4/26/13

A Wesley Catechism on "Real Presence"

A much-debated topic among Christians has been in what sense (if any) is the Risen Christ - and the body and blood of Christ - present to us in and through the bread and wine of Holy Communion? 

While many have been (wrongly) taught that Catholics believe in Real Presence and Protestants do not, the truth is that different Protestants have a diversity of views on the matter and some are quite a bit closer than others to Roman Catholicism (and to the Early Church) in affirming that we truly receive Christ's body and blood; so Martin Luther, the "Father of the Protestant Reformation" once said (in rejection of the "Radical Reformers"):
"Before I would have mere wine with the fanatics, I would rather receive sheer blood with the pope."

What is the Wesleyan or Methodist view of Real Presence?

A few months back I published A Wesley Catechism on Grace, that explains (in Q & A form) what saving grace is and how grace is received using entirely quotes from John Wesley (and some related Scripture).

So now seminarians and candidates for ordination take note: Here is John Wesley's theology of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper (Holy Communion, Eucharist), and the mysterious but real presence of the Body and Blood of Christ, in two short quotes:

What is a Sacrament?

"...a sacrament is 'an outward sign of inward grace, and a means whereby we recieve the same.'"

(Sermon XII, The Means of Grace, II.1)

What are the outward signs of Holy Communion and what is the inward grace we receive through those signs?

"...we learn that the design of this sacrament is, the continual remembrance of the death of Christ, by eating bread and drinking wine, which are the outward signs of the inward grace, the body and blood of Christ."

(Sermon CI, The Duty of Constant Communion, I.5)

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In these quotes, Wesley simply and deliberately re-states the Anglican doctrine, which itself is a restatement of the classical understanding going back at least to St. Augustine (usually cited from "De Catechizandis Rudibus"). The outward physical signs of bread and wine convey to the believer (see below) an inward reality or spiritual grace, namely, the body and blood of Christ.  This Early Church understanding, also held by the Anglican tradition, is likewise affirmed in Wesleyan theology.  We Methodist Christians have a very thick and rich understanding of the sacraments in our Wesleyan theology, though it is often missed in popular teaching. 

Our Wesleyan understanding of Holy Communion is also quite "catholic" in the broad sense of the word: it reflects the understanding of the Ancient Church that has been maintained across the universal church through the ages.  A review of some popular UMC curriculum suggests that many United Methodists are comfortable speaking about our receiving the "grace of the Passion" or even the "benefits of the body and blood" but fewer of us actually say what Wesley says: that the inward grace we receive through the outward signs is the Body and Blood of Christ (see also 1 Cor. 10:15-17), which also implies a union with his Risen Life as well as all the benefits of his passion.  It may be that we are more influenced by generic American Evangelicalism than by our Methodist theology and liturgy at this point.

The same definition of sacrament applies to baptism as well, though Wesley does not discuss it much: the outward sign is water, the inward grace is spiritual cleansing (Eph. 5:26), union with Christ's Risen Life (Rom. 6:1-5) and with his body, the Church or covenant people (1 Cor. 12:13).  With both sacraments the grace is given by God through the sacrament as a "means of grace" and received on our part by our faith in Christ (see Romans 5:2, Ephesians 2:8, etc.).  This is why the Anglican article on Communion (retained by Wesley as Article XVIII of our Methodist Articles of Religion) states that "the mean whereby the body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is faith."  The implications of that sentence are worth meditating upon: it affirms that, for those who have faith, it is the body of Christ that is received and eaten.

For more see the previous post: Wesley Catechism on Grace, and also Charles Wesley Eucharistic Meditation.
May God help us all to gratefully grasp the marvelous gifts that he so lovingly gives.

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4/25/13

The Funeral: A Sinner of your own redeeming

I've been musing on this post from The Catholicity and Covenant Blog, discussing the counter
-cultural significance of the language of sin in Margaret Thatcher's widely watched funeral.  The Anglican funeral litrugy speaks frankly of sin and judgment, which are not always emphasized at funerals.  I have been to funerals in which we spend all of our time discussing (exaggerating?) the virtues of the deceased as if we are trying to convince ourselves (or God?) that this one surely deserves eternal beatitude.

In the United Methodist Church's funeral liturgy, we beseech the Lord to acknowledge "a sinner of your own redeeming..."

Not too long ago I attended a funeral led by a pastor (who I believe would self-identify as "progressive") who substituted the word "child" for "sinner."  Thus,  "Lord acknowledge a child of your own redeeming," while also dropping the affirmation at the beginning of the liturgy (from Revelation) that Jesus Christ holds the keys to death and hell. No doubt his motivation was to be "pastoral," which for many seems to mean "never mention sin, judgment, or anything uncomfortable."

