Now isn't that a hallelujah?'
BY MELISSA LAUBER
UMCONNECTION STAFF
On March 6, more than 50 people gathered at the Baltimore-Washington Conference Center to hear the Rev. Gil Caldwell of Chicago speak about inclusion at the conference’s first Bridge to Wholeness Conference.
Young, old, black, white, Asian and Hispanic, gay and straight, physically challenged and physically able, affluent and financially struggling, wise and still learning – a diverse spectrum of people joined together that morning in a jazz rendition of “They’ll Know We are Christians.”
Then Caldwell, who was a leader in the civil rights movement, joined the Rev. Dred Scott in singing “I woke up this morning with my mind, staying on freedom/Jesus.”
“Isn’t that a hallelujah?” proclaimed the Rev. Sandra Demby, chair of the conference Strengthening the Black Church for the 21 Century, one of the sponsors of the event.
Caldwell’s message was a simple one: “The world is turning, but we are standing still. The uniqueness of The United Methodist Church is being lost because we have some blind spots.
“… I believe in the Pentecost story,” Caldwell said. “It’s the story of the gift of ears, the gift of listening. The church is not only about prophetic speaking, it’s about prophetic listening. We exclude groups because we haven’t listened to them and their stories. We thought about them as groups, not individuals.
Caldwell encouraged those present to “get a handle on some of the distance between us. It is truth speaking and truth telling that will lead to inclusion,” he said. “In the work of inclusion, one size does not fit all. We must work out of particularities.”
He also encouraged the church to return to the Bible and see it with fresh eyes. “We have diminished the power of Scripture, allowed Scripture to support our biases,” he said. “We all have to wrestle with our biases.”
In this wrestling, he cautioned against making judgments on those they believe to be in the margins and against taking on an air of piety. “The grace of the Gospel is so hard for the pious to understand,” said Caldwell. “Come as a sinner, as you are, to a God who loves you.”
Caldwell shared some of his favorite words from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Life Together:” “The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everybody must conceal his sins from himself and the fellowship. We dare not be sinners.” He went on to suggest that “in the authentic church we are not only all sinners, we are all people who have been wounded by our experiences of exclusion.
“How is it that people who know they are incomplete have the audacity to suggest that people who are more incomplete than they are should be outside the church,” Caldwell asked.
“If we want to have a place at the ‘Church Table’ with our woundedness, then we must make room at the same table for all with their woundednesses.
“What is Christianity anyway, but just one beggar trying to tell other beggars where to find bread? What’s the old saying: “I’m just a nobody, trying to tell everybody about the somebody that can change anybody.”
Caldwell worries that the church’s focus on keeping people out will cause it to miss precious opportunities for discipleship. “We’re blunted,” he said.
However, he is also hopeful that events like the Bridges to Wholeness gathering will begin to make a difference. “You in the Baltimore-Washington Conference are geographically and politically at a marvelous place,” he said. “You are seeking to share some light in the midst of a dark time. Be bold, be brave. Be audacious.
“… Remember the words of Reinhold Niebuhr: ‘The worst evils in the world are not done by evil people, but by good people who do not know they are not doing good.’”
UMCONNECTION STAFF
On March 6, more than 50 people gathered at the Baltimore-Washington Conference Center to hear the Rev. Gil Caldwell of Chicago speak about inclusion at the conference’s first Bridge to Wholeness Conference.
Young, old, black, white, Asian and Hispanic, gay and straight, physically challenged and physically able, affluent and financially struggling, wise and still learning – a diverse spectrum of people joined together that morning in a jazz rendition of “They’ll Know We are Christians.”
Then Caldwell, who was a leader in the civil rights movement, joined the Rev. Dred Scott in singing “I woke up this morning with my mind, staying on freedom/Jesus.”
“Isn’t that a hallelujah?” proclaimed the Rev. Sandra Demby, chair of the conference Strengthening the Black Church for the 21 Century, one of the sponsors of the event.
Caldwell’s message was a simple one: “The world is turning, but we are standing still. The uniqueness of The United Methodist Church is being lost because we have some blind spots.
“… I believe in the Pentecost story,” Caldwell said. “It’s the story of the gift of ears, the gift of listening. The church is not only about prophetic speaking, it’s about prophetic listening. We exclude groups because we haven’t listened to them and their stories. We thought about them as groups, not individuals.
Caldwell encouraged those present to “get a handle on some of the distance between us. It is truth speaking and truth telling that will lead to inclusion,” he said. “In the work of inclusion, one size does not fit all. We must work out of particularities.”
He also encouraged the church to return to the Bible and see it with fresh eyes. “We have diminished the power of Scripture, allowed Scripture to support our biases,” he said. “We all have to wrestle with our biases.”
In this wrestling, he cautioned against making judgments on those they believe to be in the margins and against taking on an air of piety. “The grace of the Gospel is so hard for the pious to understand,” said Caldwell. “Come as a sinner, as you are, to a God who loves you.”
Caldwell shared some of his favorite words from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Life Together:” “The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everybody must conceal his sins from himself and the fellowship. We dare not be sinners.” He went on to suggest that “in the authentic church we are not only all sinners, we are all people who have been wounded by our experiences of exclusion.
“How is it that people who know they are incomplete have the audacity to suggest that people who are more incomplete than they are should be outside the church,” Caldwell asked.
“If we want to have a place at the ‘Church Table’ with our woundedness, then we must make room at the same table for all with their woundednesses.
“What is Christianity anyway, but just one beggar trying to tell other beggars where to find bread? What’s the old saying: “I’m just a nobody, trying to tell everybody about the somebody that can change anybody.”
Caldwell worries that the church’s focus on keeping people out will cause it to miss precious opportunities for discipleship. “We’re blunted,” he said.However, he is also hopeful that events like the Bridges to Wholeness gathering will begin to make a difference. “You in the Baltimore-Washington Conference are geographically and politically at a marvelous place,” he said. “You are seeking to share some light in the midst of a dark time. Be bold, be brave. Be audacious.
“… Remember the words of Reinhold Niebuhr: ‘The worst evils in the world are not done by evil people, but by good people who do not know they are not doing good.’”
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