May 18, 2025 • 20 mins
John Wesley's vision of social justice provides a framework for understanding Jesus's teachings in the Beatitudes and challenges us to transform personal faith into active compassion.
• Social justice defined as the belief in equal rights, opportunities and treatment for all people regardless of characteristics
• The Beatitudes begin with blessing those who seem least blessed—the poor in spirit, mourners, the meek
• Spiritual poverty, mourning and meekness often become moments when God can work most deeply in our lives
• The Beatitudes show a progression from spiritual emptiness to active faith strong enough to withstand persecution
• Wesley spoke of "social holiness" rather than just personal holiness, believing faith must lead to action
• Wesley actively fought against poverty, slavery, and advocated for prison reform
• Methodist social justice legacy includes founding the Salvation Army and championing various social causes
• The Social Principles document represents Methodism's ongoing commitment to address contemporary issues
• Unity amid disagreement and wrestling with difficult questions remains a core Methodist value
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, we've been talking about John Wesley and
United Methodism for a couple ofSundays here, and so I'm still
in that vein as we move forward.
And today we're talking aboutJohn Wesley, the founder of
United Methodism, by the way,the founder of Methodism and
(00:22):
also the inspiration for anyWesleyan faith which there are a
number of those too but todaywe're talking about social
justice.
Wesley had a big heart forsocial justice.
So what do we mean by socialjustice?
I thought it was important.
(00:42):
We're going to have adefinition, working definition
for social justice, and I diggeddeep down into the bowels of
Google and found you a simpledefinition Social justice is the
belief that everyone shouldhave equal rights, opportunities
and treatment, regardless oftheir race, economic status,
(01:04):
gender or other characteristics.
So a working definition.
Somewhat general, wesleybelieved in this, and this is
him back in the 1700s, so thereis that context that we probably
ought to keep in mind.
So, in trying to talk aboutsocial justice, I went to the
(01:27):
Beatitudes, matthew 5, verses 1through 12.
I think I asked this at anothertime.
Anybody have to memorize theBeatitudes ever.
Yeah, all right, me and Becky,all right, that's right, linda.
Not as many as I might havethought, though.
See, I was trying to save moneygoing to church camp, I had to
(01:50):
memorize all of these Beatitudes.
I don't know that I could do itagain right now, but that was
something that is kind of thistight package, this summary of
some of Jesus' teachings, someof the key teachings, this
summary of some of Jesus'teachings, some of the key
teachings.
So I landed on that because tome it spoke to that social
justice, understanding the needthat this world has.
(02:16):
That Jesus would speak into.
Now, some of you know, inMatthew the gospel, chapters 5
through 7, is kind of a summaryof a lot of Jesus's earthly
teachings.
If you're trying to understanda little bit more what Jesus
actually tried to teach us aboutliving in this world, that's a
(02:37):
really good place to start.
Matthew, chapter 5 throughchapter 7, it really tight kind
of puts it all together and itopens with these beatitudes and
it's all these definitions aboutpeople who are blessed right,
blessed people in this world.
But what you'll probably notice, what I think you should notice
(03:00):
, is that those first fourcategories should notice is that
those first four categoriesthey don't seem like people who
are particularly blessed.
Am I right?
We don't think of the poor inspirit as being blessed.
We don't feel very blessed whenwe are mourning, when we're
feeling meek.
(03:21):
We feel more frustrated thanblessed when we are hungering
and thirsting for righteousness.
Now, if we're reading throughthis, the inclination would be
to think oh okay, jesus isworking with God, there's going
to be some justice that getsmeted out maybe not in this
(03:44):
world, but in some other world,some judgment at some other time
.
Maybe that's what Jesus istalking about.
The problem is there's not alot of hope for people who are
in this place here and in thisworld today.
It doesn't help somebody who ispoor in spirit to say, oh,
(04:08):
don't worry, when you pass awayand go on to be in God's next
world, go on to be in heaven orwhat have you, you'll be fine.
