God in Community
I spent these last few days doing one of my favorite things in the world: attending Annual Conference. For those of you who are newer to the United Methodist Church, or who have been around your entire lives and haven’t heard, we United Methodists are divided up into geographic conferences for the purpose of mission and administration. The primary geographic divisions that we are split into are called Annual Conferences. Each year, the Annual Conference gets together to worship, conduct business, and discuss issues that are important to the church and the world—including the need to reclaim our Methodist heritage through music, the need for greater access to healthcare in New York State, the rights of immigrants, the importance of equipping local church trustees with the knowledge and resources to make facilities carbon neutral, and the role of generative AI in the Church. Looking at all the pieces of legislation that we passed as a body, I think it might be interesting to turn them into a sermon series. I’m almost sure that I’m not the only one who would find that interesting.
One of the other things that happens at Annual Conference is the Clergy Session, when all the clergy from the Annual Conference gather behind closed doors to talk about clergy stuff. At the Clergy Session, I was officially accepted as a Provisional Member of the Order of Elders in the Upper New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, along with two other candidates. On Friday night, I was then commissioned for this work at a two hour-long service, surrounded by clergy and laity from all over the Upper New York Annual Conference, two United Methodist bishops, and even the Episcopal bishop of Central New York. It was a truly powerful experience, and one that I was glad to be able to share with those of you who came in person, those who watched the livestream, and those with whom I have been walking alongside throughout this process. It was a deeply affirming and uplifting experience for me, and I’m sure for many, especially since the Annual Conference has always been my real “home church.”
An integral part of my call to the ministry of an elder in the United Methodist Church is my call to be a part of this Connection. We often hear the word “denomination” used to refer to the different flavors of the church universal, but we Methodists prefer to refer to ourselves, broadly, as a Connection. The Annual Conference, ideally, is an expression of this connection. It is described in our Book of Discipline as the basic unit of church organization and ministry, which distinguishes us from other types of churches that organize primarily on the local level. We United Methodists are called to this theology of Connectionalism that sees everything we do as part of a global web of mission and ministry, of worship and learning, that is done in community. Even as we do ministry that is contextual to this particular time and place, it is necessary that we never think of ourselves simply as an independent church, just doing our own thing. The Connection, this theology of interdependence, is much of what makes us Methodist. It’s what insists that we are not alone in this world. It’s what reminds us of our obligation to one another, not simply in this particular community but around the world. It’s what, ideally, enables us to do ministry in a way that embodies solidarity and is more effective than if we were to try and do ministry by ourselves.
The theology of connectionalism is meant to live out the spirit of the quote from John Wesley that says that “the gospel of Christ knows no religion but social; no holiness but social holiness.” If we are living out our gospel faith, then we are living it out together. Not just with the people we see each Sunday or whichever day of the week your small group meets here at the Fairport United Methodist Church. But also with the people of Penfield United Methodist Church, East Rochester United Methodist Church, Macedon Center and South Perinton United Methodist Churches, Asbury First United Methodist Church. From Moheto United Methodist Church in Kenya to Corozal United Methodist Church in Belize. We can and do live out so much ministry in each of these churches. What kind of ministry could we live out together? Think of how many Methodists there are in the Rochester area. Think of how much good we could do by embracing the connection and seeing those who share this call as co-laborers in this gospel work or social holiness. To reject these relationships is to fail in our call to live out our ministry in the strength and accountability of the Connection.
Today is Trinity Sunday, the day in the life of the Church when we give special attention to the idea that our one God exists in three distinct and equal persons. Many pastors I know don’t bother with Trinity Sunday, since it’s easy to slip into heretical territory when talking about it. One United Methodist deacon from Tennessee posted this week in a clergy group, “so, what’s everyone’s plan to teach and preach the Trinity without dabbling in heresy this go around?” Others don’t see it as part of the lived-out theology that is central to Methodism. Some lean into the mystery of the Trinity, fixating on John Wesley’s word about its complexity or on the story of Saint Augustine telling the child not to even try understanding the Trinity. I used to be satisfied with using the words of German Theologian Karl Rahner as a cop out. He talked about God as a vast sea and our knowledge as a small island, and posited that, should we learn everything there is to know about God, the beauty of the sea would cease to be, and all that would be left is the desert of our certainty.
But, with regards to the Trinity, Rahner also believed that it was a mistake to hide behind mystery and ignore the beauty of the idea. The Trinity, after all, is the assertion that God’s very essence is not individual, but communal. God, who is our very being, and whose image we bear, is connection. If we were to try and live out our faith purely as individuals, ignoring the struggles of the world or the beauty of those around us, we would not be embracing the fullness of who God is. If we were to think that we could find all the answers on our own, or that we could solve all the pain and brokenness of the world on our own, or that we could survive on our own, or that the consequences of our actions only impacted us—we would not be affirming and embracing all that God is. God is community. God is social. God is relationship. God is Connection. Which isn’t to say that the United Methodist Church is right about everything and that our church institution is the embodiment of the Divine—we get a lot wrong, as these are flawed, human systems. But the ethic of connection, the idea that everything we do has a global impact, is, I believe, a step closer to living as God would have us live.
And what’s more, this divine connection is not limited to us as humans. It stretches out to everything that God has touched and exists within God. In the trees and grass, the water and the mountains. In all things living and unliving, there is God—and there are we. Our salvation, then, and our ministry, are bound up in our recognition of our interdependence—not our independence. We are part of a luminous web, as a part of creation and as a part of a mission and ministry that extends beyond the limits that we impose on ourselves and on God. As we go forth into our mission, as United Methodists and as a part of Creation, may we embrace this connection. May it free us from the bonds of isolation. May it be our impulse, our way of living and loving. This is who we are. This is who God is. This is who God is calling us to be. May we love in connection. May we embrace this mission that goes beyond what we can see. May we love the God who is many, and who is love and connection themselves. May this be our call. Amen.