“John Wesley v. the iphone: Perfection”based on Matthew 5:43-48

This
is week 2 of a sermon series entitled “Would John Welsey Drive a
Prius” trying to consider how Wesley’s concepts, ideas, and even
just his words fit into our lives today.  The topic of the week is
perfection, and I figured that since the founder of the Methodist
movement wrote only one book, called “A Plain Account of Christian
Perfection,” I should probably reread it for the 5^th
time.  

The
book is short, and it is on point. John Wesley affirms his long held
belief that by God’s grace and the process of sanctification, people
can be filled with love and nothing else while they are still alive.
He called the end point Christian Perfection.  Believing that a
person could reach Christian perfection in this lifetime was, for
him, the defining characteristic of being a Methodist.

To understand, we need to look at the word perfection.

This is the explanation of
Steven Maskar of the General Board of Discipleship:

When
people hear Christian and
perfection together,
the word impossible
immediately
jumps to mind.  This response is common because the meaning they hear
in the English word perfection
is that of the Latin word perfecto.
This term is the perfection of the gods.  It means one who is
perfect in all regards – in thought, word, and deed.  Human beings
are, of course, not capable of such perfection.  But this is not the
meaning of Christian
perfection.

Wesley,
and others who addressed the doctrine, took the meaning of perfection
from the Greek words teleios and
teleiosis.
… Several
English words are today used to convey the meaning of teleios:
whole, complete, mature, grown-up,
perfect.¹

This
doesn’t mean that people won’t make mistakes.  Wesley is clear on
that time and time again.  Mistakes will happen no matter what, they
are the defining characteristic of being human.  But acting out love
is still possible: and the love is both for God and humans.  Wesley
even goes so far as to say that God primarily experiences love when
we share it with other people.

Now,
John Wesley’s book is not actually my favorite.  (The stories I’ve
heard about him lead me to liking him more than I do from his book.)
I find most of what he says outdated, redundant, and/or offensive.
When he gets around to a point that is sort of awesome, which he
does, I’m generally too annoyed with him to give him full credit.  
Luckily, Marjorie Suchocki loves the book.  Marjorie Suchocki is a
lay woman who has been dean and theology professor at multiple UM
seminaries.  She was a professor emeritus when I was at Claremont,
and she attended Claremont UMC where I got to be Program Secretary.
I think she’s brilliant, and I take what she says very seriously.
She added a theological reflection to the end of “A Perfect Love”
– a modern language version of Wesley’s classic – in which she
shares her opinion the first time she read “A Plain Account of
Christian Perfection.”  She thought to herself, “Why, this is the
merriest theologian I’ve ever read.”²

I
want to give Marjorie a chance to convince all of us of how wonderful
Wesley’s book is, and how “merry” he is.  It is only out of my
utmost respect for her that I can do this without sarcasm.  She
points out that in Wesley’s view humanity is highly regarded namely,
“God creates humans for the sake of flourishing, of full
development, and this development tends towards God’s glory.”³
(Which is also Love.)  She also point out that neither bodies nor
minds are denigrated in Wesley’s theology.  “God the creator is not
gloried through our denigration, but through the wonder of who we
were created to be.  God created us with minds, and calls us to
develop them to the fullest.  We are to rejoice in our ‘mindedness’
and learn all that we can, pushing our abilities to the very
limit…. In short, a Wesleyan understanding of what it is to be
human considers our intelligence, emotions, and bodies all to be a
gift from God, and thus we honor God insofar as we gratefully develop
the gift as much as possible within our circumstances.”⁴

She
takes from his book an understanding of God that I can get behind,
“God
is a fountain of pure love – not abstractly, not philosophically,
not in isolated splendor.  Rather, God’s very nature is to love, and
through loving, to elicit our own loving nature in return.  Love is,
of all things, relational; and the God whose name and nature is love
is relational, through and through.  Out of the depths of divine
love, God loves us; and we are most wondrously created because of
that love, and for that love, and toward that love.”⁵
Now, I read the same book she did.  And when she points this out, I
can totally see where she gets it from, and how all the redundant
statements get to that point.  However, I couldn’t get past my own
annoyance to see the wonder of what he was saying.  Thank God for
cheerful theologians looking for the good in what others say!!  (And
who maybe, just maybe, use their own brilliance to explain the
slightly less exciting perspective of others.)

Suchocki
has a few other significant points that she draws out of Wesley’s
little book:  “The remarkable thing about Wesley is that he figured
God couldn’t be stopped by human recalcitrance.”⁶
and, “Consider the nature of sin in a Wesleyan world.  If God
intended us to develop ourselves fully under the criterion of the
love of God, then sin is anything that works against that goal.”⁷
Now, we haven’t covered Wesley’s book as a whole, nor Suchocki’s
reflections on it, but we’ve done enough to be able to have a
conversation on the concept of perfection.

One
of Wesley’s favorite scripture passages to promote this topic is the
one we read today, although he had many, many others.  It is an
excellent passage because in addition to actually using the Greek
word for perfection/wholeness/completeness the passage calls for it
to be in love.  The passages pushes for more love than people would
naturally want to give, and Wesley does too!  He really jives on this
passage, talking about doing good to those who would do you harm.  He
pushes Methodists to show love outside of their own circles, and to
engage everyone as a beloved child of God, and he lived it too.

