Text: Luke 3:7-14; Book of Discipline (p. 55-56, 77-80, 105-146)
We continue today by the banks of the Jordan River with John the Baptist and a piece of scripture that we briefly touched during the Advent season.
He has been calling people to repentance, asking them to change their hearts and their lives, and suddenly there is a growing number of folks on the riverbank.
I love how the Message translation puts it: “Crowds of people came out for baptism because it was the popular thing to do.” (Luke 3:7-9)
John the Baptist went viral.
And yet… instead of celebrating all these folks who were ready to dive in, he explodes at them!
He calls them children of snakes and then has the audacity to ask them, “who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”
That’s exactly the kind of welcome you’d want to hear when you step into a faith community for the first time, isn’t it?
“The axe is at the base of the tree,” John cries out, “and trees that aren’t producing fruit will be thrown into the fire.”
Nothing like some good old fire and brimstone preaching to wake us up on a Sunday morning.
I’m ready for John to bust out the Sinner’s Prayer and have everyone fall to their knees to repeat the words after him in an altar call.
But when the people start to ask what they should do, John the Baptist surprises us…
“If you have two coats, give one away.”
He tells them to do something that will make a difference for their neighbors.
It sounds like a good works response… rather than a faith response.
And that is because he is calling them to change not just their heart, but their lives.
Last week, we touched on the idea that for United Methodists, faith and good works are like two sides of the same coin. You can’t love God without loving your neighbor. And likewise, acts of love towards our neighbors are an outpouring of our love of God.
Or as our Book of Discipline puts it:
“Our struggles for human dignity and social reform have been a response to God’s demand for love, mercy, and justice in the light of the Kingdom. We proclaim no personal gospel that fails to express itself in relevant social concerns; we proclaim no social gospel that does not include the personal transformation of sinners.”
BOD, p. 55
This is that “practical divinity” that we talked about. It is the good news of Jesus Christ realized in the lives of Christian people.
Food for the hungry.
Clothing for the naked.
Health for the sick.
Freedom for the oppressed.
So let’s talk about that other John… John Wesley.
He looked around at faith and life in England in his day and like John the Baptist saw a similar disconnect. Religious leaders were ignoring the real problems of every day folks and every day folks had no room in their lives for religion.
So he got out of the pulpit and went out to where the people were… the coal mines, the streets.
He started to preach about changing our hearts and our lives and crowds of folks began to take notice and show up and want to know more.
Our Book of Discipline tells the story of how our Methodist United Societies got started:
“In the latter end of the year 1739 eight or ten persons came to Mr. Wesley, in London, who appeared to be deeply convinced of sin, and earnestly groaning for redemption. They desired… that he would spend some time with them in prayer, and advise them how to flee from the wrath to come… he appointed a day when they might all come together, which from thenceforward they did every week.”
Book of Discipline, p. 77
Each society, or larger gathering, was also made up for small groups, or classes of about 12 folks.
By the time Wesley died, there were 72,000 members of these United Societies across the British Isles.
And there was only one condition to be part of the society: you had to want to flee from the wrath to come and be saved from your sin. They called this “working out your salvation” and whenever someone was focused on these things, they expected there to be evidence of fruit.
Sounds a whole lot like what was happening on the bank of the Jordan River… doesn’t it?
But I also must mention a key thing that Wesley includes… something that is vitally important to what it means to be United Methodist.
Wesley never thought people could or should do this on their own.
He grouped people together into classes and larger societies so that there would be support and accountability as together we help one another within the Body of Christ to transform the world.
That support and accountability is also like two sides of the same coin.
John the Baptist sounded awfully harsh there on the banks of the Jordan River. And we think as United Methodists that we should never be people who rush to punishment – because that doesn’t demonstrate God’s mercy…
But at the same time, a church that lacks the courage to speak and act on behalf of our neighbors loses any claim to moral authority.
So they’d get together every week to pray, to encourage each other, and to ask about how faith and love were put into action in their lives.
If someone wasn’t living up to their commitments, they would give them time… even put them in a remedial group, if necessary. And sometimes, they had to have an honest conversation and ask that person to leave.
These societies had what we call General Rules… rules that we have talked a lot about over the last couple of years in our own pandemic response.
The members of the classes and societies were expected to show evidence of their desire for salvation by:
First – doing no harm and avoiding evil of every kind – especially that which was commonly practiced.
Wesley included examples of what that looked like in his day…
profaning the day of the Lord by buying or selling…
drunkenness…
buying or selling slaves…
taking your brother to court…
buying black market goods…
putting on gold or costly apparel…
and singing songs or reading books that don’t help you grow in your love of God.
But it wasn’t just about what we shouldn’t do.
The second rule of the Societies was to do good; by being merciful and doing as much good as you could as far as you possibly could to as many people as you could:
This rule lists examples like being diligent and frugal…
Living out the commands of Matthew 25 to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those in prison…
Being patient…
Teaching and sharing the word of God with others…
And things like buying from and employing other Christians.
The third rule was to keep practicing those things that were vehicles of God’s grace and mercy and power in our own lives – what Wesley called the “ordinances of God.”
These included things like public worship, studying the Bible, prayer, fasting, and communion.
Just as John the Baptist had some practical, real life examples of what it look like to produce the fruit of salvation in the world, the General Rules of the United Societies show us what John Wesley thought it looked like to bear the evidence of salvation in his day.
And so, as a denomination, we have continued to wrestle with how to exercise our “responsibility for the moral and spiritual quality of society.” (p. 55).
Every time our General Conference meets, we update what we now call our Social Principles that help to guide us as we live out our faith on a daily basis, as well as Resolutions that provide detailed positions on current issues.
According to our Book of Resolutions, these positions:
“give us evidence that that Church means for God’s love to reach into situations faced each day, not just on Sunday mornings… The United Methodist Church believes God’s love for the word is an active and engaged love… we care enough about people’s lives to risk interpreting God’s love, to take a stand, to call each of us into a response, no matter how controversial or complex.”
Book of Resolutions, p. 22-23
The Social Principles and Book of Resolutions guide how we should engage the natural world, what it means to nurture human beings in community, our responsibilities towards one another in society, and how we engage in economic and political systems across the globe.
They cover topics from suicide to abortion, public education to investments, the rights of farm workers to nuclear testing and stem cell research. All with compassion, nuance, and care.
And… I think this is vitally important… we believe that we are constantly being reformed by God’s love and so these positions are not written in stone: “Faithfulness requires favoring what best demonstrates God’s love and being willing to change when new perspectives or data emerge.” (p. 24)
On the banks of the Jordan River, John the Baptist called those who were serious about repentance to bear fruit in practical ways: Give away your extra coat. Don’t overcollect taxes. Don’t falsely accuse others. Be content.
As United Methodists, we continue to hear that call as we strive to do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God.
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