Making the Case for Balance

This week my denomination, the United Methodist Church, will begin its General Conference in Tampa, Fla. The General Conference meets every four years and makes major decisions about the organization and operation of our denomination.

The delegates at General Conference will also debate many important social issues and offer stances and principles that will guide United Methodists in looking at these issues from a Christian perspective.

Above all our denomination will seek to find the best ways of fulfilling our mission statement which says that as United Methodists we are called to “make disciples for Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”

Much of the session will deal with administrative matters that will be of little interest to the general public. However, when the delegates debate the social issues there will be articles written in the secular press and news reports in the outlets of the mainstream news media.

Sadly, much of what will be written will be inaccurate. More often than not only the extreme viewpoints will be given much attention and the wise, reasoned people who make up the majority of the delegates to our General Conference will not have their voice heard.

However, the experience of my denomination over the next few days is fairly typical of what passes for the discourse in the social and political life in our culture, nation and society. All too often it is the loud and outlandish voices that garner the attention while the sane, wise and reasoned messages are often drowned out by cacophony that comes from the extremists.

The result is that today we have a country that is extremely divided on the major issues of the day resulting in few practical solutions to the problems of our society. Rarely do we find cooperation between different factions in our society. All too often one faction is satisfied with failure as long as blame can be placed at the feet of the other side.

This leads me to mention on of my favorite characters in the Bible, a fellow by the name of Josiah. Josiah was King of Judah, the southern branch of the Hebrew people, from 649 B.C. until 609 B.C. His story is told in the book of Second Kings. Second Kings 22:2 tells us that Josiah, “did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the way of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right or the left.”

In other words Josiah walked a constant path. He set out to do what God would have him do. He was balanced in his approach to governing the Hebrew people. Josiah reformed the religious practices of the Hebrews and sought to improve the spiritual climate of his nation. In fact, the consensus of the Bible’s narrative is that Josiah was the last great king of the Hebrews before they were conquered by the Babylonians and carried into exile.

Josiah offered positive leadership for his people without turning aside to the right or the left. Today we would be wise if we would give credence to those voices that are reasoned, balanced and wise. To do so would be to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.