Thursday morning, I walked to the Charlotte Convention Center. In the predawn light, you could hear the birds singing their songs of praise. On Wednesday, I was privileged to be on the floor voting as The General Conference of the United Methodist Church made history by removing the harmful exclusionary language. We now properly declare all person’s sacred worth without any qualifiers. It was a 93% vote, representing the spoken and unspoken desire of delegates from Africa and other parts of the world along with Traditionalists to allow churches like Belmont to be the congregation we believe God is calling us to be.   Some people set aside their personal understandings for the unity the of church. After 52 years, we have ended the mislabeling of some of God’s children as somehow less. I had the privilege of being a seated delegate when we took that historic vote and for the next 20 minutes I  could not stop weeping.  I do know if I shed tears of joy for our future or wept tears of lament for our past, or a mix of both. But the next day, as I walked up a little hill I could see these 12 foot banners preaching  “Welcome.” That day the banners preached welcome in a way we have not since 1972.

Along with the bird’s songs I could hear Dolly Parton singing 

I can see the light of a clear blue morning 

I can see the light of brand new day 

I can see the light of a clear blue morning 

Ooh, everything’s gonna be all right … It’s gonna be okay

“Everything’s gonna be all right … It’s gonna be okay.”  It is always going to be all right, no matter where we find ourselves, because God is with us, but praise God we are stepping into a clearer, brighter new day .

Love always brings clarity.  Today, our love song comes from 1 John reminding us that God’s very nature is love.

 Dear friends, let’s love each other, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born from God and knows God. The person who doesn’t love does not know God, because God is love. 

Dear friends, if God loved us this way, we also ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. If we love each other, God remains in us and God’s love is made perfect in us…  God remains in us and we remain in God. We have known and have believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who remain in love remain in God and God remains in them. 

Over the past 11 days, we worked our way through over a thousand proposed amendments or additions to the Book of Discipline and the Book of Resolutions, along with numerous reports and passing our budget.  There was enough love in the room.  I wish you could have  seen the locking dedication of our 750 delegates, who gave of their prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness, in 10 hour sessions, and for some delegates more meetings at lunch and late into the evening. 

At times people reduce the United Methodist Church to a set of rules, beliefs or resolutions, but the General Church just like our local church is not made up of rules but of people. Jesus said “you are the light of the world” Paul said “you are the body of Christ and members with each other” (Matt 5 & 1 Cor12). This week people from all over the world came together with respect, Love, and translation devices  to transform the world. Like any local church, the general conference prayed together  (there is even a standing rule for prayer), sang together, wept together, discerned together and rejoiced together.  We heard amazing sermons during worship- today’s sermon  borrows heavily from our bishop’s preaching! 

Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC)  called us to live into God’s deep call for unity and peace. “God’s forgiveness is all about love. Suffering love! Forgiving love! reconciling love! We cannot say that we love God and hate our brothers and sisters. The love of God forgives us and prompts us to forgive others and to embrace others who are different from us. 

In the South African experience after apartheid, there was the call for forgiveness and reconciliation. The ability of those who have been wronged to forgive their oppressors and offenders is no easy task. Forgiveness is complex. The process of forgiveness is recognizing that we cannot change the event itself, but we can change the meaning we give to the event. Thus, victims are often unwilling to let go of the emotional tags associated with the hurt, bitterness, vengefulness, and hatred toward the perpetrators.

In the quest for reconciliation and unity, forgiveness becomes an essential point of departure. Forgiveness is an important part of reconciliation. You can forgive someone and still refuse to be reconciled with them; but to seek reconciliation, forgiveness is necessary. 

Following the example of Christ’s love, churches ought to help people to be brought into spaces to forgive, be forgiven, and seek reconciliation. The love of Christ reconciles a lost and broken world, not only to God but to the whole creational order which is renewed by the sacrifice of Christ.”

So as the church removed harmful language by 76% and 93% votes, what is next? As an RMN church could our next steps move us towards reconciliation? Before we adjourned on that historic  Wednesday, Helen Ryde, our RMN SEJ representative, called us to make a gracious space for disaffiliating churches to find their way back home to the UMC. Helen proclaimed, “there are no closed doors in the Kingdom of God”.  A tireless champion for full inclusion stood holding open the door saying “come home” to those who have spoken all manner of evil against her. Helen’s speech reminded the global gathering of  God’s radical grace. Praise God, there are no closed doors in the Kingdom of God.  