Then it doesn't carry muchweight, right, it doesn't make
you feel any better, really.
And when I talk about feelingbetter or feeling hopeful about
(04:32):
the world and things like thatand this teaching that maybe
some other time everything willeven out.
Well, yeah, we're talking aboutthe poor in spirit suffering,
but don't all of us suffer inthat context, when we're talking
about our world and living in aplace where not everybody is
(04:56):
given the opportunity to kind ofbe who God wanted them to be,
to be fully who God wanted themto be when God created that
person.
If we're in a place where theyare suffering, they aren't
blooming, they aren't offeringthe gifts that God gave them to
share.
Well, that's not just themsuffering.
Maybe they're getting the worstof it, but aren't we all
(05:23):
suffering?
The kingdom, to a certainextent, isn't fully what the
kingdom is supposed to be,because a certain amount of us
aren't given the space to be whoGod created.
That's why this understandingthat maybe God is going to fix
things a little bit laterdoesn't carry enough weight for
me.
Bit later doesn't carry enoughweight for me.
(05:49):
I feel like there has to be amessage here that is about this
world.
When he's talking about thepoor in spirit being blessed,
those who mourn being blessed,the meek being blessed, I feel
like he's got to be talkingabout some lesson for here.
But then the question becomeshow Because they sure don't seem
blessed have you ever been inone of those low ebbs of life,
(06:18):
those times where you're feelingpretty poor in spirit, pretty
poor in spirit, like we'retalking about our spirit being
how we connect with God?
You ever felt disconnected toGod.
That spirit thing seems to beabsent.
(06:41):
We're not truly sure if Godexists or not.
Or even if God does exist, doesthat even matter?
We got a God.
But I've known these times inmy life.
For me, the way the questionkind of rose up was less about
(07:03):
whether God was present or evenabout whether God mattered.
It was more about are peoplegoing to respond?
Maybe God doesn't matter,because the people aren't
listening, they're not following.
So if we're not going to dowhat God is inviting us to do
and be who God is inviting us tobe, you know well, maybe God
(07:26):
doesn't matter.
Maybe God's waiting for us tohelp build that kingdom.
For me, that was a time.
Those are times of feeling poorin spirit, lacking the hope,
lacking the faith.
(07:47):
Getting back to this list alittle bit, have you ever
mourned?
I'm guessing yes, because lifeis life.
Have you ever felt meek or beenmade to feel meek?
(08:07):
Have you ever hungered and werethirsty for righteousness,
wondered where the good and thejust was in this world?
To me, the irony is that it'sin these times, these places,
(08:31):
where we feel like we have theleast hope, the least connection
to God, the least faith.
It's often in these times thatGod is our most blessed presence
.
God is able to work with usmost intentionally.
Why?
Possibly because we got nowhereelse to go.
(08:54):
We're not finding hope, we'renot finding faith.
I know in those tough times, forme it actually ended up being
kind of a doubling down with God.
Amidst the uncertainty of ourworld, the instability of our
(09:16):
world, the instability of people, no matter how good intentioned
, still broken in their own ways, amidst that uncertainty, god
felt stable to me.
I knew that God was love andthat love was real.
(09:37):
And even if I wasn't seeing itall the time, I had seen it.
I might have only had faithbecause I couldn't find anything
else to grab, but it was stillfaith, it was still trust in God
and in that trust I gave God achance to work inside of me, to
(10:04):
help me find God's presence, notonly inside but outside in the
world, to find hope, to findcontext, to find comfort To me.
I think this is really whatJesus was trying to get across
when he talked about us beingblessed despite these times
(10:27):
where we felt poor in spirit.
I'm moving on to the list alittle bit more.
The next four on this list ofblessed people.
To me they feel a little bitmore palatable things I might
actually strive to be.
(10:48):
I want to be merciful, I wantto be pure in heart, I want to
be a peacemaker.
