A Methodist Way of Life

Today we will continue with the second A Methodist Way of Life commitment “We will worship with others regularly” by exploring the word ‘Others’. We can look at this in a number of ways.

Do we mean by others those with similar, beliefs, outlooks and dispositions? But what if those others have contradictory ways of faith, their world view differs from ours, their displayed nature is the antithesis of ours. 

Following this year’s Methodist Conference that passed the resolution to allow single sex marriage within a Methodist Church, much is being made of the desire to life in faith with contradictory convictions. In the past, when faced with such divergent positions, numerous splits and separations took place, including arguments concerning our methods of worshiping God. Talk of divisively held beliefs reach right back to the early church where we read, (1 Corinthians 1:12) we find Paul writing, “What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”  

In times past there was the Apartheid blight on the church, where it was siblings in Christ could not worship together because of the colour of their skin.

Is it possible to worship with others who old opposing views.  Well the answer has to be yes. Paul concludes in the 1st Chapter of Corinthians that it is our oneness in Christ that unites us. I have often thought of this in terms of sitting on a circle with those of opposite convictions sitting diametrically opposite. To all intents and purposes our difference are fully on view. Place a cross in the centre and the focus changes completely. This is the essence of Paul’s words, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 

Lord God, you have created us in your own image as a diverse people with freedom of thought and will. Help us to celebrate this diversity and freedom as a gift of your creation, and to not allow difference to become a source of division or conflict. Amen