{"id":1098,"date":"2012-05-03T11:32:59","date_gmt":"2012-05-03T18:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/gc2012\/?p=1098"},"modified":"2012-05-03T11:34:33","modified_gmt":"2012-05-03T18:34:33","slug":"how-long","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/how-long\/","title":{"rendered":"How Long?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Submitted by the Rev. Cara Scriven*<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I write with a heavy heart. \u00a0Earlier in the week, the Conference debated whether Paul\u2019s statement \u201cnothing can separate us from the love of God\u201d was accurate.\u00a0 And then today, we not only voted not to be inclusive but we also would not affirm a statement that said we disagreed.<\/p>\n

Eleven years ago, I chose to be United Methodist.\u00a0 I have come to love this church, our theology, and the people.\u00a0 And today, my heart breaks.\u00a0 My heart breaks for the church, for those who have been excluded.\u00a0 And while, I should be writing my sermon this morning, the words of the psalmist are all I have:<\/p>\n

How long? How long, O Lord?
\nHow long before we as a church will unite as the body of Christ?
\nHow long before we accept you created us all?
\nHow long will you hide your Spirit from us?
\nHow long will we be left to our own reasons,
\nOur own petitions,
\nOur own desires?<\/p>\n

How long do we have to wait?
\nHow long will my heart break?
\nHow long will your creation be continually hurt?
\nDaily?
\nAnother year?
\nAnother decade?
\nHow long, O Lord?
\nHow long will we disagree?<\/p>\n

Lord God, look at me!
\nLook at us!\u00a0 We cry out!
\nAnswer us!
\nGive us sight to our eyes!
\nHelp us see the moving of the Spirit!
\nHelp us to see the Hope,
\nThe hope of Jesus,
\nThe hope of Resurrection.<\/p>\n

Otherwise,
\nI will give up.
\nI will leave the church.
\nI will create the division.
\nAnd I will choose death.<\/p>\n

And my friends,
\nMy colleagues,
\nYour beautiful creation,
\nWith whom I disagree,
\nWill say,
\n\u201cWe have won!\u201d
\nand rejoice over my downfall.<\/p>\n

And yet,
\nI still trust in you, O Lord.
\nI rejoice in your salvation,
\nIn the hope of resurrection.
\nAnd I will sing your praises,
\nAll the days of my life.<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n

*The Rev. Cara Scriven is pastor at Redmond United Methodist Church in Redmond, Washington.<\/em><\/p>\n

Photo of artwork taken at General Conference 2012 on Thursday, May 3, 2012 by Patrick Scriven.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Submitted by the Rev. Cara Scriven* I write with a heavy heart. \u00a0Earlier in the week, the Conference debated whether Paul\u2019s statement \u201cnothing can separate us from the love of God\u201d was accurate.\u00a0 And then today, we not only voted not to be inclusive but we also would not affirm a statement that said we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":1099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1098","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-conversation"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/acceptance.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-hI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1098"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1104,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098\/revisions\/1104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}