Teamwork makes the dream work (or...I'm not feeling that so much this week - can we please just LOVE one another better?)
I confess that in the news cycle this week, it has been impossible to focus on any task, particularly on Thursday and Friday. And we are in week two of what is supposed to be a light-hearted, Vacation Bible School infused series about key things that the Wesleys, and particularly John Wesley, brought to churches like ours that claim Methodism as our tradition and our roots.
And I’m not feeling particularly light-hearted. I’m not feeling much like “teamwork makes the dream work.”
That is straight talk. Right after church today, I leave to spend a week with 7th - 9th grade girls at West River, one location of camping ministries that serve our annual conference. So I am carrying all of my own anger and my deep concern as a mother about whether or not girls and young women will have access to the basic reproductive health care they need going forward. And while I am there with those girls, I am called to be a source of love, acceptance, support and care – for whatever these beautiful adolescent souls carry with them. I am called to unconditionally receive their questions and their concerns, and to show them God’s love.
So…how to talk about the Wesley brothers here today in the midst of all of that…
And yet, I know that part of what is breaking my heart, part of what I recognize is broken in the world, part of how I know I am to respond to the world in this moment comes out of how John Wesley sought to reform the church by connecting people to God and to one another.
Last week, we talked about how the Wesley brothers understood God’s grace – God’s love that surrounds us and embraces us - grace becomes the water we swim in, the water that shapes us and strengthens us, and the cool water we offer as refreshment and sustenance to those we meet on our life journey.
Who remembers our memory verse from last week?
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God…”
One of the amazing nuggets that came from your shared conversation last week was that God’s grace is relentless. This week, in the midst of so much, I take great comfort in God’s relentless pursuit of my heart…in spite of my flaws and foibles.
This week, our work is to explore how John Wesley strengthened lay people – people who were not clergy – to help others grow and walk in faith. I want to talk about this from an historic and traditional place…and then I want us to really spend some time paying attention to how we might make a difference in the world today.
For John Wesley, the work of being a disciple was to follow Jesus’ interpretation of the law - to love God and neighbor. And he built systems of connection – networks of small groups – that helped people help one another to learn what the bible has to say about this way of being, to learn how Jesus lived into this, and to practice means of grace like prayer and worship, study and service in order to move closer and closer to God.
John Wesley knew that clergy could never reach the numbers of people who needed to learn about God’s love and who needed to have places to live into and practice that sharing that love in the world. He wanted a model that could be replicated anyplace with any who could gather. And so he set about connecting the laity in small groups called classes. These classes were places for weekly accountability and coaching, growth and inspiration.
The classes were grounded in a set of general rules that read this way:
It is therefore expected of all who continue therein that they should continue to evidence their desire of salvation,
First: By doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind …;
Secondly: By … doing good of every possible sort, and, as far as possible, to all …;
Thirdly: By attending upon all the ordinances of God (2016 BOD ¶104).
I like to use the paraphrase that hangs in my office:
Do no harm, do good, stay in love with God.
It was through these class meetings that more and more people began to connect to the Wesleys’ method of growing as disciples. And the movement spread.
Perhaps it would be enough just to point to the number of people involved in these small groups, growing in their faith. But they weren’t just connecting to small groups and improving their own relationship with God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
They were offering health care.
They were demanding living wages.
They were visiting prisons and seeking to rehabilitate criminals.
They were building schools in poor neighborhoods.
They were actively living out love for God and neighbor.
They were not using their faith as a measuring stick.
They were empowered to share God’s love.
They were at the heart of societal safety nets in England.
They were making life better for their neighbors day by day.
This week, in the midst of what I believe is catastrophic news for women and particularly women of color, I wonder what we might learn from John Wesley’s original vision for how people live into the love of God and neighbor. I wonder how you as laity – not clergy – share that work in order to expand the reach of love in the world.
More than ever, what the world needs is NOT another line in the sand or another judgement about right and wrong. What the world needs is healthcare, food, shelter, human relationship. What the world needs is people sharing their unique gifts with one another building networks of love and support.
Today’s memory verse is from the second chapter of Acts – a description of how the earliest followers shared life, recognizing that everyone had spiritual gifts, everyone played a role in the earliest churches which were actually communities that shared meals, resources, life.
“All who believed were together and had all things in common…”
“All who believed were together and had all things in common…”
“All who believed were together and had all things in common…”
I wonder…what is it that your heart felt this week?
For whom does your heart break right now?
I assume that within our gathering, there are lots of different opinions about lots of different things – the access to abortion and guns among the many. I wonder if you might sit quietly for a few breaths and really feel what your heart is speaking, feeling, longing for in this moment.
Now, I wonder if you might turn to someone near you and share something you want to do in the coming week to actively love God and love your neighbor?
And now, will you turn to someone nearby and share one way you would like us as a community of Faith to be more active in loving God and neighbor.
“All who believed were together and had all things in common…”
May it be so.
Amen.
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