I want to be those who, if I'mgoing to be persecuted, it's
going to be fighting for what'sright.
This part of that blessed listwe might actually get a little
excited about.
In fact, if you look at it, andmaybe when you get home, or if
(11:12):
you pull it out of the pew andyou look at it Matthew 5, you
might see kind of a progression,a progression that Matthew
creates out of Jesus' teachings,where it starts at the very
lowest of the low, poor inspirit, where we feel like we
have nothing to grab onto, andthen it slowly begins to build.
(11:37):
We're mourning to meek Untilwe're getting into some of these
other things where we're havingmore confidence, we're getting
more stable, we're getting moreconfident in God's presence,
living that out until finally weget to that ultimate, ultimate
(11:58):
depth of faith, so strong thatwe can take on the most
difficult this world has tooffer.
Look at this last verse, or atleast verse 11, I should say
Blessed are you when peoplerevile you and persecute you and
utter all kinds of evil againstyou, falsely on my account.
That one right there, that'sgoing to take the deep faith.
(12:20):
Am I right?
Have you been that persongetting persecuted for trying to
do the right thing?
That's the deep faith.
That's MLK in the Birminghamjail kind of faith, right there.
I have a suggestion for you,kind of a fun suggestion, but
(12:46):
you might try this passage as abit of a locker room
inspirational.
Go out for the second half kindof speech, because you could
see it build and you can see itgrow and you can see somebody
getting built as they becomedeeper and deeper in their faith
.
If you want to have even alittle bit more fun, imagine the
(13:09):
preacher cadence of anafrican-american preacher,
because those folks can bring it.
I thought about trying but Ithought no, you, you, you small
white man, just just ride inyour lane, but let yourself hear
(13:31):
it at some point.
Pull out that passage and letyourself hear the inspiration
that can come from that.
It's a passage obviously aboutsocial justice, and when you're
talking about John Wesley andhis belief in social justice,
he's living at a time and Iwould argue we're in a similar
(13:51):
time where the theology, theunderstanding of God that comes
up against social justice isoften about personal holiness or
personal piety, the argumentbeing oh okay, well, if we have
our faith right, that's whatmatters.
That's what matters to God.
You've got to get that straight.
(14:12):
It doesn't necessarily matterwhat we bring to the world or
how we change the world.
For Wesley, this was absolutelynot true.
For Wesley, he spoke not ofpersonal holiness, but he talked
about social holiness.
He knew that our faith neededto be present in our action, or
(14:35):
that we probably hadn't had muchreal faith at all If you didn't
believe.
Well, if you believed but itdidn't lead to some action, was
it really anything at all?
Did you get inspired in any way?
For him, faith and works were alittle bit like breathing.
(14:58):
That faith led to works andback to faith.
I might say it a little moreconcretely An inward experience,
an inward spiritual experience,leads to an outward spiritual
experience, and vice versa, doesit not?
Does it not that inward takingin of all that God is makes you
(15:24):
want to go out and do the goodwork and have that experience,
and that experience out doingthe good work makes you want to
go get some more.
Go back inside.
Now for Wesley some areas ofsocial justice work that were
important to him.
He was always addressingpoverty and hunger.
(15:46):
That was hugely important forhim.
This another one that wasimportant, especially
considering the time abolitionof slavery.
He was definitely againstslavery, the irony being we were
split as United Methodists overthe Civil War, so you can
wrestle with that.
He was also a big advocate ofprison reform.
(16:12):
I can tell you too, there issignificant social justice
legacy that came from JohnWesley.
Wesleyan theology and teachingsare the underpinnings for the
Salvation Army Church.
So they're out there andthey're dinging their bells at
Christmastime.
Are the underpinnings for theSalvation Army Church, right?
So they're out there andthey're dinging their bells at
Christmas time.
You can know that the formationthat led to them leading this
(16:35):
ministry and really leadingchurch grounded in that social
justice came from Wesleyanthinking.
Here's another one.
