L. Dwight Turner
Personally, I came to a professional and experiential understanding of the importance and effectiveness of viewing social ills from a holistic perspective when I worked as Program Services Director for a large, innovative, and ambitious initiative to address the problem of homelessness in metropolitan Dade County, Florida. I worked in this program in the mid-1990s and, in retrospect, I can only wish that I had this Foundational Document in my possession at that time.
Homelessness in general and the growing plight of homeless families in particular do not exist in isolation but instead, have their being within the fabric of an interrelated whole, just as the Council of Bishops explain. Homeless families are exposed to the extreme forms of poverty and economic deprivation. This often leads to educational problems with the children due to lack of funds to transport the children to school, purchase needed supplies, and also from the stark realities of attempting to do homework while living on the streets. I can personally attest to how heart-wrenching an experience it is to see a 10-year-old child, more than likely hungry, sitting under a streetlight doing her math homework while a drug deal is going down not more than 50 yards up the sidewalk.
It goes without saying that homeless families, especially the children, suffer from nutritional deficiencies and often develop significant health issues as a result. Health problems also frequently emerge from living on the streets, exposed to the elements. Guns and violence are also part of the everyday fabric of life for the homeless.
These factors just mentioned point to the interrelated aspects of the problems of homelessness, poverty, health, and violence. And just as these issues are interrelated, any proposed solutions to any one of these social maladies must be developed and initiated in an interdependent, holistic context with strategies to address the other issues simultaneously.
The Council of Bishops, in an insightful section of the document, point out that the “lethal combination” of poverty, environmental degradation, and violence threatens all creation, but often have their most devastating impact on minority groups and/or other vulnerable populations such as Native Americans who, paradoxically, are uniquely qualified to share their traditional wisdom regarding bringing salvation and balance to the planet. Another vulnerable group that experiences consistently negative impact from this trio of social ills is women. Alongside women is another highly vulnerable group, perhaps the most vulnerable, children.
It is women who suffer most from poverty and disease, environmental degradation, and weapons and violence. About 70% of the world’s poor are women and children, many living in areas where housing is marginal and daily living strenuous. Because of this women and children pay a hefty price when caught in natural disaster exacerbated by climate change. Women traditionally shoulder the burden of household food production both in Africa and Asia, while men may tend to focus on growing cash crops or migrate to cities to find paid work. Yet women own a tiny percentage of the world’s farmland – some say as little as 1%.
I witnessed firsthand the reality of several points made by the Council of Bishops in the above quotation. Living in Miami in as I did in 1983-1998, few people will forget the date August 24, 1992. In the early morning hours of the fateful day, Hurricane Andrew ploughed into Dade County carrying Category 5 winds. The south end of the county bore the brunt of the storm and many people were left homeless. Writing and receiving a FEMA grant, I helped set up and implement a program that dealt with helping storm victims slowly get their lives back together. I can say without reservation that it was the women and children who suffered most during those difficult months and years following Andrew.
Six years later and halfway around the world, I witnessed a similar trend in China. Arriving in the Middle Kingdom in the summer of 1998, I worked in Anhui Province, which is one of the poorest areas in the now-prosperous Eastern section of China. The poverty was worsened when massive flooding took place on the famous Chang Jiang (Yangtze River). Once again, it was the women and children in the impacted areas, already mired in deep poverty, who suffered the most in the aftermath of the flood waters. In this situation the interrelated aspects of poverty, environmental degradation, and disease was evident everywhere one looked. And yes, as stress levels rose, so did the incidence of violence.
The Foundation Document gos on to describe how extreme forms of poverty and environmental degradation in developing countries put women and children at further risk to violent acts such as rape and sexual slavery. In certain countries women are often attacked and raped while fetching firewood or clean water. Young girls are often kidnapped while carrying out these same duties of daily necessity. The kidnapped girls are then sold into sexual slavery. Making this situation even more untenable is the fact that in most parts of the developing world, women are denied access to positions of power and responsibility. When it comes to the issues that impact their well-being, all too often in far too many places women have no voice in the decision making process. Without a doubt, women and children are by far the most vulnerable people in the global family.
