WB Are We Yet Alive?
What gives you real assurance? As young men, Charles and John Wesley found their assurance in maintaining a holy life. Through the Holy Club at Oxford, they made a practice of working out their salvation, of moving on to perfection. At this time, Charles would describe his hope for salvation this way: “Because I have used my best endeavors to serve God” While they preached Christian perfection, John himself was growing suspicious about his own regimen, and was even intentionally slacking off on the fasting on purpose. On their missionary journey to Georgia, the Wesley Bros faced their own mortality for the first time, and it was in this event that shook their concept of assurance. Because, frankly, they were scared to death of death.
In the 1700’s, it took months to sail from England to the American colonies, almost five months for John and Charles on The Simmonds. They maintained their Holy Club routines on the journey, which usually helped them feel useful and kept their minds occupied. Charles dealt with a pretty deep depression on this journey (we’ll address that with next week’s comic!). One particular storm left everyone aboard thinking they would drown at sea. The British, including John and Charles, let aloud terrible screams as the mainsail tore from the severity of the tempest. But the German Moravians continued to sing the psalms, calm as Hindu cows. Afterwards, John asked them to explain and was startled that none of them, not even their women and children, were afraid to die in that storm.
A key Moravian missionary, August Spannenberg, challenged John and Charles to think differently about faith, moving it from the head to the heart. Spannenberg asked John, “Does the Spirit of God bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God?” (Wesley’s Journal, 2.7.1776). For all his learning, for all his holy practice, John realized that his fear of death conveyed that something major was missing from his faith. At the end of the day, his assurance was based more on his own beliefs and actions than on a meaningful relationship with the living God. While I make a terrible pun of this in today’s comic, the reality is, this experience was the beginning of a long relationship with the Moravians, and a slow journey towards John and Charles’ assurance that Christ died for all, yes…but even for me.
Today’s comic is actually the second Wesley Bros comic I ever drew, just slightly revamped to fit into our current storyline of the larger missionary journey of both brothers. I hope you’ll come back next week as the Wesley Bros land in Georgia and meet James Oglethorpe! In the meantime, take time this week to reflect on the source of your assurance in life. May it ever be rooted in a deeper and deeper realization that Christ died for all, yes, but even for you. And that hope can bring profound peace in the face of the storm.
When not drawing the Wesley Bros cartoon, the Rev. Charlie Baber, a United Methodist deacon, serves as minister of discipleship for youth and families at Highland United Methodist Church in Raleigh, N.C. His cartoon appears on United Methodist Insight by special arrangement.