May 25, 2025 • 20 mins
What does it mean to truly embrace diversity within Christianity? John Wesley, Methodism's founder, offered a revolutionary answer in his sermon "On the Catholic Spirit" that still challenges us today.
Against the backdrop of post-Reformation religious division, Wesley chose an unexpected path. Rather than demanding theological uniformity, he found wisdom in the biblical exchange: "Is your heart right as my heart is with your heart? If it is, give me your hand." This seemingly simple invitation became the foundation for a radical understanding of Christian unity that didn't require agreement on every point of doctrine.
Wesley's approach wasn't about watering down conviction but recognizing that God intentionally creates diversity within the body of Christ. Drawing from Ephesians 4, we see that different gifts—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers—aren't accidental but divinely ordained for the growth and maturity of the whole church. Our differences aren't problems to solve but blessings to embrace.
This vision feels especially urgent today, as political and theological polarization threatens to tear apart religious communities. Wesley's words reach across centuries: "Love me not in word only, but in deed and in truth, so far as, in conscience, you can, retaining still your own opinions and your own manner of worshiping God. Join with me in the work of God and let us go hand in hand." In a world desperate for models of unity amid difference, perhaps Wesley's "Catholic Spirit" offers precisely the wisdom we need.
Listen now to discover how this 18th-century theologian might help us navigate our 21st-century divisions. Then share your thoughts—how might Wesley's understanding of unity without uniformity transform your own faith community?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Friends, we've been learning a little bit about John
Wesley, the founder of theUnited Methodist Church, and
it's been, hopefully, a funadventure.
It was leading us into a newmember class, so to learn a
little bit about theology andthe person that was behind a lot
of what we have done was kindof fun, even for those of you
(00:22):
who have been members for a longtime and maybe lifetime
Methodists.
Hopefully it has been enjoyablefor you.
Week one we talked about Wesleythe man, how the whole thing
got started.
Then, week two, we talked aboutgrace, which is a theological
concept not unique to us butreally emphasized in a way that
(00:44):
makes us pretty darn distinct.
Then finally, last week we weretalking about the importance of
social justice in the UnitedMethodist Church and for John
Wesley in particular.
He would even say are blessedto be able to do the work of
justice and social justice inour understanding.
(01:05):
So finally, we're talking todayabout Wesley's appreciation for
diversity of faith, even in thebody of Christ, the body of
Christianity, and it comes withsome a little bit of irony.
I wanted to talk about Wesley'sappreciation for diversity.
(01:28):
It was especially amidst theother Protestant denominations.
As United Methodism was gettingstarted, we had Lutherans
getting started, presbyterianChurch getting started,
episcopal All of those were kindof getting started and there
was a bunch of diversity.
And for us this diversity wassomewhat unique because a lot of
(01:53):
the other Protestantdenominations and even the
Catholic church that we pulledaway from and the Anglican
church that we pulled away from,were more creedal, meaning
there was a set of beliefs thatwe all would agree to every
Sunday.
We might even read it out loudevery Sunday, and United
Methodists weren't necessarilyagainst that but it wasn't a
(02:16):
focal point in the same way asit was for others.
Because Wesley had thisappreciation for a certain
amount of difference, a certainamount of diversity in the way
we understood things, and we seeit in his sermon, which is
called On the Catholic Spirit.
Now, in this case, catholicdoes not mean the church led by
(02:39):
the Pope with all the Catholics,the 1.4 billion of those folks
floating around everywhere.
We're talking about Catholicwith the smaller C meaning the
church universal, all the peoplewho are Christian, all the
people who go to church.
When he's talking about on theCatholic spirit, he's saying
what unites all of us Christians, despite our denominational
(03:04):
switches, all of us Christiansdespite our denominational
switches, despite our at thattime leaving the Catholic Church
, and he went to this phrase inthis sermon, this scripture from
2 Kings 10, it's verse 15.
Jehu greeted Jehonadab and saidIs your heart right as my heart
(03:29):
is with your heart?