Yet it seems to me that it is actually the liturgy which takes the genuinely pastoral approach.  Despite what we are tempted to say at funerals, the survivors and loved ones all know that this person who is now dead was not perfect. No matter how carefully well-meaning clergy (and lectionary makers) have shielded the flock from ever thinking about Judgment or Hell, everyone has heard of it anyway...perhaps they read it in the Bible, or heard it in the Creeds.
It is quite natural that the loved ones are wondering, at least on some deep level, about the eternal future of the deceased. The prayer of the liturgy addresses this head on acknowledging both the sinfulness of the deceased AND the promise of redemption through Jesus Christ. In other words, it tells the truth, which includes the bad news of our sin but the far greater good news of Christ's salvation; this truth-telling in the funeral liturgy empowers us to confess the truth about our deceased loved one, and about ourselves as well.  Having acknowledged that this person does not, in fact, deserve eternal blessing, we can now learn to trust Christ's promise of redemption for their future and ours.  I don't know what could be more genuinely pastoral than that.

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4/20/13

A couple of big services this week

It is not every week that you'll see not one but two church services broadcast in full on numerous cable news channels.

This strange week, so filled with dramatic and sad events, has also seen a couple of high-profile and (inter)nationally televised church services.  The first of these was the funeral for former British Prime Minister, "the Iron Lady," Margaret Thatcher at St. Paul's (Anglican) Cathedral in London.  Much discussed as been her evangelical Christian grand-daughter Amanda's reading from Ephesians 6.  I thought the Bishop's blessing on Margaret herself toward the end was pretty awesome:

Go forth upon thy journey from this world, O Christian soul,
Go in the name of God the Father Almighty who created thee,
In the name of Jesus Christ his Son who suffered for thee,
In the name of the Holy Spirit who strengtheneth thee,
Aided by angels and archangels and all the armies of the heavenly host,
may thy portion this day be peace, and thy dwelling place in the heavenly Jerusalem.  

Naturally a Charles Wesley hymn made an appearance, the preacher gave a "shout out" to the importance of the Methodist movement for the UK (Thatcher was herself Methodist).  You can watch it in full here:


The other prominent service this week (see the video below) was the interfaith prayer service after the Boston attack; the service was held at the (Roman Catholic) Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston.  The leaders of the service were mostly Christian pastors, Jewish Rabbis, and politicians - with one Muslim Imam as well.  So there was something of a mix of messages: Trust in God, trust in Christ, trust in America; but the dominant tone for most of the service was generally Hebrew and Christian.  Indeed, as the choir sang: "Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing...?"
 
The President of the United States was in attendance with, and spoke to, the crowds gathering to mourn those injured and killed and to pray for our nation.  Some reports told of people standing in a line 10 blocks long to attend this service in Boston's cathedral.  No doubt those people have all sorts of beliefs and questions and motivations in their attending, but I think that the fact that people in our country do turn to the churches whenever deep questions and anxieties assail us represents a hopeful opportunity for the Church.  There is always the danger that a service like this will be felt by some to be "just enough religion" to make them feel better in the midst of tragedy, but my hope and prayer is that this will serve to invite those mourners to come and see, to discover the faith and the life that marks disciples of Jesus, and the joy and hope that comes with commitment to him.

May God have mercy upon us all and give us grace to turn away from everything false, towards Him who is Life.


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4/17/13

Evangelicals call for prayer and action on immigration

NPR ran a story earlier this week about the growing support among Evangelical Christians for immigration reform that allows currently illegal immigrants to remain in the country with a legal status, so long as they meet certain requirements.  The story is here: 



Evangelical church leaders are calling today, Wednesday, for prayer and action on immigration reform.  Today is a good day for Christians of all stripes to pray for reform and to tell others - including our elected officials - that we support compassionate immigration reform.

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4/15/13

Should churches start more schools?

Here is a post from the Ministry Matters blog by United Methodist Christian blogger Shane Raynor exploring why he thinks churches should be starting more private schools.  While Methodists and Wesleyans have been quite prodigious in founding colleges and universities, we have not been so zealous in starting primary, elementary, or high schools, certainly not like our Anglican and Roman Catholic brethren.  I believe part of the reason for this lack of interest in grade-schools is an historic support for public education among United Methodists as (in principle) the best way to promote solid education among all students of all demographic and socio-economic groups (whether public education across this country actually delivers on that promise is another question entirely). 

I am a product of both an excellent Roman Catholic elementary school and some very fine small-town public schools as well.  I know that in many communities the public schools are not only excellent but also friendly towards the Christian faith.  However on the national level, we must consider the current cultural realities:

- given that children will spend far far more time being shaped by (largely godless) television programming than they will spend in church activities; 
-given that family devotions, once the staple of Christian formation, now seems like an endangered species;
- given that our public education will more and more reflect and promote values that are simply contrary to the teachings of the Bible and the Churches - many worry about this when it comes to marriage, sex, and family, but also there is the concern about prophetic and Gospel "truth-telling" in an "aggresively tolerant" (don't ever say anything that might upset anyone) milieu;
- given that children will spend far more time in the school environment than at church, whether or not that school environment is hostile to the faith;
- given that private schools offer an excellent connection point for churches with the young families that are so often lacking in our church life;
- given that Christians virtually invented the education system as we know it and, in keeping with that heritage, still provide education that generally out-performs public education (especially in large cities)
...given all of these current cultural realities, I completely agree that - at least in many places - more church-sponsored schools would be a boon for the church and the future of the community as well.

