Theology in the Wesleyan Spirit - Sermon 3

The third in our series is Wesley’s sermon “The Circumcision of the Heart” which was originally preached in 1733. 

In 1732, a derogatory letter appeared in a weekly London publication that spoke about the "Sect called Methodists."  While it was a work designed to defame the group, Wesley utilized the aroused curiosity of the public to offer this sermon that focuses on the doctrine of holiness.

Knowing people might be hearing him for the first time because of the curiosity stemming from the article, Wesley spent over forty hours crafting and refining this sermon.

The sermon, preached in January of 1733, contains one of Wesley's most distinctive doctrines: Christian perfection understood as perfect love of God and neighbor, rooted in a radical faith in Christ's revelation of that love and power.

Wesley's basic understanding of salvation can be heard here: original sin, the redemptive act of God in Christ, and justification by faith which leads to a fundamental change of heart as well as participation in the renewal of self through the power of the Holy Spirit.

It is important to note that while Wesley emphasizes our sin, his emphasis is not to draw attention to our "utter depravity in sin," but rather he wishes to emphasize the grace and mercy of God that overcomes our sin.  As Rev. Kim Goddard once said, the emphasis in Wesley's theology is "not man, oh so bad, but God, oh so good."

- Pastor Charles

Theology in the Wesleyan Spirit - Sermon 2

The second in our series is Wesley’s sermon “A Caution Against Bigotry” which was originally preached in 1750.  During that time in England, there was a fear that the Methodist revival should cause ‘disruptions’ among the people who were still struggling with the peace founded after the Civil War and Restoration.  Part of the price of that peace was a lessening of partisan zeal and bigotry.  Methodism as a movement threatened to be a ‘new’ partisan group that could well threaten the peace.  Part of that fear was the fact that Wesley himself had a tremendous disregard for parish boundaries.  “The world is my parish,” Wesley famously said.  Yet that attitude did not set well with the established Christian churches who saw their parish as a fixed area of turf on which Wesley was often trespassing.  His use of lay pastors (persons not ordained as clergy) was also disturbing in that it threatened to overturn the hierarchical order of church structure the country was so very used to.

Methodist were actually the ones who were seen as the bigots in the sense that they were viewed as ‘irrational’ or ‘excessive’ in their movement.  They were a partisan group of zealous preachers and people.  Wesley could have well taken the movement in that direction, abandoning concern for the precepts and traditions of other denominations across England and claimed to be the “one true faith.”  However, Wesley took the opposite approach and studiously avoided taking such a stance.  To make that point he took the text from Mark 9 to argue that valid ministry should be measured by the fruits of its activity rather than its form (style). He also argued that those of more established traditions might be grateful for the works of the Methodists and that, in turn, Methodists should renounce all bigotry towards those who were not Methodists – even those who might not be Christian.  What he sought to do was to provide a positive plea for a carefully considered religious pluralism in theology and practice or, in other words, an open mind when it comes to the works of God in ourselves and others.

Wesley did not want to be viewed by other Christians as the founder of a zealous bunch of bigots.  Nor did Wesley wish Methodists to feel themselves to be superior to others.  In this sermon, Wesley sought to stress the fact that we all have to learn to work together for the greater good which is the establishment of the Kingdom of God.

- Pastor Charles

Theology in the Wesleyan Spirit - Sermon 1

The first sermon in the series is based on Wesley's sermon, "Catholic Spirit."  Preached several times between 1740 and 1749, this sermon focuses on the idea of finding common ground among Christian denominations.  

During Wesley’s time there was a great division among Christians over the issues of doctrine, creeds, and those who were indifferent or dismissive of creeds altogether.  Some churches insisted on creeds as the ground of belief and others refused to say any creeds at all, considering them too close to the “Roman Church.”  It should be noted that “catholic” means universal and only pertains to the Roman Church when capitalized with the words, Roman Catholic Church.  “Universal” is how Wesley utilized this word in his sermon.

