With Burning Zeal

Sermon for a Gloucester City Ministerium Lenten Unity Service 3/3/10, Offered by Nathan Ferrell at Highland Park United Methodist Church, GC

Texts: Luke 9:1-6


A Collect Appointed for the Feast of blessed John and Charles Wesley

Lord God, who inspired your servants John and Charles Wesley with burning zeal for the sanctification of souls, and endowed them with eloquence in speech and song: Kindle in your Church, we entreat you, such fervor, that those whose faith has cooled may be warmed, and those who have not known Christ may turn to him and be saved; through Christ who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord: let us spend a few minutes tonight meditating together on the good example of John and Charles Wesley, two amazing men of God whom the Lord sent out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. Let us meditate together on what it means for us to be inspired with burning zeal as they were. This seems to be very appropriate for a number of reasons: first, we are after all gathered here in a Methodist house of prayer, which tradition was founded by John and Charles Wesley in England back in 1740. Also, because the Wesley’s were, for their entire life, devoted members of the Church of England and they encouraged their followers to be likewise. My church is part of that global fellowship of the Church of England which today is called the Anglican Communion, and every year on March 3 we pause to give thanks for and to be inspired by their amazing stories. And lastly, because the life-long ambition of the Wesley’s was to renew the zeal of Christians everywhere, this season of Lent in which we find ourselves now is intended for that very same purpose year after year.

In that Collect appointed for today, we just prayed “that those whose faith has cooled may be warmed.” That those whose faith has cooled may be warmed.

I am willing to venture a suggestion that all of us here are likely to be in that category, wouldn’t you agree? Not at all suggesting that those of us gathered here have lost our faith, that we have somehow found the Lord Jesus to be untrustworthy in our journey. But I do suggest that we have – as a collective whole – lost our edge. For many of us as individuals, the first love that we once felt in our hearts has clearly cooled down, and the burning zeal which inspired the hearts of saints like the Wesley’s has dimmed to something more like a single candlelight in a dark room. The light is still there, but when pressed, we cannot say in honesty that is a burning blaze which gives light to everyone around us.

And so we pray that our cooled-down faith may be warmed, but how does this happen? Well, prayer, of course, is the first step toward renewal. The fire of love which burns spiritually in our hearts is a gift of God alone. We must ask for it, and ask repeatedly that is be given to us. But beyond that, what actions do we need to undertake in order to be warmed up again?

Let’s work with the metaphor here a bit more. If my coffee cools too much, then I stick my mug in the microwave for 30 seconds to be warmed. If my house cools, then I turn up the heat so that it may be warmed. (Actually, I never do that. It’s only my wife who does that! I usually come behind her and turn the thermostat back down again!)

If my heart grows cold and my faith becomes tired and timid, where is the spiritual microwave? Where is the woodstove of faith so that I can through a few more logs on the fire, to stir up the embers?

I am not going to suggest that you and I need to, or can expect to, match the fervor, the blazing warmth of John and Charles Wesley. I am not such a fool as to stand here and demand that we all accomplish the same levels of excellence in ministry as John and Charles. I am a practical man; I understand that we all have different gifts, different roles to play within the Church.

But, if perhaps – just maybe – during this season of Lent, as we confess our failures, and as we move forward and enter into the mystery of our Lord’s Passover from death into life – the Cross and the Resurrection – if perhaps during this holy time, we can become somewhat warmed within us, that will be a good thing. Perhaps we can open our hearts a bit more, let more of the Holy Spirit in, offer ourselves a bit more as a living sacrifice…

Who knows what God could do with us? John Wesley traveled 8000 miles every year by foot and by horse to share the good news. Charles Wesley wrote nearly 6000 hymns to inspire believers in worship. Who knows how far God can go or how much God can do with a heart that is open and warm, on fire with the power of the Holy Spirit?!

But here is the question for us: Why do we settle for cold coffee when the microwave is right there, within our reach, and all we need to do is reach out and use it?

Why do we tolerate a cold house when we have been given all of the energy that we need to heat it up and to keep it warm every day?

Why do we allow our hearts to become cold when the fire of divine love is within our reach every moment of every day?

Perhaps we forget, or we fail to understand what this Christian life is all about.

In 1746, when speaking about his new movement and what they held as the core values of the Christian life, John Wesley had this to say: “Our main doctrines, which include all the rest [that is, all orthodox Christian doctrine], are three: that of repentance, of faith and of holiness. The first of these we account, as it were, the porch of religion; the next [as] the door; the third [as] religion itself.”

What Wesley is communicating here is that repentance is the means by which we come to the door of a new life with God. This change of direction brings us back to our native home, back to our original birth-place, our true home with our Creator. The door to enter into this home is faith, which is honest and sincere and heart-felt trust in who God is and what God says. But the life itself, the home itself, the very name of this house which we call true and eternal life, is holiness.

Of course, there is nothing new or novel in this teaching. Wesley’s view of the Christian life is consistent with that held by the Church always and everywhere, though at certain times, like his own 18th century, the Church has grown cold and lax in its pursuit of holiness.

To live in this beautiful house called holiness, to participate in full and abundant and eternal life right now, to have hearts which burn with zeal for the love of Christ – this is a matter of the will, of intention and discipline. We know what to do. The Scriptures and the Church have given us all of the tools we need to live this life. John Wesley encouraged his followers to practice constant communion: receiving the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ as often as possible, every day if available! Constant communion, daily Bible reading, real prayer, honest engagement with God in our daily lives, meeting in small groups for Bible study and encouragement: these are the spiritual microwaves of our life, the divine tools to stoke the embers of the fire in our hearts. There is no great mystery here, no magic formula, no special education that we need. This is within the reach of each one of us.

The early Methodist meetings were often led by lay preachers with very limited education. On one occasion, such a preacher took as his text Luke 19:21, "Lord, I feared thee, because thou art an austere man." Not knowing the word "austere," he thought that the text spoke of "an oyster man."


So he spoke about the work of the men in those days who retrieved oysters from the sea-bed. The diver plunges down from the surface, cut off from his natural environment, into bone-chilling water. He gropes in the dark, cutting his hands on the sharp edges of the shells. Now he has the oyster, and kicks back up to the surface, up to the warmth and light and air, clutching in his torn and bleeding hands the object of his search. So Christ descended from the glory of heaven into the squalor of earth, into sinful human society, in order to retrieve humans and bring them back up with Him to the glory of heaven, His torn and bleeding hands a sign of the value He has placed on the object of His quest.

Twelve men were converted that evening. Afterwards, someone complained to Wesley about the inappropriateness of allowing preachers who were too ignorant to know the meaning of the texts they were preaching on. Wesley, simply said, "Never mind, the Lord got a dozen oysters tonight."

This simple, uneducated lay preacher opened his heart to the fire of God’s love and God used him.

The key is to want it, to reach for it! When preaching on this same pursuit of holiness, John Henry Newman summed up the struggle of our willpower in this way: “Grace will not baptize us while we sit at home, slighting the means which God has appointed.”

I’m tired of the cold, and I bet you are as well. Let’s not stay out in the cold any longer. Let us ask for grace, be ready and open for it to come, and then apply ourselves to living lives of holiness, walking daily with our Lord Jesus Christ. Who knows what amazing things might happen in our midst? Amen.