Do these things and live

We have been reading John Wesley’s sermon “The Scripture Way of Salvation” for a good while now. He has been laying out and defending the doctrine that salvation by faith alone does not exclude works. Indeed, he insists such works are necessary to both justification and sanctification provided we have opportunity to engage in them. Here now, he comes to discuss some of the applications and implications of all this for the practical life of Christians and the teaching of the church.

9. “But what good works are those, the practice of which you affirm to be necessary to sanctification?” First, all works of piety; Just a short aside. The words “pious” and “piety” — like many religious terms — can have a negative connotation in our secular culture and even within Christianity. Stanley Hauerwas, a theologian who used to be a Methodist wrote many things for which I am grateful, but he also has written very dismissively of piety and pietism. I won’t go into his critique, but I will note that the 17th century Pietism movement was deeply influential on Wesley and Methodism. Phillip Spener’s Pia Desideria is available in a modern English translation for those who wish to learn more about it.

such as public prayer, family prayer, and praying in our closet; receiving the supper of the Lord; searching the Scriptures, by hearing, reading, meditating; and using such a measure of fasting or abstinence as our bodily health allows. Let us be clear here. Wesley is not advocating for these things as lovely little helpers to our spiritual life. He is writing and teaching that you cannot expect salvation in this life or the next if you have the opportunity to engage in these works and refuse to do so. The way we often talk about these things in church and the way our doctrine as Methodists speaks of them are widely divided from each other.

Yes, there are circumstances when people are literally unable to do some of these things. Some people cannot attend the public prayers, reading of Scripture, and service of the Lord’s Supper that we call “going to church,” but the number who cannot is far surpassed by the number who refuse or choose not to. Those of us who claim to love such people should be as agitated for them as we get for our openly blasphemous friends and relations. Both groups are missing the mark.

As I write these words, I am preparing for an Ash Wednesday service and the season of Lent. I am reminded of how in the contemporary church we often talk about “fasting” as a help or enriching practice for a spiritual life. In the “mainstream” Protestant church, I’ve heard many sermons where we talk about fasting from social media or somehow fasting by taking up a new activity or healthy habit. As I write this post, I am convicted that I need to pray and study more about the proper way to teach my congregation about fasting and abstinence and their importance to our salvation.

10. Secondly, all works of mercy; whether they relate to the bodies or souls of men; such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, entertaining the stranger, visiting those that are in prison, or sick, or variously afflicted; such as the endeavouring to instruct the ignorant, to awaken the stupid sinner, to quicken the lukewarm, to confirm the wavering, to comfort the feeble-minded, to succour the tempted, or contribute in any manner to the saving of souls from death. Sometimes the idea that Methodism has a both/and take on theological or practical questions gets abused. Sometimes it gets twisted into “you can believe anything and be a Methodist.” But the abuse of a thing should not blind us to its proper use.

Here we see Wesley insisting that the good works we are called to do are about the physical and spiritual needs of our neighbors. We are to care for their bodies and their souls. We should not ignore one so we can attend to the other. We should give them a hot meal. We should also give them Jesus.

And importantly, the “we” in this sentence is not about the church as a body but it is directed at each one of us as Christians. The works of mercy here are not things the church does on our behalf. It is something you and I are called to do ourselves because doing these works is how we work out our salvation. The mission committee can’t do that for you. The evangelism committee can’t do that for you. The pastor can’t do them for you. Only you can. Only I can.

Jesus calls each one of us to do these works as part of our repentance — our turning away from the false gods to the true and living God. We cannot delegate these things to others, and we cannot expect the blessing of God’s grace if we willfully refuse to heed the instruction of our Lord in these matters.

As Wesley sums it up: This is the repentance, and these the “fruits meet for repentance,” which are necessary to full sanctification. This is the way wherein God hath appointed His children to wait for complete salvation. We have two options. Either we can argue that God did not appoint these things to us, which some Christians will argue and did argue with Wesley, but if we join those arguments we cease to be Methodists, or we can accept that God has appointed these things but refuse to do them, in which case we can have no expectation of salvation in this life or the life to come. We cannot expect any of the sweet joys that come from walking in the way of Jesus or any of the peace or assurance that comes from obedience to our Lord if we willfully choose to ignore what we believe he taught us to do. And yet, how many of us do just that?

An undivided life

I am fully aware that there are things other people can do that I cannot.

I cannot knit or play guitar or remove a gall bladder. Just because I cannot do these things, it does not mean I am judging people who can.

I hope you can keep that in mind as I write what follows, because, you see, there is something I see many of pastoral colleagues do that I cannot.

I know clergy who live two lives. There is the life they live when they are pastors, and there is the life they live as “normal” people. To them, this kind of distinction not only makes sense, but it is seen as crucial. It helps them preserve boundaries and a sense of self. If I have heard them properly, it helps them to remain authentic and even sane.

I’m sure I am not doing justice to why people do this. I struggle to explain it as much as I would struggle to explain how it feels for a fish to breathe water.

Here is the source of my problem in comprehending this strong need some of my fellow clergy experience. I cannot see this distinction within myself. There is no “me” that needs to be protected from the impinging demands of my vocation. There is only one me, and that me is a pastor.

All of us Christians are supposed to live our whole lives as an outflowing of our baptism. We do not have parts of our lives that are Christian and parts that are something else. We are Christians on Sunday morning and at home and at the ball game. We are Christians when we go to the doctor or when we are haggling with government bureaucrats about something petty and annoying. We are a new creation, the old has passed away.

