This is my Christmas gift to my friends prepared and given in lecture form at the Morrison United Methodist Church in Leesburg, Florida. Advent 2006.
The Incarnation of Jesus Christ is the GRAND MIRACLE. So this reflection on the subject of one of C.S. Lewis’ essays published in God In The Dock is a reflection on what we celebrate at Christmas.
“I use the word Miracle to mean an interference with Nature by supernatural power.”
C. S. Lewis
“The human understanding is of its own nature prone to suppose the existence of more order and regularity in the world than it finds. “(Novum Organum, Francis Bacon)
The Biblical Record
Ordinarily we think that the Christmas story is only in Matthew and Luke, but I contend that there is also The Christmas Story in The Gospel of John. Each time John mentions “The Word,” the Greek in which he wrote says “Logos.” In ancient Greek philosophy Logos is used to refer to the mind or thoughts of God. One of the Greeks named Heraclitus was fascinated by the way everything is always changing. He is the one who made the famous remark, “You can’t step in the same river twice. The water flows on and the river you stepped in a minute before is gone.” Planets move, all living things die, mountains erode into plains and volcanoes spout up new mountains.
Yet with all this change the universe does not fall apart and the changes follow a plan. Where then does order come from? Why doesn’t it all fall apart? Because of the Logos, the order and plan in the mind or thought of God.
At the same time there was growing up in Judaism the concept of “Wisdom,” again a product of the mind and thought of God. Why does the material universe have such beauty, regularity, and generosity? Because the wisdom of God is revealed in every aspect of the creation.
Again why is there a moral order so reliable that no society can survive without a fixed point of what is most important, respect for parents, respect for life, property, marriage, truth and freedom from materialistic rapacity, in other words; The Ten Commandments. Because the mind of God, also called “Wisdom,” is the organizing principle of the moral as well as the physical universe.
During the last century before the birth of Jesus there was a Jewish scholar named Philo who lived in Alexandria Egypt. He was part of a vital intellectual community of rabbis. It was this community that produced the Septuagent (LXX) translation of the Jewish scriptures into Greek. The scattering of Jews all over the Mediterranean world had caused many of them, brought up in the Greek language and culture, to be unable to read Hebrew, so a translation to meet their need was made in Alexandria.
The presence in Alexandria of these rabbis and of the great library of Greek knowledge, one of the wonders of the ancient world, created the environment for a powerful intellectual ferment. One of the rabbis was Philo Judaeus a scholar who sought a synthesis between Hebrew “Wisdom” and Greek “Logos.” Philo saw that when God said, “Let there be light,” and went on to speak the creation into being, the concept of “Word/Logos” was there in the Hebrew Scriptures. He came to the conclusion that Logos and Wisdom are the same.
Thus when John came to write his book about Jesus there was a concept ready to use that had been hammered out by the best minds of the Greeks and the Jews. So John wrote to the Greco-Roman world, “The Word (Logos/Wisdom) became flesh and lived among us.” That in short is the Christmas story in the Gospel of John.
In the synoptic Gospels—Leading them to it, letting them choose.
Any number of times Jesus said and did things that implied his true identity, but stopped short of an “in your face” declaration like those we have recorded in the Gospel of John. Why the difference? In the Gospel of John we have what Jesus said to those who already believed, and so were ready for the whole truth. And we have what he said to some who had rejected him and weren’t going to listen to the truth however he presented it.
I think Jesus wanted us to come to the truth willingly on our own. Can it be that even the Almighty God wants to be loved for Himself: to be discovered?
The story of the man who was let down through the roof in Mark 2:1-12 shows what I mean. Jesus forgives the man’s sins and is challenged by those standing by who said, “Only God can forgive sins.” Jesus then heals the man of his physical illness and says, “So you can see that I have the authority to forgive sins.” All that is lacking is for them, and us, to “connect the dots.”
The vulnerable, risk taker,
I believe God is the greatest of all risk takers. He created us with free will, so we can love him or hate him. He comes to us with words that call us to live dedicated lives. He offers to pardon freely all our failures and allows us choose to change and live or refuse and die. With 84,000 angels at his command (Twelve Legions approximately 7000 in each = 84,000. Mt. 26:53), he allows people like us to crucify him. But he won’t compel belief by calling in the legions to defend him and crush them.
He judged our self-will, condemned our self-righteousness, and asserted his Divine authority. The prophets of Israel said, “Thus says the Lord,” but he said, “I say.” So they and we must either acknowledge him as our Lord, or reject and crucify him. That is God’s great gamble, taking a chance on them and on us.
Paul’s letters —“by the resurrection”
One of those who rejected Jesus and would probably have participated in the calls for him to be crucified was the Rabbi, Saul of Tarsus. No one was more adamant in his refusal to admit the claims of Jesus disciples about who he is and what had happened on the third day after the crucifixion. Saul was no credulous pushover for a resurrection story made up by grief stricken followers who may have stolen the body and fabricated the whole thing. (See Matthew 27:62-64 and 28:11-15). Yet Saul declares that he has seen and talked with Jesus who is alive after all and is everything he claimed to be, and his disciples say he is. Saul even changed his name to Paul, the new man he was after meeting the resurrected Jesus. (Acts 22:1-16, Romans 1:4, Philippians 2:5-11.)
—“We were eye witnesses”
Two of Jesus original twelve disciples have left us a written record of their experience with him they are Peter and John.
2 Peter 1:16-18 16For we did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there was borne such a voice to him by the Majestic Glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: 18and this voice we ourselves heard borne out of heaven, when we were with him in the holy mount.
Papias writing in the late first century said that Mark wrote down what Peter preached. Cf. The
Ecclesiastical History of Bishop Eusebias of Caesarea
1 John 1:1-4 1That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life 2(and the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare unto you the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us); 3that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also, that ye also may have fellowship with us: yea, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ: 4and these things we write, that our joy may be made full.
This is the testimony of two men who were taught from childhood, “You must not give false witness.”
The Historic Councils of the church studied the scriptures and formulated the creeds to embody their understanding of them. While I do not give the Apostles’ Creed here, it is older and even closer to the events recorded in the New Testament than the formally adopted ones. I prefer to use it in worship at least 75% of the Sundays of the year, so the children memorize it without even realizing that is what they are doing.
The Nicene Creed
This is the part of the creed that records the church’s belief in and about Jesus. Cf. United
Methodist Hymnal No. 880
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.
Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the living and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end.
The Witness of Historic Christianity—John Wesley, Character of a Methodist. "We believe, indeed, that “all Scripture is given by the inspiration of God;” … We believe the written word of God to be the only and sufficient rule both of Christian faith and practice; … We believe Christ to be the eternal, supreme God… But as to all opinions, which do not strike at the root of Christianity, we think and let think."
“Christianity is not Christianity without a manger cradle, a rugged cross, and an
empty tomb.”
My teacher, Dr. Wm. R. Cannon, PhD. Dean of the Candler School of Theology and Bishop of the United Methodist Church.
The Challenge by The “Enlightened “ Objectors.
When Martin Luther, John Calvin, and the other leaders of the Protestant reformation “broke the rules” and questioned the authority of the church in matters of faith, they started an avalanche. If the church could be wrong about some very important matters, what of the other authorities? Kings, professors, even Aristotle might be wrong. So they said let us ask if things really are the way we have been told. This movement of questioning and reexamination led to The Enlightenment.
Many wonderful benefits for all of us flowed and continue to flow from The Enlightment.
Superstition, The Christian faith had become encrusted with much that was superstition. The cathedrals of Europe, built for the worship of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, were thought to be more holy if the relics (body parts) of a saint or saints were housed in them. In order to supply this need bones were found and enshrined. But when the questioning began some one counted the bones and because jawbones are especially durable and therefore frequently enshrined, the discovery was made that some saint had a dozen or more jawbones each in a different cathedral. How many jawbones can one saint have? Or another popular relic is a splinter of the True Cross, again, how many can there be.
Authoritarian information: Because Aristotle had written, in a careless moment that spiders have six legs, just like all the other insects, no one had bothered to look and count, at least no one in the academic world. Now people began to experiment and observe and the discoveries sometimes shocked and often delighted those who were Enlightened.
Experiment and Observation, which rock will fall faster?
A classic example is the occasion when the common sense belief that big rocks fall faster than small rocks was overturned. Galileo went up on the Tower of Pisa with the two rocks, dropped them simultaneously and they hit the ground, simultaneously. The rocks obeyed a mathematical law since formulated, that falling objects if unaffected by outside forces other than gravity will fall while accelerating at a rate of 32 feet per second per second.
The ordering of Society, The Social Contract vs. The Divine Right of Kings.
The divine right of Kings had been the ruling principle of governments with roots gong back to Egypt, Babylon and Rome, where Pharaohs, Kings and Emperors were actually worshipped. This often led to tyranny. Now with the right to question authority clearly established a new concept emerged, The Social Contract. Governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed. So if Kings, Aristotle, and the laws of physics can be questioned, and magic, superstition, and tyranny overturned a new breath of freedom and hope has come to refresh the heart and mind of humanity. WONDERFUL!
But Then The Danger of Hubris Enters.
Because of the wonderful advances obtained by experiment and observation there grew up a line of thought in some writers and thinkers that “we can explain everything with out the need to bring in god.” That way of thinking still has a powerful presence today. Smithsonian, National Geographic, and Scientific American magazines have an editorial policy that says in effect, there can be no acknowledgement of an intelligence that shaped the universe. There is only the process of the natural world. Anything that hints of a transcendent reality we would call “God” is mere superstition; or as C. S. Lewis describes this way of thinking, “Naturalism, the whole show.”
