“I felt my heart strangely warmed”

Today is the date in 1738 that John Wesley had his “Aldersgate experience,” a time of spiritual conversion for one of the founders of the Methodist movement.

He was born on June 28, 1703 and died on March 2, 1791.  He was the fifteenth of nineteen children (ten of whom lived to adulthood).  He attended Oxford University and was ordained as a priest in the Church of England in 1728.  He participated in the Holy Club while at Oxford (although he was not a founding member like his brother Charles, he quickly emerged as a leader).  He accepted General James Oglethorpe’s invitation to come to the Georgia Colony and serve as Governor Oglethorpe’s personal secretary.  Wesley went in hopes of having an opportunity to convert Native Americans.  His tenure in both positions was a disappointment, and he returned to Britain.

Like his brother Charles, John came under the influence of the Moravian Church and one of their leaders, Peter Böhler.  In a well-known interchange, John told Peter that he was going to quit preaching because he “had no faith.” Bohler said, “Don’t do that, Mr. Wesley. You are a Bible scholar and have so much to offer. Preach faith until you have it. Then you will preach faith because you do have it.”

A few days later, on May 24, Wesley records in his Journal:

In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther's Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

This citation has always been very important to Methodists.  They frequently speak about their own “Aldersgate Experiences.”  Methodists name churches and schools “Aldersgate.”  It is interesting to note that Wesley himself only refers to this event one more time in all of his writings, and that is in a letter to one of his brothers a few years later.

That is not to diminish the significance of this moment in Wesley’s life.  And he surely wasn’t a person who lived in the past.  But such an observation offers a perspective on the event.

Nevertheless, we give thanks for Wesley at Aldersgate.

Of Leaders and Leadership

This past Sunday, we called a quick stand-up meeting of all the people present in that worship service who were serving our church as lay liturgists.  The purpose of the gathering was to say a couple of words about a change in “job description” for these volunteers, and I will say more about that soon.

But, my observation on this moment was that there sure were a lot of folks there!  When I first got to the meeting site there were five or six people standing there.  That many again were approaching, and so I began.  But, in the few ticks of the clock in which we assembled, the people just kept on coming.  By the time I was through, there were easily two-dozen individuals standing there with me.  And, truth be known, everyone on our roster didn’t happen to be present that day.

I wish I had had the presence of mind to say to the rest of the worshipers who were still in the sanctuary, “Look!  Look at this great number of people who give of themselves in the leadership of worship.”  We sometimes take our volunteers for granted.  Or worse, think that no one is doing anything in support of the work of the church. 

It may sometimes be difficult to draw people into certain church jobs.  But, when this number of people say, “I want to contribute to the worship life of my faith community,”  I am heartened beyond my ability to describe.

The Lesson for the Day

The Revised Common Lectionary recommendation for The Psalter reading for this past Sunday includes Psalm148:3 “Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars!”  This is an important passage for me because it was a memory verse that my children included in their night-time prayers for years.  On the one hand, these rote verses may just burn themselves into our minds so that over time we become numbed to their power.  On the other hand, though, I haven’t joined in one of my children’s night-time prayers in well over fifteen years, and I remember that verse.  I can quote it.  And I can be moved by it as an affirmation of the majesty of God Almighty.

When I was in eighth grade – and you remember, that was a different moment in our history – our homeroom teacher had us take turns reading a scripture passage aloud each day.  We quickly discovered the shortest chapter in the Bible:  Psalm 117

Praise the Lord, all you nations!

    Extol him, all you peoples!

For great is his steadfast love toward us,

    and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.

Praise the Lord!

And so we read it, day after day, week after week for an entire school year, with only a handful of exceptions.  Droning, right?  And yet these fifty-odd years later, I recognize those words, I know them by heart, and I find comfort in them on a regular basis.

Engaging scripture is never wasted.  These references point out that the benefit of knowing such passages may not be evident right away.  But I am much the richer for having these words irrevocably imprinted on my soul.

The Conversion of Charles Wesley

It is on this date in 1738 that Charles Wesley (December 18, 

1707 -- March 29, 1788) records his conversion to true Christian Faith.  He was the eighteenth child of Susanna Wesley and Samuel Wesley.  They had nineteen altogether, ten of those children survived infancy.

Charles attended Oxford University and was one of the founders of The Holy Club, the forerunner of the Methodist movement.  He was ordained in the Church of England in 1735 and he followed his brother John to America that same year.  He went to the Georgia colony at the invitation of the governor, General James Oglethorpe, to serve as the secretary of Indian affairs.  While in the colony, Charles reported being shot at, slandered, being dreadfully ill and being shunned even by General Oglethorpe. 

