By Senior Bishop Lawrence Reddick

Dear CME Family:

            We awake every December 25^th to be reminded that God is sovereign – especially over God’s creation, but beyond that creation into eternity.

            In many of our congregations, for the last four Sundays (beginning November 27^th), we celebrated the Advent Season, lighting the Advent candles.  We gathered in and read – one person lighting the candle and reading in some services, one family on behalf of the church in some others, while all in some ways participated in the worship rituals that heralded God’s love, God’s hope, God’s joy, and God’s peace. 

            For many of us, looking at it from the smaller scope of Christian Year symbols can seasons (Advent, Christmastide, Epiphany, Lent, Eastertide, Pentecost, Kingdomtide), we were pointing through the Advent Season toward the coming of the Christ child to the earth (while simultaneously highlighting – sometimes to a lesser degree – that He will come again to receive us to Himself).  But the message beyond the narrower scope of Advent is the message of God’s eternal purposes for and presence with us, and God’s holistic salvation for all of us.  (By holistic salvation, I mean, the healing from our sins, from our fears, from our wounds, from all things earthly and finite; it is our healing from all that makes us seem less than God created us to be into the joy and fullness of all God intends us to be.)

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By Senior Bishop Lawrence Reddick

This has been a very busy year of crowded schedules – at least from the time of Bishop Umoette’s death on February 26, 2022 through this time in October.  I am looking forward to some respite in the not-so-distant future.

        Yet, I cannot let us go into this voting season without saying something about the importance of voting, of all of us voting, and for voting through all of the offices on the ballot.

        And so, I must ask and answer some question about what I believe God intends for me as a Christian to be doing when I vote in a democracy.  (And the key words are, “in a democracy.”)

        I will say what might surprise you:  I am not a Christian nationalist … if that word means that I believe everything about the nation I live in must be Christian.  What I believe is that God wants me, in a democractic system, to make this democracy open to believers of different faiths, and to protect the rights of individuals to practice their faiths (even if different from my own).  For the security of a place to practice the Christian faith in a democracy requires me fighting the right of every believer of every stripe to have a security of place to practice his or her faith.

        Let me use an old anecdote.  I grew up in public schools beginning with first grade in 1958, so I can say that from 1958 through 1970 almost every class knew what it was for the teacher to start the day with prayer and Scriptures.  The church era I grew up in resisted the fact that someone could go to the Courts and advocate against prayer in schools.  Our teachers then were predominantly Christian.  But I am not convinced we ever looked seriously in those days of the 1960s to see what “prayer in the schools” was going to look like when our teachers began to be not only Christian, but Muslim, and Jewish, and Bahai and other faiths? 

And there is another part to the question of whether we Christians should have continued to try to force prayer in the schools:  suppose we would have been able to continue to promote prayer in the schools and assure that the prayer in every school would be a Christian prayer rather than an interfaith or other faith prayer; do you believe God would have been pleased with people being forced to pray rather than people responding in love and obedience to God in prayers?

A teacher of mine – Dr Melvin Vulgamore – quoted in his lectures these words he attributed to John Wesley (tonight I am trusting him, not having found the quote for myself, but trusting his fastidious nature about quotes and citations:  “Forced religion stinks in God’s nostrils.”

Yes, children ought to pray in schools, but not because they are forced to; rather, they should pray because we who believe in God have taught them to pray at home and in worship and in Bible study and Sunday School.

By now you may want to say, “What does this have to do with voting?”  And my answer is that we must be on guard because there are groups of people who vote en bloc (as a block) because they have attitudes and positions that are strongly for or against whatever things they believe are not Christian:  against abortion, for capital punishment, against welfare, against any sexual deviation from that which is traditionally understood.  But I ask you, are you so sure that our beliefs on all of these issues are so clearly black or white, never gray, or so clearly “black or white” that we often speaking out of the clarity we have been taught to see or hear … or, God forbid, have been taught to subconsciously read into the Scriptures.

