We Agree to Disagree (or Why we should't say this...)

Matthew 22: 36 – 40 and Romans 8: 38 – 39

We are in week 3 of a four-part series about core understandings that the Wesley brothers brought to the Christian practices that came to be known as Methodism.  In our first week, we talked about the centrality of GRACE to our lives. Last week we talked about how vital strong lay people (those who are not ordained) are to the leadership, vitality and discipleship of our communities of faith. 

 

Today, we’re going to talk about how we navigate our differences. AND we’re still working to make this FUN and light-hearted because this is our own mini version of VBS, after all. Hymn singing and Flat Wesley (I still have received exactly 0 pictures from you all – I get it, you aren’t so keen on Flat Wesley.  Alas, I tried). And memory verses.

 

Who remembers our first memory verse – from our conversation about GRACE – and you all came up with the description of grace as unrelenting?

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God…

 

Remember last week’s memory verse?

All who believed were together and had all things in common…

 

And for today – 

I’m convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord…

I wonder if you can hold that in your heart as you listen for God today?

 

I spent this past week at camp with three other amazing adult volunteers and nine girls. I knew two of these folks well – we went to seminary together and came through the ordination process together.  We care about one another as colleagues, and we support one another in ministry.

 

During the course of the week, we stumbled across issues on which we deeply disagreed – and not small issues. Things like whether or not the practice of yoga is acceptable for Christians, whether or not watching scary movies or reading books that include witches and wizards is an appropriate activity for Christians, and on a different kind of path - whether or not you should drink ANY beverage (including water) with a meal. 

 

Sometimes the adults had FOUR different opinions. Even as we were united to create a weeklong camp experience in which our girls KNEW they were loved and lovable, no matter what. We had some wildly different understandings of things. It was kind of amazing.

 

By the end of the week, I was proud of our shared work. Nine girls had made new friends, new memories, knew they were loved and discovered some new things about themselves and others.

 

And my brain and spirit and ears needed a rest. Because it had been an intense week. 

 

When I checked in with my spirit, checked in about what was most draining to me, I felt pretty tight and frankly judge-y about some of the differences among adults - things like our disagreements about yoga and Harry Potter. Navigating differences takes energy.

 

Of course, I have been keenly aware all week of the message I would be offering today – I chose the title We Agree to Disagree sometime back in late April or early May as I imagined this series about our core Wesleyan beliefs.  In my head back then, in the midst of so much division in our denomination and society, I wanted to talk a bit about being a big tent, a place where there is room for many different ways of understanding God, understanding the Bible, understanding the work of the church, and understanding sin, redemption and perfection.  So as I considered our differences over the course of the week at camp, as I examined my own heart and soul about what I was feeling at the end of the week, I was also thinking about John Wesley’s work and this sermon.

 

And it turns out, I don’t want us to agree to disagree. I don’t think John Wesley believed we should agree to disagree…

 

In fact, let’s talk about why “We Agree to Disagree” is probably a bad title for this sermon.

 

Let’s begin with an oft-cited Wesley quote:

“Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion? Without all doubt, we may. Herein all the children of God may unite, notwithstanding these smaller differences.”

This excerpt is from a sermon entitled “The Catholic Spirit.”

 

In Wesley’s usage in the title, the word catholic is the uncapitalized one – the one that means “all embracing” or “including a wide variety of things,” (which is the spirit in which we say in the Apostle’s Creed – we believe in the holy catholic Church) NOT the capital C Catholic – as in the Vatican, the Pope and seven sacraments.  

 

As a scripture text, the sermon draws on a story in second kings about a difference between Jehu and Jehonadab in which Jehu asks the question – “is your heart as true to mine and mine is to yours?”

 

That is a complicated question, and Wesley unpacks it further so as to not leave room for “anything goes” when discerning the alignment of hearts. He expands what discerning a true heart looks like with these further questions (and I have paraphrased his original text into modern English):

 

Is your heart right with God? Do you believe in God’s being, and God’s perfections? God’s eternity, immensity, wisdom, power; God’s justice, mercy, and truth?

And that God governs all, even the most distant from God, to God’s own glory, and to the good of those that love God?

Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, one who is fully divine? Is he ‘revealed in’ your lived life?

Is he ‘formed in your heart’ by your faith in him?’

Have you submitted yourself to God because of your faith in Jesus who is the Christ? 

Is God the center of your life? Do you long to be close to God, to be in relationship with God?

Are you more afraid of displeasing God than either of death or hell? Is nothing so terrible to you as damaging your relationship with God? And in consideration of all these questions, do you hate the things that separate us from God? That separate us from his holy and perfect law, from loving God and neighbor? 

 

If the answer to these questions is yes, then Wesley suggests that we are unified. Shall we begin assessing one another right here and now? 

 

As United Methodists, we have leaned for 21 years a tag line for our brand identity – open hearts, open doors, open minds – all while fighting bitterly about topics like human sexuality, racism, property, and how we interpret and prioritize scripture. In our denomination as it is currently comprised, we are NOT able to even agree on what those questions John Wesley framed mean. 

 

In our society, we have been fighting bitterly about marriage, about reproductive health care, about gun rights, about living wages, about how to interpret the constitution. As Christians, our positions in those societal disagreements should be rooted in our understanding of who Jesus is and what Jesus would do. (The separation of church and state is about a lot of things – it is NOT about separating our Christian identity from our civic discernment and advocacy.)

 

It seems that perhaps we have to be willing to take a stand and NOT just agree to disagree.

 

Because when we agree to disagree, God’s justice isn’t served and people get hurt. And I’m pretty sure Jesus would not stand for people getting hurt.

 

Don’t get me wrong – I am not suggesting that we spend our time seeking out disagreement. We have to be able to sort out differences of opinion from differences of TRUTH. Our opinions may be wrong. God’s truth is not. And it turns out, we are only “close” to certain about God’s truth when we are in close relationship to God. That is work we share in the midst of disagreeing.

 

I believe we fear disagreement. We fear not being liked. And maybe we even fear not being loved.

 

The work of loving God and loving neighbor is not nicey-nice.  It takes work. It takes finding the things we hold in common while holding onto a vision of justice where everyone has enough to live. It takes some disagreement. But disagreement with one another can be undergirded with love – love for God and one another.

 

I’m convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord…

I’m convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord…

I’m convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord…

 

When we return to John Wesley’s questions, we might be able to join hands and work together agreeing that the Lord our God is one, that Christ is Lord, that we are called to seek justice.

 

You know, the justice that Jesus proclaims as he quotes the prophet Isaiah:

 

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

    because he has anointed me

        to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

    and recovery of sight to the blind,

        to set free those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

 

…Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

 

Sometimes loving God with our heart, mind and actions requires disagreement with one another. 

 

We can also disagree in love.  We can do that by asking questions, sharing viewpoints, talking about hard and once-upon-a-time taboo things.  Because hard conversations matter. And if we are connected to God, and we are working to love the person with whom we disagree, we might just be able to keep putting one foot in front of the other, moving toward a place of justice.

 

So back to the camp disagreements.  I love those people. And I will continue to find ways to share with them MY understanding of the things about which we disagreed. But I know that in spite of those disagreements, we share the work of loving young people and helping them understand how much God loves them.

 

I’m convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord…

 

May it be so. Amen.