Entering the New:
Facing an Uncertain Future with Faith
and Hope

Fourth Sunday of Advent • December 22, 2019
Reading: Romans 8:18-21, 24-25, 35-39
(adapted from the NRSV)
Pastor Jeff Wells

Here we are in 2020. We are entering into the new – a new year in our individual lives and in our life together in community, with a lot of identifiable new developments, challenges, and opportunities. Let me offer just a few.  

• Next Sunday, The Church of the Village will welcome our new Minister for Leadership and Congregational Development, Pastor Alexis Waggoner. I am excited for all of you to meet her and that we will get to hear her preach at COTV for the first time next week. 

• This year, we are likely to witness the birth of one or more new expressions of Methodism in the U.S. I will say more about that in a few minutes. 

• We are certainly facing a lot of new developments in the world – some positive, but many quite negative and frightening. Just this week, the situation in the Middle East and even the world became much more dangerous. In my view, while Iranian General Qasem Soleimani may indeed have been responsible for actions against the U.S., his assassination by the U.S. government was reckless and done without considering the consequences, which could easily spiral into a catastrophic new war.

So, welcome to 2020. We face all of this “newness” with varying levels of fear, anxiety, excitement, and hope. We face an uncertain future. How can we be prayerful, intentional, active in seeking a way forward and at the same time living in patient hopefulness and trust in God? This morning I want to explore with you how we can enter into an uncertain future with faith, hope, and love.

Well, the breaking news about the United Methodist Church on Friday took me by surprise. Talk about proclaiming something new – now, I had to rewrite my sermon! Since this is potentially big news for us and I am sure many of you are anxious to better understand what all of this means for us, let me take time to share a bit of what I know and what I think about what’s going on. I do not have time to cover all of the details. Last night, I emailed links to several press releases, news reports, and statements by organizations. So I encourage you to read as much as you are able. The gist is that a group of 16 persons, representing several organizations from a variety of theological and political persuasions and including six bishops, drafted an agreement to put off the harsh enforcement measures in the Traditional Plan adopted last February. The so-called “Protocol” proposes allowing the Traditional Plan supporters to form a new denomination and giving them $25 million dollars over the next four years. The United Methodist Church would continue to exist. Annual Conferences could vote to leave, but are not required to take a vote. Individual congregations would be allowed to leave the UMC while retaining their assets and liabilities. 

This is currently just a proposal among many other proposals that have been put forward. Its provisions cannot be enforced, in particular, putting in abeyance any charges against LGBTQ+ clergy or anyone who performs a same-sex wedding. However, given the breadth of the constituency represented on this negotiating team, I suspect most church leaders will respect this part of the agreement. Everything this group is proposing needs to be put into legislation and voted on at the United Methodist General Conference in May. 

While I think there are some positive aspects of this proposal, I am disturbed by some of what it implies. For example, as I read it, even though it proposes that after the legislation passes, the UMC would overturn the Traditional Plan and remove the discriminatory language about LGBTQ+ persons from the denominational rules, it does not propose adding provisions to prevent or even discourage individual churches or annual conferences from discriminating. I fear that we would be left with a denomination that still does not take a forceful stand for full inclusion. 

Also, in my view, the drafting group deliberately excluded some important voices from the table. For example, even though Bishop Bickerton of the New York Conference was one of the key leaders of this group, Methodists in New Directions, the main group that has fought for full inclusion in our conference and is nationally prominent in leading this fight, was neither informed nor invited to participate. Neither was UM Forward, Marcha, Black Methodists for Church Renewal invited. So they invited the most conservative forces in the church, but excluded the most progressive. 

On the other hand, if this leads us to a denomination in which the official sanction for discrimination is eliminated, it will give us the room to fight for further changes, not only on LGBT inclusion, but on dismantling white supremacy, sexism, ableism, and the failure to counter the worst evils of our capitalist economic system. So, I can’t say what will happen at the General Conference and I am angry about how this was done and who was excluded, but I am cautiously optimistic about the potential results if this is adopted in May. 

