“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy
burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn
from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your
souls. For my yoke is easy, and my
burden is light.”
Matthew
11:28-30
William Willimon, the most
widely published United Methodist Bishop, is retiring from his episcopal responsibilities
and returning to teaching at Duke Divinity School. In an interview published in
The Christian Century, he commented on a broad range of issues relating to the
work of a bishop and the ministry of the United Methodist Church.
He was asked whether in his
role as Bishop he would have removed a pastor who had “recanted doctrinal vows
he or she had solemnly pledged to honor.” “Absolutely,” said Willimon, “tell me
you have misgivings about the Trinity or trouble believing in the bodily
resurrection and I’ll help you find less intellectually challenging work—like
being a Republican candidate for president.”
Throughout his career,
Willimon has been known more for his wit than his wisdom, and if one assumes that
he was trying to be funny about the Republican candidates, then maybe he was just
kidding in his doctrinal illustration.
If he wasn’t kidding, then it’s
troubling to think that having “misgivings about the Trinity or trouble
believing in the bodily resurrection” would be grounds for dismissing a pastor.
In the first place,
Methodists have never been greatly concerned about doctrine. We are united in a
general affirmation that Jesus is the Christ, but widely divided about
precisely what that means.
In the second place, if “misgivings”
can be grounds for dismissal, then it will be difficult to have really honest
conversation with one’s bishop, who is supposed to be a “pastor to the pastors.”
But there’s more.
This coming Sunday is Trinity
Sunday. I’m guessing that the average United Methodist lay person doesn’t know
that and doesn’t care. The Trinity has a strong tradition as church doctrine,
but it is connected to the biblical witness of the early church by the thinnest
threads of biblical evidence.
The Trinity does represent an
important truth: we experience God in different ways. The traditional
formulation of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reminds us that we experience God
as Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. But to the average person, the doctrine of the
Trinity often sounds like a belief in three gods, rather than three experiences
of the One.
Willimon’s second example of
denying a doctrine is described as “having trouble believing in the bodily
resurrection.” Nothing is more central to Christian faith than the resurrection
of Jesus. The Gospels are written by people who are convinced that they have
met the risen Christ. That encounter vindicates everything that Jesus taught. They
are clear that they are not just talking about a memory, and they have not
encountered a ghost. His presence is real.
Expressing that reality in a
way that it can be understood is not easy. Clearly, we are not talking about a
resuscitated corpse. The Gospel descriptions never confront the issue head on.
We see an empty tomb and we hear a voice. He approaches two of them on the road
to Emmaus, and they talk for hours before they recognize him in the breaking of
bread. When Paul describes his encounter on the road to Damascus, he claims
that the appearance to him is just the same as previous appearances to other
disciples. There are no words to describe the experience which has turned their
world upside down.
More than half a century ago,
the great theologian Paul Tillich argued that Jesus had come to free us from
what he called, “The Yoke of Religion.” He described the predicament of modern “man”
this way:
“The religious law demands that he accept ideas and
dogmas, that he believe in doctrines and traditions, the acceptance of which is
the condition of his salvation from anxiety, despair and death. So he tries to
accept them, although they may have become strange or doubtful to him. He
labors and toils under the religious demand to believe things he cannot
believe.”
In Tillich’s time, there were
many church goers who labored and toiled under the religious demand to believe
things they could not believe. In our time some of those people are searching
desperately for a way to reconcile their faith with ancient doctrines, while
many others simply leave the church. For such people, a pastor with “misgivings”
about those doctrines may be exactly what they need.
When Jesus called his
disciples, he did not demand that they believe something, only that they follow
him. That is still our invitation.
But --- it's so much more comfortable to sit some place prattling on about doctrines - and enjoying declaring other people to be wrong and therefore worthy of being cast out - than it is to follow Jesus and have to love and suffer. In Willimon's word, we often accept "intellectual challenges" because they help us avoid spititual challenges - and most of us want that very deeply. Maybe that's why Willimon got to be a Bishop. He's been a good company man, and upheld the main goal if the institution: preserving itself and its doctrines.
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