Having been a United Methodist all of my life I’ve been paying close attention to the issues currently facing us. I spent some time this morning reading comments on the Wesleyan Covenant Associations page, something I really shouldn’t do, and I found myself asking how, after 2000 some odd years of “Christianity” have we still not gotten it? How did we become the Pharisees picking over the “laws” and details, sitting in judgement of others, forming our exclusive club? We have mistakenly embraced the following of the “laws” and totally missed union with God! It should be painfully obvious by the comments I’ve read that the “Traditionalist” way of thinking in the Methodist church has not worked, and thankfully in the end will never be adequate. This inadequacy, while troubling in the present is most certainly the catalyst for great change.
When we interpret the scriptures only in a literal sense we are simply surfers upon the “words”. To find transformation we must become deep sea divers of the truths just beneath the “words”. We should read, and respect other God inspired writings to help us along our way in remembering that we are all children of God, and he loves us all unconditionally as any loving parent would. Yes, other God inspired writings do exist beyond the Bible. If one is to truly believe that the Bible was written by humans through the inspiration of God, then why would we think the door closed following the last book to be canonized? It didn’t. While I respect the need for form within religion, we simply can’t allow it to obscure the truths. What does this religion that embraces form and formlessness look like? That I don’t know…but we have no choice but to push whole heartedly toward that end.
Brad Elliott