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Two Great Themes Two great themes - for the whole church, the Feast of the Ascension - despite its oddness for today’s scientific world view, with its picture of Jesus being ‘beamed up’ to a destination somewhere above the clouds, it expresses a profound truth, simply this: Jesus is Lord of all! Every part of our lives, our world, our universe is touched, shaped, blessed and challenged by his love, goodness and truth. Jesus has the place of ultimate authority … in all things. For me it’s wonderful that this great festival falls on a weekday. That makes it the festival for the lives of lay people! It reminds us that Jesus is Lord of all - our work, the ‘ordinary’ stuff we routinely do, the preoccupations that fill our thoughts - and not just those special moments on Sundays. Nothing we are or do is beyond his interest and care. My second great theme, again perhaps a rather quirky one for our sophisticated 21st century, but for a Methodist Local Preacher like me it is as inspirational as anything ordinarily mortal could be to set alongside the Ascension … for this Sunday is Aldersgate Sunday! In case you struggle with church history, Aldersgate Sunday is the anniversary of the Conversion of John Wesley just three days after his younger brother Charles had had a very similar experience. He tells the story himself in a famous passage from his Journal. "On 24th May 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." John and Charles Wesley were both priests in the Church of England and remained so all their lives. As young men they were deeply dedicated to their faith and ministry in highly traditional ways. Together at Oxford University they met regularly with a group of friends to live out a disciplined Christian life: Bible Study, Worship, especially the Eucharist, visiting those in prison and others in need. Their dedication earned them a nickname: ‘Methodists’. As part of their profound commitment to serve God, the brothers felt called to the mission field in the American colonies. It was a call that turned to failure. They were too demanding of their parishioners there, and they returned to England with shattered dreams. On their journey they had met groups of Moravian Christians who inspired and puzzled them with their sense of a close personal relationship with Jesus. For all their dedication and all their efforts, the Wesleys knew this was something they simply did not understand. So it was that John, aged 34, reached Aldersgate Street. John whose life had looked set for teaching as a university don, the very model of a dedicated traditional churchman as his father had been, had his life turned upside down from that moment. He accepted an invitation to reach out to those thousands on the fringes of society who because of the immense changes being brought by the industrial revolution were beyond the reach of local Anglican churches. He began a ministry of open-air preaching - first to the miners of the Bristol area - and then …everywhere! ‘The world is my parish’ he famously said. When he died in 1791 it is estimated that he had travelled 250,000 miles, usually on horseback and preached 40,000 times. The Methodist Church began, small today in the UK, but 80 million strong worldwide. Through his and Charles’ preaching, thousands who had been beyond the reach of the churches found faith and transformed lives. The early ‘Methodists’ became committed and enthusiastic members of the Church of England - too enthusiastic very often and despite the Wesley’s strongest efforts, a new denomination emerged from the revival. Although John did not sum up his message in quite this way himself, its heart is found in the ‘Four Alls’. All need to be saved; All may be saved (this is a key point - no one is beyond the reach of Christ and everyone is welcome); All may know that they are saved (a reminder of the assurance that the Wesleys found at Aldersgate that inspired their remarkable ministry); All may be saved to the uttermost (the basis for a ‘methodical’ commitment to discipline, education and a truly holy life) If that sounds a bit abstract, that’s unfair to them. They were profoundly practical Christians, deeply committed to social justice, to the dangerous campaign against slavery, to education and improving the health of the poor. Charles shared the preaching ministry with John. But following his conversion experience, he began writing hymns. It’s worth turning to the Index of Authors at the back of the church hymnbook sometime and reminding yourself of just how many we still sing. ‘Hail the day that sees him rise’, his Ascension Day hymn was written during the year after his conversion. English has changed since the eighteenth century, so the words are not exactly as first written, but even so, as a reflection on the meaning of the Ascension, it is amazing. You can sense the excitement and passion of his relationship with his Lord as he meditated on the story. Verse 6 (in the St Lawrence hymn book) is my favourite. It demonstrates Charles’ profound love for the Bible in the way he weaves together Romans 8:34, Hebrews 7:25, John 14:2, and 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 in just four lines of poetry. ‘Still for us he intercedes His prevailing death he pleads; Near himself prepares our place He the first-fruits of our race.’ Feel free to include your own ‘Alleluias’! And it's not too late to share in Jesus' great work of prayer in a special way between Ascension and Pentecost by joining with Churches Together in Towcester and the worldwide church by joining in 'Thy Kingdom Come'! .
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