The latest from the MethoBlogoSphere

I've been mulling about this idea for a little while now, and thought I'd through it out there for some friendly conversation. As Christians, a central tenant of our religious and spiritual understanding is that we as human beings are broken and fragmented people. 

Now I know what some of you might be thinking, "here we go, another chucklehead whose just going to bash the human race again and talk about how 'unworthy' we are, blah, blah, blah."

Well that's not exactly where I'm going, but I think that if you truly look around long and hard enough, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that we've been beating one another over the head with clubs (and the more advanced we've become, the more sophisticated the club) for eons in hopes of fulfilling our on personal endeavors, however twisted they might be.

You see, when as followers of Jesus, we fail to embrace the notion that we are flawed individuals that create flawed communities, that create flawed governments, that create flawed world-views, that even, and here's the kicker, create flawed churches, why then do we think that we really need Jesus anyway?

I mean, if we're really OK, then, well, we really don't need a savior do we?

I'm not suggesting that we adopt a pessimistic stance and cluck our tongues at "how bad the world is," but what I am suggesting is that understanding that we are bent and broken social creatures is part of the mystery that makes us, well, human, beautiful, and worth redeeming.

News flash:  you don't always get it right.  I don't always get it right.  Sometimes you live for your own desires in a way that says, "forget you world."  Sometimes I live for my own desires in a way that says, "forget you world."

When we fail to remember and embrace our brokenness, then by definition we fail to remember and embrace the need for personal transformation.  We then become, sanctimonious, pharisaical, legalistic, and judgmental.  Everyone else has a problem, except us of course.

From there we move to easily categorizing people into neat little boxes:  conservative/liberal, gay/straight, rich/poor, male/female, in/out, married/divorced, addict/sober, sinner/saint.

I can't tell you how many times I have heard as a pastor something like the following, "well, that's just the way (insert name here) is.  They've always been like that, and they're probably not going to change." 

Really!?

Never!?

If we, as people who bear the name "Christian" fail to carry the standard that declares that not only is real change necessary, but perhaps more importantly, real change is possible, then we might as well throw in the towel.

I'm broken.  I'm a forty-year-old, overweight, child of God, husband, father, friend, and pastor, who cares waaaay too much what people think of him, who gets it wrong probably more than he gets it right, but believes and hopes, beyond all belief and hope that God can change even me.

God can and still does change lives!

So how 'bout you?  Are you perhaps willing to admit and embrace your brokenness and allow God to move you towards wholeness?  Because until you do, you really have no business pretending you need a savior.

I was flipping through old journal entries and came across this from a while ago.
I can’t remember if there was something specific going on in my life, or if it was a general “write what’s on my mind” type of entry.
But after reading a couple of passages in 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, and how David was always under pressure from the people around him, the journal entry fit in with my devotionals today.
Here’s what I wrote:

Here’s something that I know.
As long as I stay faithful to God, as long as I seek God’s way, as long as God’s will is mine, in the big picture of things, everything will be okay. I won’t be able to make everyone happy. People are going to complain. People are going to be mean. People are going to criticize. People are going to misunderstand your motives, your sayings… you. And there will just be people out there who flat out won’t like you. But if you spend your time trying to get them on your side, trying to please them, trying to make them happy, you’ll burn out. Fast. And your ministry will be more about you than God. The one thing they can’t ever take away from you is what God is doing through you. But if you stray from God, if you continue to seek to please others than God, you have nothing to stand upon. So stay grounded in prayer and grounded in God’s word. Go to God before you need to make a decision. Let God flow through your life, and let God run your life and your ministry. People will always throw rocks at you. Some will be the size of pebbles and some may leave a scar for the rest of your life. But God will continue to be your shield and try as they may, they will never be able to take that away from you. Just remember. It’s not about you. It’s not about them. It’s about God. And if you seek God’s will first, in the end, all will be okay. Remain faithful to God who is more faithful than you can imagine.

Kevin Watson is starting a series of blog posts about creating Wesleyan class meetings in the 21st century.

I plan on following it. If you are interested about being Wesleyan in the 21st century, I encourage you to join the discussion as well.

