His Cup Runneth Over

Today is not a good day to have my windshield wiper break. Luckily, it's only the passenger side wiper, but still. I actually vow not to talk about weather very often - it will always be the same whine about how I really don't like rain- but the Oregon weather has begun. We've had a few sprinkles here and there before, but today is the first day since I've moved back that we've had the relentless downpour and wind. Ick. It's supposed to still be summer!!

Service this morning was interesting. Our normal pianist, who is wonderful, was gone. The girl subbing in didn't have the music/didn't know the music. So that was fun. Luckily everyone is really good at just rolling with things so I don't think we'll have anyone leaving the church over it. The sermon was great, though! The verse was Mark 7:24-30

²⁴From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, ²⁵but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. ²⁶Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” ²⁸But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” ²⁹Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go – the demon has left your daughter.” ³⁰So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

I don't think I've every really studied this verse before. Kirk's explanation was really fascinating. Jesus was initially telling her that his miracles were only for "The Chosen People," God's children. She countered that there was enough love and grace for the scraps to nourish everyone, regardless of where they fit. And then he healed her daughter and she moved on. It never says that she became Jewish, or a Jesus follower at all. I like that part. It's not really important whether she followed particular rules, there was enough grace spilling over for her. I feel like people get really bogged down in being not just Christian, but being the right denomination of Christian who uses the right translation of the Bible. This would seem to suggest that it doesn't really matter, God's love spills over for everyone.

Classes don't even start until Friday and I already have a paper to write! For Church History we have to do weekly 3-4 page papers that summarize a theme of the reading. It shouldn't be too awful, but I'm still a little intimidated. But I got my books, new pens and notebooks, and a new backpack this weekend! It's very exciting, even at my old age, to get new school supplies.

Courage

Just a few snippets from the article about Rev. David Weekley:

The Rev. David Weekley told the congregation of Epworth United Methodist Church a secret Sunday that he'd kept for 27 years: Almost a decade before his ordination journey began in 1982, he'd undergone counseling and several surgeries and became a transgender man.

Ordained an elder in 1984, he said he vowed to become "the best pastor" he could possibly be. He told few people about his past. But recently he was inspired by Japanese-Americans in his congregation who told their stories of internment during World War II and the healing they had experienced.

"I am a man in some ways different from other men," he said. "But most people are different from other people in some way. And God still loves us."

After his sermon, the Rev. Bonnie Parr Philipson, metropolitan district superintendent of the United Methodist Church, affirmed to the congregation that Weekley's status within the church did not change with his revelation. She read a statement from Bishop Robert T. Hoshibata, leader of the Oregon-Idaho Methodist conference.

Weekley "is choosing now to share this earlier part of his life journey honestly and openly," Hoshibata wrote. "This decision does not, in any way, change his faith or his commitment to the ministry to which he was ordained, nor does it change his status as an elder in good standing. I prayerfully ask that his congregation, his colleagues and the United Methodist Church continue to uphold him and his family at this time."

"The United Methodist book of discipline does not speak to transgender as an impediment to ordination," said Greg Nelson, director of communications for the United Methodist Church in Oregon and Idaho

Hopefully it is not horribly shocking to anyone that I fully support the rights of ALL people to be ordained in the United Methodist Church. (Or members of, or married in for that matter.) What I always say is that God's call to ministry, for me, was very unmistakable. My own head can get in the way, but God's call is still very clear. So, if I'd been born another way, I'd be suddenly be hearing it wrong? If anyone is crazy enough to want to do this job, then who are we to second guess that? So I applaud Rev. Weekley's courage in speaking out, and I'm grateful for the district superintendent and Bishop Hoshibata's support of him.

This church is just a few miles away from me. Portland is a pretty accepting community, so I think it's a great place for movements towards greater equality to start. But just in case there is crazy backlash, I have my picketing shoes ready.