“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Matthew 5:43-44.

You dwell in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to know Me,” declares the LORD. Jeremiah 9:6

And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination. Jeremiah 2:7

 

By the Fullness of my Heart.

 

 

Lord, I know that you are with me
Though I can’t see or hear you near.
But it is the many changes in my life
That make your existence very clear.
You speak in silence to my heart
And when I obey your every word,
You make calm out of chaos
And peace is my reward.
Holy Father there is no other
Who can do what you do for me.
You lift me up, Lord, in your love
To see just what you see.
I see your child, your creation,
The one knitted together perfectly.
Transformed from hopeless sinner
When you sent your Son to die for me.
The magnitude of that selfless act,
I fear is beyond the mind of man.
And there is no one on this earth
Who could ever understand.
We were dead, we many sinners,
Suffocated by our sin.
Until with love I can’t imagine,
Your son made the choice to step in.
He lived a sinless, perfect life.
Then died in pain on the cross.
But when He rose from the grave
He proclaimed that death had lost.
He is your love song to your children
In which you promise eternal life.
A rescue from all darkness
Into your holy place of light.
I believe by faith not by sight
So You are the one to whom I kneel.
Because by the fullness of my heart
I know your holiness is real.
© 02/24/2019 by Linda Troxell

How do you know of God’s existence?  And how do you know what you believe about God? I know if you are an evangelical Christian, your automatic answer will probably be the Bible. Until today, I think mine would have been too.

But today I heard a talk by a pastor named Dr. Rev. Howard-John Wesley about this topic.  He is a 4^th generation Baptist preacher and a progressive Christian, for sure. From hearing him speak, I gather that he went to Seminary as a conservative Baptist and through experiences there became more progressive, more liberal if you will.  I recommend that you look him up and listen to him speak.

What I heard today didn’t so much change my mind as it coalesced many of my thoughts which I had not examined in a while. I realized that I had chosen to put to sleep some of my thoughts in favor of thinking more like those who I thought knew more than me about being a Christian.

One of those sleeping thoughts is that I don’t actually think that everything I know about God is from scripture.  Dr. Wesley shared his beliefs about this and at once I knew that my buried thoughts were akin to his. I want to be clear here that Dr. Wesley is not suggesting, expecting, wanting, or coercing his audience to think what he thinks or believe what he believes.

If fact, I appreciate that he clearly said his aim is not for anyone else to think what he thinks, his aim is only that we all think. He is not threatened by opposing thoughts or beliefs. He believes that, as Christians, we can have different opinions and understand most things Christian differently. We need only to agree on that which makes us Christian, the Gospel story. From there we can discuss and debate without rancor or threat.

I find that very refreshing. I guess because I believe the same thing. But more than that, I believe it because I know that beliefs and understandings change as we grow, including as we grow as Christians. I really wouldn’t want to be held to my understanding of God, the Bible, the world, myself, really anything, as I believed it even 3 years ago.,

So, at the risk of plagiarism, I want to give an overview of his talk. However, I want to be clear that this is not original material. It clearly is the material of Dr. Rev. Howard-John Wesley. I have tried to represent Dr. Wesley’s thoughts and beliefs accurately without simply quoting him verbatim.

However, if anything I have reported here is not true to Dr. Wesley’s thoughts or beliefs, if I misunderstood something he said or if I have relayed it in a way that distorts his premise, I take responsibility for that. For, in choosing to write this, it is my responsibility to reflect his thoughts and beliefs accurately. So if there are distortions it is because I did not do a good job of explaining what Dr. Wesley believes.

I am not trying, in any way, to speak for Dr. Wesley. His presentation, which you can see on YouTube, is perfectly clear. In writing this I only want to introduce his thesis in hopes that you will be intrigued enough to listen for yourself.  I highly recommend that you hear his thoughts and beliefs directly from him so I’ve given you this link to the video.   www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZv83l0PZzo&t=3260s

Dr. Wesley believes that the Bible is not our only way of knowing God or knowing about God. He argues that it isn’t even the primary way. He asserts that the first and primary way of knowing God is the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews Chapter 1 tells us that God first tried to reveal Himself to His people through the Prophets. And prophet after prophet, Isiah through Daniel, they carried God’s message to the Israelites. Yet, the people were still unable to see God clearly.  You dwell in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to know Me,” declares the LORD. –Jeremiah 9:6

So, the writer of Hebrews tells us, in these latter days, (the days in which the writer lived) God reveals Himself in Jesus Christ. When God tired of the Israelites failing to see Him clearly through the prophets, He made the radical decision to send a representation of Himself and His glory in the person of Jesus Christ. For it is in Jesus and Jesus alone that we can experience God clearly. In Him, we have a perfect and true representation of God.

