On the 24 May 1738, John Wesley felt his heart strangely warmed after encountering Jesus personally in a meeting he went to very unwillingly in Aldersgate Street in London. He felt a trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation. It was on this day we believe the Methodist movement was born.
We easily forget Wesley had a serious spiritual crisis before Aldersgate. An Anglican priest who had tried all sorts to get it all to make sense. He knew about Jesus, he didn’t know him in his heart.
On this day, something made him go to evensong at St Paul’s. There the Psalm sung was Psalm 130.
He was in the depths. He waited. Somehow he knew a spiritual stirring in him. The words of the Psalm are a calming in a storm.
Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning. Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lordthere is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
Something then made him go “unwillingly” to a meeting… and there he heard Luther’s preface to the letter to the Romans… and the rest is history.
This 24 May, I went to evensong here in our cathedral. The day we remember John and Charles Wesley was mentioned. A retired Anglican priest sitting opposite me winked at me. Afterwards he wished me a happy Wesley Day. I joked to his wife “I’m now going somewhere unwillingly!” To which she said looking worried “really?” not realising I was joking. He then said “what? To the pub?”
It struck me as we worshipped tonight that Methodism, a revival movement within the Church of England, was born with a moment of divine spark and a persuasion of God’s grace in someone who was in a mess. It was born with a realisation that Jesus can be met and faith is personal. I find Anglican evensong a space to think, reset and find those truths again for myself. I’ve not had an easy couple of weeks, not a crisis like Wesley, but I needed to find God with me again today.
The other thing we should remember today is that most of the Methodist work was done outside. The stiff and starchy Anglican machine of the 18th century didn’t welcome a new message or any enthusiasm! Today in the North West is Whit Friday. A day on the street! The Holy Spirit came to people outside. Wesley drew large crowds and many came to faith who’d never heard about Jesus before. Methodism was very exciting! My presidents letter on being accredited as a local preacher in April 1990 was written by Dr John Vincent. He wrote “for every word you preach in church, preach two outside.”
Methodist readers on this Wesley Day I just ask two things.
1. Have we lost the excitement of the grace of God? And…
2. Do we need to worry less about keeping an institution going and become a movement again? Remember it was never Wesley’s intention to start a separate church.
Has Methodism a future? Discuss! There’s a third question!!
Here’s an account of someone who later went to hear Charles Wesley preach. Some would say he was a better preacher than his brother.
“ I got a guide and went to hear him. I found him standing on a table-board, in an erect posture, with his hands and eyes lifted up to heaven in prayer, surrounded with, I guess, more than a thousand people; some few of them fashionable… but most of the lower rank of mankind…
He prayed with uncommon fervency, fluency, and variety of proper expression. He then preached about an hour… in such a manner as I have seldom, if ever, heard any Minister preach… to convince his hearers that… God is willing to be reconciled to all, even the worst of sinners.Although he used no notes, nor had anything in his hand but a Bible, yet he delivered his thoughts in a rich, copious variety of expressions…
He concluded with singing, prayer, and the usual benediction…Never did I see or hear such fervency in the service of God… If there be such a thing as heavenly music upon earth, I heard it there… I do not remember my heart to have been so elevated, either in collegiate, parochial, or private worship, as it was there and then…If, therefore, any inquire ’Can any good come out of Methodism?’ I can only answer…‘Come and see.”
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