Friday, August 10, 2007

Holy love

"For those who are soteriologically oriented and who are suffering, who bear the burdens of wrenching sin, whether personal or social, who have felt the anguish and the near despair of a divided will whereby the mind assents to what goodness it knows, but the heart simply does not follow; for those who seek the freedom of the love of God and neighbor, but know only the slavery of self-will on a personal level, and the bondage of an intolerant tribalism on a group level; for those who hanker after the good community, in which fellowship is a gracious reality, and in which consumerism and competition do not divide; for those who are tired, old , and lonely, who have been forsaken by an indifferent, materialistic society that considers them nothing; for those who yearn for a gracious word of liberty, real liberty, not the phony kind of liberty that the world offers that leaves people under the grievous dominion of sin while it simply polishes their chains, for all these people, these hurting people, the practical theology of John Wesley was good news indeed. It proclaimed nothing less than liberty to the captives as well as the acceptable year of the Lord. It offered succor where there was neglect; hope where there was despair; love where there was none. Pastorally sensitive without diminishing the high calling of the gospel, Wesley developed a ministry that was marked by a sophisticated balance, a balance that evidenced nothing less than abiding holy love, the very emblem of historic Methodism itself.”— The Theology of John Wesley, pages 330-331.

No comments: