Easter and the Tyrannosaurus Rex
April 9, 2023
This is my sermon from Easter Sunday, April 9th, 2023
Introduction
There are some very high and holy moments as a preacher. Ash Wednesday, Christmas Eve, and Easter Sunday. You want to make sure you get every word just right. You do not want to waste a single moment.
So I would like to take a moment and tell you about some scientific views of the Tyrannosaurus that have changed recently. A recent article from the AP was titled Has T. rex lost its bite? Menacing snarl may be wrong.
“The Tyrannosaurus rex is often shown baring massive, sharp teeth, like the ferocious creature in “Jurassic Park.” But new research suggests that this classic image might be wrong.
The teeth on T. rex and other big theropods were likely covered by scaly lips, concludes a study published Thursday in the journal Science. The dinosaur’s teeth didn’t stick out when its mouth was closed, and even in a wide open bite, you might just see the tips, the scientists found.”
As a child who was traumatized by seeing Jurassic Park as a kindergartener, this is really big news. There was one major flaw though. The science was done by a professor at Auburn University in Alabama…
Now, I do not know what this has to do with the sermon. I just wanted you to know about this development.
Why Does the Resurrection Still Matter?
Today, I want us to ask, why does the resurrection still matter today? We heard the Easter story read at the beginning of the service. What happened 2,000 years ago was beautiful, remarkable, and shocking. But what does it matter for Christians today? Is it about nice pictures, egg hunts, or pictures?
The early church was working this out also. One of the leaders of the early church was the Apostle Paul. If you were to do a poll of the followers of Christ asking, “Who is the least likely to convert to Christianity?” I would argue Paul would win it hands down. Even after hearing about Christ’s resurrection Paul went around trying to murder Christians and stop Christianity. But God, in His grace, saves Paul. And Paul becomes a leader, defender, and champion of the church.
As part of Paul’s ministry he wrote letters to church to encourage them.
Today, we are going to look at one portion of a letter where Paul is discussing why the resurrection still matters.
We are going to look at selections of this argument in 1 Corinthians 15 (3-8, 12-14, 51-57)
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
2 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
Death Still Has a Sting
The end of the passage here is usually read at funerals. Death, where is your sting? Paul is most likely remixing a passage from Habakkuk. And let’s be honest. Death still has a bit of a sting for all of us.
Pastor Rick Warren, in the Purpose Driven Life, talks about this:
You have an inborn instinct that songs for immortality. This is because God designed you, in his image, to live for eternity. Even though we know everyone eventually dies, death always seems unnatural and unfair. The reason we feel we should live forever is that God wired our brains with that desire.
Most of us do not want to die or look forward or look forward to the dying process. All of us love to hear we look younger or haven’t aged. Yet, everything in this life is wearing down and dying. That feeling of dread of dying is from God because we are made to last forever.
The good news is that Jesus’ death on the cross and his power over death show us we can enjoy God forever! As one theologian says, “To Christians death is still an enemy, but it is a beaten enemy.”
It is Easy to Forget This
For believers we celebrate this on Easter… yet we also need to remember this each and every day.
One of my favorite stories from a former church was about one of the young ladies in the church as a child. After Easter she enjoyed all her eggs. Her mistake was she left one of her boiled eggs in her bedroom and forgot about it. Several weeks later her mother made the stinky discovery… the forgotten egg made a rotten mess.
This is what happens when we forget… we can make a rotten mess of our lives when we forget what God has done for us. I can make a rotten mess of my own life when I forget what God has done.
How?
O.k. preacher, how can I remember this? How can I live as someone walking in God’s grace?
The first step is to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. It is a simple and easy process to start. It is a beautiful journey for the rest of your life. Romans 10:9 says: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
If you would like to make that decision today, nothing could make me happier. You may also need to rededicate your life to God. You may have made that decision long ago but have not lived like that… today you can reconnect with God.
My other challenge is to consider the rhythms of your life. Having a regular rhythm of scripture reading, devotions, and church are helpful.
We would love for you to come back next week for the start of the Video Game Fever series or mark your calendar for vacation Bible school.
Conclusion
Friends, today is a day of Good News. Christ the Lord is Risen. As Paul says, “Our Labor is not in vain.” Death is an enemy. Still scary, yes. But you have a God who loves you and cares deeply for you. That will be with you even in your death…
Death is a lot like a T-Rex… it is very menacing. I would never want to encounter one… but maybe a T-rex is not as scary as we once thought.
Happy Easter.
ChatGPT on the Challenges Facing the Global Methodist Church
March 23, 2023
I asked ChatGPT to write me an article on the challenges facing the Global Methodist Church.
What is Chat GPT?