Many of you would tell me that Sodom’s and Gomorrah’s destruction was God’s judgment because God was against homosexuality.  I can see how you can argue that.  But tell me, friend, how can you argue that the same God on the same night that he was punishing homosexuality was in favor of the rape of two women whom the resident of Sodom had put out that night so that the men who wanted to ravish the other male visitors would rape these two young women instead?  Are you so sure of what God is saying about deviant homosexual behavior with one breath that in the same biblical passage you are comfortable being silent about the cruelty that is visited upon others?  In the same passage that carries a message about sexual deviance?

Old Testament Israel was God’s theocracy – a government in which God was ruler.  But there is no theocracy among major nations today.  Even modern-day Israel is not such a government; it, too, like the United States, is a democracy.  And so, I am saying to you that I would not want the rainbow of understandings of the Christian faith to take over this nation in the name of “Christian nationalism” and make it a nation in which Christians fight each other in the names of our differing interpretations of God while in the same breath defying anyone who does not call himself or herself by the name of Christian a place in the government.

If you can’t agree with this statement now, think about it, live, and observe, and learn, for I believe it proves itself true in many of our experiences:  sometimes the nonbeliever or the believer in another faith is closer to being an advocate of the justice God demands of us than some of the people who call themselves Christian.  Yes, and I believe that is obvious when it comes to immigration laws and advocated reforms and in issues of capital punishment and in issues of criminal justice reform; or in something so simple as people who are anti-abortion but also anti-life in their unforgiving “eye for an eye” attitudes that find no place for mercy in the justice system.

But this is about voting, and these questions and thoughts of the previous paragraphs are the reasons I vote the way I vote.  I do not vote for or against a person because of the label “Christian.”  I do not vote for or against a person because of any faith labels.  I try to not vote for or against a person simply because of his or her color.  I vote because I believe this person or that person will do his or her best to be fair and just, has the capacity to do a credible job in the office, and will be an advocate of laws that help society while also realizing that there is a place for mercy.

        And so, I admonish you to do these things which my wife and I plan to do between now and November 8.

1. We plan to go to vote together, and we plan to go on October 24, the first day of early voting in Texas.

2. We plan to study the candidates and their positions on the issues before we go.  We will take some time to search the internet and see what people advocate for or against before we go.

3. We plan to go prepared to be patient and wait a long time.

4. We plan to take notes and mark the names for each candidate for whom we plan to vote so that we do not dilly-dally in uncertainty while we are at the voting machine.

5. Having planned our work, we intend to work and plan and come out of the voting precinct believing we have done a civic duty and a God respecting duty to uphold democracy’s walls. 

An old accountant once said to me:  “Take care of your business, and your business will take care of you.”  I admonish you to hear his words with these adjusted thoughts:  “Take care of democracy, and democracy will take care of you.”  If we give democracy up to any one tradition, any one culture, any one social group, any one race, any one ethnic group, or even any one faith, we may give it up forever, and find ourselves living in an autocratic of some despot leader who cannot be trusted.  “Take care of democracy, and democracy will take care of you.”  VOTE.  PLAN your work, then work your plan.

Senior Bishop Lawrence Reddick

 

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By Senior Bishop Lawrence Reddick

Visiting churches is one thing I like to do – especially on Sunday morning.  Usually I arrive a few minutes late, but I don’t like to be more than 30 minutes late.  (Arriving late, though, can be helpful for seeing the truth of what’s going on.  A bishop does not necessarily see the truth when people know he or she is coming.) 

 

Several years ago (as Presiding Elder), I chose a certain church to visit on Easter Sunday; it was to be a surprise visit to them.  However, when I arrived at 11:00 that morning, no car was in sight.  This was one of the more prominent churches on the Aberdeen-Tupelo District, so I expected to see many people.  What I learned, though, was that they had had Easter Sunrise Service, then breakfast, then went home.  The “surprise” was on me!

 

Since the Annual Conferences, I’ve been surprised at least twice by churches which are closed when I get there.  Every now and then I learn that people have changed their hour of service.  That’s fine.  But oftentimes, when I come upon your worship place and no one is present, I make sure to find the signs to see what it is you advertise.  If you’re worshipping only “on line” but nobody knows by your signs that you are “on line,” you could be missing someone who wants to fellowship with your church.  On my last “surprise,” the sign said “Sunday School 9:30, Morning Worship 11:00.”  And there was no other “sign” that anybody had been there at all that morning.