How the Baby got thrown out with the bathwater.
Having rejected the idea that God actively intervenes in the natural world interfering with the “Laws” of nature, the “Enlightened” reading the Bible sees Jesus as good man, moralist, and misunderstood martyr. After all how could they see such a good man as an enemy of the state and the temple? They misunderstood him and they killed him.
Well and Good. The naturalist can respect and even idealize such a person.
But, shock and dismay, The Jesus described in the New Testament performs miracles and claims to be God, his followers claim he rose from the dead and is still alive! This sounds like superstition to her or him. Out of respect for Jesus’ teaching and perhaps fear of the reaction from Jesus’ followers, they look for a way to have a good moral man, but without the miracles and the claim of divinity: In other words without the Grand Miracle, or any miracle.
The Naturalist says, “Maybe the disciples made up the story of the resurrection and post resurrection appearances to comfort themselves and their friends,” after all the scientific method of experiment and observation can’t be applied here. You can’t repeat the experiment of killing someone and then bringing him back. Therefore it can’t have happened. The laws of nature can’t be broken; experiment proves it.
But there is still the unequivocal witness of the New Testament to be gotten around. How can the Naturalist do this? Well, they say, “Let’s blame it on the second or third generation of his followers, who were not eyewitnesses and have distorted the facts because of misguided devotion and superstition,” story tellers getting carried away. The Gospels must have been written a generation or two or three after the events, which would account for the things the naturalist, sees as superstition.
Thus there came to be attempts to write biographies of Jesus that leave out all that embarrassing miracle stuff. That is how we get: The Jefferson Bible, Renan’s Jesus, Schweitzer’s Quest, Asimov’s Bible, The Jesus Project, and The Da Vinci Code.
But there is an Elephant in the Room!
What happened in A.D. 66-70 and “the dog that didn’t bark in the night.”
The claim that the New Testament writings were recorded after the eyewitnesses were no longer available, so the process of exaggeration and mystification could go forward, is placed in question for me by the realization that the most shattering fact of the history of the first century AD is never mentioned in those writings. Jews were so shattered by this event that many of them refused to have children, others took their own lives in despair at Massada. The Romans on the other hand were so elated by it that they built a triumphal arch to celebrate it which still stands today, almost 2000 years later. The event I refer to is the destruction of Jerusalem and its great temple by Roman general and later emperor, Titus.
The gospels say that Jesus predicted this destruction; therefore the Naturalists say, “It must have happened already because no one can predict events before they happen.” However, the gospels were written so we might have ample reason to believe in Jesus and accept his claims; so if he predicted it and the prediction came true it is evidence of his prophetic power that would be recorded by the witnesses, just as they did his resurrection. That they did not shows that they were writing before 70 AD. In other words this is an argument from silence that is overwhelmingly convincing. This is “the dog that didn’t bark in the night.”
Trinitarian Belief Began long before Nicea. Take that Mr. Brown.
In Dan Brown’s book, The Da Vinci Code he asserts that the identification of Jesus as Divine, and the consequent formulation of the teaching about the Trinity came about in the 4th century under orders from the Emperor Constantine. While the adoption of the Nicene Creed came at the Council of Nicea (325 AD) under the nominal presidency of the Emperor, it was in fact the acknowledgement of the witness of the Gospels, which had already been around for at least 250 years.
The Council interrogated Arius using Scripture, only to find that he had a new way of interpreting every verse they brought before him. Finally, they used the argument that Arius' view had to be wrong because it was new. Athanasius says, "But concerning matters of faith, they [the bishops assembled at Nicea] did not write: 'It has been decided,' but 'Thus the Catholic Church believes.' And thereupon confessed how they believed. This they did to show that their judgement was not of more recent origin, but was in fact of Apostolic times..." (Volume 1, Faith of the Early Fathers, p338). In this regard also, Athanasius askes rhetorically, "... how many fathers [in other words, the writings of the early Christians] can you cite for your phrases?" (Ibid, p325)
It must be concluded, then, that the controversy was between a great majority who held the belief that the doctrine expressed by the Nicene Creed was ancient and Apostolic, and a minority who believed that Arius' new interpretation of the faith was correct .
The scriptures to which the Council was looking back include,
Matthew 27:43 and 28:19; Philippians 2:5-11; John 1:1-14; Romans 1:1-4; 1 John 1:1-4; 2 Peter 1:16-18.
The Witnesses.
I have referred above to the eyewitnesses, John, and Peter but Matthew is one too. However these “enlightened ones” who want us to believe that the miraculous is a late addition to the record of Jesus’ life have a claim that it was common and accepted in the ancient world to write books and claim that the author was someone whose name gave their writing authority. These writings are called “Pseudipegrapha”. The claim is that every one did it, so it was acceptable in those times, and therefore the attaching of the name of an apostle, an eyewitness, to one of the gospels was unchallenged at the time. Only in the past 200 years have there been people who believe themselves wise enough to expose this practice and explain why the gospels record Jesus’ miracles, and indeed the fact that he is a miracle.
Or is it that when you want to explain away the miracles any accusation against the makers of the record is useful for your purpose?
The Magdalen paparii--just what can be expected.
In 1996, A book was published entitled, Eyewitness to Jesus. The authors are Carsten Peter Thiede and Matthew D’Ancona. Thiede is a specialist in ancient manuscripts and the calligraphy of their writing. He is the kind of expert who can tell by the formation of the letters, style of writing, when, within a few years, a manuscript was written. He had studied some papyrus fragments preserved at Magdalen College, Oxford, and concluded that they come from the middle of the first century, around 50 to 60 AD. Though very small they are apparently from the 26th chapter of Matthew. The established New Testament scholarly community, that is the people with professorships, dismissed the book and its evidence that the Gospel of Matthew was written at a time when there were eyewitnesses still living. To acknowledge Thiede’s findings would mean that much of the Biblical scholarship and writing of the past 200 years would have to be re thought, so it was rejected and is almost forgotten today just over a decade later. But what I am saying about the destruction of Jerusalem, as the watershed of New Testament writing, means that Thiede’s findings are “just what can be expected.”
A Letter to Smithsonian Magazine June 2006
Dear Sirs,
The Article on Mary Magdalene was excellent. She has been and still is the First Witness to The resurrection of Jesus and so a person of great importance. The scant information about her has unfortunately facilitated the tendency to make her a sort of inkblot into which people read their own fantasies driven by their needs and agenda.
But my concern with the article is the way it begins with the assumption that the writings of the New Testament are late with regard to the eyewitnesses of the events recorded there.
I believe there is a terminus a quo, that establishes the writings with a date no later than 70 CE (AD). That is the year of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple. Jesus predicted that event. The Jewish prophets including Moses made the test of a prophet's authority whether his predictions came true. In no place does the New Testament record the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple as having been fulfilled. As this authenticates Jesus divine authority, it is incredible that it was ignored, unless it had not yet happened when the writings were written.
Sincerely. W.D.E.
Q.E.D. The New Testament Writings are earlier than 70 CE (AD).
I was sent a reply saying that Smithsonian had consulted New Testament authorities and they approved the article, including the assertion of the late writing of the Gospels. My reply to their editor was, “I know you consulted ‘The Authorities’ but did you consult the New Testament?”
But the Grand Miracle doesn’t end with the coming of Jesus the son of God into the world.
Jesus came not only to complete the revealing of who God is, but to introduce the very life of God into us, to baptize us in and with The Holy Spirit.
In John 16:4-15 he tells his disciples, and us, about the work of the Holy Spirit he came to give us.
The Work of the Spirit
“I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. 5But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. 7Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9about sin, because they do not believe in me; 10about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; 11about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.
12“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
He prayed for this to happen in his prayer that is recorded in John 17:20-23.
All four gospels begin with John the Baptist announcing that Jesus came to baptize us in and with the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 3:11, Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16, John1:33.
The Grand Miracle is God in Jesus.
The purpose of The Grand Miracle is God in us.
God wants his church to be filled with The Holy Spirit and empowered to be like Jesus. This is a shocking declaration when we remember the infinite distance between us as sinners and our Holy God. Yet Jesus came in the flesh to bridge that separation and to make our new relationship with God permanent. This is also shocking when we experience the ambivalence caused by the difference between what the church is meant to be and what we know of it. People who complain about the institutional church, its faults and the failings of its leaders have a clear case.
And yet as real as the ambiguous church as, and as valid as our ambivalence about it is: Still, “I believe in the holy catholic church.”
The “dead” church of 18th century England still is the church that nurtured the Wesleys, The dead church of 16th century Europe nurtured Luther and Calvin. The church of the 20th century with all its faults nurtured Mother Teresa, Albert Schweitzer, and Billy Graham. And it is where I came to know Jesus Christ.
The Power of the Holy Spirit
Saul of Tarsus—Paul of everywhere: All things to all people vs. the Nehemiah ideal.
As a good Jew Saul of Tarsus would have had nothing to do with Gentiles, that is, everyone who is not a Jew. But when he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, God sent Ananias to lay hands on him “so his eyes would be open and he would be filled with the Holy Spirit.” He became Paul the spirit filled apostle with a heart open to embrace all humanity in the fellowship of those who trust in Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Now in Christ, even Gentiles become brothers and sisters.
Romans 1:8 “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world. 9For God, whom I serve with my spirit by announcing the gospel of his Son, is my witness that without ceasing I remember you always in my prayers, 10asking that by God’s will I may somehow at last succeed in coming to you. 11For I am longing to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—12or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as I have among the rest of the Gentiles. 14I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish 15—hence my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you also who are in Rome. 16For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.”
