What Future for Methodism?
What future for Methodism?
Looking at the letters page of the Methodist Recorder this week, it seems that a chain reaction has set off a frenzy of excitement and annoyance about the reported possible demise of Methodism. To misquote Mark Twain, the reports of our death are much exaggerated. The media as usual, and Ruth Gledhill of the Times is the worst offender, love to pick things out of context and make a headline when real news is in short supply. So the appearance of the President and Vice President at the parliament of the Church of England, the General Synod, setting out where we are in that covenant relationship established in 2003, was reported as if it were the perceived death wish of a Methodism to be sacrificed on the altar of ecumenism, rather than stressing the thrust of the speeches which was to work together for the wider mission and ministry of the church. If that meant both churches giving up cherished traditions and ways of being church, then so be it. We needed to be bold and risky for the sake of the Kingdom. That was their message. But it seems to have fallen on deaf ears.
So what I want to do this morning is to draw out some lessons for us from the readings we have heard, readings which talk to our situation as the people called Methodist called to serve God in the present age. What would God have us be and do after nearly three centuries of existence as a movement of renewal.
In our OT reading we hear part of Isaiah’s prophecy - a word, a timely word for a people deeply dispirited and directionless in exile. Now I’m no great horticulturalist but I do know, as most of us know, that seed for plants need (mostly) to have water. Yes, there is a vision of the deserts that bloom (and we know with modern irrigation the Middle East is fertile ground for a variety of plants and trees that bear much fruit) but generally the rains are needed to make the dry and thirsty ground yield fruit. Now Isaiah uses this imagery to tell them that their God, a great and mighty and forgiving God, will lead his people home. And God’s word to them is like seed to the sower and bread to the eater. It will nourish and bring new life. Isaiah tells them therefore to attend to the things that really matter – for a renewed set of values in society. A timely word for us all as we prepare for a General Election to ask question of our politicians about priorities in public life. Isaiah is calling for a spirituality which is rooted in the realities of the world and is not other-worldly. He calls the people of God to absolute renewal of thought and action.
In our NT reading we heard Jesus tell the Parable of Fig Tree - a parable which evokes threat of judgement hanging over all who do not ‘bear fruit’. But there is an underlying message of hope. God will be merciful to those who respond to his word. I don’t know about you but don’t you feel sorry for the Fig Tree? Bereft – cursed – separated from its source of life through no fault of its own – maybe we only start to understand Luke’s message of judgement if we see that he is addressing his remarks to the early Christians and the need to sustain their faith in difficult times? But it also speaks to us today and invokes God’s judgement on us. God wants the tree to bear fruit not only for its own sake but also for others. And that needs careful prayerful attention when the temptation is to let it be and leave it to its own devices. It needs the application of manure, human effort and the interaction of the water of life to revive the tree. We perhaps, like the tree, are only to be given a certain time, a year, a decade, a century, who knows, to demonstrate that we are a fruit-bearing tree once more.
Now there are lots of siren voices around announcing that the Methodist Church is losing its way, in terminal decline. The membership figures and the demographic trends don’t making easy or comfortable reading. And the President and Vice-President’s comments and letter are indicative of the uncertainty of relations with other churches and where we presently stand. How much time and effort do we/ should we put into the ecumenical movement? Yes - Methodism has always been at the forefront of the Ecumenical Movement – a movement which originated 100 years ago in Edinburgh. Yes – many of us here will remember the disappointments of the past few decades, of failed conversations and covenants, with seemingly slow growth from the seeds planted by our forebears. Here and there the green shoots of ecumenical co-operation but many desert places (and I have to include Cambridge here) where there is little enthusiasm or effort for working together.
Neil Richardson’s visit did allow us some time over dinner to discuss this. And we pondered the question why lies at the heart of our present dilemma - what is distinctive about Methodism? And what could we not do without in any future Church, of whatever shape? So I want briefly to sketch out for you what, for m, are the things I could not do without in any Church of which Methodism was a part. And they are clustered on three things – worship, discipline and evangelism.
Worship:
1. Hymnody – Wesley’s hymns must remain in our book or any future book, whatever the use of contemporary praise songs and hymnody
2. Centrality of sacrament of HC – we should be a people who gather regularly, as the Wesleys did, around the table of the Lord.
