Dr. Owens's point, though, was that stepping back is not necessarily loss—rather, stepping back from those ideas offers us freedom. He named three aspects of this freedom: freedom from agendas, freedom from wanting certain things to happen, and freedom from functional atheism.

If you’re like me, functional atheism is the hardest of those three to deal with. Functional atheism is the (usually unrecognized) assumption that if anything good is going to happen—in my life, in the church, etc.—then a human being is going to have to do it. If you’re behaving as a functional atheist, it’s not that you don’t believe in God, but rather that you are tempted to act as if God isn’t acting in the world anymore.

It’s true that as Methodists, we believe in cooperating with God, in responsiveness to God’s invitations. But in our desire to respond to God, it’s easy to forget, or to behave as if we have forgotten, that God continues to work alongside us—or rather, that we are always working alongside God. God is not dependent on us—and thanks be to God for that!

So this week, let us practice stepping back, at least for a moment. Let us not assume that we always already know what God is asking of us, or that this congregation should look exactly as it did in the past. God has work for us to do, but God isn’t asking us to behave as if it’s 2015. God is asking us to minister to the world in which we are living now, in 2022. Many aspects of life are different now: how can we be the church now, in this time?

I’ll see you in church—

Becky

Prayer

God of all things,

We are grateful that you continue to work in our world.

We are grateful that for all of our false starts, and half-done projects,

Your work continues to be done.

We thank you for the grace that offers us this certainty:

That you are more in love with your world than we are,

That you always know, better than we do, what should happen next,

That our frailties and our need for rest are not failings,

but simply evidence of our humanity,

calling us to trust in you.

Let us not forget who is God.

Let us, in our desire to participate faithfully in your work,

Remain open to the possibility that your vision is different from ours.

Let us remember that you, who create and sustain all things,

are always already present with us,

and that your resources, and your love,

are unfailing.

Blessed be you, Lord God of all Creation,

whose love is abounding and infinite. Amen.