The idea of most people throughout history is that their tribe, or nation, or family is superior to all the others and we don’t need or want any fellowship with them. This was the attitude of the Old Testament prophets and of all racists everywhere, whether the divide is between Jew and Gentile, or black and white, or Arab and Israeli, or Northern and Southern Irish, or Yanks and Rebels, etc. ad infinitum. It is demonstrated by the actions of Nehemiah which he reports as a claim to having done a good thing.
and Nehemiah 13:23 In those days also I saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab; 24and half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but spoke the language of various peoples. 25And I contended with them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair; and I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. 26Did not King Solomon of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin. 27Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?”
28And one of the sons of Jehoiada, son of the high priest Eliashib, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite; I chased him away from me. 29Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, the covenant of the priests and the Levites.
30Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work; 31and I provided for the wood offering, at appointed times, and for the first fruits. Remember me, O my God, for good.
Remember Tevya’s daughter and her Russian husband in the play and movie Fiddle on the Roof.
They fall in love, get married and from then on she is treated as dead by her father, who demands that all the family also treat her that way.
Finally it’s Not About Theology
Dr. Albert Schweitzer a great musician, brilliant theologian, chooses to give his life away in serving as a missionary doctor in Africa. I don’t agree with some of his writing and would argue that at least one of his books would best have never been written. But it’s not finally about theology, it’s about being led by the Holy Spirit to relieve human suffering as Jesus demands in Matthew chapter 25.
How old is too old?
In one of the churches where I was the pastor there was a lady who became concerned about older people who live alone and have no one to make sure they are ok. What if some one like that gets sick, or falls and can’t call for help; how long might it be before their need is discovered and help comes? She decided that a daily telephone call at an agreed time by a responsible friend would bring reassurance to the lonely one. Details were worked out, a covenant was developed including what to do if there was no answer when the call was made. The Telephone Reassurance Ministry brought real help and a meaningful visitation to the folks who served. The lady who had this vision was in her 80’s and we often laughed over the fact that many of those served were years younger than she. When the Holy Spirit comes the old and the young see visions and dream dreams.
Outdo one another in showing love.
The consecrated car keys. There was a lady in another of my churches who often outran me to the side of people in need. After feeling I was in a competion with her, eventually I realized that she was a blessing to the people and to my ministry; I learned that some years before she had made a commitment which led to her into this ministry. Her pastor at that time challenged the members of his congregation to choose something of theirs that was important to them and put it on the altar in a service of consecration. After prayerfully thinking about it she put her car keys there. From then on she went where need was, transported people, and served the Lord with gladness and her automobile.
Cups of cold water
One of the things Jesus said that gives me the most encouragement is, “if you give someone just a cup of cold water in my name you are OK with me.” (paraphrased). I, and many of us who take Jesus seriously, want to do some great thing for him, but we don’t think we can. Of course we won’t know until we get to heaven how important what we did was. But in the meantime we do what we can and serve the person in front of us, knowing that doing it for some “little one” in Jesus’ name makes it important. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in us that makes us care about pleasing Jesus in what ever we do and who we are.
The Servants of God and the Friends of Jesus (John 15:15)
I know many people who honor and serve the Lord because God is God and deserves to be served. They experience the satisfaction of doing what they know they ought to do. Sometimes they get to thinking they have done all that is required of them and that they are very good people who are better than others who aren’t as dutiful. These servants of God do much that is good, but they have little joy in doing it and are often “weary in well doing.”
There are other people I know, conscious of their faults, failures, sins, and wasted gifts, who have received the good news that God in Jesus has forgiven all their wrongs, paid their debt to the justice of God, surrounded them with unconditional love, and given them the assurance that they are the adopted children of God and therefore joint heirs with Jesus Christ. These people also serve carefully trying to please God in everything. They know that they can never repay the debt of love they owe, but are constantly reminded by the Holy Spirit that God is please with them. They know that they are babes in Christ still learning to walk who often misstep and have to be picked up, but over whom our heavenly Father smiles with delight at their efforts to please Him. These are the ones to whom Jesus says, “I no longer call you servants but friends.”
The Amish Witnesses
Several years ago we were horrified at the news that a deranged man had entered an Amish school room and gunned down young girls between 6 and 13 years old. Three girls died that day and two more in the hospital the next day. The man killed himself rather than face what he did. He and his family were not Amish but lived in the neighborhood. Within days of this terrible event Amish people reached out to his widow and the rest of his family with words of forgiveness and caring. They attended his funeral and astonished the non Christian world, by carrying out Jesus’ teaching about how to deal with those who hurt you. Nothing less that the power of the Holy Spirit in them can explain their response to this horror.
And Us
Is this miracle of the Holy Spirit, God in us, real? Is it possible now? Jesus said, the heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. Jesus taught us how to pray, so pray the way he taught and ask for this miracle in your life.
In the spirit of what is best in the Enlightment, try this experiment of faith. See Luke 11:1-13 for directions and encouragement.
And a Merry “Grand Miracle” to us all.
Christmastide 2011, Silver Springs Florida, Hollin Home
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Why John Wesley Matters to Me
Why John Wesley Matters to Me
The testimony of a retired United Methodist Preacher
By Walter D. Edwards
Introduction
I have given lecture series at churches and Christian enrichment events from time to time. Often they either allude to John Wesley and our Methodist heritage or are directly about him and it. Lately I have begun asking myself if it is right for me to talk about him the way I do in these semi-official United Methodist settings.
Two Incidents that Made Me Raise the Question and Write This Essay
In January of 1971 I went with my wife Iris to New Orleans to attend the annual Congress on Evangelism of The United Methodist Church. That year the Denman Lectures were delivered by Dr. Albert Outler. Dr. Outler had recently published a monumental study of John Wesley for the Oxford Library of Protestant Thought, and was serving on the editorial board of the Wesley's Works Project. The lectures he gave that week would later be published under the title of Evangelism in the Wesleyan Spirit. Naturally John Wesley, his preaching, his writings, and his spiritual history were the subject of much discussion by all the speakers and all of us who attended the congress.
Two of our friends, a fellow member of the Florida Conference Board of Evangelism, and his wife, were our buddies as we attended the sessions, tried the New Orleans restaurants, went shopping, strolled the French Quarter, and talked about John Wesley. Suddenly his wife said to me, "Why do you people worship John Wesley?" I tried to explain that it wasn't worship but something else. I don't think I satisfied her concern, and I decided that her problem was because she grew up in another denomination.
Many years later while participating in a Conference Table, I shared the context of Mr. Wesley's "think and let think statement," from The Character of a Methodist, as my proposal for a common ground of the very serious theological and pastoral concerns we where about to discuss.
“all Scripture is given by the inspiration of God;” ...We believe the written word
of God to be the only and sufficient rule both of Christian faith and
practice...We believe Christ to be the eternal, supreme God;.... But as to all
opinions which do not strike at the root of Christianity, we think and let
think. (cf. The Character Of a Methodist, Works, Jackson edition)
One of the young ministers there that day said to me in a mocking tone, "Walter Edwards the Wesleyan scholar," which I took as a rebuff.
The young pastor's wife's question, and the disparaging remark of the young minister trouble me, so I am asking myself, "Why does John Wesley matter to me?" Is it idolatry, as the pastor's wife suggested? Is it an irrelevant intellectual hobby as the young pastor implied? Or is it a reality that I am blessed to be able to see, and to which I am called to testify?
A Disclaimer and a Claim
I do not have any special academic qualifications, other than a Master of Divinity degree from Candler School of Theology. However, I have read all 14 volumes of Wesley's Works, at least once; and the Sermons and Journals many times. And I have had an experience I believe is like Wesley's at Aldersgate. That experience and more than half a century of living, thinking and reading what the professional scholars have to say, is where the following thoughts come from as I try to explain why John Wesley Matters to Me, and why I think he matters to us all.
My Experience: The Plant City Florida Revival of March 1951
In March of 1951 I was a junior in high school, an officer in the MYF (union with the EUB was still years away), and I was working toward a diploma in Science and Math with the goal of becoming a chemist or physicist. I was living at home as the last of my parents’ five children who was still in the nest, when a series of Revival services was announced for our church, First Methodist of Plant City Florida. The Evangelist for that week was a man from eastern Kentucky. My parents were from western Kentucky but this preacher didn't sound like my family, his accent was from the mountains. He set the “char” by the “far”. But even more different was his message about having been a drunk and a gambler who had run from God until a life in chaos drove him to surrender to God. Now he was able to tell of a wonderful peace that had filled his life when he "surrendered all." He was Rev. Ford R. Philpot.
He was invited to preach to the public High School assembly, unthinkable today but unremarkable then. It was early in the week, a Monday or Tuesday. As an officer in our church's youth group I introduced him to the audience of more than three hundred students and faculty. While he spoke I felt a little embarrassed because he spoke very frankly about his life before he surrendered to Jesus Christ.
Each evening that week many of my friends and I attended the services at our church. On Wednesday night I didn't go. Later I learned that one of the girls in my class had responded to the altar call that night. It was the first night he gave an altar call and she was the only one who responded. She went home so moved by what she experienced that she spent the entire night praying for all of us, her friends.
On Thursday night when the call was given and the hymn of invitation sung, I was there, sitting by a boy with whom I had attended school and church from infancy, Robert Trinkle, later Chancellor of the Florida Annual Conference. We looked at each other and he said, "Let's go." We did. Kneeling at the communion rail where I was baptized as a baby, received the Lord's Supper, and had taken the vows of church membership at about the age of ten, I told God that I wanted to be His boy.
