Wesley's Sermon 20: The Lord Our Righteousness

[This is a post on one of John Wesley's Sermons as part of the Getting to Know John series. See the other posts here.] John Wesley's career in ministry wasn't easy. He ended up being incredibly successful, as his followers (the early Methodists) changed the course of history in England, but he had to fight a lot of battles along the way. He was thrown out of about as many churches as I've ever been in, and mostly over problems that people had with his theological teachings.

Some of these problems were legitimate differences, but most of them were not. Being clergy within the Church of England, Wesley never thought that he taught anything different than the historic, accepted doctrines of his church. Yet many of his problems arose from his insistence on pointing out to his fellow members of the Church of England areas of those doctrines that had been forgotten or neglected. This made many of those who heard him who had power to be very uncomfortable, which spelled problems for John. We see one such situation being played out in this week's sermon.Apparently Wesley was being heavily criticized by many as denying the traditional doctrine of justification by faith, or more specifically in language we rarely use anymore, the doctrine of imputed righteousness (something that God does for us). What this means is that believers in Christ are justified before God only because of Christ's sacrifice for them and because of nothing that they can do for themselves. Wesley goes to great pains in this sermon to establish that he believes and teaches exactly this.

Yet the Methodist movement was largely successful because of his emphasis on Christ's imparted righteousness (something that God does in us, with our cooperation). Wesley must have pushed some buttons here, because he is certainly in the hot seat when he wrote this sermon to defend himself.

Much of this sermon, even more than most of Wesley's, feels like digging through some deep 17th century theological weeds, but if you've got the courage to dig, there is some really good stuff in it. The difference between imputed and imparted righteousness was also part of the subject matter of last week's sermon, one of my favorites, The Great Privilege of those that are Born of God, only in that context Wesley was distinguishing between what happens for us in our justification before God and what happens in us as we are also born of God. These are some of the distinctions he made in that sermon, and they're also helpful in getting a grasp on what this sermon is about (this is from the outline for The Great Privilege):

Justification New Birth
Relative Change Real Change
What God does for us What God does in us
Outward change from God’s enemies to God’s children Inward change from sinners to saints
Restores us to God’s favor Restores us to God’s image
Removes the guilt of sin Removes the power of sin

All of this was contained in a short but powerful section of The Great Privilege, but this sermon helps us to delve in deeper.

Another very valuable part of this sermon is Wesley's teaching on how Christians should be unified amidst our differences. He says that although we often use different expressions, we are actually pointing to the same realities about our lives with God, and yet we attack each other, compete against each other, and tear one another apart simply for a lack of trying to understand each other. Also, he repeatedly emphasizes the bankruptcy of having correct theology but still having a corrupt heart. He says that even if those in other groups are misguided, it is certain that many of them have a genuine and full trust in Christ, which matters above all.

Options for digging in deeper:

  • Download the pdf outline of the sermon
  • Read the entire sermon on an electronic read with this ePub file
  • Or read the sermon text online here

You Never Know What Someone Will Remember (so take the chance to do something good)

One evening during the two years that my wife and I were missionaries in Guatemala at New Life Children's Home, I spent a couple of hours in the room of the little boys (they were 6 - 10 years old). We played for a while (they loved putting on my shoes), and then I read to them from a Bible storybook. I'm a bit saddened that I only read to them like this during one evening out of my two years there, but it was a lot of fun and is still a good memory. I have a lot of the boys to whom I read stories that night, but it's a memory of one of them from two years after we moved back to the States that blew me away.

One of the little boys who lived in that room was Juan David, who was 8 at the time. (He's in my shoes in the top picture, and in the navy blue Penn St. shirt in the second picture.) Juan David was a little boy who came from a very painful past yet had a great sense of humor and was a delight to be around. He came to live at the home during the time that we were there, so we were privileged to be able to witness how the other children welcomed him and the difference that came as he realized he was in a safe place with people who loved him. I'll never forget watching him during his first Christmas, when my father-in-law took this great picture of him:

We were able to return to NLCH with a group from our church exactly two years after we moved away from there. We were very eager to see all of our friends there again, but after having been gone for two years, we weren't sure how much the younger kids like Juan David would remember us. Everyone there was very welcoming and kind to us and made us feel like we had returned home again, and we were having fun trying to restart new friendships with the younger kids.

