Revival 2 of 6: "Almost or Altogether?"

• Second Sunday after Epiphany

With 1 Peter 1:13-16

2 of 6 on a series with Adam Hamilton’s 2014 book Revival: Faith As Wesley Lived It

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• Chances are you know I’m a runner.
I run for pleasure, but more for fitness.
For me, running is not exactly a hobby, but more a priority.
I pattern my life with running.

I have a hobby, too: motorcycling. I ride motorcycle for pleasure. Although not recently, as my bike is in a state of disrepair.
Not so urgent that I pattern my life around its repair.

There is only one time to go biking:
when I feel like it. (okay, and when I’m able!)

There are only two times to run:
when I feel like it. And when I don’t.

There are only two times to pray… two times to “be holy.”
When I feel like it. And when I don’t.

Discipleship is not a hobby.
Discipleship is urgent and important enough to be priority.

• Last week we looked at the family of origin of John Wesley, at the role of his mother Susanna, of his father and grandparents, of perseverance. Chapter Two of Adam Hamilton’s “Revival” gives us a glimpse of JW’s schooling and early 20s.

When he was ten years old, JW attended a boarding school (on scholarship). For the first time in his life he was away from home. And he was a young man. Reflecting back on this time in his life, he wrote of his awareness of his own outward sinfulness. “However I still read the scriptures and said my prayers. What I hoped to be saved by was Not being so bad as other people, Having still a kindness for religion; and Reading the Bible, Going to Church, and Saying my prayers.” (from AH/R p. 39).

How does JW’s behavior measure up to 1 Peter 1:13-16?
Prepare your minds for action, discipline yourselves, be holy…

Not so good. Not exactly bad, but not exactly good. You might say “Almost Christian.”

• That idea (the Almost Christian) bounced around in JW’s head for years. He found it repeated in his spiritual readings (good to have spiritual readings: God can speak to us through our readings)
and also through 1 Corinthians 10:31: do everything for the glory of God…
also the Lord’s prayer THINE is the kingdom and the power and the glory, (not mine…)
à he resolved to be better devoted disciple
also additional spiritual readings (The Imitation of the Christ) à he dedicated himself / his life to the glory of God

JW pondered the Almost Christian for over a decade, continually making the conscious decision not to be Almost Christian but Altogether Christian.

God nudged JW through readings.
God nudges US through readings today.

• JW earned his bachelor’s degree from Oxford and was ordained a deacon and accepted as a “fellow” (faculty with teaching and research responsibilities). His younger brother Charles now a student, John and Charles began to meet weekly with 2-3 other students to pray and discuss faith… small group, discipleship group, accountability group. Group led to acts of mercy. Methodical structure of group earned derogatory term “Methodist”.  Study AND love in action.

How now does it measure up to 1 Peter 1:13-16?
Prepare your minds, discipline yourselves…

• Result of study, by the way? Knowledge. Battling ignorance. And from the mid 1700s through today Methodists have started school after school, universities and hospitals around the globe (Duke, Emory, Northwestern, USCal, Boston U, Vanderbilt, many more)

• That verse from 1 Peter 1:16 ends with “Be holy…”

Holy = set apart, set aside. Consecrated.

Habits of holiness… worship (together), study (reading scripture and other), memorization of scripture, prayer (solo and corporate), fasting, almsgiving, Eucharist... acts of mercy, compassion…

• Like brushing your teeth, holiness and discipleship are not once & done, but daily offerings.

• The seeds of revival are in you. Altogether.

• Hymn 562 Jesus, Lord, We Look to Thee

1 Peter 1:13-16        (Common English Bible)                                         1/18/15

¹³ Therefore, once you have your minds ready for action and you are thinking clearly, place your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed. ¹⁴ Don’t be conformed to your former desires, those that shaped you when you were ignorant. But, as obedient children, ¹⁵ you must be holy in every aspect of your lives, just as the one who called you is holy. ¹⁶ It is written, You will be holy, because I am holy.^{[Leviticus 19:2]}

Revival: Faith as Wesley Lived It, by Adam Hamilton

Chapter Two: A Longing for Holiness
Hamilton takes us to Oxford, England, ca. 1720. John Wesley was educated at a boarding school in London and then enrolled at Christ Church, one of the colleges of Oxford University, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He was ordained in 1725, at the age of 22. Wesley began to seek to do everything for the glory of God. His life at this time shaped him and his ministry for years to come, as he urged others to join him in not being an “almost Christian” but to become an “altogether Christian.”