We are rapidly approaching one of the great times in the life of United Methodists, Annual Conference. Annual Conference has a warm collegial spirit. The Annual Conference focuses on celebrating the ministries of local churches and exploring ways that the Conference gathers together to do more than we would alone. There are reports, elections, setting the budgets, etc.... but one of the most uplifting events is the services of Ordination and Commissioning where Deacons and Elders give their life to serve Jesus Christ. These services inspire the whole church while specifically setting aside some in our number for leadership in the tasks of Word, Order, Sacrament, and Service.
Before the celebration, our bishop will examine the candidates for ordination in front of the entire Annual Conference. This examination is often the completion of a long process over many years which have prepared the candidates for this point. Having just been there last year, the experience is still fresh in my mind. It was both affirming and empowering. Two of the questions that our bishop will ask the candidates are on the topic of Christian perfection (also called entire sanctification). “Are you going on to perfection? Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life?”
Regrettably when asked these questions, many candidates laugh. They do not believe that they will be perfected in love in this life. The thought is so strange to many modern Christians that the response is audible laughter. But, I don’t think John Wesley or St. Paul would be laughing. The Christian doctrine of entire sanctification that the Methodist’s called Christian Perfection is central to Paul’s arguments in Romans and central to any authentic expression of the Christian faith.
Most Christians agree that being sanctified, perfected in love, is the end/goal of the Christian life. Some may limit this to “getting in to heaven”, but giving them the benefit of the doubt, at least they want to eternally be in the presence of God. We should assume that they believe that they will be holy when they get there... right? Others, such as Calvin, will claim that the end/goal of the Christian life is praising God. But again, participating in the eternal praise of God is allowing God to sanctify the believer. The praise of God allows the faithful to participate in the holy. Others, like the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, et al. (in their traditional expressions) see the sanctification of the believer as the end/goal of the Christian life. The contention and argument is not about whether the believer will be sanctified or perfected in love, but when. Many traditions place sanctification after death. Methodists do not.
Methodists believe in Christian Perfection in this life because the Bible speaks so plainly about it in several instances. For instance, when Jesus tells his disciples to “Be perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” in Matthew 5:48, Jesus does not say after death. Also, why would Jesus tell both a woman and man whom he heals and saves to “Go and sin no more.” if they couldn’t not sin John 5:14 & 8:11? Why would Paul write to the faithful and call them to live in the “stature” of Christ in Ephesians 4:13 if we can not? Why would Paul make such a big deal over sanctification in Romans 5-8 if it were not possible?
The central misunderstanding about Christian Perfection seems to be that the doctrine seems irreconcilable with the understanding of fallen humanity. But, as Paul is clear in Romans, the believer is not the one who perfects themselves. Christian Perfection / Entire Sanctification is not a self-selecting holier than thou club. The doctrine is simply the acknowledgment that God could work, even through me, to bring love to others. If we believe that God can do anything, how can we insist that he can not make us whole in this life? God can even transform our lives and conform our wills to God’s will so that we become perfected in this life. But, if we as Methodists seeking ordination do not even think it is possible or we find the possibility of sanctification so remote that it moves us to laughter, how can we persuade others of what the Bible proclaims?
And, it is this doctrine of Christian Perfection that gives hope. This doctrine asserts that no matter who I’ve been or what I’ve done, God can still do incredible things with me. When this doctrine is neglected, we begin to see our good works and sometimes holiness as our own activity, instead of God’s divine action. Or, many adopt attitudes in which they are never able to be liberated from their past sins because what God did or is doing is not actually enough. The continual struggle to die to self and be born in Christ is the essential doctrine for the age of self indulgence. I hope that with me you’ll stop the laughing and start the singing as we join in that eternal praise. Just a thought...
Thought provoking as usual. You answer some of my struggle understanding sanctification caused by my simple and linnear thinking: ie there is a scale from 0(sin) to 100(perfection) and if I pray hard and live a monastic life I can move the dial over to the right and if I get it far enough over (100), I'm good to go forever. As you point out, that puts ME in the sanctification business and not God. That I understand. But if God uses us sometimes as agents of His love for others (and sometimes I have felt that way) then why at other times are we so far away? I guess I may be using a simmplistic definition of the word "perfection" because if, through God's work, we reach that state why do we not stay there. Why does the Mother Theresa in me become Simon Legree? I guess that is what Wesley meant by "striving toward" perfection. Thanks for feeding me.
ReplyDeleteJerry,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your thoughts and sharing. I think that your really see right in to two of the most difficult challenges that modern Christians face as they struggle with the doctrine of entire sanctification in this life. Well done. If it is okay to continue the conversation. There are two issues you bring up that I think are really important, so please accept some thoughts below. I offer them with assertion, but there are other Christians that do not agree with me on these points.
