MY LEGACY

MY LEGACY

My mother was a life long teacher and learner. Through United Methodist Women and otherwise, she did a great deal of reading. For years, she participated in the School of Christian Mission sponsored by United Methodist Women, which was recently renamed “Mission U”.

I developed the same habit or tradition, attending such schools as provided in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest Conference. One time I was asked to be a teacher of a class on Christian Social Concerns. One of the students was a person who did not agree with some of my public positions on legislative issues and she took the course with one purpose: “To try and understand why I did what I had done in the political arena of the State of Alaska”. This turned out to be very useful because I eventually became her pastor and she was able to handle that with what I would call a sense of maturity and respect, all because of her decision to try and understand where I was coming from theologically and biblically. Thank you, School of Christian Mission, now Mission U.

While I lived in Alaska and while my mother was still alive, we developed the pattern of writing letters to each other on Saturday evenings. It was a great way to maintain contact and enabled us to share thoughts at a deeper level than occasional phone calls. That opportunity and experience was something I cherished at the time.

I learned a lot about her and she learned a lot about me. My father, on the other hand, was not as comfortable with my life and work, fearing for my life when I took on the “principalities and powers” in various situations. He did not accept the fact that I was just following his example.

Mother would share what she was reading and I would share what I was reading. I miss that in many ways and I am finding that no one in the next two generations are interested in such things. But that is another story. If anyone was interested, I would let them know what I am reading and experiencing in life, even in retirement.

As my own theology has shifted (and hopefully grown), there have been many factors. For years I said that I would focus on interfaith issues when I retired. But that happened earlier when I was asked to teach a college course on “Religions of the World” at Sheldon Jackson College. To prepare for that experience, I did a massive amount of reading on that subject. Got it done before retirement.

In retirement, I have participated in a lot of small group studies, based on books by various contemporary theologians and pastors. For years I said that I wanted to write a book on the subject of universal salvation, a concept that has become very important to my belief system. I did preach it in my last four churches. In fact, a dear friend at the first of those four churches came up to me after one of my sermons and said: “John, we all agree with you. Why don’t you move on to another subject.” Ah, the honesty of family and friends.

But lots of people don’t agree with me. So it is helpful to find others who have lived life and come to the same conclusions that I have reached. In fact, two persons have written a book on this subject that is so good, that I will no longer have to write my book. They have done it for me.  The book is: “If Grace Is True: Why God Will Save Every Person” by Philip Gulley (Quaker minister) and James Mulholland (United Methodist and American Baptist).

Once I started preaching this theology, I found that lots of people agreed with me. The first one was an eighty year old woman visiting in Hana, Maui, Hawaii, when I was a one month (March, 1981) pastor there. She shook my hand at the door and said something like: “Young man, you just preached me back into the church.” I never looked back from that point on, though I didn’t shake up my Presbyterian friends in Nome, as I was too close to the end of my time there to work it through with anyone.

East Anchorage handled it well, the folks at Sitka thought “some new ideas would be good for them” so they didn’t veto my coming there and Manito in Spokane eventually got a three sermon series that I published without any kick back.  However, when I came to Stanwood, there was a group that resisted my preaching to the point that they became Free Methodists. But at least I knew they were listening. My views were present in the early church (first 500 years after Jesus), but they were suppressed, some times violently.  Boy, was I born in the right era!  Thanks mother Bernice and father George and God.

As I am writing this in 2015,  I would recommend several books to anyone who wishes to have more understanding of the issues surrounding this theology.

Recommended reading:  “A People’s History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story” by Diana Bulter Bass.  She is also the author of “Christianity for the Rest of Us”.  Dr. Diana Butler Bass started out as a Methodist, but is now an Episcopalian.

And if you want to get right to the bottom of the issues and decisions facing modern Christians, try “Permission Granted: Take the Bible into Your Own Hands” by Jennifer Grace Bird.  Part of the glory of this book is that Jennifer was raised with other views and came to her positions through intensive study. She didn’t think women should be pastors, based on what she thought the Bible says, even though her own mother is one. She no longer holds that viewpoint.

Oh, lots of people disagree with me. Some easily assign millions of people to the fires of hell because they just happen to belong to other faith groups than that of Christianity.  Actually, there are some Christians who assign everyone to hell that does not happen to be their brand of Christian. That position has probably caused more people to reject Christianity than any other factor. I have tried to do my part, but my platform has been so small. And the ocean is so very big.