Returning to England in a state of great discouragement, he met the Moravians.  He taught English to one of their leaders, Peter Böhler.  Böhler in turn encouraged Charles to examine his heart more thoroughly.  Falling ill in May of 1738 Wesley began studying a commentary on the book of Galatians by Martin Luther.  His diary entry for this date says, “I labored, waited, and prayed to feel 'who loved me, and gave himself for me.' ”  His journal for the next few days points back to May 20 and observes, “I now found myself at peace with God, and rejoice in hope of loving Christ.”  Within two days he had written a hymn celebrating his conversion.

Charles was a scholar, perhaps a more accomplished academic than John.  He was a linguist of some repute in his day.  But we know him best as a hymn writer.  He was said to have averaged 10 poetic lines a day for 50 years. He wrote 8,989 hymns.  It was through the lyrics of these hymns that Methodists taught theology and doctrine to the masses even more than through the writings of John Wesley.  The tip of the iceberg of Charles’ hymns includes:

Arise my soul arise

And Can It Be That I Should Gain?

Christ the Lord Is Risen Today

Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies

Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown

Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus

Depth of Mercy, Can it Be

Father, I Stretch My Hands to Thee

Hail the Day that Sees Him Rise

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Jesus, Lover of My Soul

Jesus, The Name High Over All

Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending

Love Divine, All Loves Excelling

O for a Heart to Praise My God

O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing

Rejoice, the Lord is King

Soldiers of Christ, Arise

Sun of Unclouded Righteousness

Thou Hidden Source of Calm Repose

Ye Servants of God

The Collect for the Day

The collect for the week from the Book of Common Prayer¹ reads:

Almighty and merciful God, in your goodness keep us, we

pray, from all things that may hurt us, that we, being ready

both in mind and body, may accomplish with free hearts

those things which belong to your purpose; through Jesus

Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy

Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

I love the BCP collects.  It may be that a single week’s offering may not hit home every time.  But, over the course of the year this series of prayers takes in a lot of human experience.  Even setting aside the collects for high holy days, there are still roughly 45 weekly petitions that do a marvelous job of linking humankind and Almighty God.

And, I like this one.  It is simple and direct.  It sums up a lot of what faithful people place before God every time we pray.  “…keep us…from all things that may hurt us…that we…may accomplish…those things which belong to your purpose.”  Deliver us from evil.  Thy kingdom come.  When you strip away a lot of our selfishness, this is the essence of our prayers’ content.  Now surely, the purpose or nature of prayer is to bring our spirits in communion with God’s Spirit.  But these words are pretty basic: “keep us from harm, that we may serve God.”

Good words.

¹from The Book of Common Prayer,

Copyright 1979 by Seabury Press.

Revelations about The Revelation

The epistle reading for this week according to the Revised Common Lectionary is Revelation 5:11-14.  It reads:

 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice,

‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered

to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing!’

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing,

‘To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honour and glory and might for ever and ever!’

And the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’ And the elders fell down and worshipped.

Angels, living creatures, elders, Lamb – there are a lot of strange images here.  I don’t tend to preach from The Revelation of Jesus Christ to St. John for a number of reasons.  Imagery such as this is just the tip of the iceberg.  The historical context, the place of the church – and churches – in this historical moment, the numerology, the representations and other puzzles are all too much to unpack in a single sermon.  And, since the preacher can never count on addressing the exact same group two Sundays in a row, a pastor can either go back over previously-plowed ground, or just leave this week’s newcomers behind in a morass of confused jargon.  I have said throughout all my ministry that “there are 66 books in holy scripture, and I will be glad to lead a study of any of the first 65.”

The other element is that, in order to be able to interpret The Revelation responsibly, a person (teacher/preacher or congregant/student) needs to be Old Testament-literate.  There are over 500 Old Testament allusions in The Revelation.  If we don’t get that, we can never make since of the 66^th book.

There is some kind of infatuation with The Revelation in part, I think because so many people (especially non-prime time TV preachers) represent the book as being some kind of code regarding the end of time, and that if one could just uncover the key, vast knowledge would come to the reader.

No serious scholar takes this position.  No genuine student does, either.  The casual reader recognizes references to 666 or the seven-headed beast, but pursuit of the key to the end of the world is energy mis-spent.

And yet, that perception persists.  It is a hill I choose not to die upon.  There are too many aspects of the faith that are so much more vital than what some late-night, spooky doom-sayer says while trying to sell a set of DVDs.

Is it Scripture? Sure.  Is it inspired of God?  Without a doubt.  Is it the most important thing we will ever read in the Bible?

Not so much.

What's on YOUR wall?