The Council of Bishops readily acknowledges our complicity in the etiology and continuation of social injustice and economic inequities in the global system. The Foundation Document candidly states:
Those of us in the Global North consume more, waste more, and militarize more …….We in the North must take responsibility for the environmental damage we have caused, what many now call our “environmental or ecological debt.”
In addition to discussing our culpability in many of these matters of injustice, the Foundation document also stresses our reluctance to use the gifts God has bestowed upon us for the betterment of humankind.
We join together in acknowledging that we have resources and gifts that we hide under bushel baskets (Matt. 5:15) instead of utilizing them for the glory of God and to the benefit of God’s good earth. We have opportunities for charity and for justice-making that we do not exercise…..At times we all fall prey to despair, losing sight of God’s presence with us and failing to hear God’s call to us. We ask God’s help and grace as we turn away from harmful practices and commit ourselves to God’s purpose of renewal for all.
Recognizing the absolute necessity of God’s power to alter the course we have been on, the Council of Bishops “with open hears” offers this prayer:
Make us wise as to how fragile and dependent and connected we are, that in the indulgence in the destruction of others, we inevitably destroy ourselves.
Give us the grace to be thankful for what we have, and the willingness to share.
As your church laborers in the world, cause it to be more interested in your reign of righteousness than in its own survival, so that the world may grow into a kinder, gentler, safer place in which to live.
By recognizing the reality of our interconnectivity with all of creation, the Council of Bishops touches upon a theme that must rise to the forefront of our united concerns as the Body of Christ in this new century. This theme is defined by the twin concepts of interconnectivity and interdependence. Once we recognize the ramifications of these issues we come to understand that our world now needs more than compassion; it requires radical compassion. Before further examination of the Council of Bishops’ Foundation document, let us take a brief side road and examine this critical concept.
Jesus Christ was not a man of compassion; he was a man of radical compassion. From his voluntary mission to this broken world, to his mysterious ascension back into the heavenly realm, there was no theme he stressed more in both word and deed. From his opening salvo quoting Isaiah about bringing release to the captives and good news to the poor, to his words of grace uttered on the cross, “forgive them for they know not what they do,” Jesus exemplified a compassion far beyond what the world had seen before. Indeed, it was and is a radical compassion.
Jesus’ stories about the Prodigal, the Good Samaritan, and his treatment of the woman caught in adultery all point to the need for a compassion that transcends the normal boundaries defined by contemporary culture, then and now. Indeed, it was and is a radical compassion.
Five-hundred years before Jesus, another prophet of radical compassion graced our world. Gautama Buddha was an example of grace and perfect love incarnate. After finding his awakening under the Bodhi tree, the Buddha went about spreading the truth that he had discovered, a truth that when astutely applied to life, could liberate beings from endless rounds of suffering. Just as with Jesus who would come later, Buddha taught through sermons, informal talks, parables, and above all, his actions.
Just as Christ would later set an example for his disciples to follow, the Buddha also would serve as the divine prototype for the essence of “metta,” or “loving-kindness.” In Metta, there is an internal manifestation and an external manifestation. Internally, increasing feelings of loving kindness give rise to a vital sense of compassion that is also based on the realization of the oneness of all things. These internal states of loving kindness and compassion result in the external manifestation, which is proactive service to the world.
This eventually gave rise to the Mahayana Buddhist ideal of the Bodhisattva. On a theoretical level, one can accurately say that the ultimate goal of the Bodhisattva is enlightenment and to some extent this is true. However, on a highly practical level, the Bodhisattva’s highest goal is selfless service. Personal enlightenment takes a back seat to serving others, spiritually and materially. Perhaps no where in the sacred writings of the world is this reality presented so directly as in the 13th Chapter of the Gospel of John.
