DO-GOODER: The 2nd General Rule

The 2nd General Rule of the Methodist Societies

Secondly, by doing good, by being in every kind merciful after their power as they have opportunity, doing good of every possible sort, and, as far as possible, to all men.
    To their bodies, of the ability which God giveth; by giving food to the hungry; by clothing the naked, by visiting or helping them that are sick or in prison.
    To their souls, by instructing, reproving, or exhorting all that we have any intercourse with; trampling under foot that enthusiastic doctrine that "We are not to do good unless our hearts be free to do it."
    By doing good especially to them that are of the household of faith, or groaning so to be; employing them preferably to others; buying one of another; helping one other in business, and so much the more because the world will love its own, and them only.
   By all possible diligence and frugality, that the gospel be not blamed. By running with patience the race set before them, denying themselves and taking up their cross daily; submitting to bear the reproach of Christ; to bear the filth and off-scouring of the world; and looking that men should say all manner of evil of them for the Lord's sake.

Let’s begin with an assumption. I assume that every Christian knows that he/ she is supposed to help people.

…

Well, now I’m thinking about that…

Let me begin with a statement:  Every Christian is supposed to help people.

The apostle John said, “Whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?”  (1 John 3: 17) And for when you respond that, “I LOVE everybody,” John adds, “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” (verse 18)

We worship in spirit and in truth (John 4: )  but we love in DEED and in truth.   In the 2nd General Rule of Methodism, John Wesley put it like this:

It is therefore, expected of all who continue therein that they shall continue to evidence their desire of salvation,…secondly, by doing good, by being in every kind merciful after their power as they have opportunity, doing good of every possible sort, and, as far as possible, to all men.

In other words,

Technically, this is a popular misquotation, but it does accurately reflect Wesley's sentiments.

In John 6: 1-14, Jesus fed people because their bodies needed food and they weren’t in a place to provide food for themselves.  But in John 6: 22-59, when those same people showed up looking for more free food, Jesus didn’t feed them.  He preached to them about the bread of life.    Sometimes there’s a need of the body.  Sometimes there’s a need of the soul.

And sometimes your body is tired, your soul is exhausted, and you don’t feel like helping anybody.

The good news is that it’s O.K.  to not feel like helping people.  The other good news is that you have to help anyway.  Jesus fed 5,000+ hungry people even though the people had found Him while He was trying to take a few days off to rest and grieve for His cousin who’d just been beheaded (Matthew 14: 10-13).

We must, as the General Rule states, “[trample] under foot that enthusiastic doctrine that "We are not to do good unless our hearts be free to do it."   

During His earthly ministry, Jesus gave priority to helping His people, the Jews (Matthew 10: 5, 6) because in that time, Israel was the household of faith.  But Jesus healed the children of foreigners in pagan cities (Matthew 15: 24-28).  He evangelized immorally living women in Samaria (John 4).  Jesus helped officers of the heathen military that was occupying His nation and oppressing His people (Luke 7: 1-10). 

As a spiritual family, Christians ought to give priority to each other.  But, like our Lord, we don’t use religious or cultural preference as an excuse to turn our backs on Mormons, Muslims, Hindhus, Sikhs, Atheists, conservatives, liberals, Blacks, Whites, Latinos, Asians, Middle Easterners, Africans, rich, poor, straights, gays, or whomever we have power and opportunity to do good.

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith (Galatians 6:10).

Doing good is exhausting.  It always has been.  “But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good” (2 Thessalonians 3: 13).  

Do good anyway. 

Doing good is inconvenient and expensive.  It always has been. 

Jesus said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?”

Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.” (John 6: 5-7)

Do good anyway.

The calling to Christian good-doing requires what Wesley called, “all possible diligence and frugality.”  In the law, God commanded Israel to leave the gleaning of their fields (Leviticus 19; 23: 22) for the poor in their communities.  The practice of gleaning meant that a hard-working Jewish farm had to budget for less than 100% of his harvest. 

The principle of gleaning is:  You can’t help all the people you can if you spend all the money you make.

We aren’t generous when we’re broke.  Hence, the need for “diligence and frugality.” Roughly translated, that means working hard and being cheap.

The surrounding culture tells us to consume and accumulate, but Christians are called to transcend the influence of culture and to be DIFFERENT.  

In a sermon called, “The Use of Money,” John Wesley offered these 3 simple rules:  “Having, First, gained all you can, and, Secondly saved all you can, Then give all you can."

Does that sound crazy?  Does that sound radical or un-American?  Are you thinking, “Graves, it doesn’t take all that?”

Then you’ll love the last part of this General Rule.  Christians do good “by denying themselves and taking up their cross daily; submitting to bear the reproach of Christ; to bear the filth and off-scouring of the world.”

Well, if that sounds crazy, remember whom Wesley got it from.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Matthew 16: 24)

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves

#Awordtothewise

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

DO NO EVIL OR DO NO HARM?

 

from The General Rules of the "United Societies" organized by Mr. Wesley in 1739

There is only one condition previously required of those who desire admission into these societies, a "desire to flee from the wrath to come, and to be saved from their sins."  But wherever this is really fixed in the soul, it will be shown by its fruits. It is therefore, expected of all who continue therein that they shall continue to evidence their desire of salvation,

First, by doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind, especially that which is most generally practiced

In general, the first rule of living like you believe in Jesus is to DO NO HARM. 

But how do you live through this messed-up existence without doing harm?   The answer is: by avoiding evil of every kind, especially that which is most generally practiced.   That’s what the rule says. You avoid doing harm by not doing evil. The rule does NOT say that you avoid doing evil by not doing harm.