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4/9/13

Parting with life...

I once saw an interview with (now retired) Archbishop Rowan Williams in which he talked about reciting the Nunc Dimittis during the Compline (Night Prayer) Liturgy; that particular part of the service, and indeed the whole of the Compline service, he said, was a way for Christians to practice laying down and yielding their lives into God's hands as we lay down and close our eyes each night; it is practice for that final day of life when we do fully surrender ourselves into God's hands.  He hoped for himself that, after much practice, he would finally be able to do it with faith and trust at the last.  The Anglican tradition knows well that the rhythms of prayer we habitually practice will shape who we become; in keeping with our Anglican liturgical heritage, the Nunc Dimitis is also included in the Night Praise and Prayer Service in The United Methodist Book of Worship.

There are different sorts of "giving up of life" for the Christian and indeed the call of Christ Jesus to all of us, "Come, take up your cross, follow me" has rightly been described as "a call to die."  That "death" might of course take the form of literal death because the believer has clung so closely to Christ - many martyrs are murdered each year for no other reason than their being baptized, their being faithful, their being followers of Christ.  Indeed today, at the dawn of the 21st Century, Christianity is the most persecuted religious community in the world.

Yet for most of us in the American Church, that "death" may come in other forms as we yield and surrender our own will to the will of our heavenly Father, in the likeness of, and in conformity to, the Lord Christ who "was obedient even to the point of death."  That may mean surrendering our time, or money, or energy to serve others precisely when such surrender means we must forego some want of our own.  The 'death to self' may mean giving attention to someone and listening long hours to them as an act of self-giving love, even if we do not think they have much of interest to say.  It may indeed mean suffering the loss of reputation or good opinion among others because we affirm Biblical teachings even where they run against the grain of our culture.  It may mean turning away from a desire or even a whole lifestyle that we would greatly prefer when God is in fact calling us to walk in another, more difficult, way (this is why the debates over sexual sin and God's true plan for our sexual expression are, in my mind, striking near the core of what it means to live as a Christian; I do not see how any of us, or any church body, can walk far with the Lord if our own desires are guiding us instead of his revealed will and his call for us to come and die to ourselves and follow him).

Upon the solid truth of Resurrection, we trust that death with Christ ultimately leads to truest life.  Perhaps you have found that some of those who seem most fully alive - whose spirit's are full or joy and peace and even celebration - are precisely those who have given themselves most fully in surrender to the One for whom we all were made, and in whose name alone we can find true life, the One who says to all who will listen, "I am the way, the Truth, and the Life..." (John 14:6)

I've been meditating on this for some days not only because of the recent Holy Week observances, but also because of a fantasy novel I am reading called The Paradise War by Stephen Lawhead.  Lawhead (himself a Christian believer and one-time seminarian) writes fantasy and historical fiction, much of it dealing with Ancient Celtic culture.  Much of Lawhead's work is saturated with a Christian worldview but (thanks be to God) is not to be found in the "Christian fiction" section of the local bookstore, but rather in "regular" the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section.  Like Tolkien, Lewis, and even Bono, Lawhead is not so much interested in contributing to a "Christian (sub)culture" but simply to the larger culture, in a way that points (sometimes subtly, sometimes quite explicitly) to the Living Christ.  I believe it is a true blessing when "popular" fiction can indeed stir one's faith because a fellow believer has used his gifts and talents for the Lord, in a way that may be seen of others, without having to put a "Christian" label upon it (the precise point at which many outside the faith will stop paying attention).

Here is the conversation between Lewis (the narrator, an Oxford student who becomes a warrior after tumbling into an ancient Celtic world) and Scatha (a trainer of new warriors) about Lewis' fears that got me to thinking about some of this:

Scatha stopped walking and turned to me.  "Is life so piteous where you come from that you must cling to it so?"
Piteous?  Certainly she had it backwards.  But then, the language still threw me sometimes.  "I do not understand," I confessed.
"It is the poor man who clenches so tightly to the gold he is given - for fear of losing it.  The man of wealth spends his gold freely to accomplish his will in the world.  It is the same with life."
Suddenly ashamed of my conspicuous poverty, I lowered my eyes.  But Scatha placed a hand beneath my chin and raised my head.  "Cling too tightly to your life and you will lose it, my reluctant warrior.  You must become the master of your life, not its slave."


 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
-The Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 16:25, ESV)

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