This week we opened a door closed since 1972. What does this open door mean? What does it now mean to be a reconciling congregation? If the work of reconciliation was the work of the church after apartheid was overturned or closer to home as Jim Crow legally died in 1964, then surely the work of reconciliation is before us today.  We rejoice that so many delegates from around the world came together to end the harmful language with supermajority votes for inclusion. However, some of my good friends go back to churches that endured close disaffiliation votes and other delegates return home to nations who do not rejoice with us. 

Dear friends, let’s love each other, because love is from God, 

and everyone who loves is born from God and knows God. 

God is love. 

If we love each other, 

God remains in us and

God’s love is made perfect in us… 

God is love, 

and those who remain in love 

remain in God 

and God remains in us. 

Belmont’s and my dear friend Rev. Jefferson Furtado on Wednesday shared : Today, our General Conference has made significant changes to the Book of Discipline. We have arrived in this place after decades of debates, divisions, and pain. You may remember that in the aftermath of the 2019 General Conference, we experienced a painful season of disaffiliation. Now, our General Conference has moved in a different direction by removing language regarding homosexuality from our Book of Discipline. While this shift will bring joy to some, it will raise concerns for others. Yet, In this moment, it is worth remembering that central to our identity as United Methodists is the recognition that we journey together in mission and service, but each congregation lives in a unique context that reflects the many facets of God’s grand vision for all creation. And only through unity can we weave the beautiful mosaic embodying the full and diverse reality of God’s kingdom. Only in our unity do we construct the vivid tapestry of God’s desired reality for us.” 

When Chirst’s Love remains in us it heals us, perfects us, so that Love becomes who we are. 

Bishop Karen Oliveto preached Monday, “Jesus knows our tendency to bring to break relationship with God and others. So Christ makes it very clear that all the laws boil down to just two, and what are they? Love God and love others as yourself.  Jesus then gives us the perfect object lesson in Matthew 25, Just as you did it to the least of those who are members of my family, you did it to me. Jesus makes a claim that we are to receive one another, treat one another, serve one another, love one another as if we are serving Christ.  We need to see the Image of God in each person, (then she offered the tougher medicine) not just in the people who look like us, who talk like us, who think like us, who love like us, who believe like us.” 

Love is not sugary, sweet infatuation love, or a careless giving away of our hearts or power, but love l is a power that moves us into deep mutual relationships with one another. We give ourselves to one another in acts of justice, equity,  forgiveness, and reconciliation. 

What does it mean to be a reconciling church today? We closed GC with a constitutional amendment naming some of that work:  “Racism opposes God’s law, goodness, and love and diminishes the image of God in each person. Fueled by white privilege, white supremacy, and colonialism, the sin of racism has been a destructive scourge on global society and throughout the history of The United Methodist Church. It continues to destroy our communities, harm persons, obstruct unity, and undermine God’s work in this world. Racism must be eradicated. Therefore, The United Methodist Church commits to confronting and eliminating all forms of racism, racial inequity, colonialism, white privilege, and white supremacy, in every facet of its life and in society at large.” We have work to do!

We rejoice but know there is much work to do, reconciling work, anti-racism work, anti-colonialism work. This work is not only legislative work- but it is the work of dialogue and love so that hearts and minds might become more united, inclusive, welcoming and forgiving. 

We rejoice in all the good work we achieved this past week, even as we remember the pain of 1972 and 2019. The pain may linger and that is okay. We did harm for 52 years. I am unsure if my tears on Wednesday flowed from hope or lament, but either way God’s perfect love woos us towards the healing power of forgiveness, reconciliation and unity.  

Let us rejoice, shouting welcome  from our roof tops. Let us celebrate with songs and praise that after 52 years in our beloved United Methodist Church “all means all”. Then let us take a deep breath so we can drink in the joy and get back to work reconciling the world to the love of Jesus. 

I want to close my sermon today with the benediction Bishop Tracy Smith Malone closed the general conference.  

“As you go, as you go forth from this place, tell the world about Jesus. As you go, tell them about God’s love as you go: be love, be joy, be peace,be patient, be kind, be good, be faithful, be gentle, be the body of Christ. As you go, be still and know that God is God and that God can be trusted. Let us walk together beloved of God and let us never grow weary or tired of doing the work of the kingdom. Amen”.