Engaging the World

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This coming Sunday is Peace with Justice Sunday, one of six designated special Sundays in the UMC. On each of these Sundays a special offering is taken and we are encouraged to build the worship service around this theme. The title of this week’s sermon will be, A Profound Ignorance, and I will be talking about the relationship between thinking and being about to work for peace with justice in our world.

The United Methodist Church has always been on the forefront of working for peace and justice: Starting with John Wesley who indentified two issues in his time: slavery and debtors prisons. We have always seen a part of our spiritual vocation of engage the world with all of its issues, suffering and problems. Annual Conference is coming up, and again we will address various petitions concerning social, economic and political matters. In this way, we engage each other too – we Methodists are known to talk about everything! I’m proud of that.

I am also proud of our Social Principles. I don’t agree with everything in them, but I am proud of what it says about our desire to engage the world. The Social Principles are guidelines regarding various issues in our world from poverty to technology, the rights of women and the needs of children. During confirmation I present the Social Principles to the youth hoping that they will read them. Even more it would be great to know that adults in our Church are both aware of them and read them. Alas, experience says this isn’t so. Therefore, I will present a few quotes from the Social Principles for us all to consider. If you have any response to these or questions by all means contact me. P.Jim

Science and Technology

In acknowledging the important roles of science and technology, however we also believe that theological understandings of human experience are crucial to full understanding of the place of humanity in the universe. Science and theology are complementary rather than mutually incompatible. We therefore encourage dialogue between the scientific and theological communities and seek the kind of participation that will enable humanity to sustain life on earth and, by God’s grace, increase the quality of our common life together.

Suicide

A Christian perspective on suicide begins with an affirmation of faith that nothing, including suicide, separates us from the love of God. Therefore, we deplore the condemnation of people who complete suicide, and we consider unjust the stigma that so often falls on surviving family and friends.

Information Communication Technology

While the Internet can be used to nurture minds and spirits of children and adults, it is in danger of being overrun with commercial material. Therefore, the Internet must be managed responsibly in order to maximize the benefits while minimizing its risks, especially for children.

Corporate Responsibility

Corporations are responsible not only to their stockholders, but also to other stakeholders; their workers, suppliers, vendors customers, the communities in which they do business, and for the earth, which supports them. We support the public’s right to know what impact corporations have in these various arenas, so that people can make informed choices about which corporations to support.

Restorative Justice

In the love of Christ, who came to save those who are lost and vulnerable, we urge the creation of a genuinely new system of the care and restoration of victims, offenders, criminal justice officials, and the community as a whole. Restorative justice grows out of biblical authority, which emphasizes the right relationship with God, self, and community. When such relationships are vi8olted or broken through crime, opportunities are created to make things right.

Most criminal justice systems around the world are retributive. These retributive justice systems profess to hold the offender accountable to the state and use punishment as the equalizing tool for accountability. In contrast, restorative justice seeks to hole the offender accountable to the victimized person, and to the disrupted community. Through Gods transforming power, restorative justice seeks to repair the damage, right the wrong, and bring healing to all involved, including the victim, the offender, the families, and the community. The Church is transformed when it responds to the claims of discipleship by becoming an agent of healing and systemic change.

War and Peace

We believe war is in incompatible with the teachings and example of Christ. WE therefore reject war as an instrument of national foreign policy. We oppose unilateral first/preemptive strike actions and strategies on the part of any government…We insist that the first moral duty of all nations is to work together to resolve by peaceful means every dispute that arises between or among them.

All That Jazz

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A few years ago I found an obscure movie entitled Schultze Gets the Blues. It’s about a man in Germany who worked in salt mines all of his life and then in his early 60’s he and his friends all get laid off. They hang around in the local pub all day; they are bored and without purpose. Schultze plays the accordion and enjoys leading a band that plays at polkas. Then one day he hears this curious music on the radio – it includes an accordion but is much more complex and upbeat. It is zydeco music from the Cajun part of Louisiana. Eventually Schultze goes to a music festival there, gets lost and dies. (I guess I should have given a spoiler alert.) To me it is a story about spiritual transformation. He goes from a very predicable life to a land where he doesn’t speak the language and doesn’t know anyone. The only language he has in common with people in Louisiana is music. Music becomes the voice of the Holy Spirit, first on the radio when he first heard zydeco and then as he interacts with people and learns new ways to play the accordion.

Music is often the voice of the Holy Spirit. Throughout history one can see how people expressed how they experienced God in the music they created. From the Gregorian chants to Bach to the hymns of Charles Wesley and Praise Song people have filled their lives and souls with the winds of the Spirit. And the music tells the story of how people experience God. This Sunday we have invited some members of the Jazz Ensemble and Everett High School (including our own Jackson Cruz) to play some jazz for us in the service. Jazz you say? In a worship service? I’ve never heard of such a thing – is rap next? Personally I hope not, but that’s a personal preference and not meant to say that the Spirit doesn’t move through rap. For me, the sky is the limit with regard to music that can express the Holy Spirit. At first listen, zydeco does not sound “spiritual” like Gregorian Chant, but it is clear to me that Schultze heard the voice of the Spirit in this unfamiliar Cajun music. I love the blues. I am moved by the combination of a quasi-structure in chord progression coupled with improvisation. And I like the mood; I think the prophets sang the blues. All music can be an avenue of the Holy Spirit. I think the more music we experience the more chances we give God to move us. Be sure to be here this Sunday for Jazz Sunday. P.Jim