Jehonadab answered it is, andJehu said If it is, give me your
hand.
The famous phrase from JohnWesley was Give me thine hand.
That's an interesting passage,right?
If you want to pull it out ofyour pews, you can pull it out.
(03:50):
It's there, 2 Kings 10.
What you'll find is this reallylovely verse about people who
are a little bit differentcoming together in a common
cause.
Then they went and slaughtereda bunch of people who worshiped
a different God.
So a little irony amidst all ofthis passage, but he grabs it
(04:16):
because he wanted to get thatconcept of coming together, even
in difference.
Jehu was the king of Israel.
He was anointed by God partlyto take down the house of Ahab
and that he was to eradicate theBaal worship from Israel and
Jehonadab.
He was a leader of what'scalled the Rechabites, known for
(04:38):
their strict adherence to anomadic lifestyle and abstinence
from wine as commanded by theirancestor.
Lifestyle and abstinence fromwine as commanded by their
ancestor.
So these were pretty drivenpeople who lived on the
outskirts of cities.
You can get a picture for whothat was.
So now, when the king Jehu waslooking to overcome those who
were worshiping a different god,he went to people he might have
(05:02):
disagreed with people who wereliving on the outskirts of town
because of it and said we canagree on this, right, we need to
slaughter all the bald people.
You know that we can agree on.
You know, I'm being a littlefacetious.
Sorry Boyd thought I said baldpeople, no, no.
(05:26):
Sorry Boyd thought I said baldpeople, no, no.
In any case, he was going topeople who were different and
saying, hey, we do share heart,right, we disagree on a lot of
things, but we share heart.
We are devoted to.
In this case it was the OldTestament, god, the Hebrew Bible
, god, the God of Abraham, thatthey were committed to.
(05:47):
We share heart in that.
So the point is the phrase asWesley uses it was to invite a
partnership between differences.
For Wesley, this was a time ofsome real division in the church
, right, protestant Reformationhappened not too much earlier
(06:08):
than this, so this massiveleaving of the Catholic Church
and the Anglican Church hadhappened.
Different denominations weregetting started.
So they were fledgling andreally trying to get people into
their understanding of God.
The Catholic Church itself istrying to deal with that
(06:28):
adjustment, that awakening, thatlooking in the mirror and
recognizing a lot of people haveleft for some pretty important
reasons, and so there was a lotof division, right, and it was a
lot of turmoil, and sopotentially you can understand
why Wesley's writing a sermontalking about the unity of the
(06:51):
Catholic Church, little c, theuniversal church, all of us
Christians, and he makes thepoint that we all aren't going
to agree on all points of faith,but we can be united in Christ.
We can be united in our lovefor Christ and for the world God
(07:13):
created and the people Godcreated.
To me it's a point he makesabout the diversity of the body
and it was a pretty provocativestatement to be making at its
time this idea that maybe wecould disagree even as we
worship together.
Maybe we can appreciate that,given the Christian church today
(07:39):
with the stark divisions wehave in the body of Christianity
.
But I like to think too.
I like to stretch it just alittle bit, because I think
underlying is not simply adirective for us to get along.
I feel like maybe there's anunderlying value for God-given
(08:03):
diversity itself.
That's where I land atEphesians 4.
This letter from Paul to thechurch in Ephesus you should
know going in this is one of myfavorite scriptures of all time.
I really got baptized into itwhen I was in seminary and I was
(08:25):
doing youth ministry.
And first of all, I love thephrase in verse 12 where he says
equipping the saints, equippingthe saints for the work of
ministry.
It's one of my favorite phrasesIn seminary, which is where we
go to get educated to becomepastors and get our masters in
(08:47):
divinity.
In seminary there's a lot ofconversation about your call.
God has called you to something.
In seminary, are you called tobeing a church pastor?
Because it can be hard at times, it can be challenging at times
.
You're getting pulled in a lotof different directions.
They want to make sure youaren't just thinking, hey, I
(09:09):
want to be a pastor, it's cool,I get all the free grape juice
and bread I want.