Do you know we were reallyactive in prohibition, right?
Some of you are really proud ofthat.
Some of you really begrudgethat Funny story.
(16:56):
You know how we have grapejuice for communion.
You know the name of a famousMethodist Welch's Not an
accident.
You know you got to takeadvantage of opportunities.
But I make jokes but at thesame time.
(17:19):
Part of why we do grape juiceis to be in solidarity with
people who have that, whowrestle with that.
I'll call it a demon alcoholism.
To be in solidarity with peoplewho wrestle with that.
Also, I'll mention what we callour social principles.
(17:40):
Social principles is this livingdocument that we, as a
denomination, own, and it is adocument that we revisit
periodically.
We revisit every fourth year atour general conference, where
you can submit suggestions foradjustments to this document.
(18:00):
So it is a living document thatwe would come back and vote on,
and what it is is.
It's a gathering of ourcollective beliefs, or a
statement around our beliefs,around some of the cultural
issues of our time.
We are not a creedal church,and what I mean by that there's
(18:22):
not a set of beliefs that wemandate or that we invite you to
say every single Sunday.
There is an openness to someconversation, to the journey of
faith amongst us, in that we candisagree to a certain extent,
(18:42):
why we are not a creedal church.
At the same time, time that weare a church who claims a social
principles document that we dohold ourselves to.
I want you to know that, as youcan probably guess, in 2025, it
is flawed at best.
(19:02):
The issues of the day are oftenprovocative and challenging and
not easy.
So as you read through, therewill be things you continue to
wrestle with, but I think for methere's a certain amount of
pride in that.
That is something that we'rewilling to wrestle over.
We're willing to own the factthat we're going to try our best
(19:24):
to be relevant, to speak intorelevant topics and to try to
bring at least the UnitedMethodist body together with
some sort of unity, as bestwe're able.
But, like I said, it's 2025.
Unity is not always a value weshare in our culture these days,
but at least, as Oliver WendellHolmes Sr might argue, we are
(19:48):
not so heavenly focused as to beno earthly good.
We are out there doing our bestto make the world better.
So maybe the most importantpart of our social principles is
that they are an important partof our being united Methodist,
that the wrestling is asimportant as in anything we
(20:11):
actually believe, and we'll talkabout that a little bit more
next week.
But what I like to know is thatwe're being proactive about
making the world better.
It's a critical part of who weare and when we live it out.
As we understand from Matthew 5, we are blessed, amen, amen.
Well, we've been talking about John Wesley and
United Methodism for a couple ofSundays here, and so I'm still
in that vein as we move forward.
And today we're talking aboutJohn Wesley, the founder of
United Methodism, by the way,the founder of Methodism and
(00:22):
also the inspiration for anyWesleyan faith which there are a
number of those too but todaywe're talking about social
justice.
Wesley had a big heart forsocial justice.
So what do we mean by socialjustice?
I thought it was important.
(00:42):
We're going to have adefinition, working definition
for social justice, and I diggeddeep down into the bowels of
Google and found you a simpledefinition Social justice is the
belief that everyone shouldhave equal rights, opportunities
and treatment, regardless oftheir race, economic status,
(01:04):
gender or other characteristics.
So a working definition.
Somewhat general, wesleybelieved in this, and this is
him back in the 1700s, so thereis that context that we probably
ought to keep in mind.
So, in trying to talk aboutsocial justice, I went to the
(01:27):
Beatitudes, matthew 5, verses 1through 12.
I think I asked this at anothertime.
Anybody have to memorize theBeatitudes ever.
Yeah, all right, me and Becky,all right, that's right, linda.
Not as many as I might havethought, though.
See, I was trying to save moneygoing to church camp, I had to
(01:50):
memorize all of these Beatitudes.
I don't know that I could do itagain right now, but that was
something that is kind of thistight package, this summary of
some of Jesus' teachings, someof the key teachings, this
summary of some of Jesus'teachings, some of the key
teachings.
