Issue 19 Single LivingBlog | Our challenge in Wesley’s words
Our challenge in Wesley’s words
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 06.06.19
It might be a work colleague, or the person who cuts your hair, or a relative at a family reunion. How do people react when you tell them you’re a preacher?
I like to picture John Wesley when he was cornered once by ‘a sceptic’. Strip away the quaint eighteenth century language and you can’t miss the patronising tone of the enquirer. This is Wesley under pressure.
‘I hear you preach to a great number of people every night and morning’ the cynic says. ‘Pray, what would you do with them? Whither would you lead them? What religion do you preach? What is it good for?’
Faced with these or similar questions, how should – or could – we react when we are challenged by family, friends, colleagues, congregants or members of the public? Or do we quickly change the subject out of embarrassment?
With this particular encounter we are in for a treat because we can actually listen in to how the great father of Methodism replied. I can’t help thinking Wesley is making a dig when he affirms, yes, ‘I do preach to as many as desire to hear every night and morning.’ As if to say that his calling actually costs him something as he gets out of bed every day and puts on his boots to go and tell people about Jesus.
To appreciate the flow and force of what Wesley said, read it uninterrupted as it was recorded in 1743*. Nothing could have prepared me for the way that he encapsulates the gospel so attractively and makes it so relevant to the people of his day – and ours.
You ask what I would do with them: I would make them virtuous and happy, easy in themselves and useful to others.
Whither would I lead them?
To heaven; to God the judge, the lover of all, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant.
What religion do I preach?
The religion of love; the law of kindness brought to light by the Gospel.
What is it good for?
To make all who receive it enjoy God and themselves, to make them like God; lovers of all; content in their lives, and crying out at their death, in calm assurance, ‘O grave, where is thy victory! Thanks be unto God, who giveth me the victory, through my Lord Jesus Christ.
I’ve added some emphasis here, but this is an otherwise unedited account, as best we know it.
What so impresses me by this response is the everyday nature of the message that Wesley preached. Strikingly there are no intellectual hoops to jump through. No set of propositions to affirm before someone can get the gospel.
