WB Leak of Faith
Harry Potter turns 40 this week! To celebrate, I’ve been looking for a way to introduce William Law, a key influence on John Wesley and the Oxford Holy Club.
“He therefore is a devout man who lives no longer to his own will, or the way and spirit of the world, but to the sole will of God, who considers God in everything, who serves God in everything, who makes all the parts of his common life parts of piety by doing everything in the name of God.”
-William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life
Law would influence Wesley’s views on Christian Perfection, the belief that we can attain perfect love for God and neighbor through Christ in this life. Wesley would follow Law’s lead to wake up the average Christian from a mediocre faith, challenging us all to put God at the front and center of every area of life. As J. K. Rowling’s character, Mad-Eye Moody, would say, this requires “constant vigilance!”
A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life
Along with Jeremy Taylor, William Law influenced John Wesley to believe that everyone was capable of living the holy life. God is love, and human beings were made in the image of this God of Love. The Holy Spirit activates God’s love in our hearts, enabling us to respond with love in this world. Far from being a religion of ideas or right practices, true Christianity is a religion of the heart activated to love and do the work of Christ’s reconciliation in this world. We are not merely freed from our sin, we are also freed for a life of total holiness. For Wesley, holiness equates to wholeness, a fullness of life and love best experienced by total devotion to God in Christ.
I want to flip the script a little bit here. I think those of us who grew up in an evangelical tradition are familiar with this call to total devotion. I remember as a teenager being moved by this sincere challenge to true discipleship, an all or nothing mentality that I should get rid of my secular cd’s, memorize the entire bible, erase all impure thoughts of women from my mind, and live above reproach. As I approach my own 40th birthday right after Harry Potter’s, I am finding that many men and women who grew up with this belief about the faith have been deeply traumatized by this sort of zero-sum Christianity. We learned it in a way that actually made us less whole, that dehumanized us, that led us to believe that we were wholly undesirable, unworthy, unlovely. This serious call to a devout and holy life did not make us holy or whole, it made us miserable and many of us left the church and the faith altogether.
So why am I still writing about guys like William Law and John Wesley? I don’t necessarily think they’re wrong, I just think that the way these lessons have been taught over the years have often bypassed the gift of our humanity. I think it’s beautiful that William Law’s starting point is that human beings are made in the image of the God of love. Love is our starting point. Not failure. Not sin. We are made in the image of love. We know what love is because God loved us first. Being human is a divine gift. If Christ came that we may have abundant life, then the Gospel message must be one that actually delivers that life. Of course we will fail. Of course we will sin. But that doesn’t make us less lovable or worthy of God’s love. Christ has already come for you, that cannot be undone. A devout and holy life is one that enjoys the love God has to give us. We can have peace even in our struggles and suffering because we know that God’s love for us is bigger.
If the Christian message has taught you that you have no worth, I am here to tell you otherwise. You did not cause Christ’s sacrificial death. You are not deserving of hell and eternal punishment. You are made in the image of the God of love. Christ came that you might have life to the full. God has unleashed grace upon grace in your life, calling you to deeper and richer expressions of love, healing, and reconciliation. Christian perfection is not about being perfect. It’s about growth. How are you experiencing growth in love today? How have your circles of love expanded to include your enemies and the unlikeable? How has your inner peace grown to accept that your whole being was made by God and called “good”? How have you discovered God’s kingdom breaking in to the marginalized and darkest corners of society? How have the voices of the silenced reached your ears and moved you to compassion? These are the sorts of questions that draw us into personal growth. This is how we give all of ourselves over to the wisdom and love of God. Start from a place of worthiness, because God has called you worthy in Christ. Start from a place of belovedness because God has called you “my child.” Start from a place of belonging because the heart of love is the heart that says “You belong with me.”
New Charlie Baber
The Rev. Charlie Baber, author of Wesley Bros cartoon.
Creator of the Wesley Bros cartoon, the Rev. Charlie Baber, a United Methodist deacon, serves at Highland United Methodist Church in Raleigh, N.C. His cartoon appears on United Methodist Insight by special arrangement.