This morning Fred Leist and John Howard (Senior and assistant pastors at First: Kearney), very very good guys, who were part of the original Methodist Minister Moving Men during the BIG MOVE in July from Liberty to North Westport aka Valentine, aka the 36th block of Pennsylvania, donned that persona once again and hauled my little square freezer from the now-rented district parsonage in Liberty down here on John's wonderful little trailer. John was also in attendance at the Wesley Studies conference where I did my "snapshots of Wesley's life" and what the UMC can learn about entering into the emerging church conversation from those moments. I think Fred and John talked about my workshop coming down, because Fred, in the midst of moving, mentioned to me a sermon he once heard about the most significant words in John Wesley's journal...those words, the preacher said, were NOT as expected "My heart was strangely warmed," but, "I consented to be more vile..." that is, Wesley consented to be more vile by taking to the field to preach...it never felt quite right to him, but he could do no other---his strangely warmed heart, which convinced him that he was God's precious child, compelled him out, out of the churches, into the field, out of the mines, to the city square, even to his father's grave, to let the people know that they were God's precious children, too. I just wonder, how can I, even just for tomorrow, with three charge conferences, how can I translate that power that I sense in my own heart, that we, the church, must sometimes, "consent to be more vile," that is, to overcome our own hesitancies, our own image of what we should find acceptable and what is not, how can I help folks to find the field in which God is calling them to preach, and even in the midst of their own sense of discomfort, for them to sense always, feel always, know always that they are God's precious sons and daughters, not merely his servants any more, and that that news is not just for them, but for those outside the walls, who stand outside the gates, and whose need for that love is so very, very great?
An article that resonates with this is found here:
www.gbod.org/smallgroup/covenant/fall03/gaps
3 comments:
Susan - Thanks for your thoughts. I do think that "submitting to be more vile" is an important consideration for those of us in the church today. What that means is certainly different in each setting and it is our call to see what can be done so that the gospel will go unhindered in this world. Thanks.
Andrew
Nice post. I always liked John's sarcastic sense of humor. Having read the sermons that he actually preached in those fields, I think you go too far afield to say that the message he preached was that "everyone is a precious child of God" - but rather that anyone could become a child of God - if and only if they believed in Jesus Christ and were consequently filled with his assuring Spirit (cf. John 1:12, Rom. 8:9-16, etc.).
Daniel
Sorry but I'm not sure I agree with you. Prevenient grace says to me that God has already claimed us before we claim our sonship or daughtership. Sort of why we UMCers baptize infants...a radical thing to do. We may not be professing Christians until we make that turn toward Christ, but we are still God's precious children. And I do believe that Wesley, in the language of his own time, did preach just that.
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