Friday, March 01, 2019

Deep but good thoughts for me for a Friday.

The vote this week by the United Methodists showed clear lines of division between the African, Filipino, and Russian parts of the church and the more western, Americanised church. Those are generally poorer areas of the world that have experienced great humilities in life.

I was wondering this morning if its our wealth and sense of entitlement that causes us to come at scripture differently in many things. That the poorer places of the world come at scriptures differently than those of us who have much and suffered little.

Then I came across this talk by Dr. Jerry P. Kulah, Dean of Gbarnga School of Theology, United Methodist University in Liberia, from last Saturday.
Unfortunately, some United Methodists in the U.S. have the very faulty assumption that all Africans are concerned about is U.S. financial support. Well, I am sure, being sinners like all of you, some Africans are fixated on money.
But with all due respect, a fixation on money seems more of an American problem than an African one. We get by on far less than most Americans do; we know how to do it. I’m not so sure you do. So if anyone is so naïve or condescending as to think we would sell our birth right in Jesus Christ for American dollars, then they simply do not know us.
We are seriously joyful in following Jesus Christ and God’s holy word to us in the Bible. And in truth, we think many people in the U.S. and in parts of Europe could learn a great deal from us. The UM churches, pastors and lay people who partner with us acknowledge as much.
He continues;
Friends, not too long ago my country was ravaged by a terrible civil war. And then we faced the outbreak of the Ebola virus. We are keenly familiar with hardship and sorrow, but Jesus has led us through every trial. So nothing that happens over the next few days will deter us from following Him, and Him alone.

This is something to ponder. How has my approach to money shaped my thinking and formed how I read the scriptures.

I need to sit with this a while. There is something there for me to learn.


2 comments:

  1. I find it interesting that the liberal 'worldly' parts of the church are those where the people have 'every blessing' while those who throw themselves on the mercy of Christ are those who have very little. There IS a learning there, probably not a comfy one.

    However their theology often also seems to be froman earlier, more literal age, and I'm sure there is a lot in the concept of 'be it to you according to your faith'. Liberal, post-modern uncertainties have certainly worked very hard to undermine faith, however misplaced, and it's hard to know whether it's better to have a strong faith in something that's essentially untrue than to have minimal faith because one is uncertain and open-minded.

    There is a lot of value in teaching as though what one says is truth and has real value. However one also has to be sure that what one says IS true.

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  2. I appreciate how you say that Toni. More and more I seem like I am landing in a place where any simple faith that we can offer up, is received and rewarded. Sometimes the other option is that we can't understand the Book without an expert to tell us what it says, and that scares me a good deal more for the "Uneducated" ones of us. (And by uneducated I mean as the west might see them. For they are often more educated in the ways of faith than we are.)

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