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The Grace of Acceptance
(Galatians 3: 23-29)
(A Sermon preached June 24, 2007 at University United Methodist
Church, East Lansing MI by Kennetha Bigham-Tsai)
I did a funeral recently for a man that I had gotten to know barely a year.[1]
Just moments before I walked into the sanctuary, someone came into my office and
gave me a newspaper article. That article was about a controversial comment this
man had made while he held public office. As a result of that comment, he was
charged with racial insensitivity.
Many thoughts ran through my mind as I read that article. And I have to admit
that I was in some degree of turmoil. But then I took a moment for prayer. And I
made a decision. I made a decision that I must extend the same measure of grace
and acceptance to that gentleman and to his memory and to his family that God
had extended to me. That meant that I would not judge this man based on a past
comment. I would not judge this man based on the details of that article.
Instead, I would extend to him the grace of acceptance--the grace of acceptance
that I am sure that God wants us all to extend to each other as sisters and
brothers in Christ.
But friends, we have a hard time accepting others. I have a hard time
accepting others. All human beings struggle with acceptance, especially of
people who are different. And indeed this was the case for the Galatian
churches. They were having a hard time with acceptance.
You see, the Church was growing and bringing together people of difference.
Gentile Christians were coming into a community initially made up of Jewish
Christians. And many of those Jewish Christians were having difficulty accepting
their Gentile sisters and brothers.
The wanted the Gentiles to be more like them. In fact, some of them were
teaching that in addition to faith in Christ, the Gentile converts needed to
follow Jewish religious rites. Most specifically, they needed to be circumcised.
Paul had a problem with this. And, his problem was theological. His problem
had to do with a fundamental question about God and what it took to be in right
relationship with God.
And so Paul railed against the teaching that justification was dependent upon
circumcision. Justification and salvation, said Paul, depended upon faith in
Christ alone
Paul sought to communicate to the Galatians the reality of God’s grace. He
sought to communicate that through God’s grace we are accepted by God. And such
acceptance is made possible through the work of Christ and through faith.
Through the work of Christ and through faith we are accepted as heirs of God no
matter what other people think about us. We are accepted as heirs of God no
matter how others judge us. Through faith, we are all made right with God and
accepted.
I am the chair of the Conference Board of Church and Society. Our board
submitted and supported various pieces of legislation at Annual Conference. We
submitted legislation asking the Church to call for an end to the Iraq war and
to make a statement in opposition to torture. We submitted legislation
encouraging churches to stop using bottled water and to continue advocacy for
the people affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
But by far perhaps the most controversial legislation supported by our board
had to do with welcoming gay and lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people
into the church. We supported sending legislation to General Conference that
would ensure that no one could deny church membership to a person because of
their sexual orientation.
This legislation came about as a result of the Judicial Council decision that
supported a pastor who denied church membership to a man because he was gay.
This man had been baptized yet was being denied membership because of his sexual
orientation. The point of the legislation, supported by Church and Society,
Reconciling Ministries and others, was to ensure that all would be accepted and
welcomed into the church despite sexual orientation or any other exclusionary
criteria.
Our argument was partially based on the theology presented in our passage in
Galatians. Look at verse 26. “For in Christ you are all children of God
through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed
yourselves with Christ, There is no longer Jew or Greek…slave or free…male and
female; for all of you are on in Christ Jesus.” Through baptism we all are
one in Christ and welcomed into the family of God. And whatever our differences
or our failings (perceived or real), we are all accepted by God. No one can deny
persons membership in the church and in God’s family based upon judgments about
who they are.
That is God’s decision to make. And friends God is gracious. That grace was
made evident in the incarnation. God was so gracious and so loved us that God
became incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ who lived and died for our
salvation and for our acceptance into the family of God.
And make no mistake; Jesus’ entire ministry was about the grace of God’s
radical acceptance. Remember the woman with the hemorrhage for twelve years?
Human beings would not accept her. Indeed, they ostracized her and called her
unclean. Yet, God’s grace prevailed, and Jesus allowed her touch and healed her
and accepted her as a child of God. Do you remember the woman at the well? Human
beings would not accept this woman either. They accused her of adultery and
demanded that she be stoned. Yet, Jesus extended to her the grace of God and
forgave her and accepted her into God’s family.
Friends Christ lived and died so that we would be made right with God—so that
we would be accepted. And Christ was raised from the dead so that we who are in
Christ might also be raised as a new creation washed in God’s grace, accepted by
God and extending that same grace and acceptance to others.
Now back to my story about Annual Conference. As you might expect, there was
impassioned discussion about the legislation. There were impassioned pleas from
those who felt that we should welcome people into the church despite sexual
orientation. There were also impassioned pleas from those who felt that by
welcoming such people into the church, we were encouraging sin.
The legislation passed friends, by a large margin, and our West Michigan
Annual Conference will send that legislation to General Conference asking the
General Conference to change the United Methodist Book of Discipline to
insure that no one will be barred from the church because of sexual orientation.
