Revelation 2:1a, 2a, 4-5a (NRSV)
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: . . . “I know
your works, your toil and your patient endurance. . . . But I have this against
you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then from what
you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.
Despite what some of you heard --- last Sundays sermon was
not about self-loathing
I am not a bad person
Nor am I a
perfect person
I am a flawed child of God
And just like you, God has great plans for me.
HOWEVER, --- unless we recognize and combat the demons in
our lives --- we will never be able to change the world ---- let alone
ourselves.
I have demons to combat --- and God is helping me to defeat
them so that I can do those things that God has called me to do. ---- that is
all that I was saying . . .
Did you listen to the scripture that was read this morning?
Listen again to these challenging words:
Revelation 2:1a, 2a, 4-5a (NRSV)
“To the angel of the church in
Ephesus write: . . . “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance.
. . . But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at
first. Remember then from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you
did at first.
The Christian Church today is suffering from exactly what
the author of the Book of Revelation was writing about.
Dr. Martin Luther King may have summed up this passage best
when he said:
Any religion that professes to be
concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn
them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that
cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.
"The church" has lost sight of its mission
It has become
--- like the old Pink Floyd song --- "Comfortably Numb"
"The church" has lost its spiritual center ---
because it has gotten too busy majoring on unimportant things.
My life has often gone through ebbs and flows of spiritual
vitality.
I have experienced periods that the
16th century Spanish mystic, St John of the Cross called: "The
Dark Night of the Soul"
When that happens --- I find myself with a couple of choices
·
do nothing and try to wait it out
·
enjoy the wandering in the wilderness
·
throw myself into spiritual practices to try and
fill the void
What
I have found is when I am in that place I too, am often majoring on the things
that aren't truly important
Staying focused is not always easy for me
It is too
easy to get distracted by things that just don't matter
When I get distracted I find two things that really help to
bring me back
First, finding a devotional type of book for me
I don’t know if you realize it, but virtually every book I
read, I read with an eye toward one of two things
Can this make
a good small group study book?
How can I use
this for preaching?
I really don't read just to read
Although my
son in law (wow not sure I have ever called Sam that before) gave me Ron
Chernow's new book on Grant for Christmas and I am about half way through it.
Second, getting back to a habit that I do off and on --- and
that is journaling
I picked up Anne Lamott's book GRACE EVENTUALLY, a book, that
had been gathering dust beside my bed and have been reading one chapter every
day and then journaling about what is going on in my life and how the spirit is
nudging me through these devotions.
It has been amazing --- and it is part of the reason that
you are stuck with all this self-reflection by me.
I was sharing this with a clergy friend of mine and he said
to me:
"It's hard to grow ourselves
spiritually when we are so busy trying to find things for others spiritual
growth and neglecting our own."
And he is so right!
John Wesley is the spiritual founder of the Methodist
movement.
He was born in 1703 in Epworth, England about 150 miles north
of London.
He was the 15th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley
Samuel Wesley was a graduate of the University of Oxford,
and since 1696, had been parish priest of Epworth.
He had married Susanna, the twenty-fifth child of Samuel
Annesley, a Dissenting minister, in 1689.
Samuel and Suzanna had nineteen children, of which nine
lived beyond infancy.
When John was a child of 5, on February 9, 1709, the
parsonage at Epworth burned --- some suggest that angry members of the church
may have started the fire --- regardless of how it started --- young John was
left sleeping in his bed on the second floor while the rest of the children
were all ushered to safety.
With the stairs burning, and the roof about to collapse,
John was plucked from a second story window by two men, one standing on top of
the other.
Later, Susanna would describe the experience saying that
John was "a brand plucked from the burning." (quoting Zachariah 3:2)
That experience, was one that shaped the rest of his life.
England in the 18th century was not all that different than
today.
England was in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, and
the middle class was shrinking --- the rich were getting richer --- while the
poor were growing in larger and larger numbers --- and getting poorer and
poorer.
Religion seemed to be losing influence on the culture.
The protestant revolution, which began with Martin Luther
nailing his 95 thesis (attacks against Roman Catholicism) on the door to the
Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany --- had been raging for 200 years.
