Remembering Poldark

"Do all the good you can,

By all the means you can,

In all the ways you can,

In all the places you can,

At all the times you can

To all the people you can,

As long as ever you can."

~~John Wesley

What I like in a homily, sermon, or e-mail message is a phrase which changes my perception. Last week, listening online to Riverside Church, I heard the new interim minister tell us what was wrong with mainline churches. "They have forgotten the stories." The fundamentalists are ever ready to tell others of their salvation--the hour, day, and year-- and ask in return, "Where were you when you were saved?" But the mainline churchgoer seems embarrassed to even admit that instead of the morning paper, jog, or outing to Starbucks, he or she went to church. "There is no inner transformation." There is no confrontation with that other kind of fundamentalism, blind faith in science. This past Sunday, I visited Christ United Methodist Church. One of the best parts for me in the Winston Graham novels, the Poldark series, was the supporting character Drake Carne. The time frame is the early days of what would become Methodism, what was then known as The Connexion. Christ United Methodist Church on Park Avenue is a far cry from John Wesley riding on horseback preaching the freedom for all to learn to read, to reject a life of alcohol and despair. What an arduous life those circuit riders had in America. Sometimes the circuits were as wide as five hundred miles. Many of the riders slept outside as bedbugs and fleas were the bane of parishioners' hospitality. Women had prominent roles. They led classes, ran orphanages, and if the rider didn't show up, gave the sermon. John's brother Charles Wesley's birth was one of those miracles that seem predestined. Premature, he hardly cried or had signs of life for weeks. However, his mother encouraged him. She taught the children (19 of them) Latin, Greek, and French and, probably the most important lesson, a fire for living. He wrote something like 8,000 hymns. The best of the morning at Christ UMC was the nine o'clock service. Such simplicity in a setting so elaborately beautiful! And what a joy to hear a homily of the kind that has the one focus of attention that upsets preconceived suppositions. In this one, the minister talked about "naming." He mentioned the Sermon of the Mount and how radical it was. When Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world," he wasn't talking about a future state; he was naming us, telling us who we are, our identity. Rev. Bauman said, "Your middle name is Child of God." What a difference it would make if when we introduced ourselves we said, "I'm Salt," or "I'm Light." This early service in cane chairs rather than pews set in a side chapel with a domed ceiling right out of antiquity reminded me of those Drake Carne days. As Charles Wesley recommended, I sang fervently.

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...may the blessings of sudden insights no matter at what age be with you...