Radical compassion is compassion with legs; radical compassion is a verb. Just as the Bible tells us in the Letter of James that faith without works is dead, also, compassion without concomitant action is a lifeless phenomenon. Many sincere aspirants have the mistaken notion that the ultimate goal of the spiritual path is enlightenment. Although a sincere desire for motivation is one of our most treasured possessions, it is actually penultimate. The real aim of the spiritual journey is simply this – Sacred Service. All that we do is dedicated to the greatest good of all beings in all the worlds. Our gain is their gain, our loss is their loss, our advancement is their advancement, and it is to this sacred reality that we offer our benedictions at the end of our times of meditation and prayer.
In the Christian faith especially, personal enlightenment takes a back seat to serving others, spiritually and materially. Perhaps no where in the sacred writings of the world is this reality presented so directly as in the 13th Chapter of the Gospel of John.
Imagine for a moment that you are one of Jesus’ twelve disciples and you, your band of rag tag friends, and the Master arrive at the Upper Room after a long, tedious, dusty day going about your business. You sit for a moment to catch your breath and unwind a few moments before you go wash up for the evening meal. You close your eyes for a few minutes, only to feel something or someone taking off your sandals. And to your utter disbelief, kneeling in front of you is the Master Jesus with a basin and a towel. Incredible….
The Master taught his disciples, and all of us who have read of this amazing episode, a clear and concise example of the essence of spirituality: selfless service with a heart of humility. If only more of us, especially those who claim to be followers of Jesus, would take this lesson to heart, our world would have much less pain.
The Kingdom of God is a divine realm of proactive compassion. This is the message that Jesus came to deliver and through his actions as well as his words, he delivered it consistently. In all that he did and he said, Jesus revealed to us the nature of God. This incarnational revelation was hinted at in the Master’s magnificent prayer in John 17. In the 21st verse the Master says:
I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one – as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.
In the Bible’s most well known verse, John 3:16, it is stated that for God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. (NLT)
Now, to make this even clearer, let’s look at one more verse in John 17. In verse three John records:
And this is the way to have eternal life, to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth. (NLT)
Putting all this together, Jesus gave us a powerful but very real theology in this prayer and his disciple, John, fully caught its significance by saying in 3:16 that God loved the world so much that he sent his Son to save it. On God’s part, this was a perfect example of “proactive compassion” or what we often call “grace.” Motivated by the purest form of love, God was moved to have compassion on we fallen creatures, even in our blind ignorance, and he literally gave that compassion flesh by sending us the Master Jesus.
In order for compassion to become more than just a nice idea or a sentimental feeling, it must flow out of the internalized wisdom of the ages, particularly as related to the reality of “interconnectivity.” The idea of interconnectivity, now confirmed by the field of quantum physics, has been around for many centuries and is at the core of interspiritual mysticism, that one aspect of world religion that seems to transcend culture, time, and especially theology. It is a mystical connectedness that promotes compassion and engaged action to make the world a better place for all who dwell here. In essence, it is a deep wisdom that gives flesh to grace. The great spiritual writer Kahil Gibran spoke of this interconnected reality when he said:
Your neighbor is your other self dwelling behind a wall. In understanding, all walls shall fall down. Who knows but that your neighbor is your better self wearing another body? See that you love him as you would yourself. He too is a manifestation of the Most High.
In India, for example, we have the story of Indra’s Net, which is strung throughout the universe with a precious jewel at the places where the cords of the net intersect. These jewels, in turn, reflect all of the other jewels. Similar to the modern discovery of the hologram, the image of Indra’s Net is filled with symbolic wisdom depicting the interconnectivity of all that is. Gary Zukav, in his groundbreaking book entitled, The Dancing Wu Li Masters tell us:
…the philosophical implications of quantum mechanics is that all things in our universe (including us) that appears to exist independently are actually parts of one all-encompassing organic pattern, and that no parts of that pattern are ever really separate from it or from each other.
