A DNA to be proud of - Aldersgate Sunday
Mark 12: 28 - 34
And so we come once more to Aldersgate Sunday, that Sunday when Methodists traditionally remember an evening when the life of John Wesley was completely changed. Indeed, his journal account for May 24th is a sort of Methodist foundational document. Hear once more those words that have resounded down the years;
“In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street where one was reading Luther’s preface of the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for my salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
Those are words which can as it were lead us to divide John Wesley’s life into two parts - Before Aldersgate and After Aldersgate.
Now I am not sure that John Wesley was not a Christian before Aldersgate. But I do know that what happened that evening transformed him from a man with a distinct aura of failure whose trip to the Americas had been a disaster largely of his own making, into a man who was God’s instrument in bringing Scriptural holiness to much of our land.
Think back a short while before Aldersgate and we find John Wesley writing;
“It is now two years and almost four months since I left my native country, in order to teach the Georgian Indians the nature of Christianity; but what have I learned myself in the meantime? Why (what I least of all expected) that I who went to America to convert others, was myself never converted to God.”
Now later John Wesley had second thoughts about what he had here written for some years later he added a footnote to this entry in his journal which read, “I am not sure of this.” But what can be said is that in the years following the experience of the warmed heart, John never again regressed into the troubled state that preceded it. And of course John was not alone. For when he, later that evening, went around to visit brother Charles, he found that Charles had had a similar experience just three days earlier. And so the two brothers were able to sing the hymn that Charles had written to celebrate his experience, “Where shall my wondering soul begin.”
And what a hymn that is. It literally throbs with the excitement of the realisation of the merciful and abundant love of God as expressed in Jesus. Listen to the words of but one verse;
“Outcasts of men to you I call,
Harlots and publicans and thieves!
He spreads his arms to embrace you all;
Sinners alone his grace receives:
No need of him the righteous have;
He came the lost to seek and save.”
And don’t those words just throb with passion and conviction. For in them we see the essential message of the Wesley brothers that human hope has to be rooted in the generous love of God which we see revealed in Christ, the love which is for all for as Charles Wesley puts it;
“For all my Lord was crucified,
For all, for all my saviour died.”
But fine as all this might sound, surely we need to ask ourselves why the Wesley brothers matter today. After all, talking about the Wesley brothers too much brings its problems. Is there not a danger of slipping into idolatry by reliving a past because we find the present too hard to face? I think that this is a real danger and yet I still find an encounter with the Wesley brothers to be helpful.
Let me explain it like this. Yesterday I attended the Speech Day at Edgehill College. The guest speaker was their former chaplain who happens to be the President Designate of the Methodist Conference, Rev Dr Martyn Atkins. He spoke about the DNA of organisations which provide their essential purpose. The means by which the purpose is met may change with the years but the purpose remains constant. Now I think that this is a useful way of seeing the influence of the Wesley brothers. Since their day, there have been advances in Biblical scholarship, science has progressed, theological research has been diligently undertaken and we now live in a world in which other faiths are not merely found in somewhat patronising books but are embodied in people we know and work with. This has to mean that the Wesleys can hardly be the last word to solve all our present day dilemmas. And yet, at the same time they are a real part of our DNA, our purpose and mission as the people of God. So this evening, I want us to tap into a little of that DNA which can inform our being.
Firstly, the Wesleyan DNA tells us of a God who can transform people. Thankfully in Methodism we do not have a neat theology which we have to follow without deviation. Not even Wesley’s 4 sermons fulfil that role for believe you me there is much in some of them that some of us might wish to argue about. But what the Wesleys leave us with are certain emphases. And to me the most important of these are the “Four Alls.” These proposition are quite simply;
All need to be saved
All can be saved
All can know that they are saved
All can be saved to the uttermost
Now to unpack these in details may not always be easy but the basic message contained within is fundamentally revolutionary. It is the message that God is fully aware of human failings and longs to do something about it. Through grace, we can experience God’s forgiveness and be lifted up to a new plane of life. And believe you me, if we look at the annals of the Great Evangelical Awakening, we truly find wonderful stories of the most depraved people becoming transformed into well adjusted and useful saints. Oh yea, the message of the Wesleys is to put no limit on what God can accomplish in peoples’ lives.
