Pastor's Corner

The Untied Methodist, which has been the title of my “pastor articles” throughout my ministry, was originally a sermon title at the very first parish I served. “Untied” was intended to have two meanings: 1) that as a young, inexperienced pastor I often felt like an untied shoe—apt to slip off suddenly on uncertain ground or trip someone up on more solid ground, and 2) to celebrate the freedom we have in Christ, who is not only our Savior but also our Liberator…“For freedom Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1, NRSV). Funnily enough, the lady who made the bulletins corrected my “misspelling” and changed the sermon title to The United Methodist. It was just another example of how any of us might become untied at any moment.

What I couldn’t have anticipated all those years ago was that the day would come when I would actually become untied from a church. But that time has come; by the end of this month Belmont United Methodist Church will have become Belmont Community Church of Johnstown, and I will continue as a pastor in The United Methodist Church. I’ll be untied from Belmont, and from several other churches I have served in the past who are also disaffiliating. I’m finding it painful. But there is solace in Christ, as there always is.

Our denominational affiliation may be untied, but it isn’t denominations which bind together the Body of Christ. Paul offered the Colossians this counsel: “Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (3:14, NRSV). In commenting on that verse in his Notes on the New Testament, John Wesley says: “The love of God contains the whole of Christian perfection, and connects all the parts of it together.” No matter how the world and the flesh may try to untie us, the love of God will continue to unite us!

Let’s remember together that love “is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (First Corinthians 13:4-7, NRSV) and, significantly, verse 8a: “Love never ends”.

Grace and Shalom!

Rev. Rob