I want you to know that when that legislation passed, and when indeed just
about all of the Church and Society supported legislation passed, I was elated.
Yet as I began to reflect upon what had happened that day, some of my elation
began to subside.
For I realized that some of my brothers and sisters who felt differently on
the issues were perhaps not so elated. And I realized that even though we had
vast differences of opinion, we were all one body in Christ, and that body was
divided.
So, I wrote an open letter from the Board of Church and Society. It was
posted on our website, in the Conference email newsletter and submitted to the
Advocate. This is in part what the letter said.
My Sisters and Brothers of the West Michigan Annual Conference,
This weekend, during our session of holy conferencing I felt a powerful
movement of the Holy Spirit. It was exciting and heartening to see our Annual
Conference affirm inclusiveness, provide a prophetic witness for peace, and
cement its commitment to missions and to the financial support of the
connectional ministries of the Church….
For all of this I was elated, and no less, because much of the legislation
supported by Church and Society prevailed. However, I realize that not everyone
experienced that same elation, especially in regards to our legislative
sessions. Indeed, my sisters and brothers who disagree with me on certain issues
no doubt felt discouraged.
Friends, we are the Church. And, as the Church, we are called to love each
other so that the world will recognize Christ in us. We are called to extend the
hand of fellowship and of love to each other first, and then to the world. We
are called to extend the peace of Christ to each other first, and then to the
world.
On behalf of the Conference Board of Church and Society, I extend that
hand of fellowship and of love to all of you. I extend the peace of Christ to
all who are part of the West Michigan Annual Conference, no matter your position
on the issues. I do this...we do this, because you are ours and we are yours. We
are one Body in Christ.
Kennetha J. Bigham-Tsai (Chair)
On Behalf of the Conference Board of Church and Society
This is a letter I received in response.[2]
Kennetha,
My name is David McBride. I don’t believe we’ve ever met. I did see you
several times at Conference as you spoke to various issues. Your passion for the
Church is appreciated.
The Open Letter from the Conference Board of Church and Society was a
gracious gesture. You are right, not everyone celebrated your success. However,
I would say that the feelings were much deeper than discouragement. Some are
feeling hopeless and wonder if they really belong to the connection.
I serve a congregation that continually finds itself at odds theologically
with the direction of the larger church. And I find that there is little rest
for those of us who are called to stand in the gap.
While we like to say that we belong to one another, that we extend the hand
of fellowship and love to one another, I wonder why we sense that there are
winners and losers in the process. I wish it were not so. We are the Body of
Christ and yet it feels to many folks that a battle continues. I guess we have a
lot to learn yet, don’t we.
Obviously you have strong convictions concerning the legislation the Board of
Church and Society presented. So do others who hold to different points of view.
When those beliefs run deep, it is hard not to take sides.
My heart says, “Can’t we just get along?” While we struggle to settle our
differences, the world around us is being laid to waste. There is too much work
to do to spend so much energy here.
I’m not just sure what I’m trying to say. It just felt like I needed to
respond to your letter. There is no malice or criticism intended. Perhaps I just
wanted to affirm your thoughts and to say that your mindfulness of the reality
is appreciated.
Perhaps one day we will meet and there will be time to get acquainted. Then
maybe we will be able to discover how to be the Body of Christ together in the
midst of our joys and sorrows.
Sincerely,
Pastor Dave
Friends what these letters make clear is that the diversity within the United
Methodist Church is not just the diversity of gender or of race, but the
diversity of viewpoint and theology as well. And so I ask myself, how are we who
are baptized into Christ and indeed clothed in Christ--how are we to address our
differences and stay connected? I believe that the answer has to do with
practicing the grace of acceptance.
I have to have the courage of my convictions. But I also must learn how to
live with and love and accept people who don’t agree with me. I have got to
learn how to extend the same amount of grace and acceptance to others that God
has extended to me.
This is what Jesus did, and this is what we must do. But to do this will
require a large measure of grace. For, I believe that acceptance of others only
happens by the grace of God. We cannot do it on our own. We must ask God for
help. We must ask God for the grace to accept.
And what else are we to do if we are to live together as one body in Christ?
We must ask God for the grace to accept the diversity of this body--a body of
baptized believers who have put on Christ and have died to all of the
distinctions of the world.
That means that in all of our diversity, we really have on the same clothes.
We are all clothed in Christ. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, black
nor white, immigrant nor American born, rich nor poor, gay nor straight, liberal
nor conservative, young nor old; there is no longer male and female. All
distinctions have been washed away in the waters of baptism, and we are one. We
are one in Christ Jesus and we are accepted as children of a gracious God. That
same God calls us to be gracious toward one another and to accept one another in
love. Amen.
[1] Permission was given by the
family of this individual to mention this situation in the context of this
sermon.
[2] I sought and received
permission to share this letter as part of this sermon.
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