One night during this return visit we had dinner with the little boys, and I was happy that my seat happened to be next to Juan David. While we were sitting and waiting for our food, he leaned over to me and said, "Daniel, do you remember when you came into our room and read stories with us?"

I couldn't believe that memory was still in his mind. With some of the other groups of kids, I was able to have regular times of reading with them, but with the boys in Juan David's room, I only did it once. Really happy and really surprised, I told him I definitely remembered reading stories in his room. But then he took my surprise to another level. He said, "I know where that book is!", and he got up from the table and came back with the same storybook from which I had read stories to him and his friends almost three years earlier.

I couldn't believe it! I was simultaneously filled with joy and gratitude for how that one evening had apparently been meaningful to those boys and I also felt remorse over not having spent more of my evenings reading stories to them.

I never thought that Juan David would remember that evening, but the truth is that we never know what people are going to remember about their time with us. As I reflect on the people who have made a difference in my life, I remember some small things that only happened once in my time with them as much as I remember big things, or things we did often.

This experience with Juan David really challenges me, because I know that I will have chances today to do something small for people to show them they're loved- people close to me as well as people I barely know, possibly things that I'll remember but more likely ordinary things that I'll soon forget. Yet regardless of how well we know the person, and how big or small the thing we do for them might seem, you and I never know what someone else will remember.

One difficult thing about our relationships is that they are more capable than anything else of exposing our selfishness, and at some point today, I'll have to make a choice about what to do with my time. When that moment shows up, one of the options available to me will always be to do something somewhat selfish, and another option will always be to be more loving. I have way too many times that I've chosen the selfish thing; Juan David's challenge to us is to make a habit out of choosing to be loving.

A Prayer for the Fifth Sunday of Easter (Year A)

[This is one of my Prayers for the Christian Year. To see the other posts, click here.]

Living, Loving Father,

It is in You, O Lord, that we seek our refuge. When we pray, You incline Your ear to us, and we need today for You to rescue us, quickly. You are a strong fortress where we can run and find shelter. You are our rock, on whom we can lean completely.

You, our living rock, can also make us into living stones, and through us You are doing Your work of building Your kingdom here. Yet we know part of what this means, because You sent Your own Son, Jesus, as the cornerstone, and still He was rejected and cast aside. So be it for us also if it is to be the same as we follow Him along His way out of darkness into marvelous light. We will choose to go His way, for we know that although He was rejected by people, He was chosen and precious in Your sight, O God, and Your is the approval we long for most of all.

So, Father, just as Jesus did, and later his servant Stephen, into Your hands we entrust our spirits. In Your mercy, receive us, so that by Your grace we may learn to be merciful to others, even if they seek to take our lives. Our times are in Your hands, O God. So as we live, help us to live for You, and when we die, may we be able to see Your face and walk even more fully in Your light.

We know that You chose Jesus, for He revealed You to us perfectly. In his life, death, and resurrection among us, He was as You are. Father, we ask that You would  make us like Him, that You would dwell in us and do Your work, and that our lives would bring You glory just as His has done.

We pray all of these things in the name of Your beloved Son, and it is as His followers that we pray today the prayer that He taught us, saying,

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are Yours now and for ever. Amen.