In the Christian tradition, the writings of the great mystic teachers echo these same truths, often in symbolic and metaphorical ways. Julian of Norwich especially comes to mind as well as Hildegard of Bingen and Madame Guyon. The writings of Saint Theresa of Avila and the life and work of St. Francis also point to the interconnectivity of all life and the necessity of having a heart of radical compassion.
The great Romantic poets like William Wordsworth and Percy B. Shelley have voices that ring loudly with the sense of the interrelated aspects of the natural world and their American counterparts, the Transcendentalists, in the writings of Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman, also echo this theme of divine connectivity. And then there is the work of that master of the arcane, William Blake who spoke of the mystic’s ability:
To see a World in a grain of sand,
And Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour.
The world that we interact with each day only appears to be solid. In point of fact, it is an intricate dance of sub-atomic waves and particles that obey none of the traditional or expected moves of predictable choreography. At its core level, our apparently solid, material world is less like classical music and more like jazz. Just when we think we have a handle on how things are, these very things change, morphing into something totally unexpected and often totally mysterious. Someone wise, I forget who, once said the life is not a riddle to be solved but a mystery to be lived. How true, and the sooner a person grasps this fundamental truth, the less frustration will appear in his or her life.
It is not my intention to travel too far down this road of quantum physics at this juncture. Suffice to say that contemporary science is increasingly coming to grasp the same fundamental truths that mystics and shamans have voiced for many centuries. Simply put: Everything is interrelated and interdependent and when one part is affected by something, at a very core level, every other part is also impacted.
In teaching about the interrelated aspect of the universe, I often use a simple analogy that explains these principles in a basic way. I use the example of raisin Jell-o. Imagine you have concocted a delicious tub or raisin Jell-o. Choose your favorite flavor if you like. The raisins are the important thing, here. Now, what happens when you take your index finger and thump one of the raisins? All the raisins move. Crude as this metaphor is, it makes the point that all the raisins in the bowl are connected and if one raisin moves, they all move. This is what the mystics, and the quantum physicists, are talking about when they speak of interconnectivity.
Christian writer and teacher Elizabeth Elliot, looking at God’s wondrous creation with both attentiveness and wisdom, grasps the profundity of this theme of interconnectedness and how it illustrates a foundation of commonality between humans and other species in God’s creation:
The closer one comes to the center of things, the better able he is to observe the connections. Everything created is connected, for everything is produced by the same mind, the same love, and is dependent on the same Creator. He who masterminded the universe, the Lord God Omnipotent, is the One who called the stars into being, commanded light, spoke the Word that brought about the existence of time and space and every form of matter: salt and stone, rose and redwood, feather and fur and fin and flesh. The titmouse and the turkey answer to Him. The sheep, the pig, and the finch are His, at His disposal, possessed and known by Him…We too are created, owned, possessed, known.
As the church moves into the second decade of the 21st Century it has already become apparent that great changes are in the wind. I feel some of these changes are connected with an increased understanding of how God’s magnificent creation is put together in this incredible holographic manner in which each part contains the totality of the whole and every aspect of his world exists in an interdependent relationship with every other part. This is no romantic sentimentalism I am speaking of. Instead, it is a living, vibrant reality that, when one takes it to heart, changes everything. For the church, the message of the gospel become less of “let me show you the way,” and more of “What do you need?”
This move toward proactive compassion is a move of grace. Perhaps you are not accustomed to looking at grace that way, but grace is what we are dealing with. As stated earlier, a major part of Christ’s incarnation and our ongoing mission is to give flesh to grace. Caroline Myss makes this cogent observation in her book, Invisible Acts of Power:
What really happens inside you when you respond to someone in need? Why do some people jump out of their seats to help another person, while others look the other way? No doubt, some people have been taught to be kind and others may be naturally thoughtful. But I think something greater than compassion or good manners is at work, something beyond the motivation of the strong to help the weak or the wealthy to help the poor. I think it is the invisible power of grace, moving between the open hearts of give and receiver. The action itself, the lifting of a heavy piece of luggage or the drink of water offered to the thirsty man, may be small. But the energy that is channeled through that action is the high-voltage current of grace. It contains the power to renew someone’s faith in himself. It even has the power to save a life.
