How is your glow going now that winter is finally upon
us? It was only a few weeks ago we brought out our red gear and glowed our way
into church and through a heart-warming service remembering the one, holy,
catholic, and apostolic church’s birthday. We cooled down into Trinity but we
are still within the Pentecost season until Advent will again burst upon us
with blossoms of jackaranda and agapanthus.
We may or may not have remembered it but May 24 was a
special day. On that date in 1738, John Wesley went most unwillingly to a
Moravian meeting in Aldersgate Street to hear Luther’s Commentary on Paul’s
Epistle to the Romans. He described that about a quarter to nine, when the
penny dropped about justification by faith alone, his heart “felt strangely
warmed”. The Evangelical Revival in Britain commenced and the rest is history,
our history.
Many times our churches have tried to replicate this
experience but truth to tell we have struggled. The drift away from the
churches continues all over the western world with every setback making matters
worse. The media all but ignore the good news this sick world sadly needs in
favour of this unsavoury appetite for bad news.
The truth is that Wesley’s experience was not
entirely man-made. He would have been the first to say that it was for him a
work of the Spirit encountering him when he most was in need for this
refreshment as was the England of his time. Before Wesley, England was run by
self-centred men. The then king neglected his queen in favour of mistresses and
the Prime Minister promoted a corrupt parliament. By the end of the century,
the king promoted faithfulness in marriage and William Pitt became the most
dedicated Prime Minister in history. There were changes both in church and
state brought about by the Spirit inspiring John Wesley.
We cry for the Spirit to come and renew us both
church and world. But are we listening? The boy Samuel heard God’s call in the
middle of the night when grown men should have been listening. Samuel heard,
reflected, and acted.
The experience of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has
been among us for generations. Those of us who trace back our family histories
notice that no matter how far we go back in time, our ancestors always seemed
to have been baptised in church. We fill in our census forms describing our
faith allegiance. We have all the visible connections of being available for
the Spirit to live and work in such a way that both church and world can
flourish in the ways of God that would have us all love the Lord our God with
all our heart, our mind, our soul, and our strength, and our neighbours as
ourselves. So, is it happening?
In quiet ways it is but not necessarily in the way it
is most needed. This is a time where we need to reflect upon how our faith has
come to us in the first place. As Elisha looked to Elijah his mentor, so we
have received faith through our mentors who have left us something of the
Spirit to carry the baton while surrounded by a host of witnesses who have gone
before us.
What sort of heritage will we leave? I’m not talking
about what we put into our last Will and Testament but what sort of Spirit will
we leave for others to pick up from us? What sort of church and world will we
leave behind us where the Spirit has opportunity to move in the way that is
essential to move?
We ourselves have been mentored along the way. Who
will be mentored by us in such away they can be open to the Spirit so their
hearts as well may be strangely warmed that the world may believe that Jesus
sets us all straight so that the world may work in the way it has always been
meant to work?
