No Holiness but Social Holiness

November 8, 2020 • Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost
Reading: James 2:1-8, 14-18 (recommended: The Message)
Pastor Jeff Wells

What is faith? Some people define it solely by what they believe about God or Jesus or  Allah, or science, or climate change. Faith can also be defined as that in which we put our trust. Now, I am sure you have all heard someone you know and even people you love say things like, “I don’t think we should mix religion and politics.” But, in truth, what we believe or what we put our trust in is deeply connected to politics, to economics, to ethical practices, and really to virtually every aspect of our lives.

The author of the Letter of James made this point powerfully and repeatedly, not only in this passage but elsewhere in the letter. He used concrete examples that resonate with us. My favorite is, “If you see a hungry person and concern yourself only with their spiritual, but not their physical need, then you show that your faith or trust is in something other than God.” Part of the reason a lot of us identify strongly with this sentiment in James is that it was built into Methodism from the beginning. Methodism was a movement for spiritual renewal within the Church of England, but early Methodists didn’t just talk the talk, they walked the walk. Many of them, including Wesley, opposed the slave trade, smuggling, cruel treatment of prisoners, and the exploitation of workers and the poor. The Church of the Village is grounded in that tradition of radical social concern. Such concern has everything to do with our communal life, spirituality, what we believe and where we put our trust.

The title of my message this morning comes from John Wesley. In a preface he wrote in 1739 for a volume titled, Hymns and Sacred Poems, Wesley said this:

“Solitary religion is not to be found [in the Gospel accounts of Jesus]. ‘Holy Solitaries’ is a phrase no more consistent with the gospel than Holy Adulterers. The gospel of Christ knows of no religion, but social; no holiness but social holiness. Faith working by love, is the length and breadth and depth and height of Christian perfection.” 

Now, it is true that this quote has often been misinterpreted. In this instance, Wesley wasn’t saying that piety or holiness was necessarily connected to social concerns. His point was that you cannot be a follower of Jesus on your own. We have to practice our holiness and hold one another accountable together in community. That’s what he meant by “social holiness.” He built the movement around that idea, dividing up supporters in small groups called classes. 

There’s no such thing as a solitary follower of Jesus. Yet, if you look at the whole body of Wesley’s writings, work, and ministry, he clearly felt strongly that faith and works cannot be separated. He agreed with another well-known passage in the Letter of James that declares, “Faith without works is dead.” So, the phrase, “No holiness but social holiness,” can be invested with this other meaning. You can’t be a solitary follower and faith and works are integrated. Not only are both of those things true, but they are also integral to each other and they need to be lived out together.

There was a time when much of the Methodist movement in the U.S. lost that focus and understanding that were inherited from the early Methodist movement. For much of the 1800s, Wesleyanism shifted to an emphasis on personal over communal piety and on words over actions. However, in the post-Civil War period and especially in the 1880s with the rise of the Social Gospel movement, many Methodists, along with those in other denominations, began to be transformed in the crucible of rapid industrialization, horrible poverty, the exploitation of farmers and workers, and hideous abuses of Black people, women and children, and immigrants that characterized “Gilded Age” capitalism. The early year of the 1900s saw this movement bear fruit in reform legislation and regulations to address the worst of those abuses.

It was in this period of “progressivism” and muckraking journalism that a small group of Methodist clergy met in 1907 to form an organization to act as a prophetic voice for social justice within the Methodist church. They called it the Methodist Federation for Social Service, which was later renamed the Methodist Federation for Social Action. They determined to write a statement of principles that would strongly advocate for social change around a host of justice concerns focused on industrialism. This small group was able to convince the 1908 General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church (North) to adopt this as the church’s first “Social Creed,” as it was called. In December of that same year, an expanded version was adopted by the newly-formed Federal Council of Churches. That was followed by several other denominations adopting their own versions. 

The Social Creed of 1908 included just 11 principles. It began with this statement, “We deem it the duty of all Christian people to concern themselves directly with certain practical industrial problems.” It advocated for protection of workers from occupational diseases, dangerous machinery, and other risks. It called for the abolition of child labor, for an end to sweat shops, for a six-day work week with reduced hours per day, and for a living wage in every industry, among other things. This movement among the churches, along with the rapid growth and increased power of the labor movement, helped force the adoption of reforms like the 8-hour day and the Social Security retirement program in the first half of the 20th century.

