\nIn
\nhigh school, a friend of mine remarked, \u201cI think perhaps the
\nstories in the Bible show us the way that humans grow in
\nunderstanding God. \u00a0We couldn’t do it all at once, so we have to go
\nthrough stages.\u201d \u00a0Or, at least she said something like that, it was
\na while ago. \u00a0We were in the midst of an intense year old Bible
\nStudy, and we were trying to figured out why the stories in the Bible
\noften depicted God in ways that we couldn’t believe. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nHer
\nthought has been with me while I’ve been bemoaning the inflexibility
\nof the church at large – both The United Methodist Church and The
\nChurch Universal. \u00a0Hopeful people have been approaching me over the
\npast month, delighted to be able to ask, \u201cHey, now that the Supreme
\nCourt has made same-sex marriage legal in the whole United States,
\nthe UMC will have to follow, right? \u00a0Isn’t that great?\u201d \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nIt
\nwould be great, if it were true. \u00a0I’ve watched peoples’ faces fall as
\nI’ve replied that The United Methodist Church isn’t bound by US laws,
\nand that things aren’t going to get better in 2016, in fact they are
\ngoing to get worse. \u00a0The nearly universal response has been, \u201cWell,
\nthen what WILL happen to the church?\u201d \u00a0My profoundly unhelpful
\nreply has been, \u201cIt will become less and less relevant.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nOn \n<\/p>\n \nThis \n<\/p>\n \nThe \n<\/p>\n \nDefinitions \n<\/p>\n \nSanctification \n<\/p>\n \nI \n<\/p>\n \nThe \n<\/p>\n \nThe \n<\/p>\n \nThis \n<\/p>\n \nI’m \n<\/p>\n \nAnother \n<\/p>\n \nThere <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1<\/a>\u00a0None ______<\/p>\n Rev. Sara E. Baron
\nthe hand, no one has ever come up to me hopeful about the fate of
\nChristianity, so I haven’t had to burst any bubbles there. \u00a0That, in
\nand of itself, is sort of interesting, but interesting in a very sad
\nway. \u00a0The Church has been The Keeper of a very specific set of
\ntruths, a set that it decided and a set that it declared itself
\nprotector of. \u00a0Unfortunately, the set of truths that has been
\nprotected hasn’t been allowed to grow, change, adapt, and become as
\nhumanity has continued to develop. \u00a0Truths that made sense before
\ngerm theory don’t all work now. Truths that made sense before we knew
\nthat our sun was just another star don’t all work now. Truths that
\nmade sense before the creation of effective birth control don’t all
\nwork now. \u00a0Just as truth has been hardened and left to die in the
\nface of human knowledge, the closed cannon of the Bible struggles to
\nmeet the needs of modern people. \u00a0Now, most of you know, I have a
\nvery strong love\/hate relationship with the Bible, and I’m not ready
\nto throw it away yet! \u00a0Yet, the Bible is full of stories of people
\ntrying to make sense of life, of God, and of relationships. \u00a0If we
\nwant to continue to engage that process, it needs to continue to
\nreflect the struggles of humanity. \u00a0Our Bible tells stories that are
\nsaid to range for about 1500 years, written down over the course of
\n700 years. \u00a0But it stopped 1900 years ago. A tradition that stops
\ndeveloping will die. \u00a0A way of understanding the Divine that relies
\nonly on ancient information can’t be relevant.1<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\nchurch, and now I’m speaking very specifically, First United
\nMethodist Church of Schenectady, is one of the very few churches who
\ndon’t need to cling to ancient understandings of God and the
\nworld. \u00a0As I’ve experienced you, you are a people eager to find more
\nmeaningful ways of knowing, in particular to find ways to integrate
\nthe knowledge you have of the world with the ways you could
\nunderstand the Divine Energy that binds us all together. \u00a0This sermon
\nis the start of a 5 week sermon series entitled \u201cWould John Wesley
\nDrive a Prius?\u201d trying to consider how Wesley’s concepts, ideas,
\nand even just his words fit into our lives today. \u00a0It is an attempt,
\nat the very least, to keep the nearly 300 year Wesleyan tradition
\nalive by dragging it into the 21st<\/sup> century. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nword of the day is \u201csanctification.\u201d \u00a0Literally it means, \u201cto
\nmake holy.\u201d \u00a0As mentioned in my Spire Article this month, I would
\ngive it a bit more flavor, saying \u201csanctification is the process of
\nbecoming perfect in love.\u201d \u00a0John Cobb (famous Process Theologian
\nand United Methodist clergy person) goes a little bit less formal
\nwhen he says, \u201csanctification is spirituality.\u201d2<\/sup><\/a>
\n But, surely, if we’re going to talk about John Wesley, we can let
\nhim define his terms? \u00a0John Wesley says that to be sanctified is \u201cTo
\nbe restored in the image of God ‘in righteousness and true holiness’
\n(Ephesians 4:24).\u201d3<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\nare nice and all, but we should probably start at the beginning.
