Responding to requests I am posting below the PowerPoint from my first 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. As those who were at the meeting are aware I planned to say more than I had time for, so the sections after the sub point “Catholic Spirit” were not dealt with at the meeting. The detailed argument for much of this can be found in Bid Our Jarring Conflicts Cease
Holiness at the Center
- Vision Statement: Uniting Methodists is a movement of Christ-centered, hope-filled, holiness-seeking United Methodists
- Spreading scriptural holiness over the land
- Holiness at the core of his theology
- A recovery of holiness as core to Methodist identity is crucial to our future vitality.
- Wesley’s wrestling with issues of theological conflict is in the context of holiness.
What on Earth do we mean by Holiness?
The Core of Holiness is love
- Loving God
- Giving God the primary loyalty in all areas of our lives
- Making God’s agenda our agenda
- Obeying God’s commandments
- Living in constant fellowship with God
- Sharing your lives in all their complexity with God
- Love for our Neighbors
- Commitment to the comprehensive well-being of others
- To all people – friends, strangers, enemies, undeserving, enemies of God
- To pervade all dimensions of our lives
- Particular concern for those who suffering, rejected, despised
- Holiness of heart and life
- Heart
- Fundamental orientation
- Inner motivations
- Characteristic attitude and responses
- Emotional responses
- Life (Conversation)
- Inter-personal relationships
- Words
- Profession, politics, recreation
- Our whole bodily existence – sexuality
- Transformational Holiness is personal and responsive
- Holiness does not begin with our effort
- Holiness arises out of the amazing grace of God
- A personal transformative relationship
- God wants to permeate your life with love
- Personal means it is responsive
- Means of Grace
- Small groups
- Holiness is relational and dynamically new
- “The is no holiness but social holiness”
- “Faith working through love”
- Active interacting with and relating to other people
- Feedback loop
- “Holiness” that is not embodied in relationships of love is not holiness
- Holiness is always developing in new and unexpected ways
- Heart
Holiness and the Unity of the Church
- Catholic Spirit
- Mutual support for each other’s ministry
- Mutual commitment to the holistic well-being of each other
- Mutual viewing of the other in the best possible light
- A conviction of the truth and correctness of one’s own theological and ethical ideas and practices
- A commitment to the importance of the issues on which one disagrees
- Human Fallibility
- All human beings are finite and fallible creatures
- All our knowledge is subject to limitations, ignorance, errors and confusion.
- Ethical judgments are subject to a triple problem
- Fallible interpretation of God’s will,
- Fallible interpretation of the ethical problem
- Fallible relating of God’s will to the problem
- Mistakes in theological ideas lead to mistakes in practice
- Regeneration and sanctification do not change this situation
- Sin and Responsibility before God
- Sin properly so-called, is a willful violation of the known will of God
- Sin not properly so-called – actions which we are convinced are the will of God but from God’s perspective are wrong
- God is just and does not require the impossible from us
- God requires that we act in on what we believe to be God’s will
- Sin not properly so-called is forgiven in Christ
- Mistaken actions can have serious consequences
- The Law of Love
- God does not require mistakeless obedience to moral law
- God requires that we act out of genuine love even if we are mistaken
- This does not mean we can do what we like
- Motivated by cruciform love
- Guided by scripture
- Measured by consequences
- Freedom of Conscience before God
- We are all responsible before God for how we live
- No one ought to compel others to act against their conscience
- A person’s conscience is influenced by numerous factors
- All have “liberty to choose our own religion, to worship God according to our own conscience according to the best light we have”
- Loving reasoned arguments and not compulsion is to be used to persuade others
- Theological Ideas have Major Significance
- No latitudinarianism
- The significance of theological ideas
- Seek true ideas
- We must hold our ideas with conviction
- Argue for the truth of our convictions in love
- The Church is to be a Community of Love
- The distinguishing mark of the church is love
- To embody love as much visible unity as possible yet respecting freedom of conscience
- Theological conflict and the abuse that often goes with it is:
- Contradictory to love
- A denial of the identity of the church
- Destructive of the mission of the church
- Theological Diversity as a Means of Grace
- Theological diversity can be a context for growth and mutual correction
- Learning to embody love for those we disagree with can be a way of growing in love
- Demonstrating love in the midst of disagreement is a witness to the world
“To separate ourselves from a body of living Christian, with whom we were before united, is a grievous breach of the law 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. It is only when our love grows cold, that we can think of separating from our brethren. And this is certainly the case with any who willingly separate from their Christian brethren. The pretences for separation may be innumerable, but want of love is always the real cause; otherwise they would still hold the unity of the Spirit in the bound of peace.”- John Wesley “On Schism”
Grace in the Fractures 