We who had come to pray, there were more than 20 of us, many young like me but some of all ages, stood and began to sing, "Thank you Lord for saving my soul..." As I sang the Holy Spirit bore witness with my spirit that I was then and there a child of God by a new birth. What I felt then was joy unspeakable and full of glory. I testified that night to the congregation what I felt. And I lived in that joy for many days.
As time went by I experienced the unfolding of this new life in the way Wesley describes it in The Scripture Way of Salvation. At first it seemed that spiritual victory was perfect and complete, but then temptations came; there was confusion over things I feared were sins but are not. In time I came to see that God and I are in a covenant relationship, like marriage. God has made promises to me and I have to God, so I am His and He is mine, no matter the state of my emotions. In time I learned about Wesley's Aldersgate experience and came to identify mine with his.
Dr. H. Carter Hardin and Wesley's Standard Sermons
My pastor, Dr. H. Carter Hardin, soon approached me with the suggestion that God was calling me. My parents, fearing that I was becoming fanatical and moving too fast, vetoed a plan for me to become a Licensed Exhorter i.e. a lay preacher. Never-the-less Dr. Hardin handed me The Wesleyan Standard Sermons, and I began to read them. I was exposed to the way Methodism was in the late 19th century and pre-WWI years because Dr. Hardin, whose ministry began in Dania Florida in 1911, was from those times. On at least one occasion he even read the General Rules to our congregation, as was the custom when he began his ministry, and was a requirement of Wesley's from the beginning of Methodism in England. As I read those Standard Sermons, I recognized people I knew in "The Almost Christian," and myself in "Salvation by Faith." "The Witness of the Spirit" described my own new-found experience of God's presence in my life. And in "Justification by Faith" I saw the difference between hoping I am saved because of my works, and knowing I am because of God's.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes On The New testament (ENNT)
In order to help establish our faith and instruct us in the Christian life, Rev. Philpot had encouraged us to become subscribers to the Herald newspaper with its articles by preachers in the Methodist holiness camp meeting movement. One of the publications advertised in The Herald was John Wesley's Explanatory Notes on The New Testament , which I purchased. Thus I had in my hands, while not yet out of high school, the two source books of Doctrinal Standards in the Wesleyan Tradition. I not only had them, I read them. So from a teenager, I was exposed to the Methodism of John Wesley mediated through the Methodist Holiness Movement. In addition because my father was a member of the Board of Stewards, there was a copy of the Book of Discipline in the bookcase at my home. There I saw and read the "Articles of Religion." So I was exposed to the theology of the Anglican/Methodist tradition as well. Why would a relatively normal teen age boy be reading such material? Because of what happened at that revival.
Dr. Hardin's Gifts
Over the years I have often tried to help someone by giving them a book. I have also been afraid that it was not helpful because the person wasn't comfortable with books or maybe what they needed was conversation with a person. But as I record these memories I know that I was helped by books my pastor gave me, and that is probably why I do the same.
The Way, by E. Stanley Jones. I first encountered the writings of E. Stanley Jones when my pastor gave me a copy of The Way. I read it first as a daily devotional because it was formatted that way. Later I read it strait through because it was an explanation of Christian believing and living. That book remains fundamental to my own theology and ministry. It was a great satisfaction to me to learn that The Way, rather than Abundant Living, which was the more popular book, was Dr. Jones choice as his best book. Of his many other books I regard Christian Maturity, which is a study of the first epistle of John, as most important.
Anointed To Preach, by Clovis Chappell. As my call to preach became more evident,
Dr. Hardin gave me another book, which I cherish along with The Way, it is Anointed to Preach by Clovis Chappell. It is the published version of the Sam Jones Lectures delivered by Dr. Chappell at Emory University's Candler School of Theology. He defends the Divine choice of the "foolishness of preaching" (not foolish preaching), and tells in a straight forward way how to go about doing it. One of his observations that has liberated me from a quest for novelty is, "If you get up to preach next Sunday and say something completely original, the chances are it will not be true." Basically he said to read the Bible systematically and preach what speaks to you. Not that different from Richard Baxter's, "I preached as never to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men." Another gift from Chappell was the freedom to preach about money. Chappell said "He loved to preach about money because he enjoyed watching the generous enjoy it and seeing the stingy suffer.
About Preaching: What It Is.
The word "Preaching" as used by most people is like the Madonna song, "Papa Don't Preach." a complaint against having your morals corrected. But the word "Preach" in The New Testament is an announcement of news. Sometimes it is good news, sometimes bad, but it is telling something that people need, and may even want, to hear. As a preacher I have struggled to "get it right" so my preaching will be the telling of the news God wants people to hear. As of now I think that what I am commissioned to announce is, to troubled people and a troubled world, "I know what the problem is, it is sin; personal (my own sins), corporate (the sins of our society), and systemic, (the sins of the social and economic systems under which we live), against God and our fellow human beings."
Because I also know what the cure is, Jesus Christ crucified and risen again, even the bad news is good, as when the Doctor says, "You are sick but we can heal you." I have cherished for many years the words of Queen Eleanor to King Henry in The Lion In Winter movie, when she sarcastically replies to his promises, which she does not believe, "I suppose, in a world where a carpenter rose from the dead, anything is possible." My announcement (Preaching) is, "we do live in a world where a carpenter rose from the dead so the kingdom of God is here and every good thing is now possible. Look for the signs and you will see."
What Dr. Paul Fletcher Taught Me about Prayer.
In June of 1952 Dr. Paul Fletcher, who was the pastor at First Methodist in Plant City from 1930-1935, moved back there in retirement. One Wednesday evening he gave the message at prayer meeting. He told how he prays (not just says) the Lord's Prayer. He emphasized the slow dwelling on each part, especially "hallowing the name" and worshipping God. I came away wanting to pray that way and experience what he did.
To the south of our house there is a tract of land that had been farmed by my older brother. When he went into service at the start of WWII our Dad took it over and he and I planted it with pine trees. By 1952 the trees were tall enough to have created a pine straw covering on the ground. It was there I lay down to pray in secret and begin to experience the prayer Jesus taught us. In time I discovered what John Wesley said about this prayer, "It contains everything we need to pray for and every thing we lawfully can pray for."
In later years it has given me a way to pray for my "list." I read over the list I keep remembering all the friends, fellow servants, parishioners, enemies, situations, and leaders I am asking God to bless. Then I picture all of US together praying OUR prayer (he gave it to us) and so I pray with and for us all. It is as close to the perfect will of God as I know how to get.
Annual Conference 1951 and Dr. Harry Denman
Full of this new experience of a personal, felt, relationship with God, I was eager for spiritual food. So when it came time for Annual Conference I attended, as a visitor, along with boys I knew from MYF Sub-district, who were sons of area pastors. Being old enough to have a Learners Permit Drivers License, I was able to drive the 11 or 12 miles to Lakeland. We met in the Mayhall Auditorium, then the civic auditorium for the City of Lakeland.
The conference preacher that year, who preached five times, was Dr. Harry Denman, a layman. He was Executive Secretary of the General Board of Evangelism. No clergy person who has headed it since has had anything like the impact he had on me and, I suspect, on the denomination as a whole. Having consecrated his every asset to the task of bringing the Good News to people, he combined an eccentric simplicity with a holy zeal. He owned no watch, so he could ask strangers the time and create the opportunity to begin conversations which might lead to giving his witness, thus "exhorting all with whom he came in contact". He spent holidays in jail so he could witness to those in prison. He owned only one suit and traveled the world packed in a briefcase.
Dr. Denman's preaching to the Annual Conference that week challenged us to rededicate ourselves to Jesus Christ and to the work of spreading His message and ministry to the world. Dr. Denman's message was Jesus, and his model was John Wesley. His one suit resembled Wesley's one preaching cloak, and for him the airplane was just a faster horse. I was inspired and more committed to the ministry than ever.
Christmas 1951-Aunt Elizabeth's Gift of Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis
My aunt Elizabeth Chadwick Beal Edwards, wife of my father's brother Colonel Basil Duke Edwards, was a devout Episcopalian from New England. She always sent Christmas presents to her nieces and nephews until they reached teen age. Having learned that I was feeling called to the ministry, she extended the custom for another year by sending me C. S. Lewis', Mere Christianity. It is difficult to express my feelings about this book because it introduced me to a quality of reasoned discourse about Christian faith that makes so much other writing seem trivial. It nourished my heart as well as my mind and introduced me to Lewis' many other writings, fiction for adults and children, literary criticism, medieval philosophy and science, Christian apologetics, lay pastoral caring (The Problem of Pain), and preaching. In 1951 I had never heard of Lewis but my aunt had and graciously introduced me to him. As I write this I am preparing a series of lectures; "What We Believe," to be delivered at Morrison UMC in Leesburg, and in preparation I am re reading Mere Christianity.
License to Preach and Bishop Paul Kern's Methodism Has a Message
Having become fully convinced that God was calling me to preach, I enrolled in the correspondence course of study for License to Preach in the Fall of 1951. In addition to The Bible and The Book of Discipline, there were four books to study: one by Harris Franklin Rall; Understanding the Christian Faith by Georgia Harkness; A Young Man's View of the Ministry by Sam Shoemaker; and Methodism Has a Message by Bishop Paul B. Kern. I still remember some of what Sam Shoemaker wrote, but the one that had the greatest impact on me, and that I still have after more than half a century, is Bishop Kern's book.