\nJohn Wesley and others at his time shared a thee part understanding
\nof grace, which we can delve further into during the sermon on grace.
\n The key for now is that God’s grace (meaning God’s unconditional
\nlove for us) is experienced in 3 different ways, depending on the
\nperson’s relationship to God. \u00a0\u201cThe grace that comes before\u201d,
\nprevienent grace, is God’s love for a person who does not know or
\nacknowledge God. \u00a0Justifying grace is God’s love for a person as a
\nperson comes to acknowledging God.4<\/sup><\/a>
\n Then, sanctifying grace is the way that God’s love works in and with
\na person in from that point onward, and that process is called
\nsanctification. \u00a0The end goal is perfection in love \u2013 to act out
\nthe Love of God for each person \u00a0in every word and action.<\/p>\n
\nis the process of faith development that enables a person to become
\never more loving by connecting every further with love. \u00a0Rev. Dr.
\nCarothers used to talk about the point of the church being \u201cto
\nestablish and maintain connections of mutual support in an ever
\nwidening circle of concern\u201d which I think is yet another definition
\nof sanctification, this time with an inherent communal bent. \u00a0Now
\nthat, I think, we have a clue what it is, the question is: does it
\nstill matter??? Is this a term that reflects something relevant and
\nreal in our lives today, or is a reflection of an argument from 300
\nyears ago that has proven itself useless with time? \u00a0At least for me,
\nthe answer isn’t immediately obvious. \u00a0Yes, growing in love is still
\npretty much the point. Yet, it seems that the biggest questions are
\naround how that happens than if it should. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nwant to poke around in our text today for some clues from even longer
\nago. \u00a0Paul suggests that those seeking to live like Jesus needed an
\nopen mindset in order to figure how how to act in ways that are good
\nand \u201cperfect.\u201d \u00a0Hmmm. \u00a0It requires humility, Paul says, and an
\nawareness that we’re interconnected and each of us are dependent on
\nthe abilities of the whole. \u00a0Paul then gives some specific
\ninstructions. \u00a0\u201cLet love be genuine,\u201d which is definitely lovely
\nalthough perhaps not particularly easy to apply. \u00a0\u201cHold fast to
\nwhat is good; love one another with mutual affection, outdo one
\nanother in showing honor.\u201d \u00a0The list goes on, but it is a very
\ntangible description of ways that people might act if they are
\nseeking to live \u00a0in ever greater Love.<\/p>\n
\nprecedent for sanctification is in this text, as well as in others.
\nAs we will continue to see, John Wesley’s ideas are solidly based in
\nscripture. \u00a0Obviously, continuing to grow into greater love is a
\ngreat description of the goal! \u00a0The goal of of faith development, or
\nhuman maturing, or progress, or church or whatever you want to call
\nit. \u00a0We’re aiming to continually grow into a greater capacity to
\nlove. \u00a0The question is HOW we do so! \u00a0Wesley had answers for that
\ntoo, called the means of grace. \u00a0In updated language, his answer was
\nthat we become more loving by a combination of 4 balanced factors:
\npersonal spiritual development, communal spiritual development, by
\nliving kindness in our individual lives, and by seeking justice in
\nour communal lives.5<\/sup><\/a>
\n The idea is that if any of the 4 were missing things would get out
\nof whack.<\/p>\n
\nproblem, of course, is that these categories still leave a lot to be
\ndesired in terms of definition.
\n There are particular examples of each of them, i.e. for personal
\nspiritual development the traditional list includes, \u201creading,
\nmeditating and studying the\u00a0scriptures, prayer, fasting,
\nregularly attending worship,\u00a0healthy living, and sharing our
\nfaith with others\u00a0\u201c while for communal spiritual development
\nit is, \u201cregularly share in the sacraments,\u00a0Christian
\nconferencing (accountability to one another), and\u00a0Bible study\u201d6<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\nis the place where I think it is reasonable to break with tradition.
