"There will be special speakers next Sunday," the pastor announced at Foothills God's Missionary Church one week ago. No one seemed to know who they would be, but Sunday morning, as our family was in attendance with Grandpa Lucas as his guests for his 90th birthday, we all found out!
The new young assistant pastor, Josiah England, welcomed everyone and explained that May 24th is not only Pentecost Sunday, (with Ralph Gault reading the call to worship from Acts 2:1-4) but it is also Aldersgate Day. This date in 1738 was the day when John Wesley, discouraged with the lack of acceptance of the gospel by those he was trying to preach to among his Anglican brothers, reluctantly attended a Moravian meetinghouse on Aldersgate Street in London. There, while someone read from Martin Luther's Preface to the Epistle to the Romans, Wesley felt, as he described in his journal, "his heart strangely warmed."
He wrote, "I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."
Josiah explained how this conversion experience changed John Wesley's life and ministry, and how he became the founder of Methodism and one of the heroes of church history.
Josiah then told about how John's younger brother Charles (five years younger, to be exact, and the youngest surviving son of his parents who had 19 children all together) became a prolific hymn writer and cofounder of the Methodist church movement. He wrote over 6500 hymns!
Upon these words, Josiah introduced the Reverend Charles Wesley, inviting him to come to the pulpit to lead the singing of his own hymns.
We sang "Love Divine," "Arise, My Soul Arise," and "O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing," led by Charles Wesley with powdered and curled hair and the Anglican attire of a priest--black robe, white collar, and all!
Then Charles introduced his brother John Wesley, who had slipped away during prayer and donned his Anglican robe and long, rolled hair.
The two "brothers" traded places at the pulpit, and John Wesley (i. e. Josiah) preached John Wesley's famous sermon on Christian perfection.
He preached about what Christian "perfection" is NOT, and what it IS, according to the Bible, for God will not command us to be something that He is not able to help us be.
When He said, "Be holy," and "Be perfect," He must have meant that we could be, but what exactly does that mean?
Do we go around with big heads claiming to be perfect?
I found it most fascinating that John Wesley's personal doctrine allowed for a great many mistakes and infirmities in believers' lives, because ever since the Fall of Adam, not only is our nature fallen and depraved until cleansed by the blood of Jesus, but our mental judgment is clouded and bent. Due to our warped understanding and knowledge, we often say, think, do, and even intend wrong things, Wesley explained. Being made holy by the blood of Christ does not make us perfect in judgment or mental or emotional ability.
Some people in our former circles held up the idea of perfection so high that almost no one could attain it, although it was preached that if we did not attain it, we would not make it to heaven.
And how does that leave most of us poor humans feeling but despair and hopelessness?
John Wesley himself in no way preached perfection so high that no one could attain it, but simply preached Christian perfection as loving God with all one's heart, soul, mind and strength, and loving one's neighbor as oneself, a perfect love that casts out fear.
After service it was a delight to watch the "Wesleys" greet people, including Jonathan's dad and Ruth, and to see "John Wesley" helping to wheel an old friend out to her car in her wheel chair. I am very impressed with the new assistant pastor. I heard his mother speak at a women's retreat several years ago in western Colorado and was very impressed with her as well. Some of our family got to visit with Josiah's girlfriend after the service.
Daddy Lucas decided that he wanted a picture with "John and Charles Wesley"! I suppose we could have, too, but we didn't want to keep the pastors too long in the back. Already we were meeting another visiting lady from Georgia who was visiting local relatives, and with whom we'd made arrangements to meet at the church since she had a box of some things for us to take back to another missionary in SD. She loved the service as well. What a delight that all of these things happened on the day we were visiting Foothills Gods Missionary Church to be with Daddy Lucas on his 90th birthday!
After the service, Crystal and Tim, who had come to service with us, went with us along with Daddy and Ruth to visit the grave of Mama Lucas.
It was, after all, Memorial Day.
In the middle of all the events of the weekend, I hadn't thought to get flowers.
But the best flowers anyway were loving thoughts and memories and desires to meet Mama in heaven some sweet day.
None of us knew which of us are going to meet Mama again first, but we know that God will be faithful to us.
And just as we were about to part ways, I handed Daddy Lucas a big envelope with an 8x10 and 4x6 photos of his family who had celebrated with him Friday evening.
After much technical trouble and tribulation, Jonathan had managed to order the prints from 1-hour photo at Falcon Walmart.
And so, in lieu of flowers, there was a bouquet of family photos,
and I think an angel smiled.
No comments:
Post a Comment