It should not be too difficult of an intellectual jump to see why this concept of interrelated reality should lead to a true and radical sense of compassion. What happens to me in the ultimate sense, happens to you and vice versa. When a child dies of hunger or disease in a poverty stricken nation, some part of each of us dies. We may not feel it, understand it, or even recognize it. Still, it is a fundamental spiritual and quantum truth. It is wise to remember the words of the 17th Century poet John Donne as he spoke of the custom of the time which involved ringing the town’s bell whenever someone died:
Any man’s death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind;
Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
The Council of Bishops state that with open hearts, we respond to God’s grace and with open hands we move out into our interdependent, interconnected world to do the work that we have been called to do. Returning to Wesley’s metaphor of breathing, we breathe in God’s grace and, in turn, we breathe out that grace by doing his work in the world. It has been my experience that this process of responding to God’s freely given grace by engaging in selfless Christian service is to truly live a life that is “inspired.”
Although each of us is called to a personal vision and purpose in the unfolding of God’s divine plan of renewal and restoration, there are also universal callings that are incumbent upon anyone who dares lay claim to the title, “Christian.” With discipleship comes responsibility and we meet that responsibility “with open hands.” The Foundation Document describes the process quite cogently:
We open our hearts to receive God’s grace, and we open our hands in response, to do the work God calls us to do.
The document goes on to describe this process of inspired work in establishing God’s kingdom as a variation of the question posed to Jesus many times, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25). As Christians we must always carry the Master’s answer in our hearts and equally important, incarnate his answer in our actions:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt. 22: 37-39).
The Foundation Document list four ways in which we can love God:
We love God by paying attention to God’s creation.
We love God and neighbors by practicing compassionate respect.
We love God and neighbors by changing our behavior.
We love God and neighbors by challenging those who do harm.
Although our culture as a whole seems to have become increasingly cynical and callous, we are not yet blind to the power of love in action. In the century just ended we had numerous examples of the power of divine love to bring about major transformations in the world – great changes that many thought impossible. As Christians, we especially cannot allow ourselves to become twisted, jaded, and insensitive. Above all, we must maintain hope. When we feel tempted to believe that the kind of love Christ demands is impossible, or that the world is beyond renewal and restoration, we can bring before us the images of Mahatmas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Mother Teresa. Where there is love, there is power.
In many places, we do not have to look very far to find the power of love at work. In ways both great and small, the kind of love Christ spoke of is changing the face of local communities. The Council of Bishops describes love’s capacity to transform this way:
Anyone who has experienced genuine love knows its power. Looking at the world through the eyes of faith, we can see love at work, transforming an abandoned lot into a community garden, transforming a neglected child into a healthy and happy toddler, and transforming people at war into communities committed to reconciliation. We witness God’s work of renewal in these pockets of transformation. And we participate in that work of renewal by living fully as Christ’s disciples, people whose love of God and neighbor shines forth in action.
Call to Hope and Action
The Foundational Document concludes by reminding us that this document is a genuine “call to hope and action.” As stated earlier, without hope we are dead in the water, like a schooner adrift in the doldrums. It is deeply-felt and consecrated hope that provides the wind necessary to move our vessel into the uncharted but opportunity-laden waters of the 21st Century. The document uses Wesley’s concept of the gospel of Jesus Christ as a fulcrum on which everything else comes into balance and focus. Wesley told us:
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. (Preface to Hymns and Saved Poems, 1739).
The Foundation Document says the following in discussing this vital passage from Wesley’s writings:
Ours is not solely a private faith, but one that also orients us toward God and the needs of our neighbor and world. At a time when people are cynical about religion, United Methodist must continue our rich heritage of “faith working by love” as an example of a church’s ability to make a positive difference in the world.
