wfn.org | Bishop Martinez urges delegates to 'cross boundaries'

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

CLEVELAND (UMNS) - United Methodists must cross boundaries, live in bigger
boxes and experience their own unique gifts without being blinded to those
of others, a bishop told the church's top legislative assembly May 11.

"We are not whole without the gifts of others," said Bishop Joel N. Martinez
of the church's Nebraska Area. "Have we not been experiencing the tender
mercies and the tension of God's diverse family?"

Martinez preached during morning worship, as the 992 delegates to General
Conference prepared for another day of work. The delegates are meeting May
2-12 to adopt resolutions and act on legislative matters for the
denomination. 

In his sermon, the bishop pointed to the examples of Mother Teresa and the
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., asking, "Why do we claim people like those and
others who are very different from us in race, in vocation? They belong to
all of God's people because they crossed boundaries."

Those boundaries were not political boundaries. Their ministries were in
specific places to specific callings, yet "they showed us a larger world ...
beyond the walls and barriers," he said.

Referring to his work with the church's National Plan for Hispanic
Ministries for the last five years, Martinez talked about his efforts to be
supportive and the gifts he received through the "stories of the faithful
and courageous" in the faith. 

"We need to love and appreciate and dare to venture beyond the boundaries,"
Martinez said. 

He called delegates to participate fully as members of the one covenant
family where social, political, racial and sexual categories do not diminish
worth. 

He illustrated his point with the story of how his poor, immigrant
grandmother came to the church.

"Somebody loved the promises of the gospel more than secure and comfortable
social circumstance," he said. "Somebody in the late 1870s crossed the
boundaries to reach my grandmother. She was fully a member of the body of
Jesus Christ. She believed in Jesus Christ. She was blessed by the church,
but the church was also blessed by my grandmother. She gave this church a
compassion to weep and laugh with poor people; she shared the realities of
cultural ways."

The service began with music by the Agape Children's Handbell Choir from the
Agape Methodist Church in Parnu, Estonia, and the singing of Estonian hymns.

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   -- Cheryl Edwards

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United Methodist News Service
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