We don't want people walking inlike that.
You want people with the realsense of the whole thing and
needing to understand thatyou're not just wanting to be a
pastor, but you feel like God'scalling you to be a pastor, and
(09:30):
so for me that phrase equippingthe saints was a really big part
of my understanding of who Iwas being called to be Somebody
who comes into a community likethis, and that I was somebody
who was equipping you folks togo do the work of God, you folks
to go do ministry.
(09:51):
So that phrase really resonatedwith me.
But what I also like about thescripture is that it talked
about how we're all equippeddifferently.
We're all gifted in differentways, Different and yet
necessary, important.
There's this phrase here.
(10:13):
Some were called to be apostles, some prophets, some
evangelists, some pastors, someteachers.
If you want to reach out to 1Corinthians 12, there's an even
fuller list of differentspiritual callings, spiritual
giftings.
(10:33):
I really appreciate this senseof everybody being unique in the
way God created them, and notjust unique but blessed with
some sort of gifts to give backto the body, to build something,
to go somewhere.
And I loved that it was gettingrecognized in the church.
(10:54):
You ever have those times wherethat epiphany of faith just
kind of zaps you, where it allsort of clicks together.
That happened with me with thisscripture.
It wasn't that I didn't believethat we it wasn't like I
thought we were all supposed tobe the same ahead of that.
(11:15):
But the affirmation of seeingin scripture 2,000-year-old
wisdom that we're all unique andcalled to something unique,
that really resonated with medeeply.
And Paul, he's using thismetaphor of the body to talk
(11:36):
about Christians, to talk aboutChristianity.
We're all related, we're allrelated, we're all connected.
In other words, your actionsaffect me and my actions affect
you.
We're not in this vacuum ofexperience.
We're connected as one body,which the extension of that to
(11:58):
me and to Paul evidently that tome and to Paul evidently was
that our overall success as abody is largely dependent on our
working together, on ourfiguring out how to allow
everybody's individual gifts tobe able to bloom, to blossom, to
get used.
You know God sent somethinginside of each one of us that
(12:24):
God's intent was for that to getshared, to make the world
better, to build God's kingdom,and that's all in this image of
the body.
Now, that's not new imagery formost of us, is my guess.
This is not the first sermonyou have heard about the body of
(12:47):
Christ.
At least for most of you, it'sjust the best one you've heard
about the body of Christ, atleast until Pastor Lanny does
one right, then he'll take it upa notch.
No, my guess is this isn't thefirst time we've heard it.
But how often, when we'retalking about that body of
(13:11):
Christ, this full complement ofall Christians in the world, how
often are we including thoseChristians that we disagree with
in that body?
We like that image and yet it'spretty easy to kind of think of
others as not truly in the body.
(13:34):
It's really easy to tellourselves well, those Christians
have chose something else.
Well, those Christians havechose something else.
You know, they've pretty muchleft the body, so I'm okay not
to think that way anymore.
Right, we give ourselvesexcuses to look at that church
(13:57):
or that church or that churchand say they aren't really doing
it as God wants them to do,that, they aren't really doing
it as God wants them to do that.
And yet, even with that mindset, here we are still occupying
the same planet as those people,the same nation as those people
(14:19):
, the same community, the samecommunity, the same faith and
often the same church.
How often are we in that spaceof discarding people, assuming
they aren't really part of thebody, even though we are sharing
(14:40):
space with them, even though weare in space with them, even
though we are in that same bodywith them.
To me, this is why Paul istalking about unity.
Remember that in the earlychurch, in these early churches
that Paul was writing to, therewas a lot of conflict, not just
(15:02):
with Christians and Romans andauthorities like that, but also
with those who had becomeconverted, jewish people who are
now Christian and folks who hadgone right into Christianity.
Christian and folks who hadgone right into Christianity had
been persuaded by the message,persuaded by Christ.
(15:29):
So you had both of them inthese same communities of people
with different understandingsof what it means to follow God.
So there was conflict and ifyou read through those letters,
you see a lot of that conflictand it really shouldn't surprise
us that Paul is preaching hereabout unity.