As Methodists and legitimate heirs to the tradition of John Wesley, we have every right to be proud of our rich heritage when it comes to the infusion of the gospel of Jesus Christ into social problems and institutional ills. Along with the Society of Friends, founded by George Fox a century after Methodism, the Methodist Church, in all its diverse forms, has been at the vanguard of taking the principles enunciated by Jesus out of the pews and into the streets. Methodists have a long history characterized by a complete lack of fear to get their hands dirty and their knees calloused.
The Council of Bishops encourages “all people of faith and good will” to consider several passionate and interlocking calls to action:
Let Us Order Our Lives toward God’s Holy Vision
Let us Practice Social and Environmental Holiness
Let us Learn from One Another and Practice Prayerful Self-Examination
Let us Live and Act in Hope
As we move forward with unity of purpose and oneness of spirit, these goals enunciated by the Council of Bishops may seem unattainable. However, we cannot afford to succumb to fear or discouragement. Let us never forget who it is that gave us these marching orders and even more essential, let us never forget who it is that walks along side of us. The Foundation Document eloquently states:
Renewing creation is an act of discipleship for us. It is the work we are called to do, and the One who calls us accompanies us as well so that we experience a synergy of grace and human responsibility. God is even now “doing a new thing,” and we are invited to serve the divine purpose of renewing creation. Despite the threats posed by these interrelated forces, we refuse to be governed by fear. On the stormy waters with his disciples, Jesus admonishes them (and us) to live in faith rather than fear. (Mark 4: 35-41) His ministry in the world provides a pattern for resisting the forces that terrify without succumbing to or employing terror. And his resurrection assures us of the new life to come, new life for every element of creation no matter how wounded. The God who raised Jesus from the dead is the God who breathes new life into every aspect of our broken world.
A Historical Note
Many years ago, specifically at the end of my freshman year in college, I made the decision to major in History. Although at the time it was a highly impractical decision in terms of employment potential, it is a decision that I have never regretted. I firmly believe that studying history has given me an interpretive framework that helps me gain valuable insight into issues related to religion in general and my own denomination in particular.
Shortly after making the decision to major in History, I also became actively involved in the United Methodist Church. This was in the year 1972 and, throughout over 35 years of involvement in Methodism, this, too, is a decision I have never regretted.
If the truth be known, I am not a big fan of denominationalism. I think the fact that the Protestant Church is broken down into hundreds of different groups and sects is most likely an affront to the Master who spoke so often of being “one” and most certainly to Paul the Apostle, who frequently stressed unity in thought, mission, and purpose. Still, denominations are upon us and, if we live within that context, then we must make the most of it. And, if a second truth be known, I love my denomination.
Although imperfect, I have great affection for the United Methodist Church in general and the history of the Wesleyan tradition in particular. Even though I am a member of the UMC, I treasure the entire spectrum of Wesleyan churches, be they Free Methodist, Evangelical Methodist, Nazarene, or Wesleyan. Yes, these traditions may have widely divergent views on some issues, but we all share a common heritage that began with John and Charles Wesley back in 18th Century England.
The 18th Century was a time of great social upheaval in England. With the advent and progression of the Industrial Revolution, more and more people moved from the rural areas into the cities in search of employment and a better life. Often what they found was far less than what they had hoped for. Working conditions were an absolute horror and living conditions were even worse. Poverty ran rampant in cities that were now bursting at the seams. Large cities became metropolitan areas and middle-sized cities became large. Suffering, disease, and squalor were the rule, not the exception. Crime was rising at an alarming rate and most folks, working long hours in dangerous, pollution-belching factories, increasingly found hope to be a commodity is very short supply.
As England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland became increasingly industrialized and the profit motive became the operational ethic of the day, social ills increased at a staggering rate. Overcrowded cities, pestilence and plague, crime, and unabated pollution were the accepted norm of the age. Yes, these were terrible times but where there was a good profit to be made, most turned a blind eye to the suffering inflicted upon the underclass of society. Those charged with the responsibility for providing restraint on the exploitation and ill-treatment of those mired in poverty were especially insensitive to what was happening. The business owners, governmental officials, and yes, even the church were all largely languid in their response to these problems.