How is house moving for you? It’s stressful for most, if not all people. In the case of a minister, you are not just moving home but work base, too, if (like me and probably most British ministers) you work from home. In our forthcoming move, we are bringing together the following factors:

There are minimum standards for a Methodist minister’s house, but they vary hugely (that’s inevitable). When we moved here, we downsized from an Edwardian house with six bedrooms, two reception rooms and a huge kitchen that had once belonged to a Navy Admiral to a small three-bedroom house with a lounge-diner. We became Mr and Mrs eBay as we prepared to move. Now, we are moving back up the scale to a four-bedroom house with separate lounge and dining room, plus a conservatory. Whereas here it has been difficult to offer hospitality, in the new manse it will be eminently possible, and we need to kit ourselves out to that effect.

To do that, we need to rid ourselves of certain items, such as the small sofas we bought to squeeze into this house, a redundant wall unit, the current dining table and chairs and several other smaller things. We need to replace them with a new three-piece suite, conservatory furniture, a sideboard, and miscellaneous other items. How can we afford this? We have been given some generous financial gifts by the churches here, and we are sourcing good second-hand pieces on eBay. In some cases, we are using an excellent website called Shiply to arrange economical transporting of them. So this morning, we took delivery of the conservatory furniture we wanted, which came 150 miles, and which we could not reasonably have collected.

Next, we tried the local branch of Freecycle. If you don’t know Freecycle, it’s a great way to offer items you no longer need, or request things you do need. It’s all done by an email to a list that circulates around people in your geographical area. With our local branch, however, all emails have to go through moderators and can take up to two days to appear. When you do get rid of something, it also takes that length of time for the email you circulate telling people the item has gone to go round. In the meantime, you have to tell maybe ten other people that what they want is no longer available. However, most of the people who have collected from us have been grateful. Only the odd one or two have expected us to dance to their tunes.

In fact, Freecycle was so slow when we first started using it that in our frustration I rang the local council and booked a delivery slot for them to take away some of our stuff. I didn’t want to do that for two reasons: one, it would go to landfill, and two, I had to pay! Thankfully, as of tonight everything I had asked the council to come and take next week has finally gone on Freecycle. Tomorrow I get to ring the council again and see whether I can get a refund.

I can’t help thinking all this could be a lot simpler. Maybe you could strip the moderation out of Freecycle and just ban those who break the rules. All I do know is that I’m glad we have a three-week break between me taking my final service last Sunday and our actual moving date! Right now, I wouldn’t have time for ministry!

So – do you have any tips to share on successful ethical disposal of possessions? Do you have any stories about moving to share? I hope nobody has had incidents like this one.

Recently, I have had several opportunities to speak at churches about Wesleyan small groups. I have been encouraged by the desire that many pastors and laity have had to start something like a class meeting. On several occasions I have had further conversations with people about what it might look like for them to actually begin a class meeting. A common refrain I have heard when I have talked about the Wesleyan method for making disciples of Jesus Christ has been something like, “This all sounds great, but how would you actually do this today?”

Based on the things that people have said to me, I have been surprised at how easy it has been to convince people that the class meeting was of vital importance to the success of early Methodism. Rather than doubting the value of the class meeting, people seem to want concrete guidance on the steps to reclaiming this practice.

In light of this, I am going to write a series of posts called, The Methodist Class Meeting for the 21st century. This series will focus on topics such as: What were the nuts and bolts of the early Methodist class meeting? What are the primary obstacles to starting something like a class meeting? What ingredients are necessary for starting a healthy class meeting? How do you start a class meeting? How do you maintain the vitality of an established class meeting?

I also want to solicit your questions. Are there questions that you have about class meetings? I welcome both historical and practical questions. Feel free to either leave your questions as a comment on this post, or email me directly at deeplycommitted at gmail dot com.

I look forward to the conversation.

The Christian Post has an interesting article reporting some of the results from a survey taken by the Apex Healthcare Group, who have been consulting for the Call to Action Steering Team. You can read the full article here.

In part it says:

A newly released report by the denomination gave “below average” grades to the body’s governance and agencies as it cited a lack of mission clarity and accountability, among other things, within The United Methodist Church.

“The agencies are a cacophony of voices,” the report, titled “Operational Assessment Project,” cited one surveyed Methodist as saying. “[T]heir ‘brands and communications compete with one another’ and result in confusion and dilution of impact at the Annual Conference and Local Church levels.”

