Making Room

A sermon for 9 July 2017

Romans 7:15-25                                                                                                                           Matthew 11:25-30

“How is it with your soul?”  And when was the last time someone asked you this?

This is the fundamental question to be answered as we venture into this text to discover what it is Jesus is really offering.  Our Lord is not offering to salve our consciences which may be haunted by less-than-holy actions on our parts.  Rather, our Lord is talking about what repentance really means when it leads us into a life of sanctification – becoming more holy, more perfect in love.

It is often said the Good News is only for those willing to believe it, but I think this particular piece of Good News would be most welcome news to those who struggle and cannot see their way out; those who have finally come to understand the world and our human culture do not have the answers to life’s most challenging problems.

There is a catch, though.  We like to think of Divine Love as without any conditions, but this is being less than honest with the text, the overall context in which it is written, and with the whole of biblical doctrine.  The catch is this: we must “make room” for this Reality.  Many of us are so overwhelmed with such complex lives that we think there just is not any more room – OR – we are afraid.  What’s worse than this, though, is we often expect Jesus to navigate the clutter in our lives, walk around or get rid of the junk Himself – with no effort or thought on our part. 

In other words, we may be subconsciously saying if Jesus wants a place in our lives, He will need to make the room Himself.

When we talk about what it means for us to “make room” for Christ, though, we don’t often know what it involves.  A contemporary and careless reading of this passage speaks precisely to what I have mentioned so often before: we are not quite prepared to follow Messiah; instead, we call ourselves ‘saved’ and expect Him to follow us as we go our own ways.  It is when we refer to Jesus as our “co-pilot” rather than our Shepherd.

So what to do?  Believe it or not, there is a simple solution to help us to begin anew this seemingly complicated Journey of discipleship.  It will require a willingness to be vulnerable, a willingness to trust, and a willingness to make the effort; but the solution is recapturing a uniquely Wesleyan practice that has fallen by the wayside over the generations:  The Class Meeting.

In his book, The Class Meeting, Dr. Kevin M. Watson cited a remarkable and impressive statistic: in 1776, Methodists in America accounted for 2.5 percent of church folk; by 1850 that number had exploded to 34.2 percent!  Hundreds of thousands of people were coming to faith in Christ as a result of the ministry of American Methodists; but they were staying in the Covenant of Christ because “every Methodist was expected to participate in a weekly class meeting”.

The class meeting was not another “program” and had no agenda or curriculum.  It was not another Bible study or Sunday school class, important and necessary as these will always be, and it isn’t even a “how-to” study session.  The class meeting is a signature of Methodism, but it is the root of discipleship, the faith community, and growing perfect in faith and in love.  John Wesley once wrote, “… whatever weakens, or tends to weaken, our regard for these [class meetings], or [interferes in our] attending them, strikes at the very root of our community”.

The class meeting was not – and is not - about being a good or loyal Methodist.  Denominational brand-name does not have the influence it once did, but this (I think) is due largely to the fact that many cannot tell the difference between a Methodist or a Baptist, a Catholic or an Episcopalian.  There are profound as well as subtle differences in understanding and expressing doctrine and theology, of course, but many (perhaps especially the Methodists) over time have diluted the distinctions by choosing “programs” (that seem to have a hint of entertainment) over substance. 

Many “programs” designed to attract public attention are good and have some merit to them.  Biblical literacy and doctrine are always extremely important tools for discipleship.  But when was the last time a fellow Christian approached you and asked, “How is it with your soul?”  When was the last time someone offered to pray with you?  Not just for you but with you?  

“How ya doin’?” or “What’s up” are not at all the same thing!  And because our expressions of concern are not specific enough, a good many Christians have become marginal at best and completely disconnected at worst.

The class meeting is not at all about being a “good Methodist” or supporting the numbers.  More than making and keeping Methodists, the class meeting is the method of strengthening disciples and the community of faith.  However the expression, “How is it with your soul” comes, the class meeting is entirely about very purposefully, very intentionally, very deliberately, growing in faith and in love with The Lord and with our neighbors … even those we don’t like.  Maybe especially them.  Because as it is written, we cannot claim to love The Lord and hate a neighbor (1 John 4:20).  It is entirely about the sanctified life, a life in pursuit of holiness.

George Whitefield and John Wesley were contemporaries in 18^th-century England.  They were both priests in the Anglican Church, and they both took to “field preaching” rather than to sit and wait for folks to show up for church.  There were distinctions between the two, however.  Whitefield was said to have been the more dynamic preacher, but Wesley was the teacher, the disciplinarian (not the ‘punisher’!), the shepherd, a true priest of the Church.

What came because of their efforts was nothing short of astounding, but the staying power of Methodism was in the class meeting.  Thousands were converted to Christ as a result of Whitefield’s preaching; but because there was no structure, no real connection, no real expectations, and certainly no community support, many ofthese converts soon became as “seed by the wayside” (Matthew 13:4).  Wesley wrote, “The consequence is that nine in ten of those once awakened are now faster asleep than ever”.

The failure of Whitefield, then, was not the preaching; it was the lack of community substance.  It was the lack of follow-up, connection, and even fundamental care and concern for the souls of the newly converted even he came to acknowledge.  He wrote, “My brother [John] Wesley acted wisely; the souls awakened under his ministry he joined in class and thus preserved the fruits of his labor.  This I neglected, and my people are a rope of sand”.

Church membership is easy and calling oneself a Christian is easier still, but discipleship - which necessarily involves taking up one’s own cross and all this implies, including church membership and being Christian - is hard.  Trying to maintain the life of a disciple is harder still … especially when we choose to go it alone.

It becomes necessary, then, that when we choose to “make room” for Christ, it also means making room for His disciples, the other “members of the Body” … because they need us as much as we need them! 

The goal of the class meeting and our intimate connection with one another, then, is not to make being a Methodist hard; it is to make discipleship more fulfilling by helping us to make more and more room for The Lord and for one another.  And this happens when our faith becomes experiential rather than theoretical.  Our Lord does not call us to isolation; He calls us from isolation.

The life leading to entire sanctification – meaning, when we can look upon the worst of the worst and still see “sacred worth” hidden underneath – means making more and more room for that which is everlasting, for that which breathes life into us all, for that which clarifies the true meaning of life – the Eternal which has already begun for we who are justified (pardoned) before The Lord.

Even fasting seems to be focused on giving up something, but it is not the end; it is a means to an end.  We do put aside things we can live without, but in doing so we find more and more room for Christ and more and more room for our fellow disciples. 

When Jesus said, “Come to Me, you who are weary”, He was not saying, “How ya doin’?”  He was – and is – saying, “How is it with your soul?  Haven’t you had enough?  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me … and don’t worry, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light”. 

This is what the sanctified life is leading us to and what Christ Jesus is calling us to.  But we still must make the room.  And when we do, we will find still enough room for all the other things in our lives we have to deal with.  When The Lord comes first, however, our priorities will certainly change – and so will our lives and the life of the Church … all for the better.  All for life Eternal – the fullness of the Life we are created to live.  Amen.