So I landed on that because tome it spoke to that social
justice, understanding the needthat this world has.
(02:16):
That Jesus would speak into.
Now, some of you know, inMatthew the gospel, chapters 5
through 7, is kind of a summaryof a lot of Jesus's earthly
teachings.
If you're trying to understanda little bit more what Jesus
actually tried to teach us aboutliving in this world, that's a
(02:37):
really good place to start.
Matthew, chapter 5 throughchapter 7, it really tight kind
of puts it all together and itopens with these beatitudes and
it's all these definitions aboutpeople who are blessed right,
blessed people in this world.
But what you'll probably notice, what I think you should notice
(03:00):
, is that those first fourcategories should notice is that
those first four categoriesthey don't seem like people who
are particularly blessed.
Am I right?
We don't think of the poor inspirit as being blessed.
We don't feel very blessed whenwe are mourning, when we're
feeling meek.
(03:21):
We feel more frustrated thanblessed when we are hungering
and thirsting for righteousness.
Now, if we're reading throughthis, the inclination would be
to think oh okay, jesus isworking with God, there's going
to be some justice that getsmeted out maybe not in this
(03:44):
world, but in some other world,some judgment at some other time
.
Maybe that's what Jesus istalking about.
The problem is there's not alot of hope for people who are
in this place here and in thisworld today.
It doesn't help somebody who ispoor in spirit to say, oh,
(04:08):
don't worry, when you pass awayand go on to be in God's next
world, go on to be in heaven orwhat have you, you'll be fine.
Then it doesn't carry muchweight, right, it doesn't make
you feel any better, really.
And when I talk about feelingbetter or feeling hopeful about
(04:32):
the world and things like thatand this teaching that maybe
some other time everything willeven out.
Well, yeah, we're talking aboutthe poor in spirit suffering,
but don't all of us suffer inthat context, when we're talking
about our world and living in aplace where not everybody is
(04:56):
given the opportunity to kind ofbe who God wanted them to be,
to be fully who God wanted themto be when God created that
person.
If we're in a place where theyare suffering, they aren't
blooming, they aren't offeringthe gifts that God gave them to
share.
Well, that's not just themsuffering.
Maybe they're getting the worstof it, but aren't we all
(05:23):
suffering?
The kingdom, to a certainextent, isn't fully what the
kingdom is supposed to be,because a certain amount of us
aren't given the space to be whoGod created.
That's why this understandingthat maybe God is going to fix
things a little bit laterdoesn't carry enough weight for
me.
Bit later doesn't carry enoughweight for me.
(05:49):
I feel like there has to be amessage here that is about this
world.
When he's talking about thepoor in spirit being blessed,
those who mourn being blessed,the meek being blessed, I feel
like he's got to be talkingabout some lesson for here.
But then the question becomeshow Because they sure don't seem
blessed have you ever been inone of those low ebbs of life,
(06:18):
those times where you're feelingpretty poor in spirit, pretty
poor in spirit, like we'retalking about our spirit being
how we connect with God?
You ever felt disconnected toGod.
That spirit thing seems to beabsent.
(06:41):
We're not truly sure if Godexists or not.
Or even if God does exist, doesthat even matter?
We got a God.
But I've known these times inmy life.
For me, the way the questionkind of rose up was less about
(07:03):
whether God was present or evenabout whether God mattered.
It was more about are peoplegoing to respond?
Maybe God doesn't matter,because the people aren't
listening, they're not following.
So if we're not going to dowhat God is inviting us to do
and be who God is inviting us tobe, you know well, maybe God
(07:26):
doesn't matter.
Maybe God's waiting for us tohelp build that kingdom.
For me, that was a time.
Those are times of feeling poorin spirit, lacking the hope,
lacking the faith.
(07:47):
Getting back to this list alittle bit, have you ever
mourned?
I'm guessing yes, because lifeis life.
Have you ever felt meek or beenmade to feel meek?