Basically, the report says that we as United Methodists are ineffective because there is no one central group to speak for the Church on a regular basis. Yes, there is the General Conference, but they only meet once every four years and what they do mostly is legislate. Legislation is not leadership.

What’s more, into this leadership vacuum have stepped the general agencies, each of whom has their own vision of where the Church ought to be going. Consequently, not only are we slow and inefficient in making meaningful decisions, but we’re also confused as to which direction to go.

All of this confused inefficiency makes us less relevant. After all, if you don’t know where you’re going or how to get there, you can’t really speak meaningfully to the world around you.

So, according to the report, we need more leadership. Risk-taking, innovative leadership.

One can almost hear in this a call to bypass the General Conference and to invest even more power in the Council of Bishops. I’m not sure if that’s what they really meant to say or if that’s where they are really headed. It’s just what I hear between the lines of this small article. I’d be interested in reading more of this report and finding out what their real recommendations are.

In one sense, this report says little most of us didn’t already know. We’re ineffective, confused, mistrusting, and irrelevant. What else is new?

Still, this is a report upon which action will presumably be taken. One wonders which way our denominational leaders will choose to go.

This is the message that I gave at Tompkins Corners United Methodist Church for the 10th Sunday after Pentecost, 8 August 2004.  The Scriptures for this Sunday were Isaiah 1: 1, 10 – 20; Hebrews 11: 1 – 3, 8 – 16; and Luke 12: 32 – 40.

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You will have to excuse me if this sermon sounds angry. But things have been said and done these past few months that make me, as a Christian and as one who believes in the power of the Gospel, angry. Actually I am as much confused as I am angry.

We call this country a Christian nation. We seem to think that a few drops of water on our heads at birth, a few grains of rice when we get married, and a handful of dirt thrown on our grave when we die make us Christian. (This was adapted from Faith in a Secular Age by Colin Williams, page 116)  All our words say we are Christians. We put the phrase "under God" in our Pledge of Allegiance to remind others; we put "in God we trust" on our money to remind others; and find a politician today who doesn’t end their speech with a rousing "God bless America!" We say that a reaffirmation of our Christian values will keep this country safe, strong, and free. But our actions belie our words.

We call for the return of prayer in school, saying that our country began to fall apart when it was taken out. I remember when we started each day in school with a prayer; but I also remember that the school where this happened was segregated. I also remember my parents having to buy my schoolbooks at a bookstore because the local school board did not want to buy books for the students, black and white, in the district. We may be a country where we invoke God’s name and say that all men are created equal. But our educational processes then were separate and hardly considered equal. And today, when segregation is supposedly a thing of the past, there are still schools that use Jesus and God as covers for segregation and racism.

Forty years ago, we had prayer in the schools but our schools were homogenous. Now, with our schools heterogeneous and diverse, it would be very difficult to offer a prayer that meets the requirements for all the Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus in our schools. How can any prayer be written that meets the needs of the students?

And with our God the same God that Jews and Muslims pray to, how can we explain the actions of some Christian churches who fired their ministers after they shared a community platform with Jewish rabbis and Muslim imans?

We have been told that we are stewards of this earth. But how does this allow us to pollute the air, the water, and eliminate for all times many species of plants and animals? To be a good steward is not to use it up but to keep it for all but there are those who say that God allows us to do so. Besides, who is going to miss a small sparrow that only lived in a ten square mile in the northwest? Does God not care for all His creatures, great and small?

As a Christian nation, we say that we accept the words of the Bible as the inherent words of God told to mankind? So why is it when the words of the Bible conflict with the laws of nature we condemn or kill those who point out the discrepancy? Is it that we forgot that God wrote the laws of nature just as he lead men to write the words of the Bible? As children of God, we are created in God’s own image and given the ability to reason and think. Yet, many Christian preachers seem to think that only they can do so and we are to blindly follow.

We have been taught and we have taught our children that there is no separation of people when it comes to faith. So why have we used the words of the Bible to prove that whites were the superior race? Jesus did not teach discrimination or separation. In a world where women were second class citizens and children given the status of dogs, Jesus removed the barriers that separated people. Yet, we still build barriers between people in the name of God because we do not like someone’s race, economic status, beliefs, or lifestyle. We have been shown that there is no difference in people simply because the color of their skin is different. So what shall we do if our other notions about human differences are proven false? What will happen if we find that there is life on other planets? Shall we treat these individuals any different; will we, in the name of God, claim superiority over them, just as the first explorers of this country did to the natives of this hemisphere?

