Day 2: Let the Muddling Begin
Day two has begun. We are perched high above the delegates in the press box. Our positioning is a mix of excitement as I live out my childhood dream of being a sports reporter.
As the General Conference begins the day with worship, led in many languages the irony does not escape me. Many have feared what will come from this governing body will be anything but a reflection of the peace many are finding in their local congregations this morning.
Singing, reading, praying, and dancing.
Repeat.
Bearing one another in love.
Last night we had the opportunity to have a nightcap with Bishop Will Willimon. If you are new to this blog you should know Will is a mentor of mine. He baptized my daughter. I respect Will. He is a voice of reason and takes seriously the mission of The United Methodist Church.
As we sat in the hotel bar and watched General Conference delegates mingling among volleyball parents we asked Will “what’s next?”
If nothing happens, what’s next for The United Methodist Church?
Christy Thomas told me months ago there was/will be no place for me and others like me in this denomination. So if nothing happens, or if the (modified) traditionalist plan is adopted by the General Conference, what happens?
“Maybe the best way forward is for the larger church to allow local churches to continue to muddle their way through this issue.”
What does it look like for the local church to muddle?
Singing, reading, praying, and dancing.
Repeat.
Bearing one another in love.
That is how the church can muddle a way forward should nothing happen, or if the (modified) traditionalist plan is adopted by the General Conference.
If you have ever watched a bartender make an old fashion you know one of the first tasks in making this favorite of Don Draper is to muddle orange and sugar together. Muddling requires a combining of ingredients, pressing their substance into one another.
Muddling appears to be a violent act to the one being pressed in the bottom of the glass, but in doing so the the essence of the fruit and the sugar is released, making my favorite cocktail that much better.
Muddling will bring out the best in the local church, providing a way for The United Methodist to move forward in time where there appears to be no way forward. Or worse, the way forward adopted by the General Conference does not align with what God has revealed to us in our holy scriptures.
I do not know what will happen in the coming days.
I can guess, but honestly, your guess is as good as mine.
Either way, let the muddling begin.