But I want to point out he'snot preaching about uniformity.
(15:51):
He's not saying we all have tobe the same.
In fact, I feel like he'stalking about the opposite.
Not only are we different inthis body, but we are different
in a God-given way, withdifferent gifts to offer to this
world, to this community, andour job is to work towards the
(16:15):
unity that allows all thosegifts to be used, to be shared,
to blossom.
I'm going to get us to the endof the passage here, because I
feel like that's where it getseven more important.
That unity is important becausewe are here looking for growth.
(16:38):
We're looking to grow asindividuals, we're looking to
grow as a church, we're lookingto grow as a body, at least this
part of the body of Christ.
And so here's this verse fromverse 13.
Until all of us come to theunity of faith and the knowledge
of the Son of God, to maturity,to the measure of the full
(17:02):
stature of Christ, I mean thisis the goal that we are all
setting course for.
It isn't just merely to live,it isn't merely just to survive.
We're talking about unity here.
We're talking about maturity.
(17:23):
Here we're talking aboutgrowing into the full stature of
Christ.
We're about progressing, notjust existing, not just
surviving, just existing, notjust surviving.
So you have the church in Paul'stime dealing with diversity and
(17:44):
the need for unity, with theintention overall for growth.
We have the church in JohnWesley's time preaching in
another time of difference,conflict, people trying to
figure out different ways ofunderstanding God.
So maybe this message today isan important one for us as we
(18:07):
live in what feels like anothertime of conflict, another time
of working against each other,and it's into this conflict that
Wesley looks to preach with thephrase give me thine hand.
I want you to hear his wordsdirectly from his sermon and let
(18:34):
them nourish you in what I feelare important ways here in
today's world.
Love me If your heart is right,as my heart is right with your
heart, then love me with a verytender affection, as a friend
(18:55):
that is closer than a brother,as a fellow citizen of the new
Jerusalem, as a companion in thekingdom.
Love me with a love that ispatient if I am ignorant or out
of the way, bearing and notincreasing my burden.
Love me with that love that isnot provoked either at my
(19:16):
follies or my infirmities.
Commend me to God in all yourprayers.
Wrestle with him on my behalfthat he would speedily correct
what he sees amiss and supplywhat is wanting in me.
Beg of him that my heart may bemore as your heart, more right
both toward God and towardhumanity.
(19:39):
Promote me to love and to goodworks.
Speak to me in love, whatsoeveryou believe to be for my soul's
health.
Love me not in word only, butin deed and in truth, so far as,
in conscience, you can,retaining still your own
opinions and your own manner ofworshiping God.
(20:00):
Join with me in the work of Godand let us go hand in hand,
amen, amen.
Friends, we've been learning a little bit about John
Wesley, the founder of theUnited Methodist Church, and
it's been, hopefully, a funadventure.
It was leading us into a newmember class, so to learn a
little bit about theology andthe person that was behind a lot
of what we have done was kindof fun, even for those of you
(00:22):
who have been members for a longtime and maybe lifetime
Methodists.
Hopefully it has been enjoyablefor you.
Week one we talked about Wesleythe man, how the whole thing
got started.
Then, week two, we talked aboutgrace, which is a theological
concept not unique to us butreally emphasized in a way that
(00:44):
makes us pretty darn distinct.
Then finally, last week we weretalking about the importance of
social justice in the UnitedMethodist Church and for John
Wesley in particular.
He would even say are blessedto be able to do the work of
justice and social justice inour understanding.
(01:05):
So finally, we're talking todayabout Wesley's appreciation for
diversity of faith, even in thebody of Christ, the body of
Christianity, and it comes withsome a little bit of irony.
I wanted to talk about Wesley'sappreciation for diversity.
(01:28):
It was especially amidst theother Protestant denominations.
As United Methodism was gettingstarted, we had Lutherans
getting started, presbyterianChurch getting started,
episcopal All of those were kindof getting started and there
was a bunch of diversity.