And how can we, as Christians and as a Christian nation, accept the fact that there are homeless in this country. How can we accept the fact that there are those who go hungry for days, rather than the few hours between breakfast and dinner? How can we claim to be Christians when we allow oppression and discrimination to exist in this world? How can we claim to be Christians when our very actions drive wedges between people and drive people away from the church, not to it? How can we, those who proclaim once a year that the Son of God was born to be the Prince of Peace, even begin to think that war will do anything but make people more hungry, destroy their homes, and keep the oppressed in bondage.

How can we ever expect peace on this earth when we do not practice good will towards men? How is it that we, claiming to be Christian individuals, and this nation, claiming to be a Christian country, ever expect to remove terrorism from this world if our responses to terrorism are only in kind? Yes, in the Old Testament, the philosophy was an "eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth"; to respond in kind to that which was inflicted upon you. But Jesus said that we should turn the other cheek, we should respond to violence with love and respect. How is it that we can remember the words of the Old Testament but forget the words of the New Testament?

We may say we are a Christian nation but our actions certainly do not reflect those beliefs. This is a time when vast, powerful forces sweep across the country bringing changes to our very doorstep.

Yet, instead of recognizing the opportunities such changes bring, churches close their doors to the opportunities and resist the change. Churches today seem afraid of what might be outside their doors.

Instead of true repentance and the acceptance of the Holy Spirit, evangelism is more a call for condemnation and judgment. Instead of seeking opportunities to bring the Gospel message to the people, churches today seem more interested in ways to build bigger buildings and have countless programs

But such activities, as God proclaimed through Isaiah, are doomed to fail. Those churches that put the gain of members before the presentation of the Gospel will die.(Adapted from comments by the Rev. Jane Middleton, printed in the July 30, 2004 issue of The Vision.)  Churches today have become churches of exclusion and privilege. Instead of preaching a Gospel message of love and openness, many churches preach division, exclusivity, and certainly no love for all.

The church the public sees seeks to impose its will on the people it should serve. Evangelism has come to mean condemnation and judgment. And for many, the church is no longer a place of haven or solace. It has become simply a place for baptisms, weddings, and funerals.

It is no wonder that people are turned off or driven away from the church. How can we ask people to be disciples of Christ if they cannot see Christ at work in this world? How can we call men and women to conversion without seeing that Christ calls us all to repent of our prejudices and to be open to the fullness of the life? We cannot practice Christianity and be a false witness; we cannot be evangelists while escaping from Christ’s demands ourselves.

We have to ask ourselves what it means to call people to Christ. The church’s sole purpose is to show the world, through word, deed, action and thought that God’s will is the best alternative to a materialistic or secular world.

Still, there is a vision of hope and promise. Just as John Wesley began the Methodist Revival when it appeared that the words and actions of the church were counter to the goals and outcomes of the Gospel, so too can we embark on a new revival. If there were ever a time for a church to embark on a course of evangelism and outreach, it is now. As Jesus points out in the Gospel message today, there is no time to wait; the hour of His coming is unknown and lost to those who wait.

Within the next six months we will meet as a church. We will vote to remove forty some individuals from the membership rolls of this church; we will say to these friends and children of the church that, because they have failed to be active and supportive members, they are no longer members.

I am not condemning these individuals; for the most part, I do not know who they are. But I can only presume that because they have chosen not to respond to our inquiries and mailings, they see their membership in terms of drops of water, grains of rice, and a handful of dirt rather than in terms of prayers, presence, gifts, and service. I know that some of these individuals have moved away but others are close by and they do not come. They choose not to come because something keeps them away.

It is about time that we, as practicing and professing Christians, do what Christians should do. Just as Jesus said that his mission was first to the lost sheep of Israel, so too must our first evangelistic outreach be to those who have strayed from this, their church home. We need to make one last major effort to reach out and bring them home.

And as we do this, we also need to reach out to those new residents of this area. We should do so, not for what they can bring to this church, but rather what this church can bring to them. In a world of despair and void of hope, this can be the source of hope and promise through the Gospel message.