Personally,
I’m pretty fond of this passage as well.  Many scriptures that name
enemies end up claiming that God will punish those who do us harm,
and that always sounds wrong.  This one doesn’t. This one points out
that sun and rain are gifts for everyone, no matter what their
behavior, and that the love we share is to be as unbiased as the sun
and the rain.  It is even specific!  It calls out people for not
wanting to greet others who they don’t know or like.  Apparently
humanity hasn’t’ changed all that much in 2000 years.  The passage
calls out the people who follow the way of Jesus, and asks them to
behave with MORE love than those who don’t.  The way of Jesus isn’t
just another way of living the same sort of life, it is a more
generous, more inclusive, more connected, more relational, more
loving way of life.  Thus, it is harder and more rewarding!

Like
Wesley, I’ve seen people live out love.  The pastor I interned under
let me follow him around like a puppy dog two days a week for two
years.  I sat in every meeting he sat it, I listened to him talk on
the phone, and I listened to him when people interrupted him when he
was on his way to get something important done.  I heard him speak to
the District Superintendent, the lay leaders, the staff, people who
were homeless, people who I knew drove him nuts, his partner, his
children, and those who said to him that he was outside of God’s
grace.  Finally, near the end of him shadowing him, I asked him how
he did it. In every conversation I saw over 2 years he was
UNFAILINGLY patient, loving, kind, and gentle.  He looked at me
surprised and said, “We’re supposed to treat people with the love
that God has for them!”  I looked back at him and replied, “Yes,
of course we are!  But none of the rest of us actually manage to do
it!”

On
the off chance that Rev. Dr. Ed Hansen reads this sermon on Facebook,
I will admit for the sake of his humility that I’m not quite claiming
perfection for him.  But I learned a lot about what it means to live
in love in those years of following him.  He is an example for me of
how profoundly powerful it is when we seek to live out God’s love.
There are others, as well.  Lots of them actually.  In your unique
ways, almost of you have taught me as well (with the exception of
those I haven’t met yet… harder to make that claim before we meet.)
We can learn about love from all those we meet, if we are paying
attention to it, and around here it is even easy!

John
Shelby Spong, in his book “A New Christianity for a New World”
proposes that God is NOT a being (which is sort of a projection of
ourselves most of the time anyway), but rather the Source of Being.
He suggests that we consider God in new ways: “God is the ultimate
source of life.  One worships this God by living fully, by sharing
deeply,”⁸
“God is the ultimate source of love.  One worships this God by
loving wastefully, by spreading love frivolously, by giving love away
without stopping to count the cost.”⁹
“God is Being – the reality underlying everything that is.  To
worship this God you must be willing to risk all, abandoning your
defenses and your self-imposed or culturally constructed security
systems.”¹⁰

Spong
is talking about God as I’ve known and experienced God.  But, in
addition to what Spong offered, I would add a fourth:  God is the
ultimate source of justice.  One worships this God by seeking
equality and fairness for all people regardless of race, age, gender,
sexual orientation, country of origin, economic status, ability or
disability, language, health or sickness, annoyance or wonderfulness.
 (You might be able to argue that Justice and Love are the same
thing for God, that because God loves all the people and seeks good
for all, that justice would follow.  I’d agree, in theory, but in
practicality I want to mention it separately.)  Spong’s theory is
quite different from many of the church’s historical teachings.  It
refutes God as supernatural, as intervening in the world in physical
ways, as having favorites, or even of ensuring people’s safety.
Because of that, it frees us from old trappings and lets redefine
what it means to be people of God in more inclusive, prophetic, and
loving ways.  Or, perhaps around here, it gives words and form to
what many of us already believed,

This
understanding, this perspective of the Holy One is both radically
different from what John Wesley wrote and EXACTLY THE SAME.  It
boggles my mind how profoundly true both sides of this are.  Wesley’s
understanding of God, in most ways, fits his 18^th
century context.   So much of what he says is dated, and yet, he is
hyperfocused on this life.   He is focused on making the world a
better place, on building the kin-dom of God, by guiding people into
the sorts of relationships with God that let love be built up in and
through them.  His life and his writing are obsessed with helping
there be more love in the world in practical and real ways – ways
life food, shelter, heat in winter, clothes, and companionship.  His
love wasn’t pie in the sky.  It was practical, down to earth, and
extended to ALL the people.

John
Wesley’s understanding of God starts with God’s love that seeks
justice, and includes God’s enrichment of life.  Without Marjorie I
might not have seen it, but he has some points that hold up as well
as the most radical of 21^st
century theologians.  Oh, and the iphone?  It is just a device that
is pretty close to perfection in the Latin version of the word.
Compared to the power of love, it doesn’t matter.  Wesley for the
WIN.  Love for the WIN.  Thanks be to the Source of Life, Love,
Justice, and Being.  Amen

1 A
Perfect Love: Understanding John Wesley’s ’A
Plain Account of Christian Perfection’
Modern Language Version and notes by Steven W Manskar (Discipleship
Resources: Nashville, 2004),  page 10.
2 Suchocki p. 33 and 104.
3 Suchocki,
106.
4 Suchocki,
107-8.
5 Suchocki,
108.
6 Suchocki
110.
7 Suchocki
111.
8 John
Shelby Spong A New Christianity for a New World: Why Traditional
Faith is Dying and How a New Faith is Being Born
(HarperSanFrancisco, 2001) page 70.
9 Spong,
72.
10 Spong
72-73.

Rev. Sara E. Baron
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305
http://fumcschenectady.org/
https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady 
 August 9, 2015