Amazing Grace -

god working through all and in all

Sixth Sunday after Epiphany● February 11, 2024

Readings: Ephesians 4:1-6 (The Inclusive Bible) & 

Quote from John Wesley,  “Upon Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount” (sermon 3)

Rev. Jeff Wells © 2024

You can view the full worship video recording at:

https://youtu.be/c_tm65P6cMM?feature=shared

Spoiler alert: this is a sermon about theology. Of course, every sermon has a theological perspective behind it, but in this message, the theology is brought to the forefront.  

The distinctive tradition rooted in the theology of John Wesley and claimed by a large family of Wesleyan denominations, aligns well in many ways with the perspectives of contemporary open, relational, and process theology. The two theologies are not married, but they often kiss (as Psalm 85 says about love and righteousness). It is no wonder so many open, relational, and process theologians come from Wesleyan denominations. Outstanding examples are Monica Coleman, Karen Baker-Fletcher, Catherine Keller, Marjorie Suchocki, Mary Elizabeth Moore, John Cobb, and Thomas Jay Oord.

Of course, Wesley’s thinking could not possibly align exactly or in all ways with any contemporary theological perspective because he lived at a very different time and in quite different circumstances. While Wesley had an abiding interest in science, for example, he could not have envisioned the discoveries of Einsteinian and quantum physics, modern medicine, and so much more. And he could not have “anticipated the tidal wave of criticisms of Christianity in terms of its anti-Judaism, its patriarchal character, its Eurocentrism, its anthropocentrism, its colonialism, and so forth.” He could not have imagined womanist, feminist, Black and liberation theologies. And yet, Wesley was, in several ways, remarkably ahead of his time compared to many of theologians and religious leaders of his era.

Why should we care about the views of an 18th century preacher and theologian? Most importantly, it’s because the Church of the Village exists within the United Methodist Church, a Wesleyan denomination. How can we claim to be Methodist if we don’t teach and preach the aspects of Wesley’s theology many of us find meaningful in our own lives and practice of faith? I confess I am a theology nerd and I have remained a United Methodist, in spite of our denomination’s many failures and imperfections, because I have long been attracted to Wesley’s theological emphases – especially his focus on the interworking of God’s grace and human freedom, along with the focus on God’s justice and the necessity for human beings to grow in both personal and social holiness. 

So, today, I want to sharpen our focus on several ways that Wesleyan and Process-relational perspectives align on their understanding of God’s character and the working of God’s amazing grace. Wesley’s theological reflections on prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace are considered to be a key distinctive contribution of Methodism. Grace was very important to Wesley because he was very concerned with human salvation and believed that God offers salvation to every person. So he focused his teaching and preaching on salvation, with the goal of increasing holiness. By holiness, Wesley meant, primarily, learning to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves, including the neighbors we consider to be our enemies.  

Wesley took very seriously the affirmation in the Letter to the Ephesians that God “works through all and is within all.” In the quote we just heard from Wesley, he said not only, “God is in all things,” but that God’s intimate presence holds all things in being. God pervades and actuates the whole created universe. For Wesley, that meant specifically the Holy Spirit and God’s grace are at work in all things. Also, unlike most religious leaders at the time, he very explicitly said God’s grace is at work in all animals and in ecological systems, too, not just humans. This aligns closely with process theology. 

Open, relational, and process thinkers most often use terms like God call, leading, beckoning, lure, or offering of possibilities to describe what Wesley called grace. The names are different but the effect is the same. You have often heard me say that God is at work in us and through us every moment, offering us the best possibilities for co-creating the future and promoting the common good. I didn’t make that up. It was handed on to us by all those wise persons I just listed and, it turns out, from John Wesley, too. In a rather famous sermon, Wesley declared that God’s grace is not “given all at once, as if [we humans] had a stock laid up for many years; but from moment to moment.”

In the 18th century, it was common in Western Christianity to view God as a supernatural being existing outside of the creation. Instead, Wesley understood God as pervading every part of the universe, much like process-relational and open and relational theologies do. Therefore, instead of seeing God’s love and grace as an external force impacting humans, Wesley saw God working within us. 