Notes:

The readings for this week, on which this prayer is based, are:

  • Acts 7:55-60: This is the fifth of eight weeks (from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday) when our reading that would normally come from the Old Testament comes instead from the Book of Acts. This passage follows Stephen's speech, in which he summarized God's saving acts in history. When these acts reached their culmination in sending Jesus as the Messiah, those listening to Stephen picked up rocks and stoned him to death, and Stephen became the first Christian martyr.
  • Psalm 31:1-5,15-16: David identifies God as his strong fortress and rock of refuge, and pleas for deliverance from his enemies.
  • 1 Peter 2:2-10: This is the fourth of six consecutive readings from 1 Peter, which heavily emphasizes the life we are to live in light of Jesus' resurrection. In this passage, Peter uses a play on words on his own name, which means stone or rock, and says that as Christ was God's chosen cornerstone, so too are his followers to be made into living stones to be useful in God's work.
  • John 14:1-14: This is the second of four gospel readings from John during the Easter season. (Most of this year's gospel readings come from Matthew) It is also the first of three that come from John's account of Jesus' last night with his disciples, after washing their feet and prior to his arrest. In part of this passage, Jesus assures them that they do not need to be afraid, although he is about to leave them, because they know the way to the place where he will be going. Confused by this, one of them asked, "We don't know where you're going, so how can we know the way?" to which Jesus gave his famous reply, "I am the way, the truth and the life..."

(Ecumenical version of The Lord's Prayer from The United Methodist Hymnal)

Prayers for the Christian Year

I have benefited greatly for several years from reading the Scriptures according to the Revised Common Lectionary, which is a three-year schedule of passages to be used in worship based on the seasons of the Christian year. I've also found it a very helpful exercise to try not only to read these passages repeatedly during their respective weeks, but then to also write a prayer in my own words based on the readings. I will share the prayer that I write during the week leading up to the Sunday when the Scripture passages will be read by all of the churches around the world who follow this schedule of readings. If you're a pastor, or someone else who leads your congregation in prayer on Sundays, please feel free to adapt and use these prayers however it may be helpful.

Since one of the readings is almost always a Psalm, and the Psalms have been the most widely-used tool in prayer for an innumerable group of people seeking God throughout the centuries (including Jesus and his first disciples!), I try to begin my prayer with the way that the particular week's Psalm addresses God. Then, there are often connections between the other readings which I try to pray in a way that will allow them to sink more deeply into my mind.

Because I've also found great value in praying The Lord's Prayer together in worship, as well as repeatedly on my own during the week, I always try to follow my own words in prayer with the words that Jesus himself taught us when he said, "When you pray, pray like this, 'Our Father in heaven..."

Prayers posted so far:

Year A

Year B

Wesley's Sermon 19: The Great Privilege of those that are Born of God

[This is a post on one of John Wesley's Sermons as part of the Getting to Know John series. See the other posts here.]

"Those who have been born of God do not sin, because God's seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God." (1 John 3:9, NRSV)

"So shalt thou always believe, and always love, and never commit sin."

You may wonder about the title of this sermon: What is the "great privilege of those that are born of God"? Wesley's answer: You can live without sinning again. Ever.

If you can consider any 18th century sermon interesting, you'll like this one. It's really good stuff, and even if you don't agree with it, it will make you think and ask some important questions. The second quotation above is the last sentence of the sermon, and you can see that Wesley says some big things in this message. Thankfully, he doesn't just through a sentence like that out there without laying a solid foundation first.

Claiming that Christians can live without sin has always been a tricky thing to do. (I tried it on myself earlier this year. See my New Year's Resolution 2011: Quit Sinning.) Part of the reason any of us today still know names like John or Charles Wesley, or words like Methodist, is because John made this claim very adamantly, and this sermon is one of the occasions when he did so.

The sermon has two parts, each really interesting of themselves. First, Wesley gives attention to the first phrase from the 1 John passage quoted above and offers a description of those that have been born of God. Although it is a topic he has covered in previous sermons, he goes about it very differently than he did in The Marks of the New Birth. In this sermon, rather than describing characteristics of someone who has been born of God, he describes the immense difference in their mode of existence between their lives before and after their "new birth." In shaping this description, he draws a great analogy between physical birth and spiritual birth. Although we are alive before physical birth, our senses are extremely limited, and therefore also our knowledge and interaction with the world around us, even though it is so near to us. Wesley says that it is the same with our spiritual birth; before being born of God, we are still alive in some degree, but the change in the nature and quality of our life is just as drastic at the moment of our spiritual birth as it is at our physical birth. Afterward, our senses become awakened, and we can begin knowing and interacting with the real world around us. (Read through Part I of the outline for a short, but fuller, version of his analogy- it's good stuff.)