Bishop Kern related the story of Aldersgate and how Wesley, who was an obedient servant of God, became a joyful son of God, conscious of "an assurance that God had taken away his sins and delivered him from the wrath to come." I saw myself, faithful church attender, MYF'er, choir member and "boy around the church," as a servant who was now consciously a son, and Wesley as the authority who affirmed my experience.
Bishop Kern told of the incident when Mr. Wesley, riding to an appointment, fell in with a little gentleman from St. Just who spoke harshly about a Methodist named Edward Greenfield. When Wesley asked him what was wrong with Greenfield, the man said, "The gentlemen cannot stand his impudence; he says he knows his sins are forgiven."
The doctrine of assurance, the possibility of new birth through faith, and the joyful witness to these resonated with my experience and made me want to tell this good news.
The committee on the ministry of the Lakeland District of the Florida Annual Conference, chaired by Rev John Stradley, D.S., examined me and granted me a Local Preacher's License on September 11, 1952, a few days before I left home to enter my freshman year of college.
Asbury College
In the fall of 1952 I enrolled as a freshman at Asbury College. I immediately found myself in company with young men and women who shared my kind of spiritual experiences and aspirations. The faculty members were confessing Christians who witnessed to the same sort of experiences and convictions that had come in my life. They taught that this was what original Wesleyan Methodism was and is about. I believe they were correct. When someone asks me what Methodists believe, I have to say this is what I believe and teach. I know there are other opinions, but this is mine.
The Holy Spirit In The Whole Bible: Trying to Understand
There was so much being said about The Holy Spirit in Chapel, in classes, in prayer meetings, and in informal conversations that I began to hunger for more knowledge and understanding of the Third Person of The Holy Trinity. So I went to the College book store and bought three loose leaf notebooks, several packages of notebook paper, and put them together. I then went to the library, found Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible and wrote, one to a page, every passage in the Bible that mentions spirit (or Spirit). My plan was to study these passages, record what I learned and come to know everything the Bible has to tell us about God the Holy Spirit. Why? Because The Holy Spirit is God in us (in me), or as Wesley puts it, "The Life of God in the Soul of a man (person)."
Those notebooks are long gone now, but the fruit of that study lives on in the course I still teach called The Holy Spirit, The Bible, and You.
The Discovery of the Prayer without Words
During my years as a student at Asbury College there were a number of future Salvation Army officers among my fellow students, one of the classmates was Paul Rader, later international head, that is General, of the S.A. Some of them invited me to go with them to nearby S.A. Corps on the weekends. This meant playing in the band (trumpet) and preaching on the streets Saturday nights, teaching Sunday School, and sharing in morning and evening worship services. I was given many opportunities to preach and was confronted by hearers who were the obviously needy (we all know, of course, some of the very neediest people are less obvious).
On one occasion as I was praying for power to reach the hearts of those I would preach to that evening, I began to experience a deep emotional burden. Because I knew the scripture in Romans 8:26, I identified what I was experiencing as The Holy Spirit praying through me in a way that overcame my ignorance of what to say, or what should be asked in true wisdom, or what is God's best for us. That experience of prayer beyond verbal expression has grown into something that affects all aspects of worship for me. Sometimes the feeling is one of awe and adoration that cannot be expressed and causes me to "be still and know that God is God." When I let myself groan and cry and rejoice in this state, I believe I have found what C. S. Lewis calls The Prayer Without Words, (Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer) and perhaps, the prayer language of the charismatic Christian. The hymn "Prayer Is the Souls Sincere Desire, Unuttered or Expressed", also says what I mean.
So, did Mr. Wesley know the "Prayer Without Words"? Here are his ENNT notes on Romans 8:26-27, which convince me he did know.
.
26. Likewise the Spirit — Nay, not only the universe, not only the children
of God, but the Spirit of God also himself, as it were, groaneth, while he
helpeth our infirmities, or weaknesses. Our understandings are weak,
particularly in the things of God our desires are weak; our prayers are
weak. We know not — Many times. What we should pray for — Much less
are we able to pray for it as we ought: but the Spirit maketh intercession
for us — In our hearts, even as Christ does in heaven. With groanings —
The matter of which is from ourselves, but the Spirit forms them; and they
are frequently inexpressible, even by the faithful themselves.
27. But he who searcheth the hearts — Wherein the Spirit dwells and
intercedes. Knoweth — Though man cannot utter it. What is the mind of
the Spirit, for he maketh intercession for the saints — Who are near to
God. According to God — According to his will, as is worthy of God. and
acceptable to him.
Candler School of Theology, Dr. John Lawson, and What is Evangelical?
It was 1958. The word Evangelical did not have a political association as it does now. Dr. John Lawson was teaching the required classes on Methodist doctrine and polity. He taught us from the Works of John Wesley; in fact he ordered from England for us used copies of the "Works" and the great source books on The Sermons and Journals by Sugden and Curnoch. Here I began to read those documents and become more than ever convinced that Wesley understood the Bible and the way to salvation better than any other writer since St. Paul. It was in Dr. Lawson's class that I first heard the term Evangelical, and that it meant this message of salvation by faith apart from works of the law, accompanied by the assurance of the Holy Spirit crying in our hearts, Father My Father, and confirmed as faith working through love. It is a tragedy that this word has been turned into a politico/ecclesiastical label that contributes nothing to the communication of the Good News it conveyed in its origin.
Also at Candler I studied under Dr. William R. Cannon, later a Bishop of the United Methodist church. Dr. Cannon was a preeminent Wesleyan scholar, author of The Theology of John Wesley: With Special Reference to the Doctrine of Justification by Faith. Because he was also a great Church Historian he was able to help me appreciate Wesley's devotion to Primitive Christianity and why we still need the church fathers, especially Macarius, whose insight into Christian experience and the progress of the vital Christian from new birth to perfection is captured in Wesley's sermon "The Scripture Way of Salvation "
Dr. Theodore Runyon came to Candler a year or two after I graduated. So what I have learned from him about Wesley has come from his lectures at Florida Conference Pastor's School, Ministers Week at Candler, and in his book, The New Creation. Dr. Runyon has added to and confirmed my conviction that John Wesley Matters to me and to us all.
Servants of God and Sons of God
Because of the thrill of my spiritual awakening I was seduced into thinking that the church members I knew, who showed none of the passion and joy that I now felt, were no Christians at all, or at best only the "Almost Christians" of Mr. Wesley's sermon. I easily came to think of their good works by which they expected to have a positive balance in God's account book as "splendid sins." Gradually a sense of fairness began to make me question this attitude. Then I noticed a very short footnote in Wesley's account of his Aldersgate experience. Where he had written that before Aldersgate he was no Christian at all, he now wrote simply, "I think not." This he added when making the corrections to later editions of "The Works."(Jackson Edition with Wesley's own final corrections, The 14 Vols.).
Here I began to look again at the sermons and now I saw the places where he distinguishes between the Servants of God and the [Children] of God.
Thus he gave me the distinction between the servants who "fear God and do what is right," and the friends (Sons, Children) who "know what God in Christ is doing," and "have the Spirit crying in their hearts, Abba Father." I believe that this is a key part of our Wesleyan heritage that should be proclaimed urgently. It is my contention that the many faithful servants of God in our congregations who have served in the church's offices, taught in its Sunday Schools, contributed to its finances, or been faithful in so many other ways should be given the good news that they can know their sins are forgiven and enjoy the witness of God's Spirit that they are God's own beloved children in whom He is pleased.
Some of these who were faithful servants in times past have testified that through such ministries as Lay Witness Missions, Laymen's and Laywomen's retreats as well as Walk to Emmaus or Revivals, (like me), they came to know the assurance of faith. Sadly, some of them feel that they were not taught that this was possible in their local church and they are angry. I teach this and always have, but I have also been charged with failing to "tell" them. While I believe that some were not listening, or not ready to receive or not in the timing of God while I was their pastor. Have I said too little about it? Have I been too shy about saying that these servants of God, fine as they are, lack something important?
I challenge my fellow clergy to search our hearts and ask if we are neglecting it, or if we have failed to receive what God has for us; the gift he wants us to have so we can pass it on.
Having the Form and Seeking the Power of Godliness
So how are we to counsel these servants of God so they can receive this promised blessing? Ask them these questions:
Do they have a desire to flee the wrath to come and be saved? This is the one and only condition for membership in the Methodist society, a people who have the form and are seeking the power of godliness. (Form equals Servant; Power equals Child)
Do they understand that this salvation is the gift of God, that it is not the result of, or reward for, any works, even the ones mentioned here, and is freely given to those who simply ask and believe.
THE FORM:
Are they willing to be part of a small group (about 12) who they will meet with regularly and with whom they will covenant to watch over one another in love, so as to work out their salvation and keep the following rules?
Will they avoid every kind of evil behavior as we are taught in the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount? And especially avoid careless words: things that are most common, such as profanity, and evil speaking of people not present.
Will they do all the good they can, to people's souls by encouraging them to remember their Creator, and to their bodies by feeding the hungry, watering the thirsty, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and the prisoner and welcoming strangers?
Will they use the means of grace, such as, public and private worship, searching the scriptures, The Lord's Supper, fasting and abstinence, and Christian conversation?
THE POWER:
So then, being obedient in these things and praying patiently to receive power from on high, God will grant these Servants of God the assurance of Children of God in His good time, He will not tarry long. Trust and obey!
And as they walk in faith and seek to love the Lord their God with ALL their heart, and their neighbors as themselves, God will perfect them in love in this life.