Thus began the Gospel story. Dr. Wesley maintains that although we can, of course, see God through scripture, the clearest revelation of God and His will is not found in the Bible but in the good news of Jesus Christ which we call the Gospel.  He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—To bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. –Ephesians 1:9-10

Now don’t be confused, it is not the gospels Dr. Wesley is referring to. It is not the 4 books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John that are known as the gospels. It is the story told through those books. The Gospel is the good news that God loved us and He came to earth for us; He paid the price for our sin by dying for us and He was resurrected from the grave and He is coming again. That is the Gospel story.

Dr. Wesley explains that it is in the Gospel story where we can first experience God. We can be confused by scripture and misunderstand pastors so that we might miss God. But the first place that we can’t miss God and where we truly know the Lord is in our hearts.  When we open our hearts and let the Lord into our lives, only then can we fully experience God.

Early Christians didn’t have the New Testament of the Bible from which to preach. They preached the good news and the good news only. Sometimes they might quote from what we now call the Old Testament scripture. But for the most part, they preached the life, death, resurrection, and return of Jesus only. Clearly, the Gospel was the only way in which early Christians knew about God.

Believing that scripture is our only or even our first way of knowing God is dangerous. Because we know scripture can be misused. Who did Jesus have the most trouble with while on this earth? The religious authorities, the Pharisees. Why? Because they misused the scriptures for their own gain and they taught scripture in ways that were contrary to the message God was sending through Jesus.

Jesus even taught His disciples that the scriptures were often misused. He would say, “You’ve heard this or that. But I say, _______.” For example, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Matthew 5:43-44. This an example of how Jesus taught the disciples that the Pharisees were using scripture in a way that didn’t reflect who Jesus was.

I hope it isn’t a surprise to anyone that the Bible can be misused. Christianity and the Bible have been used to justify some truly horrible atrocities throughout time. From the slaughter of pagans in the early years of Christianity to the Crusades; from the slaughter of native people in North America to slavery and Apartheid, Christians have used the Bible rather, they have distorted the Bible, for their own gain.

It is no secret that people quote scripture out of context to try to support things it was never meant to support. We know the Bible can be taught in ways that are contrary to the tenets of Christianity, and contrary to the Gospel and life of Jesus.

Dr. Wesley used an example that, fair warning, might be disturbing to some. This is an example of how the Bible can be used contrary to what we know about Jesus’s life.

Nowhere in the story of Jesus does the Bible make any mention of Jesus limiting women based on their gender. On the contrary, we see Jesus including women, liberating them if you will.

Yet the Bible is used every day to show that women should not preach. A belief that has been alive for thousands of years, beginning with prohibiting women to learn in ancient times, and unfortunately not ending with Paul but including him. I say including Paul because it is a few passages that Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians by which the idea that women cannot preach was justified in his time and still is today.

As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. And if they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for a woman to speak in church. 1 Corinthians 14:34-35

Now, I have read many defenses of this passage. From, Paul was talking only to a particular church in Corinth that was having trouble with women being too noisy while praying in the Spirit, to we have to consider the time and the culture.

And maybe one or another of them is true, but I’m not convinced. I want to make it clear that this, now, is my opinion and was not part of Dr. Wesley’s talk.

It seems to me that although it was indeed part of the culture, Paul was either complicit with what the culture dictated, or he was simply giving in to it. For me, either is an example of not being true to our Lord. Because as Dr. Wesley indicated, Jesus was a supporter of women. And no one would accuse Him of being an appeaser of culture. Okay, I’ve had my say, back to our program which is Dr. Wesley’s say.

The gospel is, as we all know, the central message of Christianity. It is the good news that tells us that Jesus Christ is the son of God through whom we can have salvation and forgiveness of our sins. It is the story of Jesus dying on the cross to have our sins forgiven and to give us all salvation.