The Church of England, the purported hands and feet of Jesus Christ in this rancid milieu, kept its distance. Rather than becoming a source of solace and advocate of justice for the poor and outcast masses, the official church pandered to those of the upper classes. Those who needed the love of Christ most were largely ignored.
The majority of voices crying out against this sanctioned injustice came from literary voices. Toward the end of the century, for example, William Blake called the church to task for its blindness to the economic exploitation of the times and its deaf ears to the cries of the downtrodden. Blake also took aim at those who were polluting both city and countryside with out regard to the consequences, both physical and spiritual:
And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic Mills?
Into this breach stepped John Wesley. Wesley and the early Methodists took the gospel of Jesus Christ to those places where it was most needed and most welcomed – the factories and the fields where the underclass of British society toiled. Unafraid of soiling their hands, Wesley and his followers carried not only the gospel message, but Bibles, tracts, and most of all, hearts of compassion. Wesley was not content to let these huddled masses come to him. Instead, he went to them, traveling thousands of miles on horseback and preaching from open-air pulpits, street corners and stumps.
In contrast to the ambivalence and general apathy of the Church of England, Wesley immersed himself in the surrounding culture, felt their pain, understood their struggle, and spoke to their souls. These are a few of the primary reasons for the explosion of Methodism in the last half of the 18th Century. In America, the Methodists followed the pioneers into the lands on the west side of the Appalachians. In states like Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, and Illinois, the Methodist presence was an integral part of the development of America.
I mention this historical backdrop because in many ways, we contemporary Methodists find ourselves in a similar situation. Although working conditions in factories have improved dramatically over the horrors of the Industrial Revolution and humankind has grown increasingly cognizant of the impact of industry on the environment, there remain significant pockets of resistance to a new ethic of “eco-responsibility.” As recently as the last third of the 20th century, urban and industrial expansion often took precedent over environmental concerns and until recently, the church in general and Evangelicals in particular either turned a deaf ear to those warning of impending environmental problems are gave outright political support to those perpetrating the problems.
Epilogue
As Methodists, we are a part of a vital, service-oriented stream within the larger picture of the Christian faith. It is an honor and a privilege to be a part of such a tradition and again, as Methodists, we ought to take time to prayerfully reflect on what it means to be a Christian in the Wesleyan tradition. Wesley, motivated by a genuine heart of compassion for the suffering he saw around him on a daily basis, was instrumental in setting up the beginnings of our denomination, but the stream of Christian service we are speaking of did not begin with him. It began with Jesus.
When the Master walked the earth, he did so as the prototype of a person who consistently walks in spiritual excellence. Jesus was the optimal version of what it means to be human and it is to that same standard we all are called. Yet it is important to understand that we cannot walk as the optimal version of Jesus, but assuredly, we can walk as the optimal version of who we are.
Jesus gave himself completely to the Father so that he could do the Father’s will completely. And what was the ultimate will of the Father for his Son? The answer is clear: serve others!
Like Christ, we, too, are to give ourselves completely to God so that we can do his will completely. And what is God’s will for us? By now it should be obvious: we are to serve others.
Our service is the offspring of a heart of compassion, built upon our deep recognition of the pain and suffering inherent in this world and our interconnected unity with all people. You may not know it yet, but every man on this planet is your brother and every woman is your sister. You are made of the same combination of earth and divine breath. When one person suffers, at some level, we all suffer. This is not some New Age airy fairy fantasy; instead, it is scientific fact and theological truth.
From his opening salvo quoting Isaiah about bringing release to the captives and good news to the poor, to his dying plea of, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,” Jesus exemplified a compassion far beyond what the world had seen before.
Indeed, it was and is a radical compassion.
© L.D. Turner 2010/ All Rights Reserved
WellSprings and WineSkins 