And for us this diversity wassomewhat unique because a lot of
(01:53):
the other Protestantdenominations and even the
Catholic church that we pulledaway from and the Anglican
church that we pulled away from,were more creedal, meaning
there was a set of beliefs thatwe all would agree to every
Sunday.
We might even read it out loudevery Sunday, and United
Methodists weren't necessarilyagainst that but it wasn't a
(02:16):
focal point in the same way asit was for others.
Because Wesley had thisappreciation for a certain
amount of difference, a certainamount of diversity in the way
we understood things, and we seeit in his sermon, which is
called On the Catholic Spirit.
Now, in this case, catholicdoes not mean the church led by
(02:39):
the Pope with all the Catholics,the 1.4 billion of those folks
floating around everywhere.
We're talking about Catholicwith the smaller C meaning the
church universal, all the peoplewho are Christian, all the
people who go to church.
When he's talking about on theCatholic spirit, he's saying
what unites all of us Christians, despite our denominational
(03:04):
switches, all of us Christiansdespite our denominational
switches, despite our at thattime leaving the Catholic Church
, and he went to this phrase inthis sermon, this scripture from
2 Kings 10, it's verse 15.
Jehu greeted Jehonadab and saidIs your heart right as my heart
(03:29):
is with your heart?
Jehonadab answered it is, andJehu said If it is, give me your
hand.
The famous phrase from JohnWesley was Give me thine hand.
That's an interesting passage,right?
If you want to pull it out ofyour pews, you can pull it out.
(03:50):
It's there, 2 Kings 10.
What you'll find is this reallylovely verse about people who
are a little bit differentcoming together in a common
cause.
Then they went and slaughtereda bunch of people who worshiped
a different God.
So a little irony amidst all ofthis passage, but he grabs it
(04:16):
because he wanted to get thatconcept of coming together, even
in difference.
Jehu was the king of Israel.
He was anointed by God partlyto take down the house of Ahab
and that he was to eradicate theBaal worship from Israel and
Jehonadab.
He was a leader of what'scalled the Rechabites, known for
(04:38):
their strict adherence to anomadic lifestyle and abstinence
from wine as commanded by theirancestor.
Lifestyle and abstinence fromwine as commanded by their
ancestor.
So these were pretty drivenpeople who lived on the
outskirts of cities.
You can get a picture for whothat was.
So now, when the king Jehu waslooking to overcome those who
were worshiping a different god,he went to people he might have
(05:02):
disagreed with people who wereliving on the outskirts of town
because of it and said we canagree on this, right, we need to
slaughter all the bald people.
You know that we can agree on.
You know, I'm being a littlefacetious.
Sorry Boyd thought I said baldpeople, no, no.
(05:26):
Sorry Boyd thought I said baldpeople, no, no.
In any case, he was going topeople who were different and
saying, hey, we do share heart,right, we disagree on a lot of
things, but we share heart.
We are devoted to.
In this case it was the OldTestament, god, the Hebrew Bible
, god, the God of Abraham, thatthey were committed to.
(05:47):
We share heart in that.
So the point is the phrase asWesley uses it was to invite a
partnership between differences.
For Wesley, this was a time ofsome real division in the church
, right, protestant Reformationhappened not too much earlier
(06:08):
than this, so this massiveleaving of the Catholic Church
and the Anglican Church hadhappened.
Different denominations weregetting started.
So they were fledgling andreally trying to get people into
their understanding of God.
The Catholic Church itself istrying to deal with that
(06:28):
adjustment, that awakening, thatlooking in the mirror and
recognizing a lot of people haveleft for some pretty important
reasons, and so there was a lotof division, right, and it was a
lot of turmoil, and sopotentially you can understand
why Wesley's writing a sermontalking about the unity of the
(06:51):
Catholic Church, little c, theuniversal church, all of us
Christians, and he makes thepoint that we all aren't going
to agree on all points of faith,but we can be united in Christ.
We can be united in our lovefor Christ and for the world God
(07:13):
created and the people Godcreated.