Some Methodists had certainly been active around social justice concerns before this – especially in the abolitionist movement before the Civil War and in the supporting the Freedmen’s Bureau and Radical Reconstruction and voting rights after the Civil War. Yet, the Social Creed was the first codification for Methodists in the U.S. of the principles laid down in the Letter of James. The church was declaring that people of faith have to put our beliefs and our “God-talk” into concrete action for the transformation of the world.

Between 1908 and 1964, the Social Creed grew from 20 lines of text to 300 lines. Then, with the merger that created the United Methodist Church in 1968, a completely new document was adopted and renamed, The Social Principles. The Social Principles continue to evolve, with additions and revisions by the General Conference every four years. As you might imagine, the topics included in the Social Principles are shaped by the concerns that rise to the fore in the country at different times. For example, a section titled, “The Natural World,” was added at the 1972 General Conference. That was just two years after the first Earth Day demonstrations and passage of the Clean Air Act – the first major Federal legislation to fight pollution. 

Of course, we live in a very divided country and we are also part of a very divided denomination. So, in that same General Conference, progressives proposed to add to the Social Principles this sentence, “Homosexuals no less than heterosexuals are persons of sacred worth, who need the ministry and guidance of the church in their struggles for human fulfillment.” Again, this came just three years after the Stonewall Rebellion and in the midst of a rapidly-growing movement for lesbian and gay rights. However, more conservative delegates were able pass an infamous amendment to that sentence that read, “we do not condone the practice of homosexuality and consider this practice incompatible with Christian teaching.” There is no other sentence in the Social Principles that has created so much disagreement and consternation and has done so for decades.  

There is much I agree with in The Social Principles. There are also positions I think are not taken strongly enough. There are positions with which I adamantly disagree. Still, on the whole, The Social Principles is a remarkable document and no other denomination has anything quite like it. The Social Principles are not “church law,” but are described as a set of guidelines for discernment for Methodists and their congregations. Their scope has greatly expanded. Did you know that The Social Principles oppose the death penalty and for-profit prisons, and advocates for restorative justice rather than retribution? The Social Principles takes positions on neo-colonialism, the increasing income and wealth inequities, and dozens of other concerns. 

The draft Social Principles 2020 has a global focus and was written by a global team. It is 39 single-spaced pages divided into four sections: The Community of All Creation, The Economic Community, The Social Community, and the Political Community. The hope of the Worship Vision Team is to have worship series on each of those sections eventually.

Next Sunday, Pastor Alexis will introduce our worship series on the first section, “The Community of All Creation,” which will focus on faith and care for all living creatures and the ecological systems they inhabit.   

So, I confess I am a bit of a Social Principles nerd. Because I have been a social justice activist my whole life, I was very excited to discover The Social Principles. It was one of the things that attracted me most to Methodism when my faith was reawakened in the late 1990s. The year I graduated from seminary and was commissioned as a pastor, I was elected chair of the Conference Board of Church and Society. That Board has the primary responsibility in each Annual Conference for promoting and educating around the Social Principles, advocating around the concerns they address, and encouraging local churches to put their faith into action. I have taught the Social Principles many times in District and local church gatherings. 

I think The Social Principles are an incredibly valuable guide for the church. Yet, as the Letter of James asks pointedly, “Do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it?” And still, far too many congregations, clergy, and lay persons want to avoid the challenge of connecting their words and their actions around social concerns and justice. 

Our experience of the last four years and of the election results this week have shown us  just how important is the teaching that faith and works fit hand in glove. We try to live that principle every day in our community of the Church of the Village. I feel so privileged to serve a community that strives to act in ways that build love, justice, and hope. It is an aspect of our community that attracts so many people. We love a God who makes the dispossessed, the poor, the oppressed, the exploited, and abused the first citizens of the kin-dom. And God calls us to turn the world upside down so that the first shall be last and the last shall be first. As the song says that we will sing in a few minutes: What Does God Require of us? Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. May it always be so.

(c) 2020 Jeff Wells
All rights reserved.

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