Wesley despised the idea that God predestines whether human beings are “saved” or not.  He once wrote that this conception made God into an “omnipresent almighty tyrant.” He did refer to God often as almighty, but more often he preached an image of God as a “Loving Parent” and believed God gives room for humans to freely respond to God’s grace. Wesley did not understand salvation as otherworldly or focused on saving souls from eternal damnation. He was intent on salvation’s impact on human lives in this life. Wesley said:

“[S]alvation…is not what is frequently understood by that word, the going to heaven, eternal happiness. It is not the soul’s going to paradise…. It is not a blessing which lies on the other side of death…. [I]t is a present thing; a blessing which, through the free mercy of God, you are now in possession of.” 

That comes much closer than most of his contemporaries to the views of process and liberation theologies that focus on justice, abundance, thriving for humans and non-humans in the here and now.

Wesley never completely abandoned the concept of “original sin” – the idea that humans inherit the sin of Adam and Eve. Yet, he was very concerned that it should not diminish individual human responsibility. Eventually, he resolved this by declaring that “any inherited human guilt was universally canceled at birth, as one benefit of Christ’s redemption.” Wesley did believe that sin pervades every human faculty. Wesley believed the primary cause of sin was not something humans inherit, but rather the ways our thinking and actions are distorted by living in a world that is separated in so many ways from God’s empowering grace. Therefore, he repeatedly emphasized that every human being is constituted, imperfectly, from the joining of God’s grace and human freedom. This union allows human beings to receive God’s gracious offering and then to freely respond to it – sometimes embracing God’s lure, other times resisting God’s call. 

In this union, Wesley saw grace as primary. He believed that human sin is so pervasive and powerful, that humans need God’s help to choose to do anything good. He argued that free will itself is not a part of human nature, but is made available as a gift through grace. Wesley never gave up on the idea that humans have the ability to cooperate with the grace God continually offers. Many open and relational thinkers would say also that while our freedom to choose goodness, love, and justice is limited in various ways, it is always empowered by grace. John Cobb put it clearly this way: 

“The actual human being is an embodiment of human nature more or less enriched and transformed by grace. There are not two decisions, one made by nature and another made by grace, but the one decision of the one human being in whom grace is more or less effective. Without that grace, there could not even be a decision, but the presence of grace does not ensure that the decision will be good…. None of these decisions is made by a human nature deprived of grace.” 

The bottom line here is because God loves us and love does not control or coerce, grace offers us the freedom to choose something other than the best God has to offer us. Yet, we also have the freedom to choose love – to choose to grow in holiness. Wesley called this sanctification. God desires to see love, compassion, healing, liberation, beauty, and truth flourish in each of us and in the world. The more we choose those intentions, directions, and actions, the easier it is to respond to God’s momentary lures. Over time, they become habits of the heart, mind, and spirit. This is what Wesley called being perfected in love. A personal example that comes to mind is my practice of giving a dollar to anyone I see begging on the street. I have been trying to do this for many years. At first, I would sometimes feel judgmental. I tried to discern if the person was really in need or it was a scam. But over time, it has been come so easier. I don’t question motivations much anymore. I assume the person has a real need. So I never leave the house without a couple dollar bills in my front pocket. I no longer feel resentment about giving. Instead, I feel joy.

Wesley’s thought human nature is utterly corrupted by sin. He continued to use the phrase “total depravity” to describe the human condition. Process theology tends to view humans a bit more generously and focus on the beautiful ways God’s grace interacts with our freedom. In the best outcomes, humans are freed by grace from our inclination to do harm. We are freed to love – to love God, our neighbors (including our enemies), ourselves, and the Earth and the whole cosmos because we see it as all connected. 

What both Wesley and process theology assert at the most fundamental level is that God is love and God loves each and every one of us with a love that will not let us go. Nothing can separate us from that love and, in fact, that we have the freedom to expressed that love every moment of our lives through the grace, call, lure of God. I know that love and grace of God have always been at work in my life and I can identify some specific ways and times the effects of that have come into my consciousness. But I have found the more I have become aware that grace is at work in me every moment, the more frequently I sense God’s intimate presence in my being. I hope this understanding can help you, too, to have not knowledge of God, but the feeling of God’s amazing grace with you and in you and help you love God and know God’s unconditional love in return.

Copyright (c) 2024 - Rev. Jeff Wells
All rights reserved.