To me it's a point he makesabout the diversity of the body
and it was a pretty provocativestatement to be making at its
time this idea that maybe wecould disagree even as we
worship together.
Maybe we can appreciate that,given the Christian church today
(07:39):
with the stark divisions wehave in the body of Christianity
.
But I like to think too.
I like to stretch it just alittle bit, because I think
underlying is not simply adirective for us to get along.
I feel like maybe there's anunderlying value for God-given
(08:03):
diversity itself.
That's where I land atEphesians 4.
This letter from Paul to thechurch in Ephesus you should
know going in this is one of myfavorite scriptures of all time.
I really got baptized into itwhen I was in seminary and I was
(08:25):
doing youth ministry.
And first of all, I love thephrase in verse 12 where he says
equipping the saints, equippingthe saints for the work of
ministry.
It's one of my favorite phrasesIn seminary, which is where we
go to get educated to becomepastors and get our masters in
(08:47):
divinity.
In seminary there's a lot ofconversation about your call.
God has called you to something.
In seminary, are you called tobeing a church pastor?
Because it can be hard at times, it can be challenging at times
.
You're getting pulled in a lotof different directions.
They want to make sure youaren't just thinking, hey, I
(09:09):
want to be a pastor, it's cool,I get all the free grape juice
and bread I want.
We don't want people walking inlike that.
You want people with the realsense of the whole thing and
needing to understand thatyou're not just wanting to be a
pastor, but you feel like God'scalling you to be a pastor, and
(09:30):
so for me that phrase equippingthe saints was a really big part
of my understanding of who Iwas being called to be Somebody
who comes into a community likethis, and that I was somebody
who was equipping you folks togo do the work of God, you folks
to go do ministry.
(09:51):
So that phrase really resonatedwith me.
But what I also like about thescripture is that it talked
about how we're all equippeddifferently.
We're all gifted in differentways, Different and yet
necessary, important.
There's this phrase here.
(10:13):
Some were called to be apostles, some prophets, some
evangelists, some pastors, someteachers.
If you want to reach out to 1Corinthians 12, there's an even
fuller list of differentspiritual callings, spiritual
giftings.
(10:33):
I really appreciate this senseof everybody being unique in the
way God created them, and notjust unique but blessed with
some sort of gifts to give backto the body, to build something,
to go somewhere.
And I loved that it was gettingrecognized in the church.
(10:54):
You ever have those times wherethat epiphany of faith just
kind of zaps you, where it allsort of clicks together.
That happened with me with thisscripture.
It wasn't that I didn't believethat we it wasn't like I
thought we were all supposed tobe the same ahead of that.
(11:15):
But the affirmation of seeingin scripture 2,000-year-old
wisdom that we're all unique andcalled to something unique,
that really resonated with medeeply.
And Paul, he's using thismetaphor of the body to talk
(11:36):
about Christians, to talk aboutChristianity.
We're all related, we're allrelated, we're all connected.
In other words, your actionsaffect me and my actions affect
you.
We're not in this vacuum ofexperience.
We're connected as one body,which the extension of that to
(11:58):
me and to Paul evidently that tome and to Paul evidently was
that our overall success as abody is largely dependent on our
working together, on ourfiguring out how to allow
everybody's individual gifts tobe able to bloom, to blossom, to
get used.
You know God sent somethinginside of each one of us that
(12:24):
God's intent was for that to getshared, to make the world
better, to build God's kingdom,and that's all in this image of
the body.
Now, that's not new imagery formost of us, is my guess.
This is not the first sermonyou have heard about the body of
(12:47):
Christ.
At least for most of you, it'sjust the best one you've heard
about the body of Christ, atleast until Pastor Lanny does
one right, then he'll take it upa notch.
No, my guess is this isn't thefirst time we've heard it.
But how often, when we'retalking about that body of
(13:11):
Christ, this full complement ofall Christians in the world, how
often are we including thoseChristians that we disagree with
in that body?
We like that image and yet it'spretty easy to kind of think of
others as not truly in the body.
