At Connexion:
Yes, John Wesley did say that he "knew no holiness but social..."And what exactly does that mean? Our modern desire for social justice leads us to conclude (too quickly I suppose) that John Wesley meant "social justice." Of course, Wesley was committed to ministry with the poor. He saw that many people were being excluded from economic benefits. The Methodist movement was focused on the downtrodden from the very beginning, even before Wesley's evangelical conversion experience at Aldersgate.
I'm definately no fan of the left wing of our denomination, but they do have one thing down pat: care and concern for the downtrodden of society. In between antiwar protests and abortion advocacy, they build homeless shelters and food banks. My impression is that, in general, we conservatives are more likely to focus inwardly, at building better facilities for our congregations, than we are to obey God's numerous commands to provide for the poor and the helpless. If God has truly transformed us, we ought to be doing better.
Anyway, God makes it pretty clear that it isn't optional:
41"Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;
42for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink;
43I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.'
44"Then they themselves also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?'
45"Then He will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.'
46"These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
UPDATE: Rev-Ed has related thoughts here.
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I guess its "be kind to liberalism" week among conservative Methodist bloggers. I posted one yesterday about the environment and one on Monday using a cartoon from Al Franken of all people.
Also in Matthew 25 are two other parables, which could also apply to our relationship to the poor. The wise virgins did not "donate" their oil to the foolish ones. Nor did the "good and faithful servants" just hand over the talents they were given to the poor.
Very true! Whereas liberals might see helping as government handouts at taxpayer expense, libertarians might see helping as the elimination of those programs. The implementation of charity is up for debate; God's command to do so is not.
Surely Wesley was referring to "social meetings",i.e. meetings for public confessions of sin and encouragement to a holy life which he emphasized in his ministry and was gradually dropped during the nineteenth century. Peter.
Post a Comment