These opportunities, to reach out and find our own lost sheep and bring in new members, are fleeting. But there is no time later and events in this world can force us into actions that we may not want to take. But if we act in accordance with the Gospel message, we may be able to dictate what those events will be.

We cannot rest on what we have done in the past nor can things that we have developed or created forestall the inevitable. God made it very plain that such an approach would not work. We cannot say that people should come to this church, simply because it is historic and been here for a long time; we can say that people should come because we have been presenting the Holy Spirit at this location for over 200 years. (This isn’t exactly what I said but I think it is close enough to it.)

What is acceptable to God is the exercise of one’s faith, a demonstration to others that God is truly our God. That means that God must be the centerpiece of our lives. God, today through the words of Isaiah, is telling us to show others who He is through what we say and do. And what we do, when we do it, must be for the benefit of others, not for ourselves.

What was it that brought success to Abraham? It certainly was not his abilities. But through his faith in God and his belief that God would give him the family that he had been promised, he received the family that he had been promised. We are told today by the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews that it was the faith of the saints, and not their actions that brought them success.

We are reminded today of the lengths that God will go to for us. We are reminded that we are able to come to this table today because Christ died for us and not for anything that we have done. This moment in time solidifies the relationship that exists between God and each of us. One of the basic tenets of faith for Methodists is that there is a relationship with God through Christ. It is a relationship that is intensely personal but also one that must be shared with others. It is a relationship founded on faith, a faith that is both informed and experienced. It is a faith that goes beyond our own personal boundaries through our concern for the spiritual, physical, and social conditions for all people.

Our heritage as Methodists is to evangelize, to take the words of Christ, the Gospel message, into the world. We are not charged with anything difficult or beyond our capabilities. We are only asked to do like the two disciples walking on the road to Emmaus, to tell the story and what it means to us. Evangelism is nothing more than that; we are asked to neither condemn nor condone individuals but just tell the story of Jesus and what it means to us.

We are not going to change this country overnight. But it is not a question of changing this country; it is not even a question of whether or not this country remains or becomes a Christian nation. It is a question of whether or not we can show the presence of Christ in this world.

The words, actions, deeds, or thoughts of individuals who seek gain for themselves will not do this. Rather, it will be the words, actions, deeds or thoughts of those who have accepted Christ as their own personal savior and have allowed the Holy Spirit to guide and direct them in everything they do and say.

You may come to this table tired and worn out but you leave refreshed and renewed. You may come to this table devoid of hope for the future but you leave knowing that there is a future of hope and promise in Christ. You come to this table seeing a world and a church focused inward and selfish. Yet you come to this table knowing that Jesus gave of Himself so that we may have the hope and promise of eternal life. As you leave this table this morning, refreshed and renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit and cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, your values change.

As we eat the bread and drink the juice of the grape, we are reminded that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was for us. So how can we leave this place and not carry the Gospel message into the world? As you leave this table and this church this morning and go out into the world, what will you say and do this week to help others to find what you experienced today?

I just finished an advanced copy of Adam Hamilton’s When Christians Get it Wrong. I really like Adam Hamilton’s books for one main reason: while Hamilton is not one to break much new ground, he has the gift of writing with exceptional clarity. I rarely read his work and think “I had never thought of that.” Instead, I read it and think, “I never thought to put it like that.” I have to think that this is what has made him such a successful pastor; he has the ability to take complex and controversial ideas and clearly and lovingly explain them.

So here again, we have another book on how negatively Christianity is perceived and how Christians need to accept some of the blame for that and more importantly do something about it. David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyon’s book UnChristian seems to be the leader of the genre but a little snooping on Amazon will show you that there are a number of Christians talking about what is wrong with Christianity. (See also Dan Kimball’s They Like Jesus But Not the Church, Jason Berggren’s 10 Thing I Hate About Christianity or the movie Lord Save us From Your Followers.) I have read a number of these and they all have some fascinating insights. What I like about Hamilton’s treatment is what I already mentioned: he makes it clear, he makes it understandable and he delivers it in a way I think people will be able to hear.