(13:34):
It's really easy to tellourselves well, those Christians
have chose something else.
Well, those Christians havechose something else.
You know, they've pretty muchleft the body, so I'm okay not
to think that way anymore.
Right, we give ourselvesexcuses to look at that church
(13:57):
or that church or that churchand say they aren't really doing
it as God wants them to do,that, they aren't really doing
it as God wants them to do that.
And yet, even with that mindset, here we are still occupying
the same planet as those people,the same nation as those people
(14:19):
, the same community, the samecommunity, the same faith and
often the same church.
How often are we in that spaceof discarding people, assuming
they aren't really part of thebody, even though we are sharing
(14:40):
space with them, even though weare in space with them, even
though we are in that same bodywith them.
To me, this is why Paul istalking about unity.
Remember that in the earlychurch, in these early churches
that Paul was writing to, therewas a lot of conflict, not just
(15:02):
with Christians and Romans andauthorities like that, but also
with those who had becomeconverted, jewish people who are
now Christian and folks who hadgone right into Christianity.
Christian and folks who hadgone right into Christianity had
been persuaded by the message,persuaded by Christ.
(15:29):
So you had both of them inthese same communities of people
with different understandingsof what it means to follow God.
So there was conflict and ifyou read through those letters,
you see a lot of that conflictand it really shouldn't surprise
us that Paul is preaching hereabout unity.
But I want to point out he'snot preaching about uniformity.
(15:51):
He's not saying we all have tobe the same.
In fact, I feel like he'stalking about the opposite.
Not only are we different inthis body, but we are different
in a God-given way, withdifferent gifts to offer to this
world, to this community, andour job is to work towards the
(16:15):
unity that allows all thosegifts to be used, to be shared,
to blossom.
I'm going to get us to the endof the passage here, because I
feel like that's where it getseven more important.
That unity is important becausewe are here looking for growth.
(16:38):
We're looking to grow asindividuals, we're looking to
grow as a church, we're lookingto grow as a body, at least this
part of the body of Christ.
And so here's this verse fromverse 13.
Until all of us come to theunity of faith and the knowledge
of the Son of God, to maturity,to the measure of the full
(17:02):
stature of Christ, I mean thisis the goal that we are all
setting course for.
It isn't just merely to live,it isn't merely just to survive.
We're talking about unity here.
We're talking about maturity.
(17:23):
Here we're talking aboutgrowing into the full stature of
Christ.
We're about progressing, notjust existing, not just
surviving, just existing, notjust surviving.
So you have the church in Paul'stime dealing with diversity and
(17:44):
the need for unity, with theintention overall for growth.
We have the church in JohnWesley's time preaching in
another time of difference,conflict, people trying to
figure out different ways ofunderstanding God.
So maybe this message today isan important one for us as we
(18:07):
live in what feels like anothertime of conflict, another time
of working against each other,and it's into this conflict that
Wesley looks to preach with thephrase give me thine hand.
I want you to hear his wordsdirectly from his sermon and let
(18:34):
them nourish you in what I feelare important ways here in
today's world.
Love me If your heart is right,as my heart is right with your
heart, then love me with a verytender affection, as a friend
(18:55):
that is closer than a brother,as a fellow citizen of the new
Jerusalem, as a companion in thekingdom.
Love me with a love that ispatient if I am ignorant or out
of the way, bearing and notincreasing my burden.
Love me with that love that isnot provoked either at my
(19:16):
follies or my infirmities.
Commend me to God in all yourprayers.
Wrestle with him on my behalfthat he would speedily correct
what he sees amiss and supplywhat is wanting in me.
Beg of him that my heart may bemore as your heart, more right
both toward God and towardhumanity.
(19:39):
Promote me to love and to goodworks.
Speak to me in love, whatsoeveryou believe to be for my soul's
health.
Love me not in word only, butin deed and in truth, so far as,
in conscience, you can,retaining still your own
opinions and your own manner ofworshiping God.
(20:00):
Join with me in the work of Godand let us go hand in hand,
amen, amen.
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