People were forced to choose who they would be loyal to: The
Pope or Luther and his Protestants.
But in England the situation was even a little more
interesting, and confusing.
If you know your history, you remember a man named Henry
VIII ---- Henry, like all kings, needed a male heir. But his wife kept producing girls or still
born children.
Eventually Henry would divorce his wife and begin a long
string of failed marriages that always seemed to end with a dead wife.
England then suffered through Bloody Mary and the
Elizabethan age.
A period of religious persecution
--- that could get you dead if you belonged to the wrong group.
Because of this 200 year period of religious turmoil ---
many people had grown weary of religion and the Church.
The age of enlightenment brought scientific reason and
skepticism toward religion and all things supernatural.
It was into this world that John Wesley was born.
John's father Samuel was pastor of St Andrews Church in
Epworth for almost 40 years.
But as was typical in that day, John and his siblings were
taught by their mother.
What was unusual
was that she insisted that the girls too learn to read, and write.
Education was very important in the Wesley home.
Susanna's influence on John cannot be underestimated.
She instilled in him many of the values that would come to
dominate his ministry the rest of his life.
One of the things that Susanna did with each of her children
was spend an hour with each one of them --- she asked them about their faith
--- their fears --- their hopes and dreams --- she asked about the state of
their souls.
This practice becomes the genesis of Wesley's small groups
in which each participant shared with each other and held one another accountable.
They asked each other: "How is your soul?"
John also was given another gift from his parents --- and
that was how to preserve in the midst of conflict.
It was not an easy time to be religious in England ---
people were deeply divided.
Much like today people seemed to be separated into two camps
While they weren't
Red
and Blue
Fundamentalist
or progressives
Liberals
or conservatives
But they were divided
Tories and Whigs
conformers and dissenters
Anglicans and puritans
And that division, as we all know --- drains us of our
spiritual vitality
Sometimes we
just want to throw up our hands and give up
But Wesley --- because of his upbringing --- found a
different way.
Wesley once wrote:
Would to God that all the party
names and unscriptural phrases and forms which have divided the Christian world
were forgot; and that we might all agree to sit down together as humble, loving
disciples, at the feet of our common Master, to hear his word, to imbibe his
Spirit, and to transcribe his life in our own.
In a sermon he once said:
Though we can't think alike, may we
not love alike? May we not be of one
heart, though we are not of one opinion?
Without all doubt, we may.
Wesley offered us another way --- one in which we listen to
each other --- focusing not on where we disagree --- but instead identifying
our common ground.
He showed us how to build bridges and not walls.
We learn to assume the best of each other --- and not the
worst!
We give people the benefit of the doubt.
We listen more and talk less.
Adam Hamilton in his book Revival writes:
We have forgotten how to listen, as
individuals, as churches, and as a nation.
Liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats, progressives and
fundamentalists find it easy to demonize others. The mark of those early Methodists, and a key
element of personal and corporate revival in the twenty-first century, is a
willingness to see the good in others, hold our positions with humility, and
treat others with respect. It is a
willingness to make our hearts pliable in God's hands. It is a willingness to follow the highest
calling of Christians, which is both a prerequisite and the goal of revival:
love.
John Wesley's life was never easy.
But if there was one hallmark of it --- it was that he never
gave up!
Even when things seemed to be crashing around him.
As his family reflected on the fire in the parsonage at
Epworth --- they came to see God's hand in it.
They believed that God had spared John for a special purpose.
I, like every other pastor, have sometimes received
difficult letters from parishioners. Sometimes
they have been sent to me, other times I have been copied because they were
sent to the bishop.
And while I have gotten frustrated at times, and wanted to
throw in the towel --- you have never set my house on fire, like they did to
John's house
John never gave up.
Even when he failed --- and he often did --- he preserved.
If we want revival in our lives.
If we want revival in our church.
If we want revival in our nation ----
It must start with you
Without a humble spirit --- one willing to see growth
opportunities --- we will never have the opportunity to change the world.
John Wesley changed the world --- we are products of his
vision.
Let us not:
abandon the love you had at first.
Remember then from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at
first.
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