Secondly, the Wesleyan DNA calls on us to be creative in our mission of encouraging people to be open to God. Examples of this are John becoming “more vile” by taking up field preaching when pulpits of churches became closed to him or in his use of lay people and women. We know that without the ministry of local preachers today the whole edifice of Methodism would collapse and there is surely something to be treasured about well trained preachers bringing their experience from a wide range of vocations to bear within the ministry of the church. For surely, here is a much a precious resource as the club of back to front collars. The two are complimentary. And what of women? Even today there are those who throttle the Spirit by rejecting the gifting of half of our people in a stance every bit as shameful as apartheid! For John, this was not an easy one but the example of his mother Susannah was something he couldn‘t escape. And so whilst his approach was stuttering, John came to see women exercising all forms of leadership within Methodism, something sadly put into reverse in the years after his death.
So as we see John being creative, is there not there a measure of encouragement to us as we begin to explore “fresh expressions” of what it is to be church to meet the needs of our day.
Thirdly the Wesleyan DNA teaches us that we are a part of the church but not the whole. Sure there were times in which John does not come out very well in his attitudes towards Catholicism. He could be cut throat in polemic debate and yet his letter to a Catholic in 1749 following disturbances in Cork is seen by many as a model of ecumenism. Listen to these words;
“I think you desire the tenderest regard I can show, were it only because the same God hath raised you and me from the dust of the earth and has made us both capable of loving and enjoying him to eternity; were it only because the Son of God has bought you and me with his own blood. How much more, if you are a person fearing God (as without question many of you are) and studying to have a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man?”
We see such a generous attitude in how he came to see George Whitefield with whom he had sharp disagreements after Whitefield took a Calvinist view of God’s working. Yet amidst these disagreements when John was asked if he expected to see Whitefield in heaven, his reply was “I fear not for George will be so much nearer the throne of grace.”
By all means quibble with his sermon on the “Catholic Spirit” (I do!) but recognise the generous spirit to those who take a different view which has to be a vital part of the Wesleyan DNA.
An fourthy, the Wesleyan DNA suggests that Christianity can not be a solitary religion. For John, to be a follower of Christ meant being involved in the social issues of the day. John concerned himself with matters relevant to healthcare and education as well the poor and those needing capital to set up businesses. His very last act was to write to William Wilberforce to encourage him in his campaign against the slave trade. And why not? For to John the love of God and the love of neighbour could never be separated from each other. Indeed his involvement in social issues as well as his effect on the characters of people has long been given credit for there not being a revolution in Britain in the late eighteenth century - although I cannot help but feel that the prevalent social order probably deserved to be swept away!
And fifthly, Wesley took learning seriously. Perhaps fittingly for one who had been a Fellow of Lincoln College Oxford, John took seriously the business of learning. He wrote prolifically and published affordable abridged editions of theological works. He certainly expected his travelling preachers to put in time on study. For if the calling is real, it needs to be responded to with seriousness. And today, rightly, Methodism seeks to stretch the minds of its people to meet the tasks to which they are called.
Of course, this is only a part of the Wesleyan DNA. But it is a precious DNA. It doesn’t mean that we have to agree with all that Wesley taught. If her were here today, he probably wouldn’t accept all that he taught. But that is not the big issue. The big issue is that in the objectives of the Wesley brothers, we can get a feel of who we are and what we are about. In the emphases of two very fallible men, we get a glimpse of some of the potential of what it means to follow Christ. A response to God’s love which leads us into love of God and neighbour. And to that calling we can surely thrill.
Today, many of us are into researching our family trees to understand more fully who we truly are. In the story of the Wesley brothers, the sermons of John and the hymns of Charles (hymns described by Congregationalist Bernard Manning as Methodism’s “greatest contribution to the common heritage of Christendom”) we see an inspiration as we seek to respond to the command of Jesus to love God and neighbour. We see both a heritage and what we are called to be.
And you know, whilst we are not the only people with a DNA, I think the Wesleyan heritage is a DNA that Methodist people should cherish. My question is however, do we act as if embarrassed by it or do we see it as an inspiration for our continued pilgrimage. May it be the latter for this DNA is truly a wonderful gift of God to today’s church.
