Last weekend my wife, Christy, and I made time for a date at the movies. We stood at the ticket window for a moment trying to decide what to see. I'm sure it seemed longer for the people behind us in the ticket line. In the end - no pun intended - we chose 2012.
After the movie, we threw away the popcorn bag and soft drink cups and walked to the car. Instead of thinking about special effects and theories of end times, I left talking with Christy about The United Methodist Church. Weird...I know.
There are cataclysmic shifts taking place right under our feet, and most of us are oblivious to what is happening. We can't see it. We react to the effects. We don't understand it. We try to fix blame for it, but no one did anything to cause it. Shift happens.
When social and political shifts occur, human-made monuments and infrastructures crumble. Dust they were; to dust they will return. Some of the storyline is corny and unrealistic, for sure. But let's be honest -- so is much of the ecclesial drama that is enacted to preserve the sentimental.
A pivotal question concerns power and privilege and how it conducts itself in the face of change. Will it try carefully to control the gene pool in order to ensure the survival of what is deemed by some to be the best and the brightest, or will it open its doors to the diversity and differentness of that which God created?
Throughout the action and drama lie opportunities to redeem and redefine relationships within a new landscape. It's not easy - it requires humility and courage - but this is the essential work of loving neighbor. This is intensely personal work. No one can do it for us.
For the doomsayers who announce demise, I choose hope over fear. Natalie Sleeth writes in Hymn of Promise, "In our end is our beginning," and in the beginning, God creates. God's not done with us yet.
What do you think? The next General Conference is in 2012.