Responding to requests I am posting below the PowerPoint from my second lecture given at the Uniting Methodists Meeting in Atlanta. For those who were not there the video of the lecture will be available soon on the Uniting Methodists website. Some of these themes will be exoplored in more detail in my forthcoming book Our Purpose is Love: The Wesleyan Way to be the Church.
Suppose now the fullness of time to be come, and the prophecies to be accomplished. What a prospect is this! All is peace, “quietness, and assurance for ever.” Here is no din of arms, no “confused noise,” no “garments rolled in blood.” “Destructions are come to a perpetual end.” Wars are ceased from the earth. Neither are there any intestine jars remaining; no brother rising up against brother; no country or city divided against itself, and tearing out its own bowels. Civil discord is at an end for evermore, and none is left either to destroy or hurt his neighbour. Here is no oppression to “make” even “the wise man mad;” no extortion to “grind the face of the poor;” no robbery or wrong; no rapine or injustice; for all are “content with such things as they possess.” Thus “righteousness and peace have kissed each other;”(Ps. 85:10) they have “taken root and filled the land;” “righteousness flourishing out of the earth;” and “peace looking down from heaven.”
And with righteousness or justice, mercy is also found. The earth is no longer full of cruel habitations. … Were there any provocation, there is none that now knoweth to return evil for evil; but indeed there is none that doeth evil, no, not one; for all are harmless as doves. And being filled with peace and joy in believing, and united in one body, by one Spirit, they all love as brethren, they are all of one heart and of one soul. “Neither saith any of them, that aught of the things which he possesseth is his own.” There is none among them that lacketh: for every man loveth his neighbour as himself. And all walk by one rule: “Whatever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do unto them.”
It follows, that no unkind word can ever be heard among them, no strife of tongues, no contention of any kind, no railing or evil-speaking, but everyone “opens his mouth with wisdom, and in his tongue there is the law of kindness.” Equally incapable are they of fraud or guile: their love is without dissimulation: Their words are always the just expression of their thoughts, opening a window into their breast, that whosoever desires may look into their hearts, and see that only love and God are there. – John Wesley Scriptural Christianity
Ye different sects, who all declare
‘Lo! Here is Christ!’ or ‘Christ is there!’
Your stronger proofs divinely give,
And show me where the Christians live.
Your claim, alas! Ye cannot prove;
Ye want the genuine mark of love:
Thou only, Lord, thine own canst show,
For sure thou hast a church below.
John Wesley “Primitive Christianity”
A Covenant Community
- The church is constituted as ecclesia by its confession that the crucified Jesus is Lord.
- A Covenant community
- Covenant renewal service
- Regular celebration of communion
- A people in covenant with the crucified Christ and with all others in covenant with him
- Radically questions all other loyalties
- UMC has a unique opportunity to express this given its transnational character
A Welcoming and Reconciling Community
- Jesus table fellowship and the crucifixion
- Gracious welcome in early Methodism
- Embodying love means:
- The church welcomes all into a transforming relationship with God
- The church receives all who manifest such a relationship
And who are we that we should withstand God particularly by laying down rules of Christian communion which exclude any whom he has admitted into the Church of the first born, from worshipping God together. O that all Church governors would consider how bold an usurpation this is on the authority of the supreme Lord of the Church! O that the sin of thus withstanding God may not be laid to the charge of those, who perhaps with a good intention, but in an over fondness for their own forms, have done it, and are continually doing it. John Wesley Notes Upon the New Testament Acts 11:17
- There can be no other conditions for full reception into the church other than the transforming and uniting work of the Spirit
A Centered Community
- The essential core is God’s gracious transformation of persons so that we love God and our fellow human beings
- Doctrine explains this transformation and sets it in the context of God’s purpose and mission.
- The significance of a theological idea lies in its relationship to the center
- Ethics is the explanation of what cruciform love means in diverse contexts and relationships
- The significance of an ethical issue lies in its relationship to the center
- The church community welcomes all who are seeking or have experienced this transforming work
- Those who are moving away from this center whether theologically or ethically described are in danger of leaving the church community
Counter-cultural Community
- Methodism – mainstream and marginal
- A community of cruciform love will stand in contrast to society
- The crucifixion and the greatness of God
- Cross reveals love that is faithful, costly, self-sacrificial, self-debasing
- Example of early Methodism – General Rules
- New General Rules – Guidelines for a Responsible Life
- A key issue will be an ethic of sexuality and marriage that embodies crusiform love.
A Visibly United Community
- Unity belongs to the very nature of the church
- Wesley describes the church as people united, brought together
- Inherent in Wesley’s understanding of love
It is the nature of love to unite us together; and the greater the love, the stricter the union. And while this continues in its strength, nothing can divide those whom love has united.
- A witness to the world of God’s gracious transformation that creates a new people.
- Transferring the unity of the church to a spiritual invisible realm fails utterly to do justice to these dimensions
- Unity must be embodied or it is not Wesleyan unity
Community of Mutual Accountability
- Methodism is a rejection of nominal Christianity
- Commitment and growth in Christian life requires support
- Small groups are the centers of accountability and support
- The Wesleyan classes:
- Membership of a class the prerequisite for being a Methodist.
- Open to all seeking after salvation
- Commit oneself to following the general rules
- Commitment oneself to weekly attendance of the class meeting
- Take part in mutual examination within the class meeting
- Mutually supported each other
- Being a counter-cultural community that embodies cruciform love today requires support and accountability
Community on the Margins
- Solidarity with, and action for and on behalf of those excluded by society is a characteristic feature of Methodist identity
- It was an essential aspect of Wesley’s life and ministry
- It is a integral to having the mind of Christ and walking as he did
- It is a concrete expression of cruciform love
- We are called to follow Christ outside the gate to the diverse places of degradation and suffering to live and proclaim the love of God for the excluded
A Community with a Public Face
- All churches have a public face – what is ours?
- The credibility of our faith depends on our public face
- A Wesleyan public face is one characterised by justice, mercy and truth
- Justice – treating people according to who they are as human beings and with what they have done
- Mercy – active compassion for the suffering and the needy that goes beyond justice
- Truth – integrity, veracity and honesty
Conclusion
- An institutional church is an expression of the body of Christ to the extent that:
- It is characterized by ultimate loyalty to God revealed in the crucified and resurrected Christ acknowledged in worship and devotion, and expressed in its life in the world
- Its characterized by a deep concern for and practical commitment to the inclusive holistic well-being of its members.
- It is engaged in an active, concrete, and holistic ministry of love to those outside the church.
Grace in the Fractures 