This sermon was preached at Alverdiscott Methodist Church on May 20th 2007
And so we come once more to Aldersgate Sunday, that Sunday when Methodists traditionally remember an evening when the life of John Wesley was completely changed. Indeed, his journal account for May 24th is a sort of Methodist foundational document. Hear once more those words that have resounded down the years;
“In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street where one was reading Luther’s preface of the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for my salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
Those are words which can as it were lead us to divide John Wesley’s life into two parts - Before Aldersgate and After Aldersgate.
Now I am not sure that John Wesley was not a Christian before Aldersgate. But I do know that what happened that evening transformed him from a man with a distinct aura of failure whose trip to the Americas had been a disaster largely of his own making, into a man who was God’s instrument in bringing Scriptural holiness to much of our land.
Think back a short while before Aldersgate and we find John Wesley writing;
“It is now two years and almost four months since I left my native country, in order to teach the Georgian Indians the nature of Christianity; but what have I learned myself in the meantime? Why (what I least of all expected) that I who went to America to convert others, was myself never converted to God.”
Now later John Wesley had second thoughts about what he had here written for some years later he added a footnote to this entry in his journal which read, “I am not sure of this.” But what can be said is that in the years following the experience of the warmed heart, John never again regressed into the troubled state that preceded it. And of course John was not alone. For when he, later that evening, went around to visit brother Charles, he found that Charles had had a similar experience just three days earlier. And so the two brothers were able to sing the hymn that Charles had written to celebrate his experience, “Where shall my wondering soul begin.”
And what a hymn that is. It literally throbs with the excitement of the realisation of the merciful and abundant love of God as expressed in Jesus. Listen to the words of but one verse;
“Outcasts of men to you I call,
Harlots and publicans and thieves!
He spreads his arms to embrace you all;
Sinners alone his grace receives:
No need of him the righteous have;
He came the lost to seek and save.”
And don’t those words just throb with passion and conviction. For in them we see the essential message of the Wesley brothers that human hope has to be rooted in the generous love of God which we see revealed in Christ, the love which is for all for as Charles Wesley puts it;
“For all my Lord was crucified,
For all, for all my saviour died.”
But fine as all this might sound, surely we need to ask ourselves why the Wesley brothers matter today. After all, talking about the Wesley brothers too much brings its problems. Is there not a danger of slipping into idolatry by reliving a past because we find the present too hard to face? I think that this is a real danger and yet I still find an encounter with the Wesley brothers to be helpful.
Let me explain it like this. Yesterday I attended the Speech Day at Edgehill College. The guest speaker was their former chaplain who happens to be the President Designate of the Methodist Conference, Rev Dr Martyn Atkins. He spoke about the DNA of organisations which provide their essential purpose. The means by which the purpose is met may change with the years but the purpose remains constant. Now I think that this is a useful way of seeing the influence of the Wesley brothers. Since their day, there have been advances in Biblical scholarship, science has progressed, theological research has been diligently undertaken and we now live in a world in which other faiths are not merely found in somewhat patronising books but are embodied in people we know and work with. This has to mean that the Wesleys can hardly be the last word to solve all our present day dilemmas. And yet, at the same time they are a real part of our DNA, our purpose and mission as the people of God. So this evening, I want us to tap into a little of that DNA which can inform our being.
Firstly, the Wesleyan DNA tells us of a God who can transform people. Thankfully in Methodism we do not have a neat theology which we have to follow without deviation. Not even Wesley’s 4 sermons fulfil that role for believe you me there is much in some of them that some of us might wish to argue about. But what the Wesleys leave us with are certain emphases. And to me the most important of these are the “Four Alls.” These proposition are quite simply;
All need to be saved
All can be saved
All can know that they are saved
All can be saved to the uttermost
Now to unpack these in details may not always be easy but the basic message contained within is fundamentally revolutionary. It is the message that God is fully aware of human failings and longs to do something about it. Through grace, we can experience God’s forgiveness and be lifted up to a new plane of life. And believe you me, if we look at the annals of the Great Evangelical Awakening, we truly find wonderful stories of the most depraved people becoming transformed into well adjusted and useful saints. Oh yea, the message of the Wesleys is to put no limit on what God can accomplish in peoples’ lives.