It will be plain to Methodists, some at least, that I have simply paraphrased Mr. Wesley's counsel embodied in The General Rules. Recently Bishop Ruben Job has written a book on The General Rules called, Three Simple Rules. Personally I think Wesley doesn't need that much modernization, but I am glad attention is being given to that part of The Book of Discipline.
A Conclusion
Through the ministry of Dr. Ford Philpot I experienced the grace of God that started it all.
That experience of salvation by faith and the witness of God's Spirit is explained by Wesley. My pastor, who identified my call to preach, introduced me to Wesley's Standard Sermons. Dr. Harry Denman exemplified to me a modern Wesleyan ministry of evangelism. The candidacy for Local Preacher's License taught me about Wesley's life and ministry. Asbury College gave me an education in an atmosphere that honors classic Methodism. My deepening walk with the Holy Spirit is confirmed by Wesley's ENNT. I have been given, by Wesley, the meaning of Evangelical Christianity without the political baggage. From Wesley I see a way to open the path to a life of "joyful obedience" for the many faithful servants of God in our churches.
This is why John Wesley is important to me and why I believe he is important not only to United Methodism, but to the whole Christian church and the whole human race. And so, whenever and where ever I can, I will continue my teaching ministry and its witness to the relevance of John Wesley.
Addendum
Wesleyan Soteriology in four sentences given to me by Dr. George A. Foster
my Senior Pastor and Mentor at Trinity UMC Tallahassee, 1966-68
All people need to be saved. (See the writings on Original Sin.)
All people can be saved. (See the Wesley Hymns and sermons against Calvinism.)
All people can know they are saved. (See sermons on the Witness of the Spirit.)
All people can be saved from all sin. (See The Plain Account of Christian Perfection, and the sermon on Repentance in Believers)
The testimony of a retired United Methodist Preacher
By Walter D. Edwards
Introduction
I have given lecture series at churches and Christian enrichment events from time to time. Often they either allude to John Wesley and our Methodist heritage or are directly about him and it. Lately I have begun asking myself if it is right for me to talk about him the way I do in these semi-official United Methodist settings.
Two Incidents that Made Me Raise the Question and Write This Essay
In January of 1971 I went with my wife Iris to New Orleans to attend the annual Congress on Evangelism of The United Methodist Church. That year the Denman Lectures were delivered by Dr. Albert Outler. Dr. Outler had recently published a monumental study of John Wesley for the Oxford Library of Protestant Thought, and was serving on the editorial board of the Wesley's Works Project. The lectures he gave that week would later be published under the title of Evangelism in the Wesleyan Spirit. Naturally John Wesley, his preaching, his writings, and his spiritual history were the subject of much discussion by all the speakers and all of us who attended the congress.
Two of our friends, a fellow member of the Florida Conference Board of Evangelism, and his wife, were our buddies as we attended the sessions, tried the New Orleans restaurants, went shopping, strolled the French Quarter, and talked about John Wesley. Suddenly his wife said to me, "Why do you people worship John Wesley?" I tried to explain that it wasn't worship but something else. I don't think I satisfied her concern, and I decided that her problem was because she grew up in another denomination.
Many years later while participating in a Conference Table, I shared the context of Mr. Wesley's "think and let think statement," from The Character of a Methodist, as my proposal for a common ground of the very serious theological and pastoral concerns we where about to discuss.
“all Scripture is given by the inspiration of God;” ...We believe the written word
of God to be the only and sufficient rule both of Christian faith and
practice...We believe Christ to be the eternal, supreme God;.... But as to all
opinions which do not strike at the root of Christianity, we think and let
think. (cf. The Character Of a Methodist, Works, Jackson edition)
One of the young ministers there that day said to me in a mocking tone, "Walter Edwards the Wesleyan scholar," which I took as a rebuff.
The young pastor's wife's question, and the disparaging remark of the young minister trouble me, so I am asking myself, "Why does John Wesley matter to me?" Is it idolatry, as the pastor's wife suggested? Is it an irrelevant intellectual hobby as the young pastor implied? Or is it a reality that I am blessed to be able to see, and to which I am called to testify?
A Disclaimer and a Claim
I do not have any special academic qualifications, other than a Master of Divinity degree from Candler School of Theology. However, I have read all 14 volumes of Wesley's Works, at least once; and the Sermons and Journals many times. And I have had an experience I believe is like Wesley's at Aldersgate. That experience and more than half a century of living, thinking and reading what the professional scholars have to say, is where the following thoughts come from as I try to explain why John Wesley Matters to Me, and why I think he matters to us all.
My Experience: The Plant City Florida Revival of March 1951
In March of 1951 I was a junior in high school, an officer in the MYF (union with the EUB was still years away), and I was working toward a diploma in Science and Math with the goal of becoming a chemist or physicist. I was living at home as the last of my parents’ five children who was still in the nest, when a series of Revival services was announced for our church, First Methodist of Plant City Florida. The Evangelist for that week was a man from eastern Kentucky. My parents were from western Kentucky but this preacher didn't sound like my family, his accent was from the mountains. He set the “char” by the “far”. But even more different was his message about having been a drunk and a gambler who had run from God until a life in chaos drove him to surrender to God. Now he was able to tell of a wonderful peace that had filled his life when he "surrendered all." He was Rev. Ford R. Philpot.
He was invited to preach to the public High School assembly, unthinkable today but unremarkable then. It was early in the week, a Monday or Tuesday. As an officer in our church's youth group I introduced him to the audience of more than three hundred students and faculty. While he spoke I felt a little embarrassed because he spoke very frankly about his life before he surrendered to Jesus Christ.
Each evening that week many of my friends and I attended the services at our church. On Wednesday night I didn't go. Later I learned that one of the girls in my class had responded to the altar call that night. It was the first night he gave an altar call and she was the only one who responded. She went home so moved by what she experienced that she spent the entire night praying for all of us, her friends.
On Thursday night when the call was given and the hymn of invitation sung, I was there, sitting by a boy with whom I had attended school and church from infancy, Robert Trinkle, later Chancellor of the Florida Annual Conference. We looked at each other and he said, "Let's go." We did. Kneeling at the communion rail where I was baptized as a baby, received the Lord's Supper, and had taken the vows of church membership at about the age of ten, I told God that I wanted to be His boy.
We who had come to pray, there were more than 20 of us, many young like me but some of all ages, stood and began to sing, "Thank you Lord for saving my soul..." As I sang the Holy Spirit bore witness with my spirit that I was then and there a child of God by a new birth. What I felt then was joy unspeakable and full of glory. I testified that night to the congregation what I felt. And I lived in that joy for many days.
As time went by I experienced the unfolding of this new life in the way Wesley describes it in The Scripture Way of Salvation. At first it seemed that spiritual victory was perfect and complete, but then temptations came; there was confusion over things I feared were sins but are not. In time I came to see that God and I are in a covenant relationship, like marriage. God has made promises to me and I have to God, so I am His and He is mine, no matter the state of my emotions. In time I learned about Wesley's Aldersgate experience and came to identify mine with his.
Dr. H. Carter Hardin and Wesley's Standard Sermons
My pastor, Dr. H. Carter Hardin, soon approached me with the suggestion that God was calling me. My parents, fearing that I was becoming fanatical and moving too fast, vetoed a plan for me to become a Licensed Exhorter i.e. a lay preacher. Never-the-less Dr. Hardin handed me The Wesleyan Standard Sermons, and I began to read them. I was exposed to the way Methodism was in the late 19th century and pre-WWI years because Dr. Hardin, whose ministry began in Dania Florida in 1911, was from those times. On at least one occasion he even read the General Rules to our congregation, as was the custom when he began his ministry, and was a requirement of Wesley's from the beginning of Methodism in England. As I read those Standard Sermons, I recognized people I knew in "The Almost Christian," and myself in "Salvation by Faith." "The Witness of the Spirit" described my own new-found experience of God's presence in my life. And in "Justification by Faith" I saw the difference between hoping I am saved because of my works, and knowing I am because of God's.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes On The New testament (ENNT)
In order to help establish our faith and instruct us in the Christian life, Rev. Philpot had encouraged us to become subscribers to the Herald newspaper with its articles by preachers in the Methodist holiness camp meeting movement. One of the publications advertised in The Herald was John Wesley's Explanatory Notes on The New Testament , which I purchased. Thus I had in my hands, while not yet out of high school, the two source books of Doctrinal Standards in the Wesleyan Tradition. I not only had them, I read them. So from a teenager, I was exposed to the Methodism of John Wesley mediated through the Methodist Holiness Movement. In addition because my father was a member of the Board of Stewards, there was a copy of the Book of Discipline in the bookcase at my home. There I saw and read the "Articles of Religion." So I was exposed to the theology of the Anglican/Methodist tradition as well. Why would a relatively normal teen age boy be reading such material? Because of what happened at that revival.
Dr. Hardin's Gifts
Over the years I have often tried to help someone by giving them a book. I have also been afraid that it was not helpful because the person wasn't comfortable with books or maybe what they needed was conversation with a person. But as I record these memories I know that I was helped by books my pastor gave me, and that is probably why I do the same.
The Way, by E. Stanley Jones. I first encountered the writings of E. Stanley Jones when my pastor gave me a copy of The Way. I read it first as a daily devotional because it was formatted that way. Later I read it strait through because it was an explanation of Christian believing and living. That book remains fundamental to my own theology and ministry. It was a great satisfaction to me to learn that The Way, rather than Abundant Living, which was the more popular book, was Dr. Jones choice as his best book. Of his many other books I regard Christian Maturity, which is a study of the first epistle of John, as most important.
