“The Aldersgate Experience: belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong A Heart Strangely Warmed” to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed A sermon by Pastor Steve Easterday-McPadden you from the power of sin that leads to death. for First UMC, Grand Junction, Sunday, May 24, 2020 • I came across a very well-done video from UM This sermon can be listened to on the FUMCGJ Communications that sheds some light not only on website: www.fumcgj.org/media/ the significance of this event in ’s life Scripture Text: Romans 8:1-3, 38-39 [NLT] but also on its importance to us as United Methodists, as well. Take a look… OPENING (*https://www.umc.org/en/content/how-aldersgate- changed-john-wesley.*) • Corey/Charlotte set the reading of the Scripture text up with a reference to ’s Preface SERMON THOUGHTS to the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans because of its significance to John Wesley’s journey in faith. • and its “triad” (“three-legged stool”) – its significance for John Wesley, a On this date, May 24th, 282 years ago, Wesley clergyman in the Church of England. reflected in his journal on what could be described ✓ Scripture as the most profound spiritual experience in his ✓ Tradition life. Let me share his words with you: ✓ Reason In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading [Martin] • Wesley’s profound experience of God in his life Luther's “Preface to the ”. About at Aldersgate resulted in the incorporation of this a quarter before nine, while he was describing the element into his theology of the sources of spiritual change which God works in the heart through faith in authority in his life, giving rise to what is referred Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did to as the Methodist “quadrilateral”: trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an was given me that He had taken away my ✓ Scripture sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin ✓ Tradition and death. ✓ Reason And with that, the opening verses from Romans 8 ✓ Experience that Corey/Charlotte just read for us became • The paragraphs of The UM Book of Discipline crystal clear, not so much in Wesley’s head, but in dealing with “Our theological Task” describe the his heart: interplay of these 4 sources and criteria of our So now there is no condemnation for those who theology really well. And I want to share them 8th century CE], the ecumenical creeds, the with you. teachings of the Reformers, and the literature of “Wesley believed that the living core of the contemporary spirituality. Thus, tradition provides Christian faith was both a source and a measure of authentic Christian witness, though its authority derives from its → revealed in Scripture, faithfulness to the biblical message. → illumined by tradition, → vivified in personal experience, and “The Christian witness, even when grounded in → confirmed by reason.” Scripture and mediated by tradition, is ineffectual unless understood and appropriated by the individual. To become our witness, it must make sense in terms of our own…[personal] experience.” “For Wesley, a cogent account of the Christian faith required the use of reason, both to understand Scripture and to relate the biblical message to wider fields of knowledge. He looked for confirmations of the biblical witness in human experience, especially the experiences of Disclaimer on “quadrilateral”…that’s why I like regeneration and sanctification, but also in the the image on the slide, with equilateral triangle ‘common sense’ knowledge of everyday surrounded by reason. experience.” Considering each in a little more detail… [Source: The Book of Discipline of the UMC 2016 (Nashville: The UM Publishing House, 2016), Para. 105, “Scripture is primary, revealing the Word of pp. 82-83). Emphases added.] God ‘so far as it is necessary for our salvation.’ • Wesley’s inclusion of experience of the living Therefore, our theological task, in both its critical Christ through the witness of the Holy Spirit in and constructive aspects, focuses on disciplined one’s life provided the vital connection between study of the Bible. head and heart that launched the Methodist “To aid his study of the Bible and deepen his movement and propelled a worldwide, 18th century understanding of faith, Wesley drew on Christian reformation that continues to this day. tradition, in particular the Patristic writings [ca. the close of the 1st century through the end of the TO THE SCRIPTURES CONCLUSION • Teach from the Scripture passage – How could Wesley’s covenant prayer in contemporary English. one’s heart NOT be “strangely warmed” by the Let us pray together – reality of these words from Romans 8? I am no longer my own, but yours.

Put me to what you will, place me with whom you will. Rom. 8:1 So now there is no condemnation for those who Put me to doing, put me to suffering. 2 belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to Let me be put to work for you or set aside for you, him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed Praised for you or criticized for you. you from the power of sin that leads to death. Let me be full, let me be empty. 3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of Let me have all things, let me have nothing. the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what I freely and fully surrender all things to your glory and the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body service. like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God And now, O…[glorious and blessed] God, declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his …[Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,] Son as a sacrifice for our sins. … You are mine, and I am yours. So be it. 38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate And the covenant which I have made on earth, us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither Let it also be made in heaven. Amen. angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor [Source: https://thewell.cor.org/wesley-covenant- our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of prayer-card-traditionalcontemporary-package-25] 39 hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.