Secondly, the Wesleyan DNA calls on us to be creative in our mission of encouraging people to be open to God. Examples of this are John becoming “more vile” by taking up field preaching when pulpits of churches became closed to him or in his use of lay people and women. We know that without the ministry of local preachers today the whole edifice of Methodism would collapse and there is surely something to be treasured about well trained preachers bringing their experience from a wide range of vocations to bear within the ministry of the church. For surely, here is a much a precious resource as the club of back to front collars. The two are complimentary. And what of women? Even today there are those who throttle the Spirit by rejecting the gifting of half of our people in a stance every bit as shameful as apartheid! For John, this was not an easy one but the example of his mother Susannah was something he couldn‘t escape. And so whilst his approach was stuttering, John came to see women exercising all forms of leadership within Methodism, something sadly put into reverse in the years after his death.
So as we see John being creative, is there not there a measure of encouragement to us as we begin to explore “fresh expressions” of what it is to be church to meet the needs of our day.
Thirdly the Wesleyan DNA teaches us that we are a part of the church but not the whole. Sure there were times in which John does not come out very well in his attitudes towards Catholicism. He could be cut throat in polemic debate and yet his letter to a Catholic in 1749 following disturbances in Cork is seen by many as a model of ecumenism. Listen to these words;
“I think you desire the tenderest regard I can show, were it only because the same God hath raised you and me from the dust of the earth and has made us both capable of loving and enjoying him to eternity; were it only because the Son of God has bought you and me with his own blood. How much more, if you are a person fearing God (as without question many of you are) and studying to have a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man?”
We see such a generous attitude in how he came to see George Whitefield with whom he had sharp disagreements after Whitefield took a Calvinist view of God’s working. Yet amidst these disagreements when John was asked if he expected to see Whitefield in heaven, his reply was “I fear not for George will be so much nearer the throne of grace.”
By all means quibble with his sermon on the “Catholic Spirit” (I do!) but recognise the generous spirit to those who take a different view which has to be a vital part of the Wesleyan DNA.
An fourthy, the Wesleyan DNA suggests that Christianity can not be a solitary religion. For John, to be a follower of Christ meant being involved in the social issues of the day. John concerned himself with matters relevant to healthcare and education as well the poor and those needing capital to set up businesses. His very last act was to write to William Wilberforce to encourage him in his campaign against the slave trade. And why not? For to John the love of God and the love of neighbour could never be separated from each other. Indeed his involvement in social issues as well as his effect on the characters of people has long been given credit for there not being a revolution in Britain in the late eighteenth century - although I cannot help but feel that the prevalent social order probably deserved to be swept away!
And fifthly, Wesley took learning seriously. Perhaps fittingly for one who had been a Fellow of Lincoln College Oxford, John took seriously the business of learning. He wrote prolifically and published affordable abridged editions of theological works. He certainly expected his travelling preachers to put in time on study. For if the calling is real, it needs to be responded to with seriousness. And today, rightly, Methodism seeks to stretch the minds of its people to meet the tasks to which they are called.
Of course, this is only a part of the Wesleyan DNA. But it is a precious DNA. It doesn’t mean that we have to agree with all that Wesley taught. If her were here today, he probably wouldn’t accept all that he taught. But that is not the big issue. The big issue is that in the objectives of the Wesley brothers, we can get a feel of who we are and what we are about. In the emphases of two very fallible men, we get a glimpse of some of the potential of what it means to follow Christ. A response to God’s love which leads us into love of God and neighbour. And to that calling we can surely thrill.
Today, many of us are into researching our family trees to understand more fully who we truly are. In the story of the Wesley brothers, the sermons of John and the hymns of Charles (hymns described by Congregationalist Bernard Manning as Methodism’s “greatest contribution to the common heritage of Christendom”) we see an inspiration as we seek to respond to the command of Jesus to love God and neighbour. We see both a heritage and what we are called to be.
And you know, whilst we are not the only people with a DNA, I think the Wesleyan heritage is a DNA that Methodist people should cherish. My question is however, do we act as if embarrassed by it or do we see it as an inspiration for our continued pilgrimage. May it be the latter for this DNA is truly a wonderful gift of God to today’s church.
This sermon was preached at Alverdiscott Methodist Church on May 20th 2007
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