THE ESSENTIALS

Sermon Summary 3/10/19, “The Essentials” (Hebrews 1:1-3)

Responding to the General Conference in St. Louis two weeks ago, how do we minister together in times of division?  John Wesley was quoted: “In the essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.  We missed it!  We missed unity.  We missed liberty.  And did we ever miss charity! 

Yet we must minister together.  What we have to say is important!  The church of Jesus Christ has the answers to the world’s problems.  We have the answers to families, to fractures, to nations.  We must minister even in times of division.  And since the world needs us, ideally we do it best as a global church. 

To minister together, we need to return to the essentials, and the Center of our faith is Jesus Christ.  We are not a religion of laws, that’s Judaism.  We are not a religion of the book, that’s Islam.  We are the one religion with a person at the center of our faith, the incarnate Deity, Jesus Christ.

Yet we confuse dogma, doctrine, and yes, even opinion with Jesus.  And it is our arguing about opinions that tear at our very fabric. 

Methodists are not creedal creatures.  The only confession we make is at our baptism that “Jesus Christ is our Savior...to serve him as your Lord.”  “Jesus is Lord,” the oldest Christian Creed, our only confession of faith.   Dogma, what all Christians believe, is best expressed in the Nicene Creed (google it and note that the opinions that divide us are not mentioned).  Doctrine, 30 to 50 statements of belief, from “Belief” to “Eternal life,” with some denominational differences.  Christians are divided here by our understanding of Scripture.  Methodists believe that Scripture is authoritative for all matters of salvation and we avoid issues of literal interpretation.  “Think and let think”—-Wesley.

That leaves opinions which are presently damaging our ability to minister to a world desperately in need.  In his sermon “Catholic Spirit” (meaning universal), Wesley pleaded for Christian unity.  “Though we cannot think alike, can we not love alike?”  Great question! Then he paraphrases 2 Kings 10:15, “If thine heart is as mine, if thou lovest God and all mankind [the Great Commandment], I ask no more, give me your hand.” 

Lent is a good time to get back to the essentials and return Jesus to the Center of our faith.  And asking, “can we not all love alike?”  Amen.