Just to be clear. I believe in hell.  But my position is that it is empty.  Thanks be to God.  Happy Reading. If you know how to reach me, I would even be glad to give you a copy of the book I could have written, given enough time. But Gulley and Mulholland wrote it for me.

written 10/29/20 (midst of the coronavirus pandemic).  As far as living beyond this life is concerned, I don’t have strong expectations.  Whatever happens, happens.  As I have said in the past:  “This is God’s decision, not mine.  God has to have something to do.”    Perhaps something exists beyond this life.  If so, perhaps it is absorbed back into what we refer to as “God”.  

As far as God being in control, that idea disappeared for many people during the “holocaust” in Europe prior to and during World War II.  The idea gives comfort to a lot of people.  It doesn’t give comfort to me.  

I participated briefly in a theology group in the year 2000 and one pastor wrote: “Doctrines are to be honored and are important.  No one can know the full mind and heart of God. Our categories of thought, as human beings, simply cannot know the full truth of God. To try and claim such knowledge is to limit God’s vast power and wisdom.”

I introduced myself to this group with these words (edited a wee bit to update details of my life to the current time of 2020).

“United Methodist elder, having served five years in the Central Illinois Conference, 33 years in the Alaska Missionary Conference and thirteen years in the Pacific Northwest Conference, for a total of 51 years.

One of my reflections in ministry is that I have never had the privilege of serving a church that could be described as growing. I considered it an accomplishment to keep even statistically in most places. For my style of ministry has repelled some people (they either withdraw or leave), while at the same time attracting others. It all comes out more or less even in most places.

I just had a couple who believes in “exclusion” leave my current church because they didn’t like my inclusive theology and four individuals started attending because they are attracted by my inclusive theology. In this case, they made a point of telling me this, perhaps because they knew I was “under some duress” because of my preaching.

In my earlier years of ministry I was known as being outspoken on some social issues, which caused some interesting relationships. At Kenai (Alaska) it was gambling and communism which attracted some attention. (I am not a communist, but Methodism was being accused of being soft on the subject and I attempted to defend Methodism.) Then at Chugiak I built on the communist theme by attacking the John Birch Society publicly, as well as running for election to the State House of Representatives as a Republican (an action for which I repent: not running, but the Republican part). At Juneau, I was involved in the anti-Vietnam War movement through Clergy and Laity Concerned and worked as a lobbyist in the legislature (on my day’s off) with a focus on issues upon which the legislature was divided. That was the hottest when I was one of five pastors in Alaska who spoke out on the issue of abortion, working for a liberalization of the laws that were then on the books. When life took me to Nome, I worked to close down the bars, which tended to polarize some of the citizens, including some of my inactive church members. The active ones prayed for my safety! (It worked, as I am still alive! The Wesley hymn on that subject had special meaning for me for three years.)

After being told by the district superintendent and the bishop that I was “unappointable” to another church in Alaska, I went to East Anchorage and Sitka and mostly behaved mysef. I changed my method of operation and used personal money to influence issues, instead of my name. My reputation as a flaming radical modified in some circles, but in 1981 I started being more honest about my theology from the pulpit ad that, coupled with my entry into discussion about human sexuality, still causes some to leave the churches where I was blessed to be.

Based on several experience, I have re-claimed my beliefs in the “universal salvation” of Jesus Christ for the whole creation and for those who like to think that for some reason God only saves those of the Christian faith, my theology is not well received. There are many words that are helpful in my own journey. The most recent one being that it is not the Christian Church which saves people, but it is the Christ that does the saving. Some times Christ does that in the Christian Church, perhaps in spite of some of us.

I am currently serving a congregation with the reputation of being conservative, but recently I learned that the ratio is about 95% to 5%, but the five percent has dominanted. I shared from the pulpit my belief that the significance of Christ covers ALL, regardless of several factors, including sexual orientation and I was overwhelmed at the positive response of the congregation. Many more affirm an inclusive Christ than do an exclusive Christ. So, right or wrong, I persevere, at least for a little while.

I am in the position right now where I am secure financially, which means I would make more money retired than I am making working. So as long as I enjoy working, why retire? (Update: three dominant families left the church, but the congregation recovered financially in one year.) In one year, the church went from being a conservative church to becoming a progressive church.

In retirement I have no significant platform, but I continue to read and think and write sermons that may never be preached.