Offer Them Christ
by Kenneth Wyatt

The walls in pastors’ studies tend to have a certain sameness about them.  There is a wall or two of bookshelves (these may house books, or may simply be a resting place for religious knickknacks that the individual has accumulated over the years), there may be a family portrait or two, there are other reminders of the life of ministry such as plaques given in appreciation.  There is what one friend of mine calls the “works righteousness” wall where you find diplomas, ordination parchments and other ministerial credentialing documents.  There is also usually one item that has a great personal meaning to the clergyperson.

This is mine.  It is Kenneth Wyatt’s vision of John Wesley dispatching Thomas Coke to America to oversee the Methodist churches there.  The title comes from Wesley’s words of departure to Coke: “Offer them Christ.”  I label this as the item of great personal meaning for me not because of a particular fondness for Wesley (although I do possess that) or Coke.  Nor is it a because of any romanticized notion or identification with the concept of commissioning.  This picture pulls me back to the basics of ministry: Offer them Christ.

There are other very important aspects of the work of a United Methodist minister.  I am coming up on the start of my 46^th year of doing this work.  I have undertaken the tasks of preaching, teaching, administration, pastoral care and a dozen other tasks that we associate with being a person of The Cloth.  I am the first to admit that the busy-ness of the job can distract or even bog down even the most conscientious of persons.  So, this portrait draws me back to the basics of my call: Offer them Christ.  The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church states that “The mission of the church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”  (¶ 120)

The painting is a reminder to me that if I am not carrying out the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19 that all the rest is just noise. 

The Name Game

I have been thinking about John 21:1-19, which is the gospel reading for the week according to the Revised Common Lectionary.  As I have noted, this reading is chock-full of significant items both great and small.  There are the teachings that are grand in scope.  But there are also little nuggets that are worth our consideration as well.

One such piece of material is in the exchange between Jesus and Simon Peter in verses 15-17.  Three times Jesus asks this disciple, “Do you love me?”  And three times this disciple responds in the affirmative.  After each of the disciple’s responses Jesus gives a piece of direction: ‘Feed my lambs.’ ‘Tend my sheep.’ ‘Feed my sheep.'

Obviously, there is a lot in play here.  Historically the church has interpreted Jesus' three-fold questioning as being a response to Simon Peter’s three denials of Jesus during the time of Jesus’ arrest.  The church has also looked to this passage – and others – to find out about Simon Peter’s role in the organization of the early church. 

But there is a little something else there, and I emphasize “little.”  But I don’t mistake little for insignificant.

In each instance, Jesus' inquiry is, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”  Part of what interests me here is not the inquiry, but the address.  The narrator tells us, When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter…  Throughout the narrative the storyteller refers to this disciple as “Simon Peter.”  Yet Jesus himself begins each question, “Simon, son of John.”  I don’t think that is an accident.  Nor do I refer to it as being without meaning.

In chapter 1 verse 42, when Jesus and Simon first meet, Jesus says, ‘You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas’ (which is translated Peter).  Yet here Jesus refers to Peter by his former name.  Everyone knows Simon, John’s son.  Jesus gives him a new name.  Such a thing always reflects a major transition in scripture.  Abram become Abraham.  Sarai becomes Sarah.  Jacob became Israel.  Later, Saul of Tarsus will become the apostle Paul.  The change of name mirrors a transition in role or significance.

And Simon came to be known as Peter.  The writer of the Fourth Gospel refers to the apostle usually, but not exclusively, as Simon Peter, although he occasionally just uses Peter as the name.  "Simon” is not a reference that this writer uses.  But here, here Jesus asks, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”  I think that the address is as much a challenge as the question.  It is as if Jesus is saying, “Simon, when I met you, I gave you a new name.  It bespoke of your place as my disciple, my apostle, my witness in the world and as one who would speak with my authority once I departed.  So, Simon, are you worthy of that new name.  Will you be Peter?  Will you be the rock upon which I establish my church?”  The thrice-asked question and a triad of addresses are really saying the same thing: “Simon, do you love me so that you can be my rock?  Will you take up again the mantle of Peter that you have cast aside?  Will you leave behind the fish and truly fish for people?”

When Simon says, “Yes,” he is really affirming both.  He is saying, “I will feed, tend, feed."  

"And I will be Peter.”

The net will hold

The gospel reading for this past Sunday that the Revised common Lectionary suggests is John 21:1-19.  It is the last chapter of John’s gospel.  Some consider it an “epilogue” that someone added to the work after its original completion.  But there is only one dubious ancient manuscript that exists without the inclusion of chapter 21.  So, the argument that it does not belong, while interesting, is suspect.