For a small number of Christians, our baptism finds its expression in our call to pastoral ministry. My teachers told me that a pastor is merely one kind of Christian, a person set aside to do certain things in the life of the church. Being a pastor is not a separate thing from being a Christian. It is the way some of us are Christians.

Indeed, to be completely honest, my observation is that being a pastor relieves me of many of the strains that other Christians suffer. My work does not conflict with my faith. I do not have to navigate the tensions that so many Christians experience when they live huge chunks of their lives in settings and under rules that have nothing to do with the Gospel or may be hostile to it. Being a pastor — for me at least — is an opportunity for work and faith to overlap in ways that the great majority of my brothers and sisters in Christ do not get to experience. Far from being a burden to carry, being a pastor has given me a way to live with integrity.

Yes, I can imagine that I could cease to be a pastor and still be me, but I don’t think I could cease to be a Christian without being a radially different person than I am. I can’t take that part of myself off and just be “normal” me. Being a Christian may be abnormal, but it is who I am. And, therefore, at least as long as the church and the Lord deem me worthy, being a pastor is who I am, as well.

The hope of the new birth

I was reading John Wesley’s sermon “The Marks of the New Birth” recently. It is an excellent sermon worthy of consideration by any Methodist preacher.

The thing I noticed in it — which, despite being obvious, had evaded my previous readings — was how Wesley here is arguing for the doctrine of new birth as a doctrine of hope. One of the arguments he is working against in this sermon comes, I assume, from Anglican critics of the Methodist movement who say that once a person is baptized they have been “born again by water and the Spirit” and so all the Methodist talk about new birth or being born again is some sort of misleading enthusiasm.

Wesley’s response to that argument tells us a few key things about Methodism, which we also simply call Scriptural Christianity.

First, Wesley clearly has no time for an argument that our status with God is determined by some event in our personal history. He is quite explicit about this. While he does not dispute the value of baptism or the regeneration that it provides, he wants to see more than a baptism certificate when inquiring about the status of our salvation. The key issue is not “were you once baptized?” The key question is this: Does you inward and outward life right now provide evidence that your are born of God?

Here is how Wesley puts it:

Say not then in your heart, “I was once baptized, therefore I am now a child of God.” Alas, that consequence will by no means hold. How many are the baptized gluttons and drunkards, the baptized liars and common swearers, the baptized railers and evil-speakers, the baptized whoremongers, thieves, extortioners What think you? Are these now the children of God? Verily, I say unto you, whosoever you are, unto whom any one of the preceding characters belongs, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the works of your father ye do.” Unto you I call, in the name of Him whom you crucify afresh, and in his words to your circumcised predecessors, “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell.”

It is not hard to see how such preaching would upset many Christians who had rested on the thought that since they were baptized and participated in the ordinances and sacraments of the church their salvation was secure. To them, Wesley says, show me the fruit of your salvation. Show me a holy heart and life, and then I will believe you are indeed born of God. For saying such things, many a congregation informed the Rev. Wesley he would not be invited back.

But this first point builds to his second, and the source of hope that can be found in the doctrine of the new birth.

Whether they would hear him preach or not, many Christians then — as today — struggle with the sense that something is not right in their faith. Yes, they were baptized. Yes, they came to the altar and accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord, but still they do not know the joy of the Holy Spirit that the Bible speaks about. They do not feel the power to overcome their sin. They do not know the blessed assurance of their salvation. Their Christian walk is a forced march not a dance of joy.

To such people, the doctrine of the new birth is a doctrine of hope.

The teaching that says baptism is the only new birth in the church, which Wesley appears to be arguing against, leaves Christians in a fairly desperate place if, like many, they do not presently find themselves experiencing the righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit that Paul writes about in Romans.

To such Christians, Wesley says, there is hope. There is more. There is a better way. If you look at your faith, if you examine your walk with Christ, and find it lacking, even absent, you can still be born again. You can still know the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. You can receive again the Spirit of that allows you to name God tenderly as Father.

This I find quite helpful, but what is its relevance to us today?

You will not find many in Methodist churches who argue that the only new birth is in baptism, but I do think you will find a great many Christians who are both struggling in their faith and relying too much on some version of baptism certificate salvation. A great many Christians have none of the joy and power of salvation, but cling to the thought that since they were baptized or saved once their salvation is solid. They trudge along to church every Sunday, finding there no real joy or peace with God, which makes them all the more insistent that following the rules and being a good church member will get them into heaven.

Methodists, starting with Wesley, have always said the Bible promises us more than this. You can know the joy and peace and power of salvation today. What’s more, if you do not know those things, your salvation itself may be at risk. Do not cling to your baptism certificate as proof that you are a child of God. Look to your heart. Look to your life. Do you bear the marks of someone who is born of God? Do you have the faith of one who has placed their whole trust in the redemption of Christ? Do you have the hope of eternal life that leads you to rejoicing? Do you have the love of God that wells up within you like a fountain and spills out as love of neighbor?

These are the marks of the new birth. If you do not see them in yourself, do not despair. Do not cling defensively to your baptism certificate, your church camp come-to-Jesus encounter, your church attendance record, or your ability to quote biblical verses. Cry out instead to God. Pray for the Holy Spirit to come again. Pray to be born anew. Do not cease praying and seeking until you can say, “I am a child of God, born of His Spirit. The old has passed away. The new creation is here.”

There is more. There is joy. There is peace. There is, in Jesus, new life.