2010.01.25 Class about Wesley

We had our first of four classes on the Wesleys tonight.

John Wesley was born in 1703 and died in 1791.

Organized Christianity came to British Isles in the sixth century (500s) with Augustine of Canterbury. There is a history of contention between the monarchy and the church (Catholic) about who had the real leadership in the church. So there was a great deal of back and forth between the monarchy and the Pope for authority and this went on for many, many years. An anti-papal sentiment rose up. Henry VIII separates from Catholicism and the Pope. He separates because he wants to divorce his wife and Catholicism would not allow for that. The monarch became head of the church. Church services began being conducted in English instead of Latin. However, the church remained basically Catholic in nature but without the Pope.

Thomas Cranmer wrote the Book of Common Prayer which is still used today and we Methodists use also at times in some of our services (or prayers coming from there).

Mary I was Catholic and had divisions with Elizabeth I, her sister. Her nickname was Bloody Mary and she tried to get rid of Protestantism in order to return England to Catholicism. She had important Protestant clergy arrested including Thomas Cranmer and she had 287 Protestants slain which earned her the nickname, Bloody Mary. After Mary, Elizabeth I came to the throne. She was not that religious and wanted peace in her church. She was herself a Protestant and Protestants, who had been exiled during Mary's reign, came back to England. Elizabeth tries to take a middle road to keep the peace. She said she was not prepared to "open windows into men's souls" and ended the bloody imposition of orthodoxy. Then came James I and Charles I who were both of a more Catholic thinking. (Charles I was beheaded). Then there was no monarch and Oliver Cromwell led for a while. After this, England went back to a monarchy and Charles II came to the throne, then James II, both of whom also had Catholic leanings. By this time, the people had gotten fed up with all this back and forth and wanted to be left alone about religion.

English people had to pledge their loyalty to the Church of England and everyone is born into a parish whether they go to church or not. This continues to this day.

In 1688, William and Mary came to the throne. The Glorious Revolution occurred, called that due to its being a peaceful revolution. Many, many people thought William and Mary were pretenders to the throne and did not recognize their authority.

In Epworth, the Wesleys had a non-conformist background. Samuel (John and Charles' father) was rector at St. Andrews. Samuel thought William and Mary were rightful authorities on the throne. Susanna, his wife, did not think they should have authority. This caused a rift in their relationship and Samuel went away. Susanna is, by the way, known as the mother of Methodism.

Then Ann came to the throne and both Samuel and Susannah thought she belonged there. Samuel and Susannah were reconciled after this.

John was born into a family of girls and until Charles came along, he was the only boy. Susannah made sure her daughters were educated in knowledge and in religion. Susannah herself began conducting services when her husband was out of town and Samuel criticized her for doing that.

There was a fire in the Wesley home and Susannah wrote of it and of the drama of trying to save everyone in the household from succumbing to the fire. John Wesley was 5 years old at the time and was rescued. This made a deep impression on the young boy and he regarded himself as saved for a reason as a "brand plucked from the burning."

At 12, John goes to school in London and then goes from there to Oxford. This is the first big phase of his life and of the Methodist movement. He reads lots of pious literature such as Imitation of Christ and Practice of True Devotion. These readings had rules for living and a search for holiness in common.

About this time Charles meets William Morgan and plans to meet with him on a regular basis on how to be holy. John gets involved and they form what they call the "Holy Club."

Second Phase of the rise of Methodism is when John and Charles go to Georgia. Prior to this, John went to be an Associate Minister with his father. His father dies. John gets invited to go to Georgia and since his father had dreamed of going to Georgia on missionary work to convert Native Americans, John felt this was the thing to do. On the way over, John was impressed by how calm the Moravians remained even when being tossed and turned in heavy storms. John was himself scared and wondered if he was assured as the Moravians said they were assured and this kept them from being afraid.

Charles went to St. Simons Island and John to Savannah. He formed the Savannah Society and met Sophie Hopkey. They were together a long while and Sophie wanted to marry. John literally draws straws to decide whether to marry her and he gets the straw that says they should wait a year. Sophie doesn't wait and marries someone else. He withholds communion from her and is sued by Sophie's husband, Mr. Williamson. He defends himself and says he does this because of her neglect of public service, her neglect of fasting, her neglect of communicating and because she had wrongfully told him she was no longer inclined for Mr. Mellichamp although she was inclined toward him. He said she had also told him she had no desire to marry Mr. Williamson when she knew she did. And she had deliberately lied to him about Mr. Mellichamp and Mr. Williamson. He goes on to say "O how fallen! How changed! Surely there was a time when in Miss Sophy's lips there was no guile..."

He returns to London and the third phase of the rise of Methodism begins . At Aldersgate, he wants people to follow the rules. He meets Peter Bohler who tells him to "Preach faith until you have it and because you preach it, you will have it." He had begun to notice that his faith fluctuated and grew over time. He wrote "In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation: And an assurance was given me, that he had taken away MY sins, even MINE, and saved ME from the law of sin and death."

He becomes very involved with the Moravians, visits their homelands, and sees how organized they are. He thinks there might be degrees of faith and came up with the notion that faith grows over time and also waxes and wanes throughout life.

He meets George Whitfield in Bristol an the revival begins. Gwennap Pit in Cornwall was a great place to preach. People are wary of him but at the same time, people came to hear him preach. In Bristol, he builds the New Room. There are Societies, Classes, and Bands. He takes over a Foundry in London for meetings of these societies. The Classes were asked to help pay for expenses. (Classes were made up of men and women so they were co-ed.) Those richer paid more than those who were poorer. Bands were separated between groups of men and groups of women (they were not co-ed). Bands kept everyone accountable.

Rules of Society were categorized into the three simple rules: (1) Do no harm, (2) Do good, and (3) Stay in love with God. Wesley details specifics on what to do or not do for each of these rules (pages 73 and 74 of tonight's handout).

Some believed if not moved to do something, then wait for the spirit to move you. Wesley says, do something.

The group around Wesley was called Methodist in Oxford but it was not a formal church. Wesley holds things together in the middle. Wesley refutes the "only by faith" idea by saying works are important too.

In his life, Wesley traveled all over the country. People were not fans of his fanaticism. He goes to Epworth and is not allowed to preach in church. He goes out to his father's grave and preaches there. He got thrown out of town for being too enthusiastic about his faith or so people thought. There were lots of evangelicals around during Wesley's time but Wesley had such great organization skills that he was more successful.

Methodist organization:

Preaching and Conferencing - teaches how, what, etc.
Education - Kingswood School
Publishing - Christian library, notes, sermons
Foundry in London

Francis Asbury sent to the colonies to evangelize. Most missionaries were leaving the colonies and Asbury noted that communion was unavailable to the people due to lack of ordained clergy. Wesley decided to ordain Thomas Coke himself. Charles never forgave John for this as he said only bishops can ordain. Charles in buried in church graveyard. John was buried outside church graveyard.

John did marry and it was an unhappy marriage with no children. Charles married happily.

For next week, we were given a sermon to read and we will discuss in class and also a sermon for the week following. Next week's sermon is "The Scripture Way of Salvation" and the week after's is "The Means of Grace." Neither is meant to be a spoken sermon but was written for the purpose of being read.