What Wesley was attempting to do in this sermon was to mediate the conflict between clear doctrinal standards (in which he believed) and his conviction that true religion was “heart religion” shaped by Christian love.  It was a difficult middle ground Wesley sought, and many disagreed with his attempt to bridge the gap of what we might call High Church on one side and Independent churches that had no liturgy or creeds.  It was a bold attempt to walk a fine line between polar opinions.  The idea, however, of focusing on a middle way that looks for unity amid diversity took hold and shaped our denomination.

As professor Morris Davis at Drew University wrote, “The United Methodist Church, like the Methodist movement of Wesley’s day, struggles over doctrinal disagreements. How should the Church approach such problems? How did John Wesley deal with such conflicts? While Wesley would have sympathized with calls for doctrinal standards, he would have been more concerned with relationships between believers. Wesley’s suspicion of human ability to fully know truth convinced him that hearts striving in perfecting love were more important than heads unified in doctrinal agreement. This “catholic spirit” might be a helpful stance today.”

As a reminder, as I preach these sermons, I have adapted them for time, changed the language to be a bit more modern, but I haven't changed the tone.  I have condensed them to the critical ideas Wesley sought to convey.  I would encourage you to read the originals as they are the thoughts and writings of the founder of our denominational movement.  There are several books containing Wesley’s sermons or you could go online (such as http://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley) and read them all.  Well worth it.

- Pastor Charles

August Sermon Series - Theology in the Wesleyan Spirit

During the month of August, I am going to be doing something a little different for my sermons.  I am going to be reworking and preaching four of John Wesley's sermons.  The reworking is merely editing for time (these sermons were LOOOOOOONG) and making the language a little more contemporary without sacrificing the point and meaning of the sermons.  I am doing this for a few reasons.  First, these sermons are from John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church.  We don't often hear much about him except the historical stuff in confirmation.  We need to be familiar with his thinking, theology, and tone.  Second, these are important messages that went to the foundation of our denomination. These ideas transformed the world and are a part of our rich theological history.  

I am going to be utilizing the following of Wesley's sermons:  The Catholic Spirit, A Caution Against Bigotry, The Circumcision of the Heart, and Christian Perfection.  These sermons can be found in their entirety in print, such as in John Wesley's Sermons: An Anthology or online.  They certainly merit a thoughtful read.  So come and join us in August as we hear from our denominational founder. 

- Pastor Charles

July Sermon Series

During the month of July, I am going to be dealing with the question of sin. 

Sin.

Such a loaded, dangerous, descriptive word.

In her book, Help My Unbelief, Rev. Flemming Rutledge describes sin this way:  “We think of sin as a series of misdeeds, but in Biblical theology it is a condition.”  In that light, sin can be both something we do as individuals, or it can be something done socially, such as opening fire in a school.

The difficulty of the subject is that sin is slippery.  It isn’t always clear-cut or black and white as we might want it to be.  Some are obvious, such as the massacre in Orlando last month.  But sin is slippery to define or to point out, even though we might act like it is easy to see.  And we act like it is, by and large, because of sin in our own hearts.  We can quickly spot a sinner because they often look different, act different, or just seem different than ourselves.  The Torah is full of lists of sins, as are some of Paul’s letters and Jesus’ teachings.  But those lists are not exhaustive. 

The Torah lists particular behaviors that are sinful.  Jesus and Paul make it even more difficult when they proclaim that attitudes are sinful (Paul, for example, mentions enmity, dissention, and selfishness.  Jesus mentions judgmentalism and hypocrisy.  They both mention anger.)

So then, we find that if you do something that, as an action, isn’t listed as a sin, but you do it in malice, then you have sinned.  Likewise, if your intentions were good, some actions are still bad. 

It just gets more difficult from there.

Part of that has to do with how we define that which is sin.  In the literal scriptural view, the word meant “missing the mark.”  In our day and age, we tend to think of it as behavior that is far more evil in the sight of God, even damnable.  Those definitions of sin, though, were not always the ones found in the Bible.  The definitions change as society changes (For example, in our day and age, men don’t uphold the prohibition against shaving their beards and women are allowed to walk around without covering their heads).

