Methodism- a Eucharistic revival?

For many Christians today, the word revival conjures up images of large open-air gatherings, masses streaming to the altar, people falling on their faces (or on their backs) in fervent prayer, fiery evangelistic messages, healings, prophecies and other “manifestations of the Spirit”. The revival under John and Charles Wesley shared some of these features, but it also had something else that was not to be found in subsequent revivals. It was a revival where the celebration of the Eucharist played a pivotal role. 

Many today, including even those who call themselves Methodists, have largely forgotten this. For the Wesleys the Eucharist was no mere ritual; it was a powerful, spiritual reality. The Eucharist was a real point of contact between God and His people. The journal of John Wesley records many instances where people were healed or fell under deep conviction of sin during the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. 

This a ”converting” feature of the Eucharist, provides a strong missiological challenge for the Wesleys’ spiritual descendants.  The history of the revival as a eucharistic revival; has demonstrated that the Wesleys’ eucharistic practice is undergirded by a strong eucharistic theology. Unlike many today who regard the Eucharist as merely a commemorative event, the Wesleys believed that the Table was the place where Christ’s real presence could be encountered. This theology, however, did not develop in a vacuum but grew out of the Wesleys’ deep acquaintance with the larger spiritual tradition. The Wesleys drank deeply from the spiritual resources within Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Protestantism, Anglicanism and even various pietistic traditions, but they also used their sources judiciously. The result was an eucharistic spirituality that was truly catholic in the best sense of the word and contextually grounded. 

Is  the doctrine of the Eucharist as a “converting ordinance” an evangelistic tool?  There is certainly great potential for Methodists in Britian to return to a spirituality centring in the eucharistic celebration. It is of interest to note that in recent years many evangelicals and charismatics from the Free Church tradition are rediscovering the power of eucharistic worship and of the ancient Christian tradition.  They have run the gamut of quick-fix solutions; and have discovered that these strategies are no more than passing fads that do not provide the church a deep enough foundation on which to build and mature.

They have travelled full circle to return to the truth that the Church throughout history has been affirming all along: that what constitute or make the church are Word and Sacrament. 

 

‘Social Holiness’

‘Directly opposite to this is the gospel of Christ. Solitary religion is not to be found there. ‘Holy solitaries’ is a phrase no more consistent with the gospel than holy adulterers. The gospel of Christ knows of no religion, but social; no holiness but social holiness’.

From: The Works of John Wesley, Jackson Edition, “Preface to 1739 Hymns and Sacred Poems”, vol. 14:321.

God of all power, and truth, and grace,
Which shall from age to age endure,
Whose Word, when Heaven and earth shall pass,
Remains and stands for ever sure;

That I Thy mercy may proclaim,
That all mankind Thy truth may see,
Hallow Thy great and glorious Name,
And perfect holiness in me.

 

Thy sanctifying Spirit pour,
To quench my thirst, and make me clean;
Now, Father, let the gracious shower
Descend, and make me pure from sin.

Give me a new, a perfect heart,
From doubt, and fear, and sorrow free;
The mind which was in Christ impart,
And let my spirit cleave to Thee.

O that I now, from sin released,
Thy Word may to the utmost prove,
Enter into the promised rest,
The Canaan of Thy perfect love! 

Now let me gain perfection’s height, Now let me into nothing fall, Be less than nothing in thy sight, And feel that christ is all in all.

Charles Wesley (1707-88)

 

Balance, balance, balance…Catholic or Evangelical?

Musing away in my head, listening to the radio show about the strict punishments given out to the children in convents. Thefear that this creates, the damage this creates, the opressing and domineering of others in such painful ways. The debates about sexual abuse in the Catholic church; the pain I have seen when talking to those who are in despair and muddled over what has happened to them… makes a heart heavy with pain and despair; I cant help dropping my head and thinking… ‘surely’-

Temperance, Obedience and Holiness are attributes to strive for- BUT- this must be ‘LIFE GIVING’ and ‘LIBERATING’ not abusive and domineering and engineering  – so that peole live in fear of the wrath of God…a fear they have come to know from those who teach their own ways…and those who strive for this and  fall into sinfulness of  a nature that is so dark and destructive.