Here is what a CBS News Article Said:
“ChatGPT is designed to understand and generate human-like text. It’s been trained on a massive amount of data, including books and websites. A person can ask it questions, seek advice, or simply have a casual conversation with it. Right now, Chat GPT—short for generative pre-trained transformer—is exploding in popularity because anyone can use it. Also, it can answer almost any question. For example, a person could use it to write press releases, legal briefs, or to complete homework assignments.”
So here were a couple of Chat GPT responses I put together:
The Essay
The Global Methodist Church (GMC) is a newly formed denomination that split from the United Methodist Church in 2021. As with any new organization, the GMC faces several challenges:
- Establishing a new identity: The GMC will need to differentiate itself from the United Methodist Church and establish a clear identity and vision for the future.
- Building a strong organizational structure: The GMC will need to create a strong organizational structure that can effectively govern the denomination and support its ministries and missions.
- Attracting and retaining members: The GMC will need to attract new members and retain existing ones, which may be challenging in a religious landscape that is becoming increasingly diverse and competitive.
- Managing finances: The GMC will need to manage its finances effectively to support its ministries and missions and ensure the sustainability of the denomination.
- Building relationships with other denominations: The GMC will need to establish relationships with other denominations and determine how to work collaboratively with them on issues of common concern.
- Addressing diversity: The GMC has a diverse membership, with differing theological beliefs and cultural backgrounds, and must find ways to respect and integrate these differences while maintaining a clear identity and sense of unity.
- Addressing social issues: The GMC must address social issues in a way that is faithful to its beliefs while also being responsive to the needs and concerns of its members and the broader community.
- Adapting to changing contexts: The GMC must be flexible and adaptable to changing social, cultural, and political contexts while staying true to its theological beliefs and identity.
Overall, the GMC faces significant challenges as it seeks to establish itself as a viable and effective denomination in the global religious landscape. However, with careful planning, strong leadership, and a commitment to its mission and vision, the GMC has the potential to thrive and make a positive impact on the world.
Conclusion
What do you think? Does Chat GPT have an accurate view on the challenges facing the Global Methodist Church? I see it said the GMC started in 2021 when in reality it was founded in 2022. Anything else you find interesting?
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What will the future of Methodism and the Global Methodist Church have in store for the rest of 2023?
I would like to take a moment and share some topics which may be given clarity over the next several months.
Let Me Be Clear
Let me be clear, this is not a criticism of the Transitional Leadership Council or our Bishops. They have done an amazing job of working incredibly hard to get a new denomination up and running. This also is not an attempt to pressure anyone to make decisions any quicker than they feel led.
I also want to highlight that this is a conversation about larger church administration. While we still have important work to do in the wider arena, I celebrate that we have hundreds of churches and thousands of Methodists who are disciples of Jesus Christ who worship passionately, love extravagantly, and witness boldly. We have provisional annual conferences on four different continents.
We have men and women clergy who are appropriately credentialed, have health insurance and pensions. We have pastors who are “responsible for ensuring that members are cared for by implementing a discipleship process focused on helping members to ‘go on to perfection’ by loving God with all of their heart, mind, soul, and strength, and by loving their neighbor as themselves. They are charged with equipping all the members of a congregation to be in ministry by meeting people at their point of need and offering them Jesus.”
We have significant governance with our Transitional Book of Doctrine and Discipline with accountability from the Transitional Leadership Council and our Presidents Pro Tempore (acting in similar roles of bishops).
The larger church work to be done should not keep us from singing praises to the Lord for the great things happening.
Sneak Peak
Even with all the mission and ministry happening, there are some important chores we need to do before our first convening conference. I am looking forward to clarity around these areas.
#1 Convening Conference Date and Location
At some point there will be a historic convening conference in which delegates representing all the Global Methodist Church from around the world will come together. Much is still to be decided about this conference. I have not seen any clear confirmation on the date (please correct me if I am wrong).
During an interview on Dr. Sterling Allen’s Show Thursday Night Live transitional connectional officer Rev. Keith Boyette said, “we won’t be in a place to hold the convening general conference most likely until the spring of 2025.”1 However, there are others hoping for a 2024 date.
I would like to humbly offer up Glennville, Georgia as the location for the convening conference.
A more serious possibility are cities with international airports to help our overseas brothers and sisters. It is also not outside the realm of possibility that we could hold the convening conference outside of the United States as a way of cementing the global nature of our church.
#2 Annual Conference Sizes and/or Geography
How large will an annual conference be? Will the size of the annual conference be measured by geography, number of churches, number of members or some sort of combination of the three.
This would be helpful to know for administrative purposes. If a transitional annual conference wants to expand or pair up with another conference how would they accomplish this? On the other hand, if an annual conference needs more episcopal oversight how could that be accomplished? Would there be room to appoint an auxiliary bishop to assist an area with a bishop already? Would a conference need to split if it needs more episcopal leadership?
