UMC 101: Doctrine and Discipline in Real Life

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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. 

UMC 101: Summon to Grace, Growth, and Love

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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.