Are the rules laid down by God or us? The Gospel liberates- Christ came so that we may have life and have life to the fullest. Those who know me keep my commandments…love God and your neighbour…

The attributes that the Catholic Church promotes must be life giving-not taking. They must liberate those in and outside the church, those who hold office and those who seek to be…to the point of being evangelic and enthusiastic about them and therefore liberating.  Not Bible punching and oppressive and abusive.

Evangelical Enthusiasm that is mature- born of life giving experience- born of the experience of knowing the freedom that comes from Christ. Born in the grace that comes for all people and is there for us. An evangelical spirituality that seeks to serve- not dominate. That seeks to heal- not hurt. That seeks to love and serve- not take and abuse. That seeks Christ in all ways… 

Balance, Balance, Balance…

some thoughts on the AA and the methodist covenant prayer

Some quotes/remarks I’ve seen around…

‘you get well by thinking of what you can do for others. not by self obsessing’.

“OUR VERY LIVES, as ex-problem drinkers, depend upon our CONSTANT thought of others and how we may help meet their needs. p20″

“For if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he could NOT survive the CERTAIN trials and low spots ahead. p14″

ps this is NOT!!!!!!!! about being a doormat. 

 ’experience is that 3 to 5% succeed in staying sober longer than 10 years, so i have never been interested in what the ‘majority’ do…unless you want to end up like the other 95% you have to be prepared to not succumb to peer pressure and ‘follow the crowd’…

The covenant…

I am no longer my own but yours.
     Your will, not mine, be done in all things,
     wherever you may place me,
     in all that I do and in all that I may endure;
      when there is work for me and when there is none;
      when I am troubled  and when I am at peace.
Your will be done
      when I am valued and when I am disregarded;
      when I find fulfilment and when it is lacking;
      when I have all things, and when I have nothing.
I willingly offer all I have and am to serve you, as and where you choose.

Glorious and blessèd God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
      you are mine and I am yours.
      May it be so for ever.
 Let this covenant now made on earth
      be fulfilled in heaven.  Amen.

Beautiful…

‘Where shall My wondering Soul Begin?’

 

Charles Wesley’s journal for May 21, 1738, says:

At nine, I be­gan an hymn up­on my con­ver­sion, but I was per­suad­ed to break off for fear of pride. Mr. Bray, com­ing en­cour­aged me to pro­ceed in spite of Sa­tan. I prayed Christ to stand by me, and fin­ished the hymn. Upon my af­ter­wards show­ing it to Mr. Bray, the de­vil threw in a fiery dart, sug­gest­ing that it was wrong, and I had dis­pleased God. My heart sunk with­in me; when, cast­ing my eye up­on a Pray­er-book, I met with an an­swer for him. “Why boast­est thou thy­self, thou ty­rant, that thou canst do mis­chief?” Up­on this, I clear­ly dis­cerned it was a de­vice of the en­e­my to keep back glo­ry from God.

The next day, his bro­ther John was con­vert­ed, and Charles wrote in his jour­nal:

Towards ten my bro­ther was brought in tri­umph by a troop of our friends, and de­clared “I be­lieve.” We sang the hymn with great joy and part­ed with pray­er.

It’s wide­ly thought this hymn was “Where Shall My Won­der­ing Soul Be­gin?”

