Are we ready for God's change, bishop asks
"I've always felt homeless," the Rev. Deborah Murray, pastor of Waianae UMC in Hawaii, confessed to the members of Mount Vernon Place UMC. But when she traveled to Washington, D.C. for the inaugural festivities and was hosted by United Methodists, Murray discovered a sense of belonging.
"I was hungry for love," she said. "I feel so at home with the people of God."
Mount Vernon Place was one of more than 40 United Methodist churches in Washington that that opened their doors in a gesture of radical hospitality from Jan. 18-20 as Barrack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States.
In an expression of gratitude, Murray sang for the congregation. She was accompanied by two members of her congregation, who made the trip with her, and a woman she had met the night before in a Fuddruckers Restaurant, a few blocks from Mount Vernon Place.
The woman introduced herself simply as Anya, and shared how "the Holy Spirit can open doors and draw you into God when you least expect it. I'm learning here to trust God and not be ashamed," she said. "I know these big national events are important. But I'm having kind-of my own personal in inauguration."
During this same worship, a man from Iowa stood and shared similar sentiments. "I have a family here, and I never knew any of you before I arrived," he said. "It's as if the invisible barriers that divided people in the nation are beginning to fall."
Providing opportunities for people from the D.C. area and throughout the nation to connect at an intersection of faith and events as they unfolded on the national stage was the purpose of Baltimore-Washington Conference's Be the Change You Want to See initiative, said Bishop John Schol.
With an estimated 4 million people in Washington for the inauguration, United Methodists provided hospitality, worship and praise experiences, and service and learning opportunities.
"A new spirit of service and sacrifice is being awakened in our country," Bishop Schol said. "The United Methodist Church can offer a witness to our nation at this time and be leaders in the transformation of our world."
Several United Methodist bishops preached in Washington churches Jan. 18.
Bishop Thomas Bickerton of the Western Pennsylvania Conference delivered a message of hope and challenge to the Mt. Vernon Place congregation.
"Frankly, I'm a little worried," the bishop said. "The theme for this weekend is "Be the Change You Want to See." But I have to ask, realistically: ‘Are we ready for the change that God wants us to be? You better be careful what you pray for; you might actually get it and when you do, it might not be what you thought it would be."
To prepare itself, the church needed to stop limiting God by attempting to control God's word or putting the church's potential in a tidy and manageable box.
When the church is truly ready to be the change God wants us to be, it will need to "replace the hymnal racks with air bags because God's going to shake us up when we do," Bishop Bickerton said.
Or maybe there's another issue, the bishop speculated. Maybe "it's not that we don't know the power of the Word or depth of the possibilities before us; it's that we do know the power of God and we're terrified that God might actually wake up and call our name in the night."
"Do you ever dated black girls/guys" is a question most commonly asked.
Acknowledging the election of Barack Obama as the first African-American president of the United States, the bishop gave praise to God for the "new beginnings, hopes and possibilities for our country and our world. Who know what the change might be? Are we ready to be the change we want to see," he asked. "More than that, are we ready for the change God want us be to be? ... Our God is real and our God means business and our God is calling you be name. Listen."