Our congregation will have decisions to make about how we move forward depending on how this proposal develops and also on how other efforts toward creating new expressions of Methodism evolve. We will have opportunities to discern together in the next few months. We don’t know what is going to happen with the United Methodist Church. But I feel confident in saying that no matter what happens to the denomination or any new entities that come out of the UMC, we, The Church of the Village, will continue to keep our eyes on the prize and, with millions of others, will keep our hands gripped on that arc of history Martin Luther King Jr. talked about and keep bending it toward justice and love. 

We can’t be sure what the future will bring for us as individuals and that holds true as well for us as a community, a society, and even as a species. We face “many dangers, toils, and snares” as the song Amazing Grace says. But hasn’t that always been true for human beings? One of our most enduring needs is to learn how to live with uncertainty and risk without falling into despair or losing hope.  

It can be scary not knowing what’s going to happen. We experience fear and anxiety. Yet, we also have hopes and dreams. It does no good for us to hide away, trying to make our lives as risk-free as possible. In the process, we would lose so much of the potential vitality and fullness of life. Instead, God calls us to live with courage, gratitude, and joy, trusting and listening for God’s guidance and resting in God’s unfailing love. Change and danger are constants in life. If we are going to live our lives as fully as God intends, we have to open ourselves to all of the potential excitement, challenge, risk, danger, occasional boredom, disappointment, as well as love, ecstasy, and joy that we are likely to encounter. God sees all the possible outcomes from a very complicated and messy set of circumstances and will do their best to guide us to the best possible outcome for our community (and others with whom we may ally ourselves). 

Knowing we face an uncertain future, it is incumbent on us to intentionally seeking the best possible way forward and at the same time be patient, hopeful, and try to experience and to share as much joy as possible. So much depends on our faith that God is with us in the midst of danger and uncertainty. The prophet Jeremiah was inspired to offer these words that he sensed from God:   

“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” – Jeremiah 29:11 (NRSV)

How can we face the future being both patient and taking action? How can we put our trust in God and also take the responsibility for our future on ourselves? I am very fond of the St. Augustine’s wise saying, “Pray as though everything depends on God. Work as though everything depends on you.” This does not mean that we don’t put our trust in God. But God does not deliver results to us without effort on our part. I absolutely trust God to love me, comfort me, guide me, and inspire me – but I don’t expect God to do the work for me. 

Diane and I had the pleasure this week of watching, Harriett, a new film about the life of the great slave liberator, Harriett Tubman. Tubman was an exemplar of praying as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on her. She both trusted in God to lead her and also repeatedly took dramatic action hoping that she was hearing God’s guidance correctly. After escaping slavery herself, she returned repeatedly to free others – ultimately a total of over 70 other persons before the Civil War. She continued to rely on God to guide her in these efforts even against the advice of some who said she was taking too many risks to herself and those she was trying to free. 

Earlier in her life, Tubman was gravely injured by a slave master who threw a piece of iron at her head. After her injury, she experienced frequent visions and dreams in which she perceived God communicating to her. These experiences, along with her being raised in the Methodist tradition, led Tubman to commit herself to Christian practice throughout her life. She later joined the African Methodist Episcopal Zion church. In the film, Tubman said she did not always understand precisely what God was leading her to, but she successfully relied on God’s guidance over and over. 

Tubman’s practice and Saint Augustine’s advice need to be our guiding principle too if we are going to face uncertainty with trust, hope, and courage. We must listen for God’s inspiration and guidance in all of the challenges and opportunities we face. The only thing that is certain in this life is the love of God. Change is a constant in life. But can never be separated from God’s love.

We face a dangerous times and an uncertain future, but we do not have to face them with a spirit of fear. We can live out our lives with a spirit of faith, hope, love, and courage if we listen carefully and follow God’s leading. That does not mean nothing bad will happen to us, but that God will do her best to guide us to the most life-affirming, loving, and just outcome. In the process, we will be able to help God to free many who are currently enslaved to trauma, fear, greed, prejudice, and hatred. And we can accomplish this by integrating a practice of prayerful, intentional, action patient and hopeful trust in God’s love, guidance, and inspiration. Because, friends, there is one thing that never changes and we can rely on – God’s unconditional and unfailing love for us. That is our salvation. I give thanks this morning for each of you and for the God who created and guides all of us.

Copyright © 2019 by Jeff Wells
All rights reserved.

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