#3 The Role of Bishops
The role of bishops is ongoing. I’ve been impressed with all the interviews I have seen with our bishops so far. I thought Bishop Webb was candid in an interview with John Lomperis:
“One thing I think that Bishop [Scott] Jones, Bishop [Emeritus Mike] Lowry, and I all agree on is that we are not interested in continuing a royal episcopacy. We believe that the role of Bishop, the role of the episcopacy [in] the Global Methodist Church, must be first and foremost a model of servant leadership. And then it needs to be a model where Bishops…defend the faith, cast vision for the church, and come alongside others to help equip them […] to be a part of what God’s already doing uh in their lives. And helping to stir up the gifts that the Holy Spirit has already placed within them to carry out the mission in this transitional time.
You know I keep reminding folks that the convening conference will have a conversation about the role of the episcopacy. The convening conference of the GMC will take what is in the transitional book of doctrines and disciplines, they will add to it, they’ll delete from it [and] they’ll keep some of it the same. So I think the nature of the episcopacy is yet to be fully formed or shaped in the global Methodist church. I’m fully aware that you know in this season all I can focus on […] and I think our commitment as Bishops right now is to try to help lay foundation and groundwork for the things that we want to see move forward moving forward initially and in this season.”2
In Multiplying Methodism Rev. Dr. Jeff Greenway and Bishop Mike Lowery lay down some admiral aspirations:
“We strongly recommend a redefinition of the episcopacy from that of institutional maintenance and leadership–to reclaiming the teaching office of the church… the role of Bishop in the Global Methodist Church will be primarily spiritual–teaching the faith, ordaining clergy, and fixing appointments–but the operational leadership of the more temporal affairs will be delegated to a Connectional Operating Officer.”3
Rev. Dr. David F Watson has nine powerful revisions to the office of Bishop in his Firebrand Article “A Spirit of Governance”: On Bishops in the Global Methodist Church.
In his third point Watson says, “we should not conceive of bishops primarily as managers. We should not hobble them with unending bureaucratic responsibilities. Rather, we should conceive of bishops as pastors, evangelists, and defenders of the faith. The bishop is an office within the order of elders, and the Spirit of governance God pours out upon bishops is for the church’s spiritual care. Let business managers handle business. Let attorneys handle the law. Let bishops lead the church in word, sacrament, and order.”4
#4 The Election of Bishops
The process for electing bishops is still not clear. In the former denomination the elections happened in the jurisdictional (regional) conferences.
Again from Multiplying Methodism the argument is made:
“We recommend the elimination of jurisdictional conferences (which are the residue of institutional racism and the source of the move to regionalized expressions of faith in the United Methodist Church), and that bishops be elected at the General Conference. We recommended bishops be elected for a maximum 12-year term, and if the bishop is not of retirement age, their title is ‘Bishop Emeritus’ when their term ends, and they return to serve a local church.”5
Election at the General Conference is a fascinating possibility. Will there be time to approve the process of electing bishops and have elections in the same convening conference?
#5 The Election of Delegates to the Convening Conference
The process for electing delegates to the convening conference needs to be formalized. It could be as simple as the Transitional Leadership Council asking each conference to develop their plan. However, there will need to be a way to determine how many delegates each area gets.
In conclusion, I have full confidence in our leadership structure in the GMC. We certainly have a firm foundation laid. The future is bright and will only get better as we get clarity on these topics.
***
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Footnotes
1 Global Methodist Church Thursday Night Live. GMC Thursday Night Live State of the Church 2022 with Rev. Dr. Sterling Allen & Rev. Keith Boyette. Youtube. Rev. Dr. Allen, Sterling. Posted November 17, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFjXkU3pQgc
2 The IRD. Global Methodist Bishop Mark Webb interview with John Lomperis. Youtube. Lomperis, John. Posted January 18th, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVuHVm_fzhM&t=1045s
3 Greenway, Jeffrey E., and Mike Lowry. Multiplying Methodism: A Bold Witness of Wesleyan Faith at the Dawn of the Global Methodist Church. 313 Publishing, 2022. p.111-112
4 Watson, David F. “‘A Spirit of Governance’: On Bishops in the Global Methodist Church.” Firebrand Magazine, Jan. 2023, https://firebrandmag.com/articles/a-spirit-of-governance-on-bishops-in-the-global-methodist-church?rq=bishop.
5 Greenway, Jeffrey E., and Mike Lowry. Multiplying Methodism: A Bold Witness of Wesleyan Faith at the Dawn of the Global Methodist Church. 313 Publishing, 2022. p.111
David Donnan 