June 10th 2018 Sermon, Answering God call, in light of the 234 Session of the Baltimore Washington Conf of the UMC

Read:   Samuel 3:1-20

Hannah came to the temple in Shiloh year after year with her husband Elkanah.  Elkanah had another wife named Peninnah.  Penninah was blessed to have children while Hannah did not.  When Hannah came to the temple she would pour her heart out the Lord. 

“Lord if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a boy, then I will set him before you as a Nazirite until the day of his death.  In other words Hannah was promising that the child would be set apart to serve the Lord.   

As Hannah prayed quietly, the old priest named Eli saw Hannah mumbling and mistook her for being drunk.  Hannah told the old man that she wasn’t drunk but rather was praying and pleading her cause to God.         Eli told Hannah, “May the Lord hear and grant her request.   

We are told that Elkanah laid with his wife Hannah and she conceived and in time she gave birth to a baby boy who she named Samuel (meaning "Heard by God").       

Hannah honored her vow to the Lord for when Samuel was weaned she brought him to the temple and gave him over to the priest Eli who raised him.  Hannah and her husband returned annually to make sacrifices and see their son and in time, Hannah had more children.

Desiring a child can consume all of your thoughts and energy!  When Jacki and I finally decided to have children it took us a while to click.  People around us were popping out babies (some several!) and then there was that couple who was much older than us, like 30 years older than us.  Each time we exclaimed with surprise, “What?, really?”  and each month led to more disappointment.  We even consulted a specialist and when that failed, and just about that time when we were consigned to whatever, we clicked.  I even remember Jacki calling me on the phone, My response, “WHAT?”

I am impressed by Hannah devotion to the Lord and to her honoring the vow made.  We didn’t drop Brittany off at the temple to be raised by the church.  (So don’t get any ideas!)  Rather we (like many of you) raised our children in the faith. 

When Brittany was six weeks old we brought her back to our church in Columbia and there she was baptized.  Elisabeth was baptized here at Westminster at that baptismal font.  Wesley was baptized while we were at Pleasant Grove.  They were baptized into the church, Jacki and I affirmed our faith.  Godparents stood by us and each congregation agreed to nurture one another in the Christian faith and life and include these persons now before you in your care? 

And your response back is printed on UMH 35 (open it up, what does I say there?)  Join with me in saying it together …

            Say “Amen” if you meant it when you said this for each child!

At every baptism of a child, every person:  the parents, the godparents, our families and the church unite and vow to God on behalf of our children.

We live out these vows as we raise our children and pass on our faith by bringing our children to worship, to Sunday School to confirmation … which culminates with them making their own profession for Jesus to be their Lord and their Savior. And we lay hands on them asking that they may be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.  Our children participate in Youth group and they grow in stature, faith and we hope in wisdom as well.  Sometimes our children don’t make decisions that we wish they would make but our love for them does not change.  We are reminded in 1 Peter 4.8 that “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”

While Hannah turned her son over to the temple and the priest Eli in one single act, we turn our children over to God in these little act of devotion, ultimately trusting that one day they will live their life’s vocation in service to God and their neighbor. 

We don’t know how young Samuel was when he was awaken in the middle of the night by the Lord.  We do know that it was only after wise counsel from the old priest Eli who realized that if it wasn’t him who was calling out to  the boy that it had to be the Lord. 

Go back to bed and when you hear our name, respond, “Speak, O Lord our God, your servant is listening.”  Samuel heard God’s voice telling him that he was going to take over the priestly duties from the line of Eli.  We know that Samuel responded to the voice of God favorable. 

Samuel’s response and acceptance as a prophet of God seems so easy.  The process to become ordained in the United Methodist Church is anything but easy.  When you feel the call of God your first stop is with your pastor and together you review a book called “The Christian as Minister.”  This book helps candidates see that we are all called to serve by virtue of our baptism but some are called out to specialized ministry.  For those called to the ministry of an Elder or a Deacon (and local pastors too), they are then sent to their resident District Committee of Ordained Ministry (DCOM).  The DCOM sends a representative to the church’s SPRC to explain the process.  The Candidate is assigned a mentor and after completing background check (psychological, credit, criminal, etc).  They answer questions on United Methodist Doctrine of who is God, the sacraments, grace, salvation and service.  They can become a certified candidate if their local church believe they are called by God by a secret vote which is taken at the church’s charge conference.  At that point they can go to seminary if they have an undergraduate.  Some people become local pastors, appointed to serve in one congregation and complete a series of 16 or so classes in Course of Study online or at a seminary.  If you are fortunate, you can complete the process from responding to God’s call by saying yes to being commissioned as a provisional member in five years.  It will still be another three years before they can be ordained.  In other words, it can take eight but more likely ten years before you are ordained. 

