Enjoying my United Methodism class
Recently I began teaching a class (really more collaboration than teaching) at Saint James about what it means to be United Methodist. Sometimes in the daily grind of doing administrative and other tasks, I find that I forget the richness of the faith community from which I come. Don’t get me wrong, I am first and foremost a Jesus-follower; my Jesus-following happens to find its expression in the emphases of United Methodism and more specifically in the teaching and focus of the founder, John Wesley.
John Wesley came to see that it is not nearly enough to believe something, anything, even in God. Anyone can, quite frankly, claim to believe in God. Wesley was very much interested in the practical application of faith in everyday living, something that has become the focus of our congregational life at Saint James. Wesley was much less interested in developing a list of beliefs than seeing those beliefs that are central become part of the way we make it through our lives, the way we treat the world and people in the world, the way we express ourselves. No doctrinal purity checklists for Wesley, only lists of good to be done and harm to be avoided. The letter of James captures the core of faith in saying faith without the working out of faith in life is dead faith, maybe even no faith at all. Faith is only faith when it stretches beyond self-interest into God-interest and God-interest is focused on the world which God loves.
Wesley’s call to a method of faithfulness in life, marked in his own methodical approach to living, is a wonderful reminder that what I believe, what I think, who I am in relationship to Jesus, needs expression beyond the occasional and initial words, “I believe.” I think as my class continues I’ll have more to say about this Wesley fellow and what he is re-teaching me about my faith.