(08:07):
Have you ever hungered and werethirsty for righteousness,
wondered where the good and thejust was in this world?
To me, the irony is that it'sin these times, these places,
(08:31):
where we feel like we have theleast hope, the least connection
to God, the least faith.
It's often in these times thatGod is our most blessed presence
.
God is able to work with usmost intentionally.
Why?
Possibly because we got nowhereelse to go.
(08:54):
We're not finding hope, we'renot finding faith.
I know in those tough times, forme it actually ended up being
kind of a doubling down with God.
Amidst the uncertainty of ourworld, the instability of our
(09:16):
world, the instability of people, no matter how good intentioned
, still broken in their own ways, amidst that uncertainty, god
felt stable to me.
I knew that God was love andthat love was real.
(09:37):
And even if I wasn't seeing itall the time, I had seen it.
I might have only had faithbecause I couldn't find anything
else to grab, but it was stillfaith, it was still trust in God
and in that trust I gave God achance to work inside of me, to
(10:04):
help me find God's presence, notonly inside but outside in the
world, to find hope, to findcontext, to find comfort To me.
I think this is really whatJesus was trying to get across
when he talked about us beingblessed despite these times
(10:27):
where we felt poor in spirit.
I'm moving on to the list alittle bit more.
The next four on this list ofblessed people.
To me they feel a little bitmore palatable things I might
actually strive to be.
(10:48):
I want to be merciful, I wantto be pure in heart, I want to
be a peacemaker.
I want to be those who, if I'mgoing to be persecuted, it's
going to be fighting for what'sright.
This part of that blessed listwe might actually get a little
excited about.
In fact, if you look at it, andmaybe when you get home, or if
(11:12):
you pull it out of the pew andyou look at it Matthew 5, you
might see kind of a progression,a progression that Matthew
creates out of Jesus' teachings,where it starts at the very
lowest of the low, poor inspirit, where we feel like we
have nothing to grab onto, andthen it slowly begins to build.
(11:37):
We're mourning to meek Untilwe're getting into some of these
other things where we're havingmore confidence, we're getting
more stable, we're getting moreconfident in God's presence,
living that out until finally weget to that ultimate, ultimate
(11:58):
depth of faith, so strong thatwe can take on the most
difficult this world has tooffer.
Look at this last verse, or atleast verse 11, I should say
Blessed are you when peoplerevile you and persecute you and
utter all kinds of evil againstyou, falsely on my account.
That one right there, that'sgoing to take the deep faith.
(12:20):
Am I right?
Have you been that persongetting persecuted for trying to
do the right thing?
That's the deep faith.
That's MLK in the Birminghamjail kind of faith, right there.
I have a suggestion for you,kind of a fun suggestion, but
(12:46):
you might try this passage as abit of a locker room
inspirational.
Go out for the second half kindof speech, because you could
see it build and you can see itgrow and you can see somebody
getting built as they becomedeeper and deeper in their faith
.
If you want to have even alittle bit more fun, imagine the
(13:09):
preacher cadence of anafrican-american preacher,
because those folks can bring it.
I thought about trying but Ithought no, you, you, you small
white man, just just ride inyour lane, but let yourself hear
(13:31):
it at some point.
Pull out that passage and letyourself hear the inspiration
that can come from that.
It's a passage obviously aboutsocial justice, and when you're
talking about John Wesley andhis belief in social justice,
he's living at a time and Iwould argue we're in a similar
(13:51):
time where the theology, theunderstanding of God that comes
up against social justice isoften about personal holiness or
personal piety, the argumentbeing oh okay, well, if we have
our faith right, that's whatmatters.
That's what matters to God.
You've got to get that straight.
(14:12):
It doesn't necessarily matterwhat we bring to the world or
how we change the world.
For Wesley, this was absolutelynot true.
For Wesley, he spoke not ofpersonal holiness, but he talked
about social holiness.