3. People of One Book? Not of course the Book of Common Prayer or even the MWB, but formal and free worship centred on the Bible and preaching
Discipline :
1. The sense of belonging and support which comes from being a movement focussed on small groups, small churches connected at every level with each other, at circuit, district and conference level
2. Christian education through such small groups for discipline, nurture and support – helping people through initiatives like Disciple and Knowing God to grow in faith and find help in their Christian journey
3. Pastoral Care - we are to be a welcoming and inclusive church, suspicious of party labels, and proclaiming that clear message of Methodism that “everyone is in unless they opt out”, just like story of Prodigal Son/Forgiving Father. We’re not a church which excludes but seeks to bring folk in.
Evangelism :
1. We are a people with a Warmed heart – an experiential religion where people can tell their stories and share the good news with others
2. At the heart of what we do is service to neighbours and community – that element of social holiness/justice which is so important in our Methodist movement
3. And all this is to be shared with others. Telling the good news leads to a transformation of lives and even a transformation of society
All that I know is a mere sketch of the essence of Methodism. We shall explore aspects of Methodist spirituality in more detail in tonight’s service.
There is an ancient Christian text dating from the 2nd century called the Didache. In it there is an image of the Church which is like grains of corn scattered on hillside (we shall sing of this later). A Church then which is not monolithic and hierarchical but fragile, diverse, growing up haphazardly
Grains of corn that spring up green when watered/nurtured – we celebrate the life of the risen Christ as we share bread and wine, symbols of new life, his life given for the world and transformed for the renewal of humankind.
Organic Union, of church mergers and reorganization, is probably a long way off even if it were thought desirable and necessary. But the important thing is to keep the green shoots of ‘vital religion’ alive in worship, discipline and evangelism, a vital religion that the Wesley brothers brought alive in the 18th century. A vital religion which we 21st century Methodists need to nurture today.
Neil in his bible study here last Saturday on the message of Paul for the Renewal of the Church reminded us that we are called to God-centred worship and lives which are not primarily Church-centred but God-centred. The central and essential need is to bear each other up as people on a journey together. Yes, we need Fresh expressions but these need to be FX of gospel/good news not of Church, as if re-organizing our church structures and fixing mission statements is going to guarantee survival and even growth.
Does Methodism matter enough? That’s the title of an article written for the Epworth Review in the wake of the Called to Love and Praise report on Methodist Ecclesiology (convened by Neil Richardson) which I wrote 15 years ago. Many of the issues we’re now dealing with were around then. Nothing changes except perhaps the need for urgency in attending to what we’re about as the people called Methodists.
I just want to quote from its last section. If you want to read the rest, then copies are available in the foyer afterwards. This is what I said in response to what John Wesley said 200 years ago:
I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power.
So wrote John Wesley, of the people who constituted a movement, who became a denomination separated from the Mother Church and who claim today the title of the Methodist Church. Would we bemoan the loss of separate identity if, in the quickening of ecumenical development, we found ourselves as a religious order within a wider communion? Have we the grace to offer the riches of the diversity we enjoy, our 'hymns and rites and cherished creeds', to a more related group of Christians? The Called to Love and Praise report is open-ended and invites wider discussion:
Great discernment is needed in order to distinguish between those features of Methodist history and tradition which should be cherished and handed on to the wider Church, and those which need to be abandoned or adopted (4.2.14)
Is the twenty-first century one which "belongs to lay Christians and to preachers who know how to teach them"? Is their task to nurture:
• a biblical people because scripture is normative
• a covenant people because the Church is communal
• a passionate pastoral people because the church needs each other
• a people engaged in evangelism to share the good news
Do connexionalism and conferences, classes and circuits, Charles Wesley's hymns and covenant services deliver all those, or are we able to do without the familiar landmarks of Church? Would we be sorry if Methodism disappeared? For myself, an open and inclusive fellowship of those who share "each other's cross" and give "friendly aid" to those of the church and those in society in obedience to Christ's commands, gathered round the Lord's Table, listening to his Word, communicating God's love in action and effecting transformation of lives and society, this is sufficient. The Methodist label is perhaps no longer necessary. As I first heard anew when John Dover chose the hymn nearly 40 years ago in this very church and discovered the inclusivity of a Methodism which was not a dead sect but part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, "Names and Sects and Parties fall, Thou, O Christ, art all in all".
