We have looked at phrases recently such as a beloved community of hope, healthy Body of Christ, and grace of God. These are all heart aspirations from the Vision Statement chosen to guide the 500 churches of the Annual Conference this year. They are printed in your program. They do not always reflect who we are, but they reflect who we want to be. Today, I want to think with you about our quest for passionate spirituality. We call that being heart warmed Methodists.
Wesley, our founder, struggled a lot with his own spirituality after being ordained as a priest. He was able to give others spiritual direction without experiencing it for himself. He entered a prison and led a prisoner to Christ by preaching faith in Christ alone for forgiveness of sins. The prisoner was immediately converted. John was astonished. He had been struggling for years. Here was a man transformed instantly. It all came to a crisis on May 24, 1738. His diary shows that the whole day was special – a day that would bring John Wesley into a new relationship with God. “…Wednesday, May 24, I think it was about five this morning, that I opened my Testament on those words, ...‘, “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.” In the afternoon I was asked to go to St. Paul’s. The anthem was, “Out of the deep have I called unto thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice. In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, 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.”
If you have ever been in love, ever had a moment in life where you met someone and glowed inside, then you know what the power of love can be. That is the kind of power we need every day. If you are struggling in life, one of the distinctives of the Methodist approach is to invite you to a love affair with God. We cannot be the people we need to be unless we leave here today feeling that glorious feeling that somebody loves us – and that is God.
And so my hope at this moment is that someone here has just become willing to look one more time at a problem with which you have already wrestled – that you want God’s love but you just don’t feel that love of God in the way that you need. I pray that this service is going to be the day where your heart gets strangely warmed.
In an article in the Times Literary Supplement, the playwright Gabriel Josipovici argues that, much to our frustration, the Bible leaves many questions unanswered. As "pure narrative," he says, the Bible favors brutal realism about our human condition over superficial consolation or theological explanations: "It does so, it seems to me, because it recognizes that in the end the only thing that can truly heal and console us is not the voice of consolation but the voice of reality. That is the way the world is, it says, neither fair nor equitable. What are you going to do about it? How are you going to live so as to be contented and fulfilled?"
Not only is the world tragically flawed, but we see that we are not the persons we want to be to live in it. We are like a firefighter who hears the alarm and runs to the fire only to discover that our hose is torn and our ladder is rotten. Maybe you have experienced this at home. You realize that you did not marry a perfect person. By now you have concluded that the person who gave you that intense, wonderful flash of love uses energy saver bulbs. It only gets turned on occasionally. But you are mature. You know that love sometimes go through rough periods where all you get is 3 hots and a cot.
John Wesley had such a marriage. He married Mrs. Vazeille, who traveled with him for four years and then grew tired of the travel. While there must be two sides to the story, his biographer writes that ‘She acted with such unreasonable malice that it is charitable to accept the suggestion that she was at times mentally unsound. She seized her husband's papers, interpolated his letters, and then gave them into the hands of his enemies or published them in the newspapers. She shut up Charles Wesley with her husband in a room, and told them of their faults with much detail and violence.’
The question that Paul asks the Ephesians however, is ‘are you going to let the problems of the other person drive you or will you not give in to the passions of the flesh?’
People like to think of cravings of our sinful nature as passion for casual sex, or perhaps alcohol. Our greatest passion is for hate. Just think back this last week. How many times were you tempted to have sex outside of a covenant? Uhh, and also, were you ever tempted to have sex with your wife? How many times were you tempted to be harsh, or cruel or blow up in anger and frustration? Whatever your answer is the craving that you have to fight.
I’m in my 50’s. I’m not close to retirement, but the 50s are a time of life when you start to see the horizon. With what I know of myself, I do not much fear being trapped in indiscriminate sex when I’m 70 and 80. I fear not achieving a loving godly personality, giving in to irritation and anger as my life response to imperfect people and a world at war.
I was once with a Catholic community from Connecticut that worked a lot on justice issues. They spoke about the temptation for anyone who gets involved in trying to change society to simply give in to despair and anger over the size of the job.
I went to see Amazing Grace on Friday. I sat there as the bill to end slavery went through 13 defeats. Wilberforce lost the Prime Minister the year before the final victory when William Pitt died. I could not fully understand the way that Amazing Grace had touched John Newton or William Wilberforce. But I want to be that kind of person.
These people were so touched by God’s love that they were famous for it. Wesley was tagged with the infamous title of being an “enthusiast.” In London
there is a tombstone of an Anglican minister that reads in part: “Here lies The Rt. Reverend Smith who served in the Lord’s ministry for forty years without enthusiasm.”
Let’s say that you are committed to someone who has issues. I’m not talking about abuse and the stuff that makes it necessary to self protect. I’m talking about someone who you have true feelings for but you see that they have issues. And you know yourself well enough now to see that you have issues too. I’m not suggesting that every relationship can be saved, but I wonder what would happen in yours if you went home as a heart warmed person.
Some of you have brothers and sisters and parents and kids that you cannot break away from and yet there are some destructive parts to your relationships. They are not going to change this week. What would happen if you went back heart warmed? I truly believe that if God gives you an overwhelming sense of peace and love, it will have an effect on some relationships that you care about.
And think of what its going to do for you. I can’t control what my family members do, what my friends do, what George Bush does. I can’t even control the person I’d most like to control. There is one person that I love dearly and would give anything to change. That person is Me.
Paul says that God gives you that power to change when your heart gets touched by love. If you have known the power of human love, then its possible to see how God’s love could be so much stronger. You don’t have to work for it, qualify for it, or be holy enough to get it. And in the moment that it arrives, some people here are living in two realms. If you have been heart warmed, then you are now passing through this world and also seated next to Christ in heaven.
I hope that you feel God’s invitation to renew your search for an experience of God’s love. Have you ever thought of prayer as exercise? Yes; it’s worship, it’s love poetry, and it’s petition — but it’s also a workout for your soul. Greek Christians actually have a word for it: askesis, which implies an intense struggle. Every prayer is kindling for the fire of your heart; increasing prayer results in an ever-deepening love of God.
The praise song begins, “Light the fire in my soul; fan the flames, make me whole.” The love of God has often been compared to an inner fire. And, delightfully, the more your heart is warmed up to God, the more often you will naturally direct your thoughts into prayers offered unto him.
One phrase that has been particularly helpful to me is called “the Jesus Prayer,” and it is centuries old, beloved by many Christians:
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
In Amazing Grace, John Newton, the slave trader turned pastor says ‘I know two things. I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.’ Newton found that heart warmed experience. He died shortly after the slave trade was abolished.
I cannot tell you why John Wesley struggled before he experienced God’s love. I can’t tell you why you are struggling. I can tell you that God is happy with our most fledgling efforts. He is delighted by our love for him. Every parent can attest to the beauty and power of the word papa or mama coming from their child’s mouth. How much more is Christ’s heart moved when we call on him?
And I can tell you that it is worth everything to make sure you don’t give into the cravings of our sinful nature as you get older. I don’t care whether you pray in your seat or come running to this altar. Do not let life get further along without being sure that you are heart warmed.