After answering the question of what life is like for those born of God, he turns his attention to the second phrase of 1 John 3:9, and offers a case for how it can be true that those born of God do not sin. Wesley wasn't naive; he knew that plenty of people, including himself, sinned after having sincere, legitimate faith in God. So, he makes some distinctions here that very important in understanding him: between inward sin vs. outward sin, and between sins committed by notdoing something (omission) and sins committed by doing something (commission). Again, Part II of the outline is worth checking out for a fuller understanding here if you don't want to read the entire sermon, but to summarize: Wesley believed that what John meant by stating that children of God could not sin was that we cannot not commit known outward sin (instances where we know we are breaking God's law and choose to do it anyway), as long as we "keep" ourselves in God. Referring to his analogy of physical birth, we have to continue "breathing" in God, taking in God's grace, then returning all that we can to God through our lives. When we live like this, we cannot choose to go against God's commands. When we do not continue living in God in this way, all kinds of sin again become possible for us. Also in Part II, Wesley gives a very interesting progression "from grace to sin," using David and Peter as examples. Again- see the outline.

My summary is getting too long, but I couldn't help it- this is really good stuff, and Christians everywhere (particularly Methodists!) would be much better off to understand what Wesley says here. If you have any interest in Getting to know John, dig more deeply into this sermon!

Options for how to do so:

  • See my pdf outline of the sermon
  • Read the full text of the sermon electronically with my ePub file
  • Read the entire sermon online here

 

Book Review: Spirituality for Everyday Living by Brian C. Taylor

Like nearly everyone else I've known who has been raised as an Evangelical Christian in America, for most of my life I've known almost nothing about St. Benedict, and many of us may feel like there's not much reason to invest any of our highly valued time in changing that. Thanks to [amazon_link id="0814617573" target="_blank" ]Spirituality for Everyday Living[/amazon_link] by Brian C. Taylor, both aspects of that can change.

Much of our unfamiliarity with Benedict is due to the fact that he wrote his Rule for 6th century monks, and I have yet to go to church with many people whose lives resemble those of 6th century monks in any significant ways. So it's very helpful to have the ancient Rule of St. Benedict interpreted and adapted for us by Taylor, an Episcopal priest of our own day. He does a good job of showing how Benedict's guidance, which has proven reliable to so many for so long, can be followed by people who desire to arrange their lives around a dedicated pursuit of God yet who live in the context of family and work responsibilities.

Taylor does a remarkably effective job of communicating this in only 70 pages (including the Preface, Introduction, and Appendix!). The three short chapters of the book are arranged around different characteristics of the monastic life prescribed by Benedict: Chapter 1 describes the monk's "commitment to life": stability, conversatio (repentance), and obedience; Chapter 2 is the monk's "life in balance": prayer, study and work; Chapter 3 is the monk's "self in relationship": with God, others, and things.

Each chapter contains Taylor's summary and interpretation of the applicable sections of Benedict's Rule, as well as his own personal examples and suggestions on how people today can apply Benedict's guidance in life outside of the monastery.

I believe that one of the greatest need for Christians today is to have teachers who are effective at reconnecting us with the riches of the voices and guidance available to us from the past. St. Benedict is someone whom we will benefit from knowing and having as a teacher, and Taylor's book is a valuable resource for introducing him to today's Christians.

 

Disclosure of Material Connection: If you purchase resources linked to from this blog, I may receive an “affiliate commission.” I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Regardless of whether I receive a commission, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.