 

I’m trying hard to say to us that if we want to flourish, people need to be able to count on us to be present.  I won’t go so far as to say that we are “out” of the pandemic, but I believe that, with vaccinations and boosters and masks, we should be able to come together for worship now.  Your community needs your witness.

 

Bishop Lawrence Reddick

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By Senior Bishop Lawrence Reddick

Dear CME Family:

            (This is longer than usual.  I hope you read it when you can read it all.)

As it was with many of you, my spirit was rejoicing on Inauguration Day 2021.

            The first awareness of rejoicing caught me by surprise.  I had arisen, had started to the closet to pull out what I would wear that day.  (Not very hard to do when you’re basically still sheltering in, when going out is not always necessary.)  But as I got to the closet, I noticed my spirit was quietly but surely singing a not-so quiet song: 

“Tell me how did you feel when you –

Come out the wilderness,

Come out the wilderness,

Come out the wilderness;

Tell me how did you feel when you,

Come out the wilderness,

Leanin’ on the Lord?!”

I realized that my body was ahead of my morning consciousness, rejoicing at the new Administration!  And over the next two or three days, I realized I was not alone as I listened to people in prayer who kept telling God, “Thank You!”

            I was grateful to watch the Inauguration, particularly happy to hear the strength in the voice of President Biden, and grateful to see Senator Kamala Harris take the oath of office as the first female, African American and Asian American Vice President.  

Over the next few days, I was thankful to see the pointed rendering of Executive Orders that showed me that the Biden Administration had been carefully charting the course he was setting out on.  You may not have agreed upon every Executive Order, and I may find myself disagreeing with some of the policies – but moreso, I was glad to be back to what seemed like level-headed leadership.  (I respect your right to disagree with my sentiments.)

At some point during these 10 days, I heard the President’s words more than once, as he said that we are “in a battle for the soul of this nation.”  I know many of us speak the language that says we are engaged in spiritual warfare, but I suggest that this warfare is more nuanced that what many of us identify as spiritual warfare between the forces of good and evil or between stark cases of right or wrong.  We are also engaged in battles of political warfare that have forces on opposing sides fortifying their battle lines and praying in the name of the Lord – and not all Christians are on the same side.

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Exodus 14:15 (KJV)

Dear CME Family:

            Disinformation, divisiveness and deception have marked the four years of the Trump Administration and at least the year preceding it as a campaign.  What we saw play out at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 was an outgrowth of that divisive and deceptive rhetoric that had been fueled by at least four years of disinformation.  When by the second day of that Administration, the phrase “alternative facts” began to be spoken by the official spokesperson, we should have been alerted to worse things coming.

            It should be no surprise – after four years of targeted diversions – that we were front and center at such a diversion yesterday.  For four years we have been handed decoys to get our attention off the things that were really happening.  And so, when I hear so many leaders in government today talking about their” shock,” they leave me wondering, where have you been? 

Did you not hear disinformation in the comment coming down the escalator in the Trump Tower announcement of a Trump candidacy when Mexican immigrants were generalized as rapists?

Have you not noticed how there is always a diversion or other alarming event when the serious issues like information on Russia’s efforts to influence the elections (yes, even the 2020 elections) and like our unpreparedness to deal with COVID-19 and even to organize the distribution of the virus come up?

On a day when the Electoral College votes were to be counted, were you surprised that another diversion would arise?

            I do dare say this:  had it been a Black Lives Matter group or a group of Muslims, or a group of Arab-Americans in Washington yesterday, I believe the security forces would not have been unprepared or outnumbered or overwhelmed.  AND I believe more force would have been used.

            But our calling as members of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church is to point our people within and other people without to the authority of God, even in our nation … and the world over, even when we are in crisis.  (But aha!  Even in that statement lies another diversion:  we have been cajoled into thinking “America First” so much these four years that we don’t even see the suffering of the rest of the world as clearly any more.  Here:  I’m so glad I’m on “the list” for the vaccine – but we have CME members in other parts of the world whose countries have no vaccine to get on a list or in a line for!  We are rich, and in our wealth, we are focused on ourselves and become more insensitive to the pleas and needs of other nations.  They are not on our radar!