But salvation and forgiveness of our sins were the results of His death on the cross; they were not the reason for it. The reason that Jesus took on our sin and died for us is so that we could be reconciled to God. Since Adam and Eve ate the apple, thereby allowing sin to come into the world, man has been estranged from God.

God cannot abide in sin. So once sin came into the world God could no longer live with man. Now, He could have given up on us, He could have gone back to the drawing board, so to speak. But because He didn’t want to give up on humans, Salvation was His answer.

Salvation and the Gospel are the work of God, offered to man through God’s grace and love in order to give man the ability to accept His invitation to be a part of His plan on earth.

That plan is to transform this planet into His kingdom on earth. And He is inviting us to be a part of all of it through the Gospel. We can know that the Gospel is working in us when we make our relationship with God right again through our reconciliation with God through our faith in Jesus. “And He said to him “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ Matthew 22:37

Once our relationship with God has been made right and we have accepted His invitation to be part of His plan, He then calls us to be in right relationship with others. – “The second is like it ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:39-40

As Christians, we know that we are called to extend God’s love to everyone. In order to do that we must see the image of God in every individual we meet, whether or not they see God in themselves. When we see the image of God in others, we will then treat them as one who is a representation of the God we love.

And it doesn’t matter if they look like us or think like us; it doesn’t matter If they believe like us or worship like us; nor does it matter who they love. God wants us to be in right relationships with all of His children. And I ask you, how can we claim to be in a right relationship with God if we are not striving to reconcile our relationship with others who are made in His image?

God calls us to be in one more right relationship. That is with the earth. As much as we are responsible to be in a right relationship with other people, as much as we are responsible to extend the love of God to everyone, we are too, called to be in a right relationship and extend God’s love to this planet. We are responsible to take care of it and treat it as something that God loves and that we should love too.

Although it is only our temporary home, it was once a literal paradise. But because of our greed, we have been careless and disrespectful in our stewardship of the earth. It was once a literal paradise, but we have brought it to the very brink of being uninhabitable. And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination. Jeremiah 2:7

God certainly made the earth with its many resources for our comfort and our creativity. However, we have not been responsible for those resources. We have not been mindful of which resources are able to replenish themselves and which are not.

We have not been mindful of extracting or utilizing these resources in a respectful and efficient manner for the planet. Instead, we have used them in a way most expedient for our profit or pleasure.

We have not been caring about our environment or for how our neglect affects the other species that God created to live on this planet with us. We have been so focused on our own present comfort and pleasure, we have not thought of the needs of future generations.

How can we say that that we are in right relationship with God when we are so dismissive and disrespectful of this planet He gave us with the intention, but for sin, to have a mutually loving relationship together with us in paradise?

So, there we have the full Gospel message. Which in Dr. Wesley’s belief is the first way in which we can know God. For him, the Gospel supersedes the Bible. In other words, the Bible has to line up with the Gospel message, not the Gospel message line up with the Bible

For him to receive any message, taught or preached, he says, it must include a loving reconciled relationship with God, a relationship reconciled with others, and transforming the earth. Because for Him the filter for all information about God is the Gospel. If something does not line up with the Gospel it cannot get through his filter.

Martin Luther once said,” I have faith but I’m seeking understanding.” Dr. Wesley submits that the first and primary way in which we gain an understanding of God, then, is our relationship with God through our faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior.

But, Dr. Wesley suggests there are 6 other ways in which we know and learn about God. We know about Him through scripture, inspiration including prayer and the Holy Spirit, intellect and reason, tradition which is the church, personal experience, and nature. The list looks like this:

Scripture=   The Bible, The Word of God reveals God to us.

Inspiration = The Holy Spirit through prayer. The Holy Spirit gives us inspiration some of which informs us about God. Prayer and inspiration from the Holy Spirit reveal God to us.

Intellect and Reason= Part of intellect and reason comes through theology. God didn’t give us a spirit of fear but did give us a sound mind. We seek wise counsel through our intellect and reason. And intellect and reason reveal God to us.

Church=The church is tradition, God established the church to pass on truth. Although there have been some things coming from the church, that are not in keeping with God’s Word or the Gospel, God established the church to pass on truth. The bad, or faulty things coming from the church are in fact coming from people and not from God. We need to use our intellect and reason to filter what we hear in the church to decide if it comes from God.  The church can reveal God to us.