First, grappling with feelings in our internal struggle is essential to wrestling with entire sanctification. Our feelings have almost nothing to do with God's sanctifying grace. If anything, the experience of the saints has been that they feel most distant from God when they are actually most fully in God's grace. The holiness of God makes us imperfect creatures extremely uncomfortable. For instance, I am glad that people can not hear my internal dialogue when I preach or when I make pastoral visits (those times I stand-in for Jesus). In those moments I am keenly aware that I am not he. Sometimes there is a significant level of self-doubt and uncertainty that I experience. But, that does not mean that God can not perfect me in love and conform me to his will, even when I feel most alone. I might even assert that God is more active in those spaces and times than when I feel good about God. The times God's love works most fully is when I step out beyond myself and am active in his name doing things that make me uncomfortable. The biblical warrant for this understanding of a feeling of aloneness, yet still being perfected in love, could be Jesus crying out from the cross feeling forsaken and yet fully perfected in a willing sacrifice.
The second important point you bring up is "striving" for perfection. Striving does not seem consistent with John Wesley's language of Christian perfection although modern Methodists use it often. In his sermon, that I commend, "On Christian Perfection," there is no language of striving. Striving again implies that perfection is something that we achieve instead of something that God does to us. Wesley insists that Christian Perfection is something that God does to us because our will is conformed to God's will. And, this can happen as a process or even instantaneously. My modern concern with the language of striving is that it often masks that we don't actually believe that it is even possible. So, striving sounds better to us than expecting that God will work through us. It is easier to blame ourselves again than accept why God has not worked this in me yet. But, it is only when we let go of ourselves that we can allow God to move. So, instead of the StarWars' reach out with your feelings, Wesley and Paul might argue die to yourself and be born into Christ. Surrender your will to be conformed to his.
I hope that this is helpful, or at the least a bit thought provoking. Again, good Christian thinkers disagree with me on these points. However, I do not think that St. Paul or John Wesley do. Thanks.
Grace and peace,
Brad.
Brad,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reply.
This is a very interesting area and deeper than I first thought. I see what you mean about our (sometimes flippant) use of "striving" language. That does mask our perhaps unintended belief that WE are doing something even as we say we don't believe that. Certainly an easy leap from that to being "holier than thou" which is killing our modern churches. I will have to think more about the concept that we may be more fully in God's grace when we feel fartherest from Him and that He may use us more during those times than when we feel good about Him. That seems counter-intuitive. I have a 6 hour drive tonight for Mother's Day weekend and that is when I think best. Good timing. So I guess it is not "once perfect, always perfect".
If I cannot find Wesley's sermon on the internet I may ask to check out a book from your library. It is odd that being a cradle-born Methodist I know so little about him. Jerry
Found the Sermon. I have never read such a didactic writer! If God had not called him to ministry he could have squandered his intellect in the practice of law! J
DeleteBrad,
ReplyDeleteAt the risk of monopolising your time may I add two last things?
First: It is amazing that a person can read scripture, know the stories, and quote the passages and still "not get it". Such it was for me with your example of Christ on the cross, carrying out God's perfect will and love and yet at that time having the humanity to cry out that anquished question, "My God my God why have you....?" I have always had trouble understanding the humanity/divinity of Jesus in that example as well as in the prayer in the Garden,... "take this from me...". For the first time as you use it, I see what a powerful message of hope and encouragement it is that even Christ in his state of perfection could feel a distance from God. Certainly, we cannot evaluate our own state of perfection or lack thereof on a scale of 1-100 but also, how can we laugh at the prospect? If Jesus, still suffering from a human-like state, cannot how can we?
Second: Having now read Wesley's sermon on "Perfection" I come closer to understanding my problems with the concept and perhaps the reason that some may laugh. Toward the end he sets up a rhetorical objection from one who doubts the possibility of perfection of man: "But I never saw one that answered my idea of perfection." His answer is "....and you never will. For your idea includes abundantly too much; even freedom from those infirmities which are not separable from a spirit that is connected with flesh....". Earlier, he had dealt with sin and the flesh and agreed that while we are in the body we cannot be wholly free from mistake and accordingly we are liable to judge wrong and err, but he concludes this is NOT inconsistent with the perfection scripture describes. Sin is a voluntary transgression and perfection is compliance with the command that we should love the Lord our God with all of our heart, and with all of our soul, and with all of our mind." This, Wesley says (and I know you alreay know this) is the sum of Christian perfection. This is certainly something we can attain to with God's help and it certainly is not laughable. Wesley speaks of the Fruits of the Spirit in Galatians---there is not one of the fruits of the Spirit that is impossible for me to experience, (again with God's help). So where I end up is this: when I understand what perfection means (at least to Wesley) and when I understand that "moving on to" is not the same as me "striving for" I find nothing impossible or laughable.
As I reread those last assertions I realise that I am stil not as full of understanding as it may sound. This is tough. Thank you for causinng the neurons in my brain (the few left) to fire. Jerry