, perhaps we had best find a good way to balance with each other or we will both be dunked in the chaotic waters rather than working on the future.
One of the Mission U studies a few years ago was The Call: Living Sacramentally, Walking Justly. I was fortunate to be one of the study leaders. I offer one quote from the resource as a way to prepare for our days of prayer:
“At its most profound, Holy communion, or the Eucharist, offers a rich banquet of meaning, memory, and expectation. … Instituted on the eve of Christ’s trial and death, it joyfully celebrates the living Christ among us. Though shamed by historical divisions, squabbles, and exclusiveness, the Eucharist still proclaims the underlying unity of all Christians.” (p. 22)
May Christ continue to say to us, This is my body, broken for you. May our voices and hearts join in prayer for the whole church on March 16th and April 8th. Please put it on your minds and your calendars!
Blessings,
Rev. Dr. Jerome (Jerry) DeVine
Director of Connectional Ministries
Last Updated on December 15, 2023