The book stems out of a conversation Hamilton had with a young man who had some strong negative perceptions of the Christian faith. He covers five main areas of perception: Christian behavior, science and politics, other religions, the problem of evil, and homosexuality. In each of these he clearly lays down some challenges – that we might have more than a perception problem, we may have a behavior problem and even an understanding problem. He offers some thoughts on widening our understanding and changing our attitudes. He also shows some examples of what it looks like when we “get it right.”

I will be honest, like some of his other work, this one will rub some folks, including readers of this blog, the wrong way. When you hit politics and homosexuality and call for some repentance and correction, someone will not agree. In the clarity of his writing does not leave a lot of room for interpretation – which is a good thing – unless you don’t agree with him. While it may not leave room for interpretation, it is good teaching and so it leaves room for learning and growing.

I hope people read this book. It is written at a level clearly appropriate for lay people. My review copy came in at around 85 pages so is the perfect length for Sunday school classes, small groups and reading groups. I look forward to it coming out so that I can read your comments.

Peace,

will

I spent last week at a youth camp, Institute 2010: God’s All Stars, which is a ministry of the Conference Council on Youth Ministry of the Kansas East Annual Conference. This post is part of a series reflecting on the week and making applications for the local church.

I have a tendency, for good and bad, to focus on the outcomes of projects, events or ministry areas to which I commit my time. The outcomes of Institute seem to be a mixed bag for me. This year there were clearly students whose lives were changed by their experience of God at camp. This is an undeniable outcome that is difficult to dispute. If even one life is changed or one student decides to follow Jesus, is not the entire effort worth it? Maybe so… I cannot deny that God is at work through Institute. At the same time, I believe that with changes the week could be more meaningful for a greater number of students with lower anxiety for leaders, student and adult.

What about your local church? What are the outcomes of the projects, events or ministry areas? Is there good as well as bad that is accomplished through the work of the community?

This post is from a sermon I preached back in 2007.  Over the last few days I’ve had tons of hits on a sermon I preached along with the lectionary for August 1st.  This inspired me to post one of my old sermons from the lectionary.  In this one, I try to introduce the congregations I served not only to the message of  Hebrews 11, but also to the life of John Wesley.

Living the life of faith is not always easy. In case you don’t believe me, let me tell you a little about the ministry of John Wesley.  Wesley felt God’s call to inspire and challenge the Church of England, and eventually the Methodist Church developed out of that great passion for renewal, mission, and ministry. Over the years, Wesley preached all over England and kept a meticulous journal of his activities – which we still have today.  Some of the entries might just surprise you. Here are a few entries from his journal that were written in the early years of the Methodist movement:

Sunday, May 7th: I preached at St. Lawrence’s in the morning, and afterward at St. Katherine Cree’s Church. I was enabled to speak strong words at both; and was therefore the less surprised at being informed that I was not to preach any more in either of those churches.

Sunday, May 14th: I preached in the morning at St. Ann’s, Aldersgate; and in the afternoon at the Savoy Chapel, free salvation by faith in the blood of Christ. I was quickly apprised that at St. Ann’s, likewise, I am to preach no more.

Friday, May 19th: I preached at St. John’s, Wapping at three and at St. Bennett’s, Paul’s Wharf, in the evening.  At these churches, likewise, I am to preach no more.

Friday, November 3rd: I preached at St. Antholin’s;

Sunday, 5, in the morning, at St. Botolph’s, Bishopsgate; in the afternoon, at Islington; and in the evening, to such a congregation as I never saw before, at St. Clement’s, in the Strand. As this was the first time of my preaching here, I suppose it is to be the last.

To be honest, I think I might just give up after I was kicked out of the third or fourth church, if not sooner!  There can be no denying that Wesley’s faced more than his fair share of challenges, and I have no doubt that it would have been easy for him to give up and quit.

The earliest Christians were in the same boat.  They faced threats on every side because of their newfound commitment to Jesus.  On one hand, they faced threats from the Imperial Government in Rome.  When fires swept across Rome in 64 AD, the Emperor Nero blamed Christians for setting the blaze, and ordered their mass arrest and execution across the city.     On the other hand they faced persecution from local authorities.  Throughout the first three hundred years of the Church, many people felt that Christians were pagans because they only worshiped one God.  In fact early Christians were often called atheists because they refused to worship the numerous gods who were worshiped.  They were feared so much that many people believed having Christians in their towns would upset their gods!  Tertullian, one of early Christians who observed these persecutions wrote, “if the Tiber rises to the walls, if the Nile does not rise to the fields; if the sky stands still, if the earth moves, if there is famine, if there is pestilence, the cry goes up, ‘Christians to the lion.’” There are countless stories of Christians appearing before their accusers, who asked them to deny and renounce their faith!

