A Methodist Way of Life

 

• What issues of injustice are you currently concerned about? 

Many of the issues of injustice can seem so remote, far away and beyond our grasp.  We almost seem to be so helpless as we face so much oppression, tyranny and victimisation. Although our concern is real we seem to be so helpless to do anything.  What issues concern us today?

As Christians we are called to forgiveness, yet we are also commanded “Be angry and do not sin” (Ephesians 4:26). In righteous indignation, Jesus overturned the tables of money changers who were defiling the temple (Matthew 21:12). The Son of God had harsh words for religious leaders who led people astray, blocking their entry into the kingdom of God. He called them a “brood of vipers” (Matthew 23:33), “whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside . . . are full of hypocrisy and wickedness” (Matthew 23:27–28).

The Bible makes social justice a mandate of faith and a fundamental expression of Christian discipleship. Social justice has its biblical roots in a triune God who time and time again shows his love and compassion for the weak, the vulnerable, the marginalised, the disenfranchised, the disinherited. “For Christians, the pursuit of social justice for the poor and oppressed is the decisive mark of being people who submit to the will and way of God,” writes Tim Dearborn in Reflections on Advocacy and Justice.

Biblical references to the word “justice” mean “to make right.” Justice is, first and foremost, a relational term — people living in right relationship with God, one another, and the natural creation. From a scriptural point of view, justice means loving our neighbour as we love ourselves and is rooted in the character and nature of God. As God is just and loving, so we are called to do justice and live in love.

Singing the Faith 702 maybe a statement of Christian Intention on the subject of Social Justice.

I will speak out for those who have no voices;

I will stand up for the rights of all the oppressed;

I will speak truth and justice;

I’ll defend the poor and the needy;

I will lift up the weak in Jesus’ name.

I will speak out for those who have no choices;

I will cry out for those who live without love;

I will show God’s compassion

To the crushed and broken  spirit;

I will lift up the weak in Jesus name.

Dave Bankhead, Ray Goudie, Sue Rinaldi and Steve Bassett

(C) Authentic Publishing CCLI 814800

A Methodist Way of Life

We now come to perhaps a hard hitting part of “A Methodist Way of Life” We will challenge injustice.

For the Wesleys, 'works' as well as faith were essential to the whole of Christian living, and caring for the poor, for prisoners, for widows and orphans mattered a great deal.

Methodists were not only interested in welfare, they were concerned to remedy social injustice, and John Wesley's last known letter urged the abolition of 'that execrable villainy' slavery.

The Wesleys were an influence in prison reform and, inspired by Susanna Wesley, they earned a reputation as pioneers in education.

John Wesley himself wrote, edited or abridged some 400 publications. As well as theology he wrote about politics, music, marriage and slavery and medicine.

Methodists were encouraged to work to their utmost to improve the lives of others. John Wesley exhorted them to "Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can."

Following this Methodist Tradition, Martin Leckebusch has written hymn based upon a verse from the book of the prophet Micah (Micah 6: 8): “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Each of the hymn’s three verses echoes one of the “requirements” of God. In verse 1, Martin declares that to “stand for justice” is to reflect the “immense compassion” of God in the lives we lead.

Where verse 1 emphasises the wider social implications of acting with justice, in verse 2, Martin writes of mercy (in other Bible translations: “kindness”) in terms of personal experience – as a response to our forgiveness and acceptance by Jesus, God’s Son.

Finally, in verse 3 (which has affinities with the Methodist Covenant Prayer), the requirement to “walk humbly with your God” is paraphrased as submitting “in humility… to the truth which I have heard”:

Show me how to stand for justice:

how to work for what is right,

how to challenge false assumptions,

how to walk within the light.

May I learn to share more freely

in a world so full of greed,

showing your immense compassion

by the life I shoes to lead.

Teach my heart to treasure mercy

whether given or received -

for my need has not diminished

since the day I first believed

let me seek no satisfaction

boasting of what I have done,

but rejoice that I am pardoned

and accepted in your Son.

Gladly I embrace a lifestyle

modelled on your living word,

in humility submitting 

to the truth which I have heard.

Make me conscious of your presence

every day in all I do:

by our Spirit’s gracious prompting

may I learn to walk with you.

Singing the Faith 713 -  Martin Lekebysch (c) 1990 Kevin Mayhew Lts CCLI 814800

A Methodist Way of Life

How are you using God’s gifts (including your financial resources)? 

The kind of caring we looked at yesterday is what the bible speaks of as ‘Stewardship’. Wesley speaks of this as that which God has entrusted into our care; “Do you not know that God entrusted you with that money (all above what buys necessities for your families) to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to help the stranger, the widow, the fatherless; and, indeed, as far as it will go, to relieve the wants of all mankind? How can you, how dare you, defraud the Lord, by applying it to any other purpose?” 

