Progressive Methodism: Founded on Love, Part 1




"Christianity is a lifestyle - a way of being in the world that is simple, non-violent, shared, and loving. However, we made it into an established "religion" (and all that goes with that) and avoided the lifestyle change itself. One could be warlike, greedy, racist, selfish, and vain in most of Christian history, and still believe that Jesus is one's "personal Lord and Savior" . . . The world has no time for such silliness anymore. The suffering on Earth is too great." Richard Rohr(1) 

 A couple of weeks ago, in the flurry of responses to the monumental mistake made at the Special Session of the General Conference of the United Methodist Church, I wrote a post affirming several basic points about what I think should characterize a Progressive Methodism as part of a Progressive Christian movement. Today I want to focus on the first affirmation, "Love." What I wrote in that post was:
It is all about love.It begins with love.Its basic characteristic is love.It ends in love.It defines love.It shows how love is the force that binds the universe together.It shows that love is not a mushy, gushy, warm and fuzzy feeling, it is a force. It is the Force. It is positive action on behalf of another person. It is doing to others as they would have you do unto them. It requires us to be in relation with people, to be in conversation with them and listen to their description and definition of what is in their best interest and what is good and helpful to them.
It is hard to overemphasize or overstate the dramatic shift in monotheistic religion that occurred in the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. Love was always a part of the Biblical tradition, stated most eloquently in the Shema of Jewish religious tradition:
"Hear, O Israel, the LORD your God, the LORD is One. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)

 Love in the early Hebrew Scriptures is understood to be a moral act of choosing in favor of one thing, or person, or path over against another. It is why love and hate are contrasted in the Psalms so often: "I love your ways, O Lord, but I hate the way of sinners," etc. Judaism developed into a highly moral religion seeking the right way to live in the world, the right and just way to treat all members of a society. These right and just ways to treating others were based in the very nature of God, so they had an immutable character to them. and an urgency to their being followed. "Teach me your ways, O God!" Choosing to walk in God's ways was to choose to know God.

 Jesus chose to model God by modeling love. He said, "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father." He went about demonstrating what love looks like: by choosing to meet people at the level of their need, and attend to that need as they desired. Love was still a moral act of choice, but it moved beyond choosing for or against, into acting on behalf of the other. 

 Jesus is credited with placing in positive terms ("Do unto others what you would have them do unto you) what Rabbi Hillel had stated as "That which is hateful to you, do not do to others." This "Golden Rule" has been found in the teachings of religious  and spiritual teachers the world over. But recently, very careful thinkers have pointed out that it is time we replace the Golden Rule with the Platinum Rule: "Do unto others what they would have you do unto them." 

 I believe that the Platinum Rule better expresses the Love-in-action that I see happening with Jesus. Time after time people would come to Jesus for healing or help, and he would say, "What do you need? What do you want me to do?" He didn't presume to know their need. He let them define the need. 

 Recently I have been a witness to disastrous results of well-meaning people acting in the supposed "best interests" of other persons, only to cause catastrophic problems. "But we were acting in your best interests," was the comment heard frequently. However, no one had thought to consult with the persons whose supposed "best interests" were being acted upon. If we presume our own frame of reference or perceptions or even our own best interests to be the same as everyone else's, then we missing the reality of other people's lives. The problem with the Golden Rule is that our personal experience and frame of reference becomes the frame of reference for everyone else. 

 Jesus's Platinum Rule kind of love requires that we come into relationship with others. It is get down and get dirty. It's why Jesus walked the dusty roads of Galilee and Palestine, instead of spending his career hanging around the rarefied precincts of the temple in Jerusalem, making pronouncements. It's why he so frequently asked people, "What is it you need? What do you want from me?" 

 It is time for the followers of Jesus to regain the moral, love-based vision that Jesus had and which he taught his followers. Here in the United States, evangelical Christianity has completely abandoned any sense of morality in its political takeover by right-wing, white supremacist politics. All the songs about loving God and loving Jesus amount to a hill of beans if that love is not practiced in the world. 
You can't claim to love Jesus, and incarcerate the children of immigrants seeking asylum at the border. 
You can't claim to love Jesus and deny healthcare to women and the babies they choose to bring to birth. 
You cannot claim to love Jesus and justify the obscene profits made by corporations that benefit only the very rich, while millions of workers struggle at two or more minimum-wage jobs just to put food on the table. 

 Progressive Christianity, and a Progressive Methodism needs to begin in the truly Biblical and Jesus-based kind of Love that chooses to favor the other person, to do that which will bring them benefit and well-being, not to the detriment of anyone else, but on behalf of all. 
Notes:
(1). This quote was found online, 3-25-19 at https://www.azquotes.com/quote/580181.

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