That’s the kind of environment in which the letter of Hebrews was written.  The early Christians who first read Hebrews were sorely tempted to turn their back on the faith and escape the torture, imprisonment, and execution they could easily be facing. They needed encouragement to persevere, and they needed resources that would allow them to stick with their faith even in the face of incredible odds. I believe that’s why the book of Hebrews gives one of the clearest descriptions of the kind of perseverance and endurance we’re called to have as Christians, even in the face of insurmountable challenges.

This passage from Hebrews provided those Christians with the kind of encouragement they needed to stand their ground. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for – the conviction of things not seen.” Abraham is then described as a living example of this incredible definition of faith.  God called Abraham and his family to leave their home across the desert in order to travel to a land they had never seen.  Even though he’d never seen this land, he trusted God in faith.  It was Abraham’s faith that convinced him to move his family somewhere they had never seen.  Later on, God promised he would create a great nation of people out of Abraham’s descendents, even though he and Sarah were too old for children.  It was Abraham’s strong faith that convinced him of this thing that seemed impossible.  It was his great faith that continually convinced him of things that he couldn’t see. Over and over again, Abraham’s faith was the only thing that gave him the confidence and assurance to keep pressing on in faith.  Even though he couldn’t see the outcome, Abraham knew that God’s promises are more real than anything else in this world.  His faith in God was what gave him the strength to press on, to keep the faith, to persevere.

When I was little, there were times that I would get sick and tired of something I started.  I remember specifically one summer when I got tired of Little League Baseball, and I was ready to quit.  My dad wouldn’t have it!  He wouldn’t let me quit, and let me know in no uncertain terms that we Judkins were not quitters.  This was a man who worked over forty years at the same job, so I knew not to argue! Little did I know that what my dad was trying to instill in me back then was one of the greatest resources we have in our faith.  Sometimes things don’t go the way we expect in our lives, and we think it would just be easier to give up.  Sometimes, we’re tossed to and fro by storms in our lives and we think it might just be easier to quit.  But the message of Hebrews reminds us that faith means never giving up.  Faith is what allows us to press forward even though things don’t seem to look so good.  Faith is trusting God who enables us to keep pressing on in faith even when things get rough!  Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.

Wesley’s story began with him being kicked out of almost as many Churches as he preached in and it had to challenge his faith.  Yet, because he had faith in the invisible God, because he trusted in God’s promises, because he trusted in Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit, the things that happened in the beginning of his life did not end up being the final word.  As he neared his 85th birthday, on Saturday, August 22nd, Wesley wrote in his journal as he had continued doing throughout his life:

I crossed over to Redruth and at six preached to a huge multitude, as usual, from the steps of the market house. The Word seemed to sink deep into every heart. I know not that ever I spent such a week in Cornwall before.  Sunday, August 23.–I preached there again in the morning and in the evening at the amphitheater, I suppose, for the last time. My voice cannot now command the still increasing multitude. It was supposed they were now more than [five and?] twenty thousand.

Because of the power of Jesus Christ and the reality of the resurrection (the ultimate promise of faith), Wesley was able to press on in his faith, preaching a message of forgiveness and God’s power to change lives.  He persevered like the great saints of old, like Abraham and Sarah.  Because of his faith, Wesley never stopped proclaiming the good news.  And so we find him, in the 85th year of his life, sharing the message of faith with more than 20,000 people.  That is what faith is all about – it’s the reminder that God’s promises and God’s power more real than anything else in the world.  When we feel like we can’t go on, when life seems so rough, we need to persevere and continue trusting in the one whose promises never fail and never end – no matter what.

make it so the poor are no longer
despised and thrown away.

Look at them standing about --
like wildflowers, which have nowhere else to grow.

-Rainer Maria Rilke

since I returned home from missions stuff in the end of june and my change of work in july i have lost a bit of touch with the homeless folks i was beginning to know in tent city. this poem which was sent to my by a friend has me thinking of those folks & the plight of homelessness in our culture.

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