Biblical stewardship recognises that God owns it all (“The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it” Psalm 24:1): including (but not restricted to) our bank balances and mortgages, houses and cars, earnings, pensions and pets, the birds, the beasts and even black holes. But what gives rise to stewardship is that God places many of these things into our custody. Right at the beginning He says to humankind, “take charge” (Genesis 1:28). Biblical stewardship is to look after the world in which we are placed (“A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal”. Proverbs 12:10). The goals is to develop and sustain the world.

This is the particular sense in which we are called to be stewards of what has been entrusted to us. We are given resources for a noble cause. Biblical stewardship does not decry money and possessions but it does recognise that they have a purpose. This means that before we can work out how to be good stewards we have to discover our purpose, our God-given goals in life.

It is right that we should ask and answer, “how are you using God’s gifts?”

“All Christians are but God's stewards. Everything we have is on loan from the Lord, entrusted to us for a while to use in serving Him.” John Macarthur

O Lord, grant us the grace 

to grow deeper in our respect of

And care for your Creation.

Lord, hear our prayer.

O Lord, help us to recognise 

the sacredness of all of your

creatures as signs of your wondrous love.

Lord, hear our prayer.

O Lord, help us turn 

from the selfish consumption of

resources meant for all 

and to see the impacts of our

choices on the poor and vulnerable.

Lord, hear our prayer.

A Methodist Way of Life

A Methodist Way of Life asks, “How are you caring for God’s creation?” Perhaps we should address the why first!

Why should Christians care about the creation?

1. We should care for creation because Christianity is a comprehensive worldview.
2. We should care for creation because we live in it.
3. We should care for creation because it reveals God’s character.
4. We should care for creation because doing so validates and displays the gospel.

As Christians we believe we understand something unique about our world since we know its Creator so intimately. Specifically:

• Jesus is creator and Lord over the earth, and we cannot separate our relationship to Christ from how we act in relation to what he has made.

• Jesus is reconciling all things to himself including all of creation, thereby signalling creation’s eternal importance.

• Jesus commands us to care for the poor and oppressed, the ‘least of these’ (Matthew 25).

• The ‘least of these’ often depend most heavily on creation’s healthy functioning. Anyone concerned with the ‘least of these’ must pay special attention to care of creation. People whose actions knowingly or inadvertently harm the ‘least of these’ risk the wrath of the Creator and Judge of all things.

• Caring for creation is a relational act, intimately connected to our relationship with Christ, our relationships with others and our responsibilities in the shared ministry of reconciling all things to Christ.

• Caring for creation is an act of the mind and will; however, as with all things, the leading and filling of God’s Spirit is required for true long-term success from a biblical perspective. In Jesus’ life, ministry and teaching we see a unique perspective on creation. Not only does the Bible say Jesus is creator and Lord, but also that it is Jesus who is reconciling ALL things to himself, including creation. Jesus’ teaching about the ‘least of these’ is especially poignant for anyone working with the poor, as the poor are often most dependent on the healthy functioning of creation. Jesus instructs that we need the indwelling of the Spirit to accomplish the good works he’s prepared for us in creation.

Perhaps we need to prayerfully ponder again, How are you caring for God’s creation?

We thank you, creator God,

for the goodly heritage you offer us,

from green downland

to the deep salt seas,

and for the abundant world

we share with your creation.

Keep us so mindful of its needs

and those of all with whom we share,

that open to your Spirit

we may discern and practice

all that makes for its wellbeing,

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

A Methodist Way of Life

We now turn to the part of A Methodist Way of Life that commits to the care for creation and all God’s gifts.

A relationship with God's creation and a ministry of caring for and healing the earth are integral to what it means to be a Methodist.

We believe that all of creation is God’s, and that we are responsible for the ways in which we use and abuse it. Our natural world is to be valued and conserved because God has called humanity to be its caretakers (Genesis 1:26-31).

As bearers of God’s image, all people have the responsibility and privilege of caring for God’s creation. Christians in particular should be motivated by Scripture. We ought to love and care for the Earth because it is God’s very good creation, and because we must care for the most vulnerable people on the planet. But we have not done this well. Our day-to-day choices and attitudes are often driven by our culture and lifestyle preferences, not the Bible. The science is clear: because of human activity, we see effects like species extinction and climate change. Lament and repentance are appropriate, but as followers of Jesus we must not despair. We can choose to move forward with “rational hope,” accepting the enormity of the problems we face while taking action with the hope of the Gospel in view.

The Christian vision of creation care is rooted in Scripture. Jesus taught that the most important commandments are to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbours as ourselves (Mark 12:29-31). Intrinsic in our care for our neighbour is our care for the environment that we share.