\nWhile nothing is necessarily WRONG with the lists as given, they also
\naren’t particularly RIGHT. \u00a0They don’t really reflect the ways that
\nthings have changed over the past 300 years or so, and I don’t know
\nthat they really make space for us to have a different understanding
\nof God than was normal then. \u00a0If you were here in January, you might
\nbe thinking, \u201cbut Sara, you preached on this in January and said
\nthe lists were fine!\u201d \u00a0I did. \u00a0I don’t anymore. \u00a0Thinking about
\ngrowing in love today, with a particular Jesus flavor, those are not
\nthe lists I would make. \u00a0 Um, a stagnant understanding of God and the
\nworld is dying, so its OK if I change my mind?? \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n
\napproaching sanctification from a new angle now, one that I’ve never
\nlooked at it from before. \u00a0It comes from the continuing education
\nI’ve done this year and the books I’ve been reading and what has been
\nworking in my attempts to become more loving. \u00a0Right now, it seems
\nthat the task of becoming more loving in the world requires finding
\nways to love the parts of myself that hard hardest to love: making
\npeace with their existence, listening to their wisdom, growing into a
\nfuller sense of myself \u00a0by being all that I am all together at once
\ninstead of trying to hide away parts of myself. \u00a0It sounds a little
\nbit like Paul’s body metaphor brought back to the body! \u00a0Perhaps
\nthat’s a big piece that’s been missing from traditional
\nunderstandings of growing in love \u2013 it isn’t about jettisoning
\npieces of ourselves because they are \u201cbad.\u201d \u00a0Rather, it is about
\nlearning that love applies to all parts of ourselves and all parts of
\nothers, and figuring out how to learn from all parts what love can
\nbe! \u00a0In finding ways to accept myself as I am, I make space to do the
\nsame for others, and to let go of the fear that comes as I see pieces
\nof others that I haven’t accepted in myself. \u00a0Please note though,
\nthis is an idea that is still in development. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nthought on 21st<\/sup>
\ncentury sanctification comes via John Cobb who points out that in
\nWesley’s writing \u201centire sanctification is depicted not as a
\ncontinuing state but as a matter of moment by moment life.\u201d7<\/sup><\/a>
\n That is, it breaks in a moment first. \u00a0We don’t become entirely more
\nloving all at once. \u00a0But there are moments when we manage to act in
\nlove and then with time and practice they come more frequently. \u00a0This
\nmeans we can practice growing in love in even the most mundane of
\n21st<\/sup>
\ncentury activities. \u00a0That is, when we tween or text, facebook post or
\nsnapchat, instagram or linkin, or EVEN just if we talk to each other
\nfor a moment face to face, we have the chance in that interaction
\nwith other people to have a moment of sanctification. \u00a0 We just need
\nto have a moment when all we act out is love, and it is allowed to be
\nbrief! \u00a0 It can be sort of instant gratification. \u00a0John Wesley didn’t
\nthink of that though \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n
\nisn’t a sermon talk back today, but I’d like to hear what really has
\nworked. \u00a0If you are willing, however you want to get back to me,
\nwould you let me know: what has helped you grow in love in your life?
\n And what has broken open barriers that were previously closed to
\nlove in your life? \u00a0We can learn from each other,, and that would
\nlead us all down the road to Wesley’s probably not outdated concept
\nof sanctification. \u00a0May it be so! \u00a0Amen\n<\/p>\n
\n\tof this is a quote. \u00a0But my thinking was clarified by reading John
\n\tShelby Spong’s \u201cA New Christianity For a New World\u201d which is a
\n\ttruly fantastic text that finally put into words many of the issues
\n\tI’ve been freed to struggle with since coming to this church. \u00a0And
\n\tmy clarified thinking via the book made it seem important to
\n\tfootnote for two reasons: 1. Attribution is appropriate and 2. \u00a0Read
\n\tthe book!!! And if you’ve read it, talk to me about it!
2<\/a>\u00a0John
\n\tB. Cobb Jr, Grace and Responsibility: A Wesleyan Theology for
\n\tToday (Abingdon Press:
\n\tNashville, 1995), p. 100.
3<\/a>\u00a0A
\n\tPerfect Love: Understanding John Wesley’s ’A Plain Account of
\n\tChristian Perfection’<\/i>
\n\tModern Language Version and notes by Steven W Manskar (Discipleship
\n\tResources: Nashville, 2004), p. 33.
4<\/a>\u00a0This
\n\tis a heck of a soft-pedal. \u00a0We’ll get to it in a few weeks.
5<\/a>\u00a0For
\n\tthe geeks who want to know more, from
\n\thttp:\/\/www.umc.org\/how-we-serve\/the-wesleyan-means-of-grace<\/a>
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Works
\n\tof Piety\u00a0
Individual
\n\tPractices<\/b>\u00a0\u2013
\n\treading, meditating and studying the\u00a0scriptures, prayer,
\n\tfasting, regularly attending worship,\u00a0healthy living, and
\n\tsharing our faith with others\u00a0
Communal
\n\tPractices<\/b>\u00a0\u2013
\n\tregularly share in the sacraments,\u00a0Christian conferencing
\n\t(accountability to one another), and\u00a0Bible study\u00a0
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Works
\n\tof Mercy\u00a0
Individual
\n\tPractices<\/b>\u00a0–
\n\tdoing good works, visiting the sick,\u00a0visiting those in prison,
\n\tfeeding the hungry, and giving\u00a0generously to the needs of
\n\tothers\u00a0
Communal
\n\tPractices<\/b>\u00a0\u2013
\n\tseeking justice, ending oppression and discrimination (for instance
\n\tWesley challenged Methodists to\u00a0end slavery), and addressing
\n\tthe needs of the poor\u00a0
6<\/a>\u00a0ibid
7<\/a>\u00a0Cobb,
\n\t111.<\/p>\n
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305
http:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/
<\/a>https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FUMCSchenectady<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"