Personal Experience=   God sometimes gives us experiences in which we clearly see Him. We receive messages from God through our reading, conversations with others, dreams, even though television or movies.  There is nothing in our lives, nothing in our experiences, which God can or won’t use to communicate with us. Our experience reveals God to us.

Nature= Creation, The heavens declare the glory of God. Creation bears witness to God. Sometimes the sheer beauty of this world reveals God to us. The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. –Psalm 19:1

It is important to understand that there are ways in which we know and know about God beyond the Bible. It is also important to know what those ways are. I think that most, if not all, manners in which we can know or know about God would fit in one of these broad categories that Dr. Wesley suggests.

But it is important to know, individually, what fits in which category. For example, I learn about and interact with God through my writing. That can be listed under Intellect and reason. But sometimes it should be under inspiration because I receive many of my ideas or lines of poetry in prayer or in dreams.

But why is it important for us to know in which category our ways of knowing God fit? It’s important because once we know the categories, we need to rank each one for our unique ways of knowing God. What I mean is we have to build a hierarchy.

We have to decide how much stock we put in each of the 6 ways of knowing or knowing about God. Which way do we depend on or believe the most and which way the least? And how much do we depend on or believe all the ways in between? Is the Bible 25% of knowing for you, and Inspiration or prayer 25% with the other 50% shared among the other 5? It’s important for each of us to find out for ourselves what our personal hierarchy is and not just adopt that of someone else.

We should not just make a decision based on what comes to mind immediately. I think this is something we need to take time to consider. We need to think about it and we need to pay attention to which way of knowing we most often question. That will probably be lower on our hierarchy. And the ways in which we rely upon most and question the least; that will probably be higher.

And it won’t necessarily stay the same over time. We grow and we change. We understand things differently or more fully as we grow. What was important to us at 16 is trivial at 25. What is frustrating and stressful for young mothers is cute and funny to grandmothers.

Just as our views of life change over time so do our views and experiences of God change.  And it follows that our ways of knowing God will change as well.

But whatever stage of life, or whatever our understanding of God is, it can be useful to be aware of our hierarchy of knowing. That way if inspiration is 35% of how we learn about and know God and intellect is 15% we will know that what we read, intellect, must match up what we learn in prayer, inspiration, or we will give it little attention.

I think that this will save us some confusion and maybe anxiety when we come across different ways of learning about God. You’ve probably had at least one experience in which you’ve been given different information about God from two different sources and they conflict. I know I have. On those occasions, I’ve found myself believing one source more than the other, but not knowing why.

Sometimes it led me to not fully trust my own ability to discern the truth.  But with the hierarchy, I can understand that I tend to believe one piece of information over the other because of the different weight I give to the ways in which I learned the information about God.

Okay, so now we have some work to do. Think about this for a while. Begin to notice the different ways you seek knowledge about God. Notice which ones you are the most comfortable with as well as those which you are less comfortable.

Pay attention to the ways of learning in which you find yourselves disregarding or discounting the information and the ways in which you are more likely to accept the information.  In this way, you can gather the information you need to build your own hierarchy.

But don’t put pressure on yourself to get this done. It isn’t urgent. You don’t have to rank all of the ways of learning at one time. Don’t allow yourself to stress about it. Do it in your normal routine. Take as much time as you need. And any time you might find you see it differently you can change it.

 

Let’s pray,
Thank you, Lord, for your love and your grace to us every day. Lord, we are always seeking to understand you better or more fully. Yet, it can be confusing when we learn different things and they conflict with each other.  It can be stressful trying to decide which one to believe or why to believe one and not the other. This hierarchy seems like a useful tool. It makes sense that you made people differently and one of those differences might be the way in which we learn about you best. We want to use everything available to us to know you, because, like Martin Luther, Lord, we have faith in you and we are seeking understanding. But also we want to learn about you in the most efficient and yes the easiest way.  So, Lord, we ask you to help us know if this method could be valuable for us. We ask you if it is in your will for us to use it. We ask you to help us to understand the ways in which we best learn. If this is in your will, Lord, help us to build our hierarchy so that we can know you better and more fully and serve you in the best and most efficient way possible while we spread your word to others.
We pray this in the Holy Name of Jesus Amen!