Text: Luke 3:15-18, 21-22, Book of Discipline pages 47-54
Every time we turn the pages from one calendar year to the next, it feels like a fresh start.
A new beginning.
A chance to revisit where we have been and where we are going.
A few years ago, we took time as a congregation during this season to look at the Bible with fresh eyes in our series, Bible 101.
And as so much of the future of the United Methodist Church is up in the air, this is a good chance to dive into who we say we are and what we say we are about as we figure out what is next for us as a people.
So… welcome to UMC 101!
Today, we start by the waters of the Jordan River with John the Baptist, calling people to repent and to change their hearts and lives.
This is such a great place to launch into our discussion of what it means to be United Methodist, because our forebearers in this tradition, like John, were not planning to create something entirely new.
John the Baptist understood himself as nothing more than a sign-post… pointing to the truths of his tradition, the promises of the prophets, and the movement of God all around him.
He was calling people back to their faith…
Calling them to reclaim what it meant to be the people of God and to bear fruit in the world…
And he was inviting them to look out for what God was stirring up in their midst… the Savior who had been promised.
In other words, John the Baptist wasn’t inventing a new religion.
In fact, the early Jesus followers weren’t trying to start a new religion either… they just wanted to answer God’s call to live their faith more deeply.
And our United Methodist denomination never set out to be a new tradition either.
As the Book of Discipline reminds us, the core of our faith is the same as other Christians (p.49-50):
- We hold and affirm our belief in the triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – just as our baptismal liturgy invites us to profess.
- We hold in common faith in the mystery of salvation… a precious gift… that redeems our brokenness, in and through Jesus Christ.
- We believe that God’s redemptive love is realized in our lives by the movement of the Holy Spirit – both in our personal experiences and in the community – the church.
- We see ourselves as part of Christ’s holy catholic church – catholic with a little ‘c’ meaning Christ’s universal church. The church is one in Christ Jesus – sharing the authority of scripture, creeds, liturgies, and ministries.
- We recognize that the reign of God has already begun, and just as we proclaimed all throughout this Advent season… it is not completely here yet, and that the church itself is a sign of that kingdom – but it is also continually being reformed so that it might be more like what God intends for us.
When John the Baptist stood on the banks of the Jordan, he didn’t have a new teaching to offer. He wasn’t trying to get people to believe something new. He simply wanted them to wash themselves clean of their past, to change their hearts, and to really and truly live out their faith in their daily lives.
If we look back to what John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist tradition, was trying to do, it isn’t all that different.
As our Book of Discipline reminds us, the early Methodists “tasks were to summon people to experience the justifying and sanctifying grace of God and encourage people to grow in the knowledge and love of God through the personal and corporate disciplines of the Christian life.”
They heard a call to “reform the nation, particularly the Church, and to spread scriptural holiness over the land.”
In other words… John Wesley and his early followers… like John the Baptist before them… were simply calling people to put faith and love into practice.
Over time, as we continued to focus on “practical divinity” – or the presence of God moving through our daily lives, the Wesleyan tradition began to take on it’s own unique emphases… or our own spin on those core Christian beliefs.
The first of these is that everything is grace. Grace is the act of creation, the revelation of Jesus Christ, and the restoration of all things… no matter how much we have failed. It is all undeserved and it is all an act of love.
In our United Methodist tradition, we talk about three different ways that grace is present in our lives.
There is prevenient grace… the grace that goes before us. Before we even know who God is, it is the spark of love present in our lives. It is one of the reasons that our tradition baptizes little babies… because God’s grace goes before us. Prevenient grace is the tug at our heart and the unconscious push in our lives to get us to the place where we are ready for God’s love to change us.
Then there is justifying grace… the grace that forgives and restores us. We sometimes talk about this as our conversion experience – whether it happens in a moment or over a lifetime – as our hearts and lives change by God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is the moment that John the Baptist was pointing to in our scripture for today… acknowledging our sins, turning our lives around, and then through the power of the Holy Spirit and the work of Jesus Christ, actually being transformed. He knew that simply repenting of your sins wasn’t enough. You needed the Holy Spirit to sift out the fruit – the grain – from the husks.
As we often talk about with our confirmands, simply accepting God’s redeeming grace is not the end of our journey. So much of our United Methodist beliefs stem from asking the question – what now?
Or maybe a better way of thinking about it is – what do you do with that grain of wheat that is your life? How do you plant it so that it might grow and nourish this world?
So our tradition focuses also on sanctifying grace… the grace that continues to nurture and transform and perfect us so that each day we are more filled with the love of God and our neighbor than we were the day before.
One of the perpetual conversations amongst different Christian traditions has to do with faith and good works. Because the Wesleyan tradition emphasizes that what we do in this world matters, we sometimes get accused of focusing on works… of trying to earn our salvation.
And God’s grace does call us to respond… but faith is the only response essential for salvation. To accept God’s prevenient, and justifying, and sanctifying grace in our lives.
The thing is, when you let the Holy Spirit work in you… there will be fruit! People will be able to see the good works that God is doing through you.
Related to this, personal salvation always involves mission and service. Love of God is always linked with love of neighbor, a passion for justice and renewal in the world. We’ll talk more next week about some of the ways our own personal piety is linked with social holiness – like two sides of the same coin.
Finally, we can’t do any of this on our own. United Methodists don’t believe that all you need is Jesus – you also need the Body of Christ. For it is in community that we grow and are equipped for our service in the world. For Wesley, there is no religion but social religion. So the nurture and mission of the church brings us together as a connection. Even our congregations don’t operate on our own, but reach out together to witness and seek love, peace, and justice in this world.
When John the Baptist called for people to be baptized, he wanted them to show that they were changing their hearts and lives and wanted God to forgive their sins. (Luke 3:3)
But it wasn’t just about them as individuals getting right with God.
It was so that all humanity would see God’s salvation. (Luke 3:6, Isaiah 40:5)
“What should we do?” the people cried out.
“If you have two coats, give one away” he replied.
Our faith, our salvation, is not just about what we are saved from.
It is about what we are saved for.
We were saved to be disciples, and to make disciples of Jesus Christ, for the transformation of this world.
Friends, through the love and grace of God, the Holy Spirit is ready to descend onto your life…
Whether you are just getting started in the faith and are still unsure of what your next steps are…
Or whether you are finally ready to accept the gift of God’s love…
Or whether you have long ago given your life to God and are ready to keep growing in faith…
God’s grace is here.
You are God’s beloved.
And the Holy Spirit is ready to wash over you…
To fill you…
To empower you…
To transform you…
So that this world might see and know and experience the good news of God.
Do you hear that summon?
Do you hear that call to experience the grace of God? To grow in the knowledge and love of God?
If you have never been baptized, I’d love to have a conversation with you about what that next step might look like in your life. Fill out one of our cards – either from the pew or online – and let me know about that nudge in your life.
For the rest of us, this is an opportunity to remember.
To recommit.
To respond.
So that we might not only be redeemed and restored, but so that we might reform the nation.
