By John Warren

 

Well summer is here!

Teachers are celebrating and the students too. Parents are happy right now but will be ready for school in a week or two!

Summer for me is also a time for me to read. If I can find a spot in the corner by the window or in the shade of morning on the patio, I am a happy man.

I picked up a little book of John Wesley writings; Thirty Questions a Short Catechism on the Christian Faith. Can you tell I am a pastor? I think Wesley gets lost in the United States, but if you go to England you will find that he is admired and loved not only by the people of the Methodist Churches but in the general public as well as a scholar and great person who worked to improve not just the faith life of people but their worldly lives as well.

One of the things on my bucket list is to go on a Welsey pilgrimage in England.

In chapter 13, Wesley poses the question “What was the purpose of Jesus’ life and ministry?”

We look at Jesus’ life and we find him training his disciples, healing the sick, teaching and feeding multitudes, casting out demons and proclaiming the in-breaking of God’s kingdom.

So what do you say was his purpose? To answer we must step back like observing a great painting in a museum and look at the broad picture.

When I do that, what I see is Jesus rewriting history. That Jesus is rewriting history, erasing the mistakes made by Adam and Eve in the garden when they fell to Satan’s temptations.

The first thing Jesus did after being baptized was go into the wilderness to face being tempted by Satan. His ability to turn aside opened the door for us to do the same. Wesley addressed this as a living goal for all Christians to strive to live into perfection, in other words to strive in our lives for improvement.

The good news is that Christ is in you helping you along the way. He left us with a very simple play book path love God to the best of your ability and love one another as you love yourself. If you do that, you will have eternal live.

In doing that you would see the world change for the better as the kingdom of God alive and operating right here and now.

We have room for improvement wouldn’t you say?

 

John Warren is Senior Pastor at First United Methodist Church, 502 North 6^th Street in Orange.