Whatever may be the contemporary definition of sin, the real issue, as the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr wrote, “is the universality of the corruption which results from undue self-regard.”  When we focus too much on ourselves, we turn away from our neighbor, we might even judge our neighbor, and we can quickly lose our moorings from God and the community.  As one author described it, the heart of sin is literally and figuratively “I.”

I won’t try to provide a systematic discussion of sin.  That would take far too much time.  And I’m not going to spend Sunday morning as a time to yell at you about it.  What I am setting out to do is to provide insight into the insidious nature of sin, but also the fact that in the face of sin and sinfulness, there is still Good News to be heard.

I hope that you will come and join us.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Charles

Visitation Program

Our district has invited each church to focus on a particular area of ministry in which we can improve.  This began with the Shift Workshop at First Centenary UMC back in February.  The focus of the workshop was to enable church to do better in all areas of ministry by understanding our church and community more completely.  The point wasn’t to make us feel bad or to point out our faults, but to enable us to work to be better.  Out of that workshop came an invitation for each church in the district to focus on a particular area of ministry in which they would focus to make it a strength instead of something that might be a bit more mediocre. 

In a discussion in our Church Council, we decided that we needed to spend this year working deliberately to focus on communication and connection within our congregation.  We don’t always do our best in keeping in touch with one another and we sometimes don’t pay attention to attendance to the degree we should.

In particular, we need to make sure we are checking in on those who can’t make it to church.  To that end, we are beginning a monthly visitation program where I and a member of the congregation will drop by with those who cannot make it to church to visit and bring communion.  We will begin this program on May 24^th at 2:00.

But I need your help.

First, I need people to go with me.   I know the time will knock some of you out of the running, but there are several others of you who can make the afternoon time, and I need your help.  If you would call the office to sign up for a month, that would be great (we are going on the 4^th Tuesday of each month).

Second, I need the names of people we need to visit.  Help us to reach out by providing us with names and contact information, because we will contact them the day before to make sure that they are going to be able to receive visitors. 

This is just a start for us.  We are going to be doing more to make sure that we are taking care of our congregation and reaching out to those who have been a part of our community for a long time and now need us to be there for them.  I hope that you will consider being a part of this ministry and join with me as we set up our new visitation program.

Thanks and I appreciate your help!

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Charles 

Advent Week Four: Salvation

Salvation.  A word that has profound meaning yet a word which has, ironically, lost much of its meaning from overuse and imprecise usage among various religious groups.

It is an extremely important term in the Bible.  In the Old Testament its meaning refers to a broadening of space for life.  This is described as being done with divine help, especially when God's people face some kind of adversity or some adversary.

Salvation also comes to focus on the relationship of God with God's people and the people's relationship with God.  It is also utilized to describe some kind of deliverance.  Here we often hear the word 'salvation' with the words atonement, redemption, pardon, righteousness and reconciliation.  The goal of this deliverance is the establishment of God's reign among God's people and the other nations of the world (see Ezekiel 36:22-32, Jeremiah 31:31-34; Isaiah 52:6-10).

In the New Testament, we read of Jesus' understanding of this term which is found in his declarations of the establishment of God's Kingdom.  New Testament writers then take this idea and combine it with the fact that Jesus' name comes from  the Hebrew root meaning "salvation."  Thus God the savior and Jesus the savior become fused together.  Therefore, for the writers of the New Testament, the death and resurrection of Jesus is the focal point for the dawn of salvation (see 1st Corinthians 15).

When we speak of salvation in the Christian faith, we are talking about it in the particular terms of the New Testament understanding.  When we proclaim that our 'salvation' has come or is at hand, we are speaking of the birth of Christ.  We are also looking to the return of Christ as the ultimate completion of that salvation because the resurrection points not only to present significance but future significance.

Taking all the weeks of Advent into consideration, then, we are proclaiming that in Christ peace, hope, justice and salvation are to be found.  As Christians, then, it is our responsibility to not only reflect these ideals, but to so order our lives that we follow the path and person of Christ that our lives are a witness to the person of Christ and our church is a place where these four ideals are sought and celebrated and encountered both in the community and in our faith in Christ.

Advent, then, is a powerful time of definition.  May our lives be so ordered!