            When Moses, at the Red Sea, turned to God – with the Egyptians on the heels of the Israelites behind them – God said, “Tell the people to go forward.”

            Yes, we pray through crises; but the time to really pray is before crises.  Yes, we must investigate not only what happened but also what failed to happen yesterday.  And while we are in our moments of shock, now is the time to be alert, to keep preparing, and to stay on focus!

            This past Tuesday – January 5^th – when CME men on the early morning CME Prayer Line were praying (at 6:30 EST), Dr. Ricky Helton (stationed in Washington) prayed for the nation and specifically for security in the Capitol city because of the threatening voices and the noises being made by those who were descending upon the city.  That was Tuesday – the day before yesterday’s events!  So … one of our pastors in Washington was aware enough to pray about it – before it happened; before the crisis.  (And yet, the Capitol police were unprepared for it?  outnumbered?  overwhelmed?  Or could it be they had somehow received a message to “stand down” or “stand aside?”) 

            As life goes on beyond yesterday, we as a church are 17 months from a General Conference.  We need to be (and many of us are) preparing:  preparing our foci for another four years plus; preparing by considering and prayerfully weighing the persons who are offering themselves for church leadership; preparing by asking ourselves (particularly after our sheltering in from the pandemic and discovering in this time altering styles and systems in worship and in polity), “What are our essentials?  What are our core values?  in worship?  in structure?  in mission?  in requirements?”

            And we need to keep focus.  If I am right, yesterday was an intended diversion.  But I kept hearing the voice of a friend, who said to me one night after a heated meeting, and in a calm voice, “Stay focused.”

            And so, Family, I say to you:  Stay focused and go forward.

Senior Bishop Lawrence Reddick

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By Senior Bishop Lawrence Reddick

Dear CME Family:

Four years ago, about this time, I wrote President-Elect Donald Trump to congratulate him on his election as the 45^th President of the United States of America, and to pledge to pray for him.  I had not voted for him, but believed then and now that it is right for Christians in our country to pray for and lift up our leaders.  These have been four difficult years, watching a President who lacked, in my opinion, too little grace too many times.  Often, I have be troubled by his leadership, and I am relieved to see it coming to an end.  Yet, he was elected, he still is our President today, and probably will be until January 20, 2021.  And so, today/tonight I still pray for him.

But I am grateful to acknowledge the President-Elect of these United States for our not-too-distant future, the one who is slated to become our 46^th President on January 20, 2021 – Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.  And I am equally grateful to acknowledge the Vice-President-Elect of these United States, Kamala Devi Harris, a Black woman, yes, but more specifically, a child of immigrants from Jamaican and India.

I lift them to you in this writing to ask that you pray for this Presidential team (if I were in a Catholic Church, I would hear the priest pray this way:  “We pray for our President-Elect, Joseph, and our Vice President-Elect, Kamala.”).  Pray that God will anoint them with the grace and gifts and discernment for the days and decisions ahead of them.

“To everything there is a season ….”

Ecclesiastes 3:1 (KJV)

I also ask us as the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church to remember five things at this propitious time:

1-Remember and teach that every vote counts. 

As “Election Day” became “Election Week,” some of us grew weary, waiting for the “official announcement.”  Yet, I honestly became more and more grateful for the diligence and deliberateness of the process.  I was grateful for secretaries of state and employees and volunteers of the offices in charge of counting ballots, and I was especially appreciative of John King of CNN who, after President Trump said, at about 3 in the morning of November 4^th, that he was “leading” in Pennsylvania and that no more votes needed to be counted, responded with something like this:  “This is an election.  We must count ballots.” 

The process became long, yes, but the methodical ways in which each state counted its own ballots – for example, in one case, election day votes were counted first, absentee ballots second, military ballots and others from overseas third, and provisional ballots fourth – helped me hear that the intent was to make sure every ballot was counted.  And now I have a new way of answering those who say, “My vote doesn’t count!” because this nation proved – in an election broadcast live for at least 5 days, that we are determined to count every vote.

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