To some Christians, “creation care” can sound like we value the planet more than people. But caring for the planet really is caring for people. The effects of environmental degradation on human health are devastating. Malnutrition from food shortages, higher rates of tropical disease, cardiorespiratory distress from pollution, and conflicts over natural resources are just some of the ways environmental problems impact the lives of real people. At first climate change might seem unrelated, but it is more than a matter of warming up a few degrees. Climate change is a “threat multiplier.”

Lord, grant us the wisdom to care for the earth and till it. Help us to act now for the good of future generations and all your creatures. Help us to become instruments of a new creation, Founded on the covenant of your love. Amen

A Methodist Way of Life

A 3rd Barrier to serving others is WRONG MOTIVATIONS. In Matthews Gospel we find Jesus advocating, "When you do good deeds, don't try to show off. If you do, you won't get a reward from your Father in heaven." Matt. 6:1 (CEV)

The wrong motivation of showing off. Self-promotion and servanthood don't mix, but it's easy to get them mixed up.

A lot of our service, if we are honest, can be self-serving at times. We need to be honest with ourselves about that.- We serve to get others to like us.- We serve to be admired.- We serve to achieve our own goals.- We serve as sort of a bargaining chip with God. "God, I'll serve and You take care of me here."

There are all kinds of wrong motivations and it's hard to see the wrong motivations in ourselves. I have them, you have them. How do you know if you have a wrong motivation? Gratitude, or the lack of it is an indicator.  When we lose a sense of gratefulness, of gratitude in our lives, we can know right away there's something wrong with our motivation.

In Matthew 6, Jesus insists on the interior and not the exterior: it seems that the religious people of his time valued the exterior very highly. And this may have been strong witness for the faith. But Jesus calls us back to the interior life: private prayer, private giving, private devotional practice so that our external life of service will be based upon a right motivation.

C S Lewis helps us understand the nature of honest motivation when he writes; “The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself.

“We are told to deny ourselves and take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire.

“If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith.

“Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised to us in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.

“We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.

“We are far too easily pleased.”  C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory.

Perhaps in our motivation to serve we need to pray, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” Amen

A Methodist Way of Life

A 2nd suggested barrier to serving others is PERFECTIONISM; wanting every thing to be perfect. You know, "When it's all just right, when things settle down, then I'll serve."

In the Old Testament we read such an excuse in the words,"If you wait for perfect conditions, you'll never get anything done." Eccl. 11:4 (NLT)

Real servants, Christ-like servants, do the best they can with what they have for Jesus Christ today. They don't wait. You see what's happened in many churches today, is we have made an idol out of excellence. We really have. And many people worship excellence, even Christians. And they say "Well, you know if you can't do it first class, don't even try." 

There is a practice based on "The Good Enough Principle" and the Good Enough Principle is this: it doesn't have to be perfect for God to bless it.

That's the truth. If God only used perfect people, what would get done in this world? Nothing! A contemporary writer put is this way, “We're all a bunch of misfits. We all have weaknesses. We all have faults. We all have failures. We all have handicaps. But guess what? God uses us all. Why? Because God doesn't use perfect people because there aren't any. There aren't enough superstars in this world to get it done. God uses normal people.”

Today, we need to see ourselves in the stream of what God is doing in history. He has blessed us, not just so that we’ll be blessed, but so that we can become a blessing to others. We can’t bottle it up. He wants us, ordinary though we are, to be His channel for taking of serving others.

If you visit some cathedrals and church buildings you might see stained glass windows with pictures depicting the apostles, or great men of faith, they are portrayed as saints with shining halos around their heads. These images suggest to us, ‘we’re not like them’. They were holy, they were special, handpicked by Jesus. ‘When they prayed amazing things happened, but God isn’t so bothered about my prayers.’ ‘They could do no wrong, but I’m not like that.’

But as soon as you pick up the bible and read scriptures for yourself, you get a whole different picture, don’t you?

The great hero’s of the faith suddenly appear quite human and normal after all. I am struck just how ordinary and normal they appear. The scriptures are very intentional about showing us the real people God uses, with their weaknesses failings and all.

Gracious God,

Thank you for the gift of today.

Refresh me. Invite me to discover your presence

In each person that I meet

And every event that I encounter.

Teach me when to speak and when to listen

When to ponder and when to share.

In moments of challenge and decision

Attune my heart to the whisperings of your Wisdom.

As I undertake ordinary and unnoticed tasks,

Gift me with simple joy.

When my day goes well, may I rejoice.

When it grows difficult, surprise me with

New possibilities.

When life is overwhelming, call me to

Sabbath moments

To restore your Peace and Harmony.

May my living today reveal your Goodness. Amen