Anointed To Preach, by Clovis Chappell. As my call to preach became more evident,
Dr. Hardin gave me another book, which I cherish along with The Way, it is Anointed to Preach by Clovis Chappell. It is the published version of the Sam Jones Lectures delivered by Dr. Chappell at Emory University's Candler School of Theology. He defends the Divine choice of the "foolishness of preaching" (not foolish preaching), and tells in a straight forward way how to go about doing it. One of his observations that has liberated me from a quest for novelty is, "If you get up to preach next Sunday and say something completely original, the chances are it will not be true." Basically he said to read the Bible systematically and preach what speaks to you. Not that different from Richard Baxter's, "I preached as never to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men." Another gift from Chappell was the freedom to preach about money. Chappell said "He loved to preach about money because he enjoyed watching the generous enjoy it and seeing the stingy suffer.
About Preaching: What It Is.
The word "Preaching" as used by most people is like the Madonna song, "Papa Don't Preach." a complaint against having your morals corrected. But the word "Preach" in The New Testament is an announcement of news. Sometimes it is good news, sometimes bad, but it is telling something that people need, and may even want, to hear. As a preacher I have struggled to "get it right" so my preaching will be the telling of the news God wants people to hear. As of now I think that what I am commissioned to announce is, to troubled people and a troubled world, "I know what the problem is, it is sin; personal (my own sins), corporate (the sins of our society), and systemic, (the sins of the social and economic systems under which we live), against God and our fellow human beings."
Because I also know what the cure is, Jesus Christ crucified and risen again, even the bad news is good, as when the Doctor says, "You are sick but we can heal you." I have cherished for many years the words of Queen Eleanor to King Henry in The Lion In Winter movie, when she sarcastically replies to his promises, which she does not believe, "I suppose, in a world where a carpenter rose from the dead, anything is possible." My announcement (Preaching) is, "we do live in a world where a carpenter rose from the dead so the kingdom of God is here and every good thing is now possible. Look for the signs and you will see."
What Dr. Paul Fletcher Taught Me about Prayer.
In June of 1952 Dr. Paul Fletcher, who was the pastor at First Methodist in Plant City from 1930-1935, moved back there in retirement. One Wednesday evening he gave the message at prayer meeting. He told how he prays (not just says) the Lord's Prayer. He emphasized the slow dwelling on each part, especially "hallowing the name" and worshipping God. I came away wanting to pray that way and experience what he did.
To the south of our house there is a tract of land that had been farmed by my older brother. When he went into service at the start of WWII our Dad took it over and he and I planted it with pine trees. By 1952 the trees were tall enough to have created a pine straw covering on the ground. It was there I lay down to pray in secret and begin to experience the prayer Jesus taught us. In time I discovered what John Wesley said about this prayer, "It contains everything we need to pray for and every thing we lawfully can pray for."
In later years it has given me a way to pray for my "list." I read over the list I keep remembering all the friends, fellow servants, parishioners, enemies, situations, and leaders I am asking God to bless. Then I picture all of US together praying OUR prayer (he gave it to us) and so I pray with and for us all. It is as close to the perfect will of God as I know how to get.
Annual Conference 1951 and Dr. Harry Denman
Full of this new experience of a personal, felt, relationship with God, I was eager for spiritual food. So when it came time for Annual Conference I attended, as a visitor, along with boys I knew from MYF Sub-district, who were sons of area pastors. Being old enough to have a Learners Permit Drivers License, I was able to drive the 11 or 12 miles to Lakeland. We met in the Mayhall Auditorium, then the civic auditorium for the City of Lakeland.
The conference preacher that year, who preached five times, was Dr. Harry Denman, a layman. He was Executive Secretary of the General Board of Evangelism. No clergy person who has headed it since has had anything like the impact he had on me and, I suspect, on the denomination as a whole. Having consecrated his every asset to the task of bringing the Good News to people, he combined an eccentric simplicity with a holy zeal. He owned no watch, so he could ask strangers the time and create the opportunity to begin conversations which might lead to giving his witness, thus "exhorting all with whom he came in contact". He spent holidays in jail so he could witness to those in prison. He owned only one suit and traveled the world packed in a briefcase.
Dr. Denman's preaching to the Annual Conference that week challenged us to rededicate ourselves to Jesus Christ and to the work of spreading His message and ministry to the world. Dr. Denman's message was Jesus, and his model was John Wesley. His one suit resembled Wesley's one preaching cloak, and for him the airplane was just a faster horse. I was inspired and more committed to the ministry than ever.
Christmas 1951-Aunt Elizabeth's Gift of Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis
My aunt Elizabeth Chadwick Beal Edwards, wife of my father's brother Colonel Basil Duke Edwards, was a devout Episcopalian from New England. She always sent Christmas presents to her nieces and nephews until they reached teen age. Having learned that I was feeling called to the ministry, she extended the custom for another year by sending me C. S. Lewis', Mere Christianity. It is difficult to express my feelings about this book because it introduced me to a quality of reasoned discourse about Christian faith that makes so much other writing seem trivial. It nourished my heart as well as my mind and introduced me to Lewis' many other writings, fiction for adults and children, literary criticism, medieval philosophy and science, Christian apologetics, lay pastoral caring (The Problem of Pain), and preaching. In 1951 I had never heard of Lewis but my aunt had and graciously introduced me to him. As I write this I am preparing a series of lectures; "What We Believe," to be delivered at Morrison UMC in Leesburg, and in preparation I am re reading Mere Christianity.
License to Preach and Bishop Paul Kern's Methodism Has a Message
Having become fully convinced that God was calling me to preach, I enrolled in the correspondence course of study for License to Preach in the Fall of 1951. In addition to The Bible and The Book of Discipline, there were four books to study: one by Harris Franklin Rall; Understanding the Christian Faith by Georgia Harkness; A Young Man's View of the Ministry by Sam Shoemaker; and Methodism Has a Message by Bishop Paul B. Kern. I still remember some of what Sam Shoemaker wrote, but the one that had the greatest impact on me, and that I still have after more than half a century, is Bishop Kern's book.
Bishop Kern related the story of Aldersgate and how Wesley, who was an obedient servant of God, became a joyful son of God, conscious of "an assurance that God had taken away his sins and delivered him from the wrath to come." I saw myself, faithful church attender, MYF'er, choir member and "boy around the church," as a servant who was now consciously a son, and Wesley as the authority who affirmed my experience.
Bishop Kern told of the incident when Mr. Wesley, riding to an appointment, fell in with a little gentleman from St. Just who spoke harshly about a Methodist named Edward Greenfield. When Wesley asked him what was wrong with Greenfield, the man said, "The gentlemen cannot stand his impudence; he says he knows his sins are forgiven."
The doctrine of assurance, the possibility of new birth through faith, and the joyful witness to these resonated with my experience and made me want to tell this good news.
The committee on the ministry of the Lakeland District of the Florida Annual Conference, chaired by Rev John Stradley, D.S., examined me and granted me a Local Preacher's License on September 11, 1952, a few days before I left home to enter my freshman year of college.
Asbury College
In the fall of 1952 I enrolled as a freshman at Asbury College. I immediately found myself in company with young men and women who shared my kind of spiritual experiences and aspirations. The faculty members were confessing Christians who witnessed to the same sort of experiences and convictions that had come in my life. They taught that this was what original Wesleyan Methodism was and is about. I believe they were correct. When someone asks me what Methodists believe, I have to say this is what I believe and teach. I know there are other opinions, but this is mine.
The Holy Spirit In The Whole Bible: Trying to Understand
There was so much being said about The Holy Spirit in Chapel, in classes, in prayer meetings, and in informal conversations that I began to hunger for more knowledge and understanding of the Third Person of The Holy Trinity. So I went to the College book store and bought three loose leaf notebooks, several packages of notebook paper, and put them together. I then went to the library, found Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible and wrote, one to a page, every passage in the Bible that mentions spirit (or Spirit). My plan was to study these passages, record what I learned and come to know everything the Bible has to tell us about God the Holy Spirit. Why? Because The Holy Spirit is God in us (in me), or as Wesley puts it, "The Life of God in the Soul of a man (person)."
Those notebooks are long gone now, but the fruit of that study lives on in the course I still teach called The Holy Spirit, The Bible, and You.
The Discovery of the Prayer without Words
During my years as a student at Asbury College there were a number of future Salvation Army officers among my fellow students, one of the classmates was Paul Rader, later international head, that is General, of the S.A. Some of them invited me to go with them to nearby S.A. Corps on the weekends. This meant playing in the band (trumpet) and preaching on the streets Saturday nights, teaching Sunday School, and sharing in morning and evening worship services. I was given many opportunities to preach and was confronted by hearers who were the obviously needy (we all know, of course, some of the very neediest people are less obvious).
On one occasion as I was praying for power to reach the hearts of those I would preach to that evening, I began to experience a deep emotional burden. Because I knew the scripture in Romans 8:26, I identified what I was experiencing as The Holy Spirit praying through me in a way that overcame my ignorance of what to say, or what should be asked in true wisdom, or what is God's best for us. That experience of prayer beyond verbal expression has grown into something that affects all aspects of worship for me. Sometimes the feeling is one of awe and adoration that cannot be expressed and causes me to "be still and know that God is God." When I let myself groan and cry and rejoice in this state, I believe I have found what C. S. Lewis calls The Prayer Without Words, (Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer) and perhaps, the prayer language of the charismatic Christian. The hymn "Prayer Is the Souls Sincere Desire, Unuttered or Expressed", also says what I mean.
