Wednesday 18 February 2015

Holiness in Action: For the Love of God

"How great is the Father's love that he has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" 1 John 3:1

Welcome to the first of a new series of weekly reflections for Lent about faith, work and sustainable living inspired by Wesleyan theology.

John Wesley founded the Methodist movement with his brother Charles in 1738 after a deep experience of the love of God which John later described as being "strangely warmed" (my friends in the Cambridge Methodist Society at university had hoodies declaring that they were instead "warmly strange"). 
My husband is a local preacher, and has been telling me for years of the riches to be found in Methodist theology about “holiness in action”, or applying faith to real life. This Lent, I’m taking up the challenge: to read all of Wesley’s 44 sermons (now available to read online!) and explore what they can teach us today. 

I started with "The Almost Christian", where Wesley talks about how it is not enough to try really hard, to do all the things respectable people do, even to give all you have to the poor and fight for justice. These things alone do not make you a Christian. Instead, what matters is that you have met the God who loves you, and experienced that love for yourself. This is then expressed in love for others. 
On a recent course at the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity (LICC), we were asked who in the room believed that God loves us. Every hand went up. But head knowledge does not transform us: instead we need a combination of encounters with God and experience of his love to allow God to change us. 
This is reflected in our attitude to work: many Christians behave as if faith is just another thing on their excessively long to do lists, crushed under a weight of guilt that we are really not as good as we want to be. I know that feeling! To some extent, Lent has become another stick to beat ourselves with as we seek to be the best we can be, but it would help if we remember the origins of these 40 days of preparation. 
Firstly, it's communal not individual: we're here to help each other grow in holiness. Secondly, Jesus started his long fast in the desert with an amazing experience of God's great love. He was baptised in the River Jordan by John the Baptist, and as he rose from the water he was filled with the Holy Spirit and heard God say: "You are my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased". This was the groundwork for the discipline of 40 days listening to God, laying out his plans and dreams and asking for God's wisdom.
So this Lent, let's be disciplined in seeking God, knowing that "if we draw near to God, he draws near to us". Spiritual disciplines or exercises are intentional practices that give space in our lives for the presence of Jesus to transform us.  One simple example is known as "lectio divina", which involves repeating a verse or two like the one I used to start this post enough times to lead you into a reflective state of mind (that's about 10 times for me: I use prayer beads to help me with this), and allowing the message to sink in and inspire prayer. Why not try it?
The next Lent Reflection (The meek shall inherit the earth) is available here.

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