We are told the Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, he let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground.   And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. 

For us United Methodist, a lot of people have to say yes to a candidate for them to be considered ready for commissioning or ordination.  “At times it seems like all Israel, from Dan to Beersheba recognized that we are called to serve in Christ’s church.”  We are questioned, we are reviewed, we write volumes on the doctrine and beliefs of the United Methodist brand of Christianity and we are asked to serve in local churches and ultimately everything comes down to the final vote in the Clergy Session of the Annual Conference when the candidate for commissioning or a provisional elder/deacon comes for approval by those who will become their colleagues in ministry.  Surprisingly there is a lot of anxiety at this moment. 

Last week at the 234 Annual Conference of the Baltimore Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church; in the Clergy Session two candidates (a deacon and a provisional elder) were deemed not acceptable for commissioning or ordination because they were married to someone of the same sex.  Our Book of Discipline states that the practice of homosexuality is considered incompatible with Christian teaching and therefore we shall not ordained self-avowed, practicing homosexuals.  Because Bishop Easterling is required to uphold the Book of Discipline, and she was pushed if the Board of Ordained Ministry’s report was in order, she had to deem the entire report (that included everything from those who were to retire, entering the process, those commissioning and ordained, in process and be commissions or ordained) was out of order.  The Board of Ordained Ministry had to meet and remove the two persons, TC Morrow and Rev Joey Heath-Mason from the report. 

“What?”

Yeah, some people will say this was the correct decision. This morning you will leave and be given a letter from our bishop related to her ruling.  And I think that it is a genuine account of where we exist in our denomination. 

Many of you know that our denomination has been struggling with homosexuality since 1972.  But we are in a time of transition.  In the coming weeks we will be talking about how God is moving in and through the people called United Methodist and a report that is due to be released at the beginning of July from the Commission of the Way Forward which was organized by the 2016 General Conference of the UMC, and overseen by the Council of Bishops.  The contents of the report, released in early July, will be voted upon at a special General Conference in February 2019 and will determine the fate of our denomination. 

There are folks who feel strongly on this issue.  And I am the first to admit that I am not an expert of human sexuality. 

But here is what I do know.

     At baptism a child is named, water is poured, they are marked by God initiated in to the life of the church and we as a congregation exchanged vows to love and example the life of Christ.  

     At confirmation our children professed vows accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior and they entered the church and agree to … support the church with their prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness.  Just as each of us have.

            We have loved them from an early age, and when God called out to some of them to come and follow him, we celebrated the evidence of the Holy Spirit. 

            Some of these young people in time will find someone they love and enter into a marriage covenant that comes with many more benefits that what goes on in the bedroom.  And yes, some of these adults are gay and some are straight.    

                        All of us are called by our baptism.  For some, God calls them to enter into full time ministry.  Their local church affirms the call, the District committee of ordained ministry meets with them repeatedly with them and they say yes.  The Board of Ordained Ministry, the seminary and we hope their colleagues will accept them as members of our orders. As long as we follow the law.  Or we find a way to change the law.  

While our Book of Discipline states that all are welcome in our congregations, including LGBT folks, we are not supportive of their becoming spiritual leaders and they may feel judged and not wanted.  

So perhaps to push the hyperbole to and extreme.  It would have been more fair that somebody should have told them a long time ago that being an LGBT person is not actually accepted in our church.  They should have been told that they shouldn't have come to Sunday school that they shouldn't have participated in youth group and that they shouldn't have been confirmed.  They shouldn’t have come to us.  Instead they should have gone to someplace else.  They should have gone to the United Church of Christ or the Presbyterian USA or the Episcopal church or the Evangelical Lutheran Church of American.  But they cannot become part of the United Methodist Church because who you love is not compatible with our understanding of Christian teaching. 

After we spend a lifetime of loving and teaching and forming these men and women in the faith, and they respond to God’s call with a resolute “Yes!”  will we say that they have to leave us in order to answers that call from God? 

In the middle of the night, Samuel heard his name called out, and after the wise counsel of the elderly priest, he learned to respond, ‘Speak Lord, for your servant is listen.” 

We have been asked to take time each week to pray, to fast and to take time to be in study regarding where God is calling us as members of WUMC, as members of the United Methodist Church.  Pray for the church, fast once a week, pray for the church from 2:23-2:26 each day.  And be open to the conversations that we will be having in the coming weeks and months.  Who know, perhaps God will call out us and speak to us about where and what we should be about.  

Turn things over to Scott Gentile who reports his impression of the 234 Annual Conference of the Baltimore Washington Conference.