Reflections on Our Worldwide Connection
“And God said, let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness…So God created human beings in God’s own image, in the image of God, God created them.”
At the beginning of a meeting in 2018 at the General Board of Global Ministries with the leaders of the National Ethnic Plans[1], I gave a devotional that focused on God’s vision for a worldwide church. The Rev. Fred Shaw, Shawnee storyteller and United Methodist pastor, followed my devotional with a traditional, indigenous prayer. His prayer started with a story. I asked his permission to share it.
When God created the world, God thought the world into being. But God said, “There is nothing of me in pure thought.” So, God took out God’s own heart and broke it into four pieces and tossed it to the four winds. Every place where a piece of God’s heart fell, people came into being. God told the people that they were to learn from the place from which they had come and from each other. And when they had learned the wisdom of that place and of their sisters and brothers, God would gather all of the people from the four winds. They would share their collective wisdom in community, and God’s heart would be restored.
As I have reflected on this story, I am reminded of the scriptural affirmation in Genesis, that we are made in the image of God. Not just in the image of God’s thinking: we are made in the image of God’s heart. But God’s heart has been tossed to the four corners of the earth. It cannot be restored until we come together to share our collective wisdom and the wisdom of our respective places.
A statement in our Discipline notes that United Methodists throughout the world are “…bound together in a connectional covenant.”
Integrally holding connectional unity and local freedom, we seek to proclaim and embody the gospel in ways responsible to our specific cultural and social context while maintaining “a vital web of interactive relationships” (¶132).” The United Methodist Book of Discipline, ¶125, P. 95
Embodying the gospel in ways responsible to local and cultural context requires learning the wisdom of a place and of a people in that place. Maintaining a vital web of interactive relationships requires learning from each other and from the collective wisdom of our communities. In our coming together and in the sharing of our wisdom, we restore God’s heart. We reflect the image of God’s being in our connectional unity.
That connectional unity was on display at the meeting in Atlanta. Twenty-plus United Methodists--who were Korean, Philippino, German, Native American, Anglo, Hispanic, African American, Pacific Islander, Indian, and more--sat around a table envisioning the future of the national plans. Some of our discussion focused on whether the plans should continue to call themselves “national.” Indeed, we all envisioned the future of our church in a greater embrace of our worldwide identity.
A Prayer for Our Worldwide Connection
God of the four winds and of every corner of creation, help us learn from the earth and from the places where we are planted. Gather us in community so that we might share our collective wisdom. Make your heart whole in and through our connection so that we might more fully reflect you. Amen.
Kennetha J. Bigham-Tsai
October 16, 2018
[1] The National Plans for Strengthening Racial Ministries include the Hispanic/Latino Ministry Plan, the Korean Ministry Plan, Strengthening of the Black Church for the 21st Century, the Comprehensive Plan for Pacific Island United Methodists, the Native American Comprehensive Plan, and the Asian American Language Ministry.
Originally published at umc.org. The version above has been updated.