Conference seeks to put flesh' to Word of God
Sitting at the press table, in front of the Grand Ballroom of the Waterfront Marriott Hotel in Baltimore, gives one an interesting perspective on the Baltimore-Washington Conference.
Looking out into the nearly 1,400 faces, rep-resenting 193,467 area United Methodists, the rich diversity of our conference gives one pause. There were moments, when each of those faces bowed before God in prayer or raised their voices together in song, that one could actually sense the movement of the Holy Spirit in the room.
Each of these people carried with them
remarkable stories of God at work in their lives. In my imagination, I saw their stories rising above them and mixing together in interesting ways, as the conference’s diversity collided, intertwined and exploded in a chaotic Pentecost dance.
I found myself wanting to ask each person there poet Mary Oliver’s poignant question: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
That verb, “to do,” took on special meaning for me when I listened to Bishop John Schol dismiss the conference with a challenge to
become the living Word of God amid the world.
Throughout the three-day session we lived up to our heritage as a “people of the Word.”
There were 4,213 words in the bishop’s state of the church address. In the pre-conference booklet, we used 47,196 words to lay out the
session’s business; and during the 225th session members spoke more than 154,800 words.
Most of these were words of hope. It is often a defining trait of United Methodists to merge their hope with action. The bishop’s benediction reflected that.
“Each of us has to figure out what it means to take these words of the past three days and put flesh to them in our churches, our neighborhoods and our world,” the bishop said. “May God be our guide, and may God be the judge of our speaking and our acting.”
His words mean a great deal to me. They evoked a similar sentiment from the Holocaust Museum in D.C.: “Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.”
I have to confess, I sometimes fear The United Methodist Church may too often be witnessing, rather than responding to the people and the world that swirls around us. I’m not always as hopeful as I might be.
But then, I get the chance to talk with people like Matthew Munk, 13, who served as a youth member to the conference from the Baltimore Suburban District. I asked him what he thought about the conference. He wrote me this response:
“Overall, I was very impressed with the
annual conference session, despite heated debate, and a frequent use of parliamentary procedure to end discussion, I would be eager to be a part of it all over again.
“Meeting people from all over the conference, from social activists in Washington, to farmers in the west, the diversity as well as the unity of the annual conference, were remarkable. Additionally, the way people come together, despite their blunt differences, and the way they can stand together in the name of Jesus is a concept to which everyone should apply in their lives wherever they are.
“The conference experience was something truly extraordinary, and it was a total pleasure to have had the opportunity to participate.
“However though, more improvements could always be made. For example, I believe that we as an annual conference should have done good in the community, such as feed the less fortunate. I also would have preferred to have seen resources such as the Adventure Devotional books used by groups of clergy and laity during the conference, providing a time for people in the conference to fellowship.
“However though, the conference was a wonderful experience and I was very blessed to have been a member.
Matthew makes me smile. He also makes me hope.
Many members to annual conference may remember him from the 2006 annual conference at the Wardman Park Hotel, when he read the Scripture during the opening worship.
He mispronounced one of the words, “Dear, dear Corn-inthians!” he proclaimed. To this day, that’s the way I read it. It one of my favorite passages.
Matthew also proclaimed Paul’s words as they’re written in The Message: “Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!”
That might be one answer to the question of what we intend to do with our “one wild and precious life.” Now that the annual conference
session has closed, it seems the season to begin.
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