This is the account of the appearance of the Resurrected Christ to some of his disciples by the shores of the Sea of Galilee and the subsequent great catch of fish.  There is a wealth of material here, and I intend to address some of it in the coming days.  But there is one nugget that captures my attention in this moment.  When Jesus shows the disciples that their overnight labor has been fruitless, and he instructs them to cast their net over the other side of the boat, the catch is enormous.  At this point the gospel writer is quick to point out that, according to verse 11, (they) hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn.  It should not be lost on us that this is a tremendous load of “large” fish (what fisher is going to tell his audience about the puny fish that s/he caught?).  We can infer that these professional fishers had never had such a haul in a single cast of the net in their lives.  It is important on the reporting for the author to tell us that in spite of the size of the catch, the net itself endured.

In other gospel accounts (not in John, interestingly enough) Jesus summons some of these disciples by charging them that they will some day catch folks instead of fish.  It is the call both to discipleship and to evangelism.

“Evangelism” is a word that desperately needs rehabilitating in our world.  For a lot of people, it carries with it images of tent revivals, or of fanatics shoving tracts under folks’ noses on street corners.  We use other terms, of course.  “Making disciples” is the current hot label.  “Faith-sharing” as a description had its day.  “Witnessing,” though a sound biblical principal, carries with it a sense of the aggressive.  People undertake certain (ineffective) practices like scattering tracts in the post office.  Putting a fish on the bumper of cars is a favorite, although I have never – not once – heard a story of someone coming to faith because they saw a fish on an automobile.  In point of fact, that symbol may have the opposite effect from what the driver intends, if that driver operates their vehicle in a discourteous manner.

So, there is a lot wrong with “evangelism.”  But, as I said, the solution is rehabilitation, not abandonment.  There is no more direct charge from Jesus than “Go, make disciples of all nations…”  What I am here to say is that, for the determined fisher, the net always holds.  It is sufficient for the task.  “It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”  There is nothing wrong with the net.  It is the fisher who needs examination.

An account of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus

The First Lesson suggested by the Revised Common Lectionary for the Third Sunday of Easter is Acts 9:1-20.  It is the first account in Acts (there are three altogether) of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus.  Paul’s story is an intriguing one.  Set aside his writings for a moment (he composed more New Testament material than any writer except Luke), and we still find a man who led an interesting life.  (The church’s Feast Day commemorating this event occurs on January 25.  This reading observes a portion of the church’s liturgical cycle rather than the Common of the Saints.)

Paul was born a Roman citizen.  He was well-educated in the tradition of Pharisaic Judaism.  He apparently had some standing in the Judaic hierarchy as the priests granted his petition to be credentialed to apprehend and bind any practicing Christians he found in the synagogues of Damascus.  While on that journey, the events of this scripture lesson occurred.  Paul went on to be the major figure in Gentile Christianity through the formative years of the church.  His missionary journeys and literary career spread the gospel message from Ephesus to Rome and in many points in between.  Tradition holds that he was under arrest in Rome when the government sentenced him to death by beheading around 64 C.E.

The observation I would make here is that Paul did not undergo his conversion one day and leap to the forefront of Christian mission the next.  The scriptural accounts (Acts 9, 10 and Galatians 1 in particular) record Paul as taking some time for reflection and formulating his own understanding about faith before he entered the public arena with any gusto.  Three years after his conversion – a time that includes a desert sojourn in “Arabia,” perhaps visiting Mt. Sinai itself – Paul visits some of the apostles in Jerusalem.  He then goes about his missionary work and does not return to Jerusalem for fourteen years. 

What I mean to say is that Paul (a.) understood the need for preparation and clarity before he began his work; and (b.) he was wholly reliant on instruction by the Spirit of God in achieving this clarity.  There were _no_ New Testament scriptural texts available to him.  He wrote all of the earliest himself.  There were other voices to instruct him, but they were involved with the Jewish-Christian movement of Jerusalem and Judea.  It took a lot of work on Paul’s part to establish a beachhead in the Gentile mission field.  Peter’s vision of the unclean animals eventually led to some credibility of Gentile acceptance, but he was never involved in Gentile evangelistic work to the extent we find in the work of Paul.

Paul more than once found himself in tough situations.  The abuses – physical and spiritual – that he endured would have turned back many a strong person.  I think that it was his foundation, his deepening of faith between the time of his conversion and his active ministry, that enabled him to persevere.

In the modern church, we are quick to give new converts or new church members responsibility for which they are not prepared.  When they encounter obstacles – and they will – they are ill-equipped for their ordeal.  So, they get discouraged, they fall away from church endeavors, and sometimes they are lost to the faith altogether.

In the twenty-first century I am careful about recommending Paul as a personal example in some areas.  But, his model of preparation for gospel work is as valid today as it was for Paul almost twenty-one hundred years ago.