For years, Pastor David Meredith was a trusted colleague in Columbus. David was - and still is - a joy-filled person who knows the expansiveness of humanity - all of its glory. Across a crowded room he is a island of hopefulness into which one could go to find solace and support and a loving presence. He is a pastor of depth whose joy - fullness of life - incorporates without restrictions or qualifications. And yet, that is not good enough - that is what we are being told by the religious leaders of the UMC temple of holiness. We must be clear that David is not the problem. In fact, only the religious systems of our culture create problems and hangs on words of death and expulsion - they make problems - they may well be the problem. And yes, they know not the fullness of the gospel - they hang onto the laws and rules and and limited vision of something labeled sacred - yet, it is not holy at all. It sacrifices others rather than willingly become self-sacrificial - as the Christ.
I do not mean to rag on the UMC. I'm Lutheran and believe me, we know how to exclude and demean and hang out holy banners in order to cover up our corporate violence and contempt for any group who is not as we like or as we have decided to define holy - even when it it an unholy reality. I know church leaders - yes, elected and then blessed - whose notion of holy was nothing more than a will to power - mostly their own. It is a power veiled in theological language but absent of the way of the cross. That - is the protective rule of the institution. It is an institution that insists that we must never embrace the victim but must always act as though we keep victims close - but never within the fold - keep them over there or out there - like thoughts and prayers. It gives the institutions a sense of power - the power of this world - a power that seeks to overwhelm and outcast others.
But let me get back to David.
That he is on trial (a church trial - ha) is the first absurdity.
That his life is an offense to how some perceive a godly life - is another absurdity.
That a church body still needs to offer up human sacrifices in order to maintain the control they have created for themselves and long to keep in place - is an absurdity.
That his loving-kindness - his humor - his resurrection hope - his joyfulness - his willingness to enter into the life of any and all - is a threat to a church body - is an absurdity.
But then,
when control and order is a higher good than life that is alive along the way of the cross - a way that knows how to give away life and power - we can expect nothing more than an absurdity. It is - quite bluntly - an offense to the Reign of God that we are all invited to share - now.
Now it would be easy to say that David needs to judge those who judge him. But as I know him, he forgives - he dwells within graciousness - his arms are wide open even when those who claim to be the leaders of the faith live with arms folded shut - to some.
We must remember here that the church has thrived on exclusion - even when we are ones who are to live together without partiality - therefore we may not always be the ones of the Way. Our history is a way soiled by the lives of those we have rejected. Thus we must ask - are we the followers of Jesus or do we follow the violence of a world - the way of power - those who seek to be one step higher than others. We must insist on a faithfulness - not the rule books of a broken system desperately grasping onto a power they really never had.
To Pastor David Meredith I lift a glass of wine and a promise of ongoing support.
TRRR
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