 

 

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Where shall my wondering soul begin? How shall I all to heaven aspire? A slave redeemed from death and sin, A brand plucked from eternal fire, How shall I equal triumphs raise, Or sing my great Deliverer’s praise?O how shall I the goodness tell, Father, which Thou to me hast showed? That I, a child of wrath and hell, I should be called a child of God, Should know, should feel my sins forgiven, Blessed with this antepast of Heaven!And shall I slight my Father’s love? Or basely fear His gifts to own? Unmindful of His favors prove? Shall I, the hallowed cross to shun, Refuse His righteousness to impart, By hiding it within my heart? No! though the ancient dragon rage, And call forth all his host to war, Though earth’s self-righteous sons engage Them and their god alike I dare; Jesus, the sinner’s friend, proclaim; Jesus, to sinners still the same. Outcasts of men, to you I call, Harlots, and publicans, and thieves! He spreads His arms to embrace you all; Sinners alone His grace receives; No need of Him the righteous have; He came the lost to seek and save. Come, O my guilty brethren, come, Groaning beneath your load of sin, His bleeding heart shall make you room, His open side shall take you in; He calls you now, invites you home; Come, O my guilty brethren, come! For you the purple current flowed In pardons from His wounded side, Languished for you the eternal God, For you the Prince of glory died: Believe, and all your sin’s forgiven; Only believe, and yours is Heaven!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A methodist’s mission

Dare we Join hands and hearts with a fervent enthusiasm and live to preach the word or will we concede that this is not ‘becoming of a methodist in 2009′

Where’s the balance? To proclaim with a ‘fervent zeal’ is not to condemn any one person or any other faith, is it?  To proclaim with a ‘fervent zeal’ surely is to give life to all  we meet with integrity and love at the very centre…to take the hand of the heart that seeks in aspiration for a better world…

 

 

Give me the faith which can remove
And sink the mountain to a plain;
Give me the childlike praying love,
Which longs to build Thy house again;
Thy love, let it my heart overpower,
And all my simple soul devour.

I would the precious time redeem,
And longer live for this alone,
To spend and to be spent for them
Who have not yet my Savior known;
Fully on these my mission prove,
And only breathe, to breathe Thy love.

My talents, gifts, and graces, Lord,
Into Thy blessed hands receive;
And let me live to preach Thy Word,
And let me to Thy glory live;
My every sacred moment spend
In publishing the sinner’s Friend.

Enlarge, inflame, and fill my heart
With boundless charity divine,
So shall I all strength exert,
And love them with a zeal like Thine,
And lead them to Thy open side,
The sheep for whom the Shepherd died.

Charled Wesley 1707-88

A Charge to keep I have…

A charge to keep I have,
A God to glorify,
A never-dying soul to save,
And fit it for the sky.

To serve the present age,
My calling to fulfill:
O may it all my powers engage
To do my Master’s will!

Arm me with jealous care,
As in Thy sight to live;
And O Thy servant, Lord, prepare
A strict account to give!

Help me to watch and pray,
And on thyself rely,
so shall I not my trust betray,
nor Love within me die.

Oh, savour the words. It’s like a fine meal, all the courses coming together in perfection.

The Method of theology for the modern Methodist is so beautifully worded in the above hymn.

Oh, for a revival, an Armenian fire to sweep across this land. Saved by faith and our response is to grow in Love.

Methodism- Catholic or Evangelical

Catholic or Evangelical- does the methodist Church in Britain succeed in balancing the two? With reference to the sacraments, Hymns, preaching and social action

‘Methodism’ Catholic or Evangelical?

Catholic or Evangelical- Does British Methodism succeed in balancing the two? Discuss with reference to one or more of the following: hymns, preaching, the sacraments, evangelism or social action.

This blogg hopes to go so way to explore this.

One- Holy- Catholic- Apostolic

Some thoughts- early Methodism was enthusiastic, no doubt evangelistic, and conversion was a major part in this. There was always a strict eye on ‘scripture’ and when the ‘main stream Church’ attacked Wesley as turning away from Doctrine and walking with the Devil , John would counter- that the Methodist movement held to the true marks of the true Church- it carried out Baptism, Doctrine true to Scripture and the sacraments.

The Hymns of Charles go along way to show this, are they not some of the most highly theological, doctrinal, catholic and Evangelical hymns the christian church has.  Sung in many churches, including the newer ‘fringeChurches’ that are bannered as ‘alternative worship’  that would argue the same as Wesley once did they they too are true to  a ‘Apostolic church’ movement.

What about 2009- has Methodism managed to balance….????