He knew that our faith neededto be present in our action, or
(14:35):
that we probably hadn't had muchreal faith at all If you didn't
believe.
Well, if you believed but itdidn't lead to some action, was
it really anything at all?
Did you get inspired in any way?
For him, faith and works were alittle bit like breathing.
(14:58):
That faith led to works andback to faith.
I might say it a little moreconcretely An inward experience,
an inward spiritual experience,leads to an outward spiritual
experience, and vice versa, doesit not?
Does it not that inward takingin of all that God is makes you
(15:24):
want to go out and do the goodwork and have that experience,
and that experience out doingthe good work makes you want to
go get some more.
Go back inside.
Now for Wesley some areas ofsocial justice work that were
important to him.
He was always addressingpoverty and hunger.
(15:46):
That was hugely important forhim.
This another one that wasimportant, especially
considering the time abolitionof slavery.
He was definitely againstslavery, the irony being we were
split as United Methodists overthe Civil War, so you can
wrestle with that.
He was also a big advocate ofprison reform.
(16:12):
I can tell you too, there issignificant social justice
legacy that came from JohnWesley.
Wesleyan theology and teachingsare the underpinnings for the
Salvation Army Church.
So they're out there andthey're dinging their bells at
Christmastime.
Are the underpinnings for theSalvation Army Church, right?
So they're out there andthey're dinging their bells at
Christmas time.
You can know that the formationthat led to them leading this
(16:35):
ministry and really leadingchurch grounded in that social
justice came from Wesleyanthinking.
Here's another one.
Do you know we were reallyactive in prohibition, right?
Some of you are really proud ofthat.
Some of you really begrudgethat Funny story.
(16:56):
You know how we have grapejuice for communion.
You know the name of a famousMethodist Welch's Not an
accident.
You know you got to takeadvantage of opportunities.
But I make jokes but at thesame time.
(17:19):
Part of why we do grape juiceis to be in solidarity with
people who have that, whowrestle with that.
I'll call it a demon alcoholism.
To be in solidarity with peoplewho wrestle with that.
Also, I'll mention what we callour social principles.
(17:40):
Social principles is this livingdocument that we, as a
denomination, own, and it is adocument that we revisit
periodically.
We revisit every fourth year atour general conference, where
you can submit suggestions foradjustments to this document.
(18:00):
So it is a living document thatwe would come back and vote on,
and what it is is.
It's a gathering of ourcollective beliefs, or a
statement around our beliefs,around some of the cultural
issues of our time.
We are not a creedal church,and what I mean by that there's
(18:22):
not a set of beliefs that wemandate or that we invite you to
say every single Sunday.
There is an openness to someconversation, to the journey of
faith amongst us, in that we candisagree to a certain extent,
(18:42):
why we are not a creedal church.
At the same time, time that weare a church who claims a social
principles document that we dohold ourselves to.
I want you to know that, as youcan probably guess, in 2025, it
is flawed at best.
(19:02):
The issues of the day are oftenprovocative and challenging and
not easy.
So as you read through, therewill be things you continue to
wrestle with, but I think for methere's a certain amount of
pride in that.
That is something that we'rewilling to wrestle over.
We're willing to own the factthat we're going to try our best
(19:24):
to be relevant, to speak intorelevant topics and to try to
bring at least the UnitedMethodist body together with
some sort of unity, as bestwe're able.
But, like I said, it's 2025.
Unity is not always a value weshare in our culture these days,
but at least, as Oliver WendellHolmes Sr might argue, we are
(19:48):
not so heavenly focused as to beno earthly good.
We are out there doing our bestto make the world better.
So maybe the most importantpart of our social principles is
that they are an important partof our being united Methodist,
that the wrestling is asimportant as in anything we
(20:11):
actually believe, and we'll talkabout that a little bit more
next week.
But what I like to know is thatwe're being proactive about
making the world better.
It's a critical part of who weare and when we live it out.
As we understand from Matthew 5, we are blessed, amen, amen.
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