So, did Mr. Wesley know the "Prayer Without Words"? Here are his ENNT notes on Romans 8:26-27, which convince me he did know.
.
26. Likewise the Spirit — Nay, not only the universe, not only the children
of God, but the Spirit of God also himself, as it were, groaneth, while he
helpeth our infirmities, or weaknesses. Our understandings are weak,
particularly in the things of God our desires are weak; our prayers are
weak. We know not — Many times. What we should pray for — Much less
are we able to pray for it as we ought: but the Spirit maketh intercession
for us — In our hearts, even as Christ does in heaven. With groanings —
The matter of which is from ourselves, but the Spirit forms them; and they
are frequently inexpressible, even by the faithful themselves.
27. But he who searcheth the hearts — Wherein the Spirit dwells and
intercedes. Knoweth — Though man cannot utter it. What is the mind of
the Spirit, for he maketh intercession for the saints — Who are near to
God. According to God — According to his will, as is worthy of God. and
acceptable to him.
Candler School of Theology, Dr. John Lawson, and What is Evangelical?
It was 1958. The word Evangelical did not have a political association as it does now. Dr. John Lawson was teaching the required classes on Methodist doctrine and polity. He taught us from the Works of John Wesley; in fact he ordered from England for us used copies of the "Works" and the great source books on The Sermons and Journals by Sugden and Curnoch. Here I began to read those documents and become more than ever convinced that Wesley understood the Bible and the way to salvation better than any other writer since St. Paul. It was in Dr. Lawson's class that I first heard the term Evangelical, and that it meant this message of salvation by faith apart from works of the law, accompanied by the assurance of the Holy Spirit crying in our hearts, Father My Father, and confirmed as faith working through love. It is a tragedy that this word has been turned into a politico/ecclesiastical label that contributes nothing to the communication of the Good News it conveyed in its origin.
Also at Candler I studied under Dr. William R. Cannon, later a Bishop of the United Methodist church. Dr. Cannon was a preeminent Wesleyan scholar, author of The Theology of John Wesley: With Special Reference to the Doctrine of Justification by Faith. Because he was also a great Church Historian he was able to help me appreciate Wesley's devotion to Primitive Christianity and why we still need the church fathers, especially Macarius, whose insight into Christian experience and the progress of the vital Christian from new birth to perfection is captured in Wesley's sermon "The Scripture Way of Salvation "
Dr. Theodore Runyon came to Candler a year or two after I graduated. So what I have learned from him about Wesley has come from his lectures at Florida Conference Pastor's School, Ministers Week at Candler, and in his book, The New Creation. Dr. Runyon has added to and confirmed my conviction that John Wesley Matters to me and to us all.
Servants of God and Sons of God
Because of the thrill of my spiritual awakening I was seduced into thinking that the church members I knew, who showed none of the passion and joy that I now felt, were no Christians at all, or at best only the "Almost Christians" of Mr. Wesley's sermon. I easily came to think of their good works by which they expected to have a positive balance in God's account book as "splendid sins." Gradually a sense of fairness began to make me question this attitude. Then I noticed a very short footnote in Wesley's account of his Aldersgate experience. Where he had written that before Aldersgate he was no Christian at all, he now wrote simply, "I think not." This he added when making the corrections to later editions of "The Works."(Jackson Edition with Wesley's own final corrections, The 14 Vols.).
Here I began to look again at the sermons and now I saw the places where he distinguishes between the Servants of God and the [Children] of God.
Thus he gave me the distinction between the servants who "fear God and do what is right," and the friends (Sons, Children) who "know what God in Christ is doing," and "have the Spirit crying in their hearts, Abba Father." I believe that this is a key part of our Wesleyan heritage that should be proclaimed urgently. It is my contention that the many faithful servants of God in our congregations who have served in the church's offices, taught in its Sunday Schools, contributed to its finances, or been faithful in so many other ways should be given the good news that they can know their sins are forgiven and enjoy the witness of God's Spirit that they are God's own beloved children in whom He is pleased.
Some of these who were faithful servants in times past have testified that through such ministries as Lay Witness Missions, Laymen's and Laywomen's retreats as well as Walk to Emmaus or Revivals, (like me), they came to know the assurance of faith. Sadly, some of them feel that they were not taught that this was possible in their local church and they are angry. I teach this and always have, but I have also been charged with failing to "tell" them. While I believe that some were not listening, or not ready to receive or not in the timing of God while I was their pastor. Have I said too little about it? Have I been too shy about saying that these servants of God, fine as they are, lack something important?
I challenge my fellow clergy to search our hearts and ask if we are neglecting it, or if we have failed to receive what God has for us; the gift he wants us to have so we can pass it on.
Having the Form and Seeking the Power of Godliness
So how are we to counsel these servants of God so they can receive this promised blessing? Ask them these questions:
Do they have a desire to flee the wrath to come and be saved? This is the one and only condition for membership in the Methodist society, a people who have the form and are seeking the power of godliness. (Form equals Servant; Power equals Child)
Do they understand that this salvation is the gift of God, that it is not the result of, or reward for, any works, even the ones mentioned here, and is freely given to those who simply ask and believe.
THE FORM:
Are they willing to be part of a small group (about 12) who they will meet with regularly and with whom they will covenant to watch over one another in love, so as to work out their salvation and keep the following rules?
Will they avoid every kind of evil behavior as we are taught in the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount? And especially avoid careless words: things that are most common, such as profanity, and evil speaking of people not present.
Will they do all the good they can, to people's souls by encouraging them to remember their Creator, and to their bodies by feeding the hungry, watering the thirsty, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and the prisoner and welcoming strangers?
Will they use the means of grace, such as, public and private worship, searching the scriptures, The Lord's Supper, fasting and abstinence, and Christian conversation?
THE POWER:
So then, being obedient in these things and praying patiently to receive power from on high, God will grant these Servants of God the assurance of Children of God in His good time, He will not tarry long. Trust and obey!
And as they walk in faith and seek to love the Lord their God with ALL their heart, and their neighbors as themselves, God will perfect them in love in this life.
It will be plain to Methodists, some at least, that I have simply paraphrased Mr. Wesley's counsel embodied in The General Rules. Recently Bishop Ruben Job has written a book on The General Rules called, Three Simple Rules. Personally I think Wesley doesn't need that much modernization, but I am glad attention is being given to that part of The Book of Discipline.
A Conclusion
Through the ministry of Dr. Ford Philpot I experienced the grace of God that started it all.
That experience of salvation by faith and the witness of God's Spirit is explained by Wesley. My pastor, who identified my call to preach, introduced me to Wesley's Standard Sermons. Dr. Harry Denman exemplified to me a modern Wesleyan ministry of evangelism. The candidacy for Local Preacher's License taught me about Wesley's life and ministry. Asbury College gave me an education in an atmosphere that honors classic Methodism. My deepening walk with the Holy Spirit is confirmed by Wesley's ENNT. I have been given, by Wesley, the meaning of Evangelical Christianity without the political baggage. From Wesley I see a way to open the path to a life of "joyful obedience" for the many faithful servants of God in our churches.
This is why John Wesley is important to me and why I believe he is important not only to United Methodism, but to the whole Christian church and the whole human race. And so, whenever and where ever I can, I will continue my teaching ministry and its witness to the relevance of John Wesley.
Addendum
Wesleyan Soteriology in four sentences given to me by Dr. George A. Foster
my Senior Pastor and Mentor at Trinity UMC Tallahassee, 1966-68
All people need to be saved. (See the writings on Original Sin.)
All people can be saved. (See the Wesley Hymns and sermons against Calvinism.)
All people can know they are saved. (See sermons on the Witness of the Spirit.)
All people can be saved from all sin. (See The Plain Account of Christian Perfection, and the sermon on Repentance in Believers)
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Insufficiently Fundamental
The violence of Fundamentalism, at least among “Christian” fundamentalists, is caused by a lack of sufficient fundamental commitment to the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Consider the Amish who obey Matthew 5:43-48 and shame all the pseudo fundamentalists.
Or observe Jesus before Pilate declaring that his Kingdom is not of this world otherwise his servants would fight (John 18:33-37).
In light of this truth I call on Pope Benedict XVI, to declare Peter the Hermit, Pope Urban II, Bernard of Clairveaux, Frederick Barbarossa, Philip Augustus, Richard Coeur De Lion, Pope Innocent III, Pope Gregory IX, Louis IX (Saint Louis), Prince Edward et.al. to have been in violation of the word and will of the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God and Head of the Church, when they preached and carried out the Medieval Crusades against Islam.
The list of chief offenders in the Crusades comes from, History of the Christian Church, by Williston Walker
The violence of Fundamentalism, at least among “Christian” fundamentalists, is caused by a lack of sufficient fundamental commitment to the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Consider the Amish who obey Matthew 5:43-48 and shame all the pseudo fundamentalists.
Or observe Jesus before Pilate declaring that his Kingdom is not of this world otherwise his servants would fight (John 18:33-37).
In light of this truth I call on Pope Benedict XVI, to declare Peter the Hermit, Pope Urban II, Bernard of Clairveaux, Frederick Barbarossa, Philip Augustus, Richard Coeur De Lion, Pope Innocent III, Pope Gregory IX, Louis IX (Saint Louis), Prince Edward et.al. to have been in violation of the word and will of the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God and Head of the Church, when they preached and carried out the Medieval Crusades against Islam.
The list of chief offenders in the Crusades comes from, History of the Christian Church, by Williston Walker
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