Jesus is all about ‘Yes, And’

“I’m always startled when people walk up to me and tell me they are Christians. My first response is an honest question, ‘Already?’” — Maya Angelou

“It takes two to know one.” — Gregory Bateson

“All real living is meeting.” — Martin Buber

“The kin-dom of God is in your midst.” — Jesus

A friend of mine told me the story of how fear of hell drove him to Christianity in the Baptist church as a teenager and how fear of certain Christians drove him away a number of years later. He discovered much of what they taught and did and said made less and less sense or was outright contradictory and cruel. As he asked more questions and disagreed more with what he heard, the church community began to ignore him rather than dialogue with his doubts. “Eventually,” he said, “I just felt like I didn’t belong. It was pretty clear there was no room for being different or thinking about spirituality differently. It’s like they were scared of me and they just moved into tighter, exclusive circles leaving me out. It felt a lot like middle school!”

It’s easy for some folks to tell others what Christianity is, to convince others how they need to act or what to believe in order to be a Christian. In-groups and groupthink have always been important determining factors in how others come to think about something, if only because we want to belong to the in-group, to experience community and friendship, and to feel like we’re doing things right. But Christianity is a journey, not so much a destination. As my Uncle Mac used to say to me, “You won’t see something for what it might be as long as you’re looking at it for what you know it is.”

What is Christianity to you? What does it mean to have faith in Christ? To me it is an engaged journey, the practice of compassionate interest in life and others, calling for justice and equity for those in need, oppressed, or discriminated against. It is a way of being in our everyday lives where we seek to build bridges of hope and peace and seek a deeper relationship with ourselves and one another. It is a moment-to-moment practice of being present to the very heart of our being and the very heart of our acceptance in the being of God. It is a journey we travel together more than alone, with more openness rather than close-mindedness. But that’s just me right here, and now. And I’m not really sure where I’m going.

I’m reminded of the long road trips my family took when I was a child (sans smartphones and kindles, or even videos). All we had was the radio and our imagination. And every half hour or so, one of us would whine in the back seat, “Are we there, yet?”

And Uncle Mac would shout back, “We’re here!”

To which I’d complain, “Then why aren’t we stopping?”

And he’d laugh, “Cause we’re not where we’re going.”

I think that’s what faith is. We’re here. We’re not where we’re going. But we’re definitely here. Together.

This Sunday, June 6, I hope you can join us at eleven:eleven, downtown as we conclude this series “eleven:eleven in 5½ movements”. This Sunday, “Movement # ½ — Jesus is all about ‘Yes, And’.”

Join us In-Person at the Historic 512 (512 W. 4th Street, FW)
or Online at fumcfw.org/live (or fumcfw.org/1111-live)
and on Facebook

See you soon!

Rev. Tom McDermott
Associate Pastor of eleven:eleven

PS. – Please Note:

June 5 – Sat, at 8:30 am… join other cyclists for an hour or so on the Trinity Trails. Meet at Clear Fork trailhead (near Press Café, FW).

June 13 – eleven:eleven will be online ONLY at the above links.