Yeah.  Read that again: . You avoid doing harm by not doing evil. NOT: you avoid doing evil by not doing harm.

 

In other words, ALL EVIL IS HARMFUL BUT NOT ALL HARM IS EVIL.

And that’s pretty much the opposite of how our culture thinks about morality. Like, if Person A tells Person B, “It’s wrong for you to have sex with person C because you and they are not a married man and woman.” 

Person A might respond, “It’s not wrong.  We’re not hurting anybody.” 

“Not hurting anybody” is society’s basic standard for moral rightness.  Our cultural principle is: if it doesn’t hurt anybody it can’t be wrong.

In the opening chapters of the Bible, God told our first parents to not eat from a certain tree.  God warned them that eating from the tree would bring harm in the form of death.  The serpent’s argument was “You will not surely die.” (Genesis 3: 4).  In other words, nobody will get hurt.  And if there is no harm, the serpent reasoned, there can be no evil. 

Two problems with the cultural/ serpentine standard. (1)  Harm isn’t always immediate or obvious; and (2) Harm is alwass subjective. What hurts always depends on how people feel.

The Biblical standard, and therefore, the Christian standard, (1) Accepts that harm may happen in the short term, the long term, or the eternal term; and (2) Defines evil, also known as sin, objectively defined as disobedience to God.

 

From God’s perspective, the problem in Eden wasn’t that Adam and Eve would feel immediate pain but that Adam and Evil would disobey God.  Disobeying God is sin.  Sin is evil. And all evil, all sin, is inherently harmful even if you don’t immediately drop dead from doing it.  Adam and Eve didn’t immediately drop dead from eating the forbidden truth.  Cultural/ serpentine morality would shout, “See.  They weren’t hurting anybody.”  But the wages of their sin lead to all the harm that has ever happened on the planet.  ALL EVIL IS HARMFUL.

Sin provokes God’s judgment and condemnation.   “You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness.”  (Habakukk 1:13)   

And yes, the grace of God in Jesus Christ offers deliverance from the judgment and condemnation through forgiveness. But forgiveness requires repentance.  Repentance requires confessing that your action were sinful, which means confessing that what you did was “evil”  even if you weren’t hurting anybody.  Grace saves us from the harm of judgment by dealing with the evil of sin.

A fundamental principle of Christian grace is that all evil is harmful. 

But not all harm is evil.

When you sin and a loving friend rebukes you, the rebuke may hurt, but the your friend’s rebuke isn’t evil because God commands, “You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him.”  (Leviticus 19: 17)

When a child does wrong and her loving father spanks her, the child experiences physical and emotional pain.  It hurts, but it’s right because “He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly.” ( Proverbs 13:24)

When God punished Cain for murdering his brother the sentence of exile and stigma caused social, personal, emotional, and perhaps physical pain.  But God’s response was just and merciful. God hurt Cain but God didn’t sin, because all harm isn’t evil.

But some harm is.  When Cain killed Abel, it was a violation of God’s command.  Cain hurt his brother in a way that WAS evil.  The legacy of that hurtful and evil act echoed through Cain’s descendants and led to the second murder, five generations later (Genesis 5: 23, 24).  Evil always ultimately causes harm.

Now, here’s the takeaway.  We can’t control whether or not we do harm, we can only choose whether or not to do evil.  So when you’re uncertain what to do, stop trying to figure which choice will be less hurtful and decide which choice is Biblically RIGHT.  Ask yourself, “Which choice is right in God’s eyes?”

In Psalm 19, King David realized he couldn’t control the unforeseeable damage from his actions. “Who can understand his errors?” David asked. 

He concluded that on his own he couldn’t avoid the tendency to unconsciously do harm.  So he shifted from his criteria to God’s. 

Cleanse me from secret faults.

Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins. 

Let them not have dominion over me.

Then I shall be blameless, 

And I shall be innocent of great transgression. (verses 12, 13)

Instead of choosing our best estimate of what will do the least harm, we must follow our clearest understanding of what is right in God’s eyes.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

Be acceptable in Your sight,

O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. (Psalm 19: 14)

Choose to obey God and trust Him to make all things work together for good.  Choose to strive against the impulse to socially acceptable sin that crouches at our doors.  Choose to avoid evil of every kind, especially that which is most generally practiced

Actually, that’s the only real choice we have.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves

#Awordtothewise

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield

Taking the Lord's Name in Vain (Blogging the General Rules)

The First General Rule states:

It is therefore, expected of all who continue therein that they shall continue to evidence their desire of salvation, first, by doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind, especially that which is most generally practiced, such as The taking of the Name of God in vain

The first evil which is most generally practiced on Wesley’s list is The taking of the Name of God in vain. 

This happens to be #3 on God’s top 10 list of thou shalt nots (Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 5).  But it’s so common now (so generally practiced) that most of us don’t even flinch.   Christians do it, too.

When we exclaim, “Jesus!  Good Lawd! OMG, ”we use God’s name with grammatical irreverence.  When we use His name as an adverb for the degree of damn, as an interjection to express our emotion, or as an expletive or filler word to demonstrate our lack of vocabulary and imagination, it’s disrespectful and grammatically incorrect.

There’s also conversational vanity. 

“A son honors his father, And a servant his master. If then I am the Father, Where is My honor? And if I am a Master, Where is My reverence?” Says the Lord of hosts to you priests who despise My name.

Yet you say, “In what way have we despised Your name?” (Malachi 1:6)

God is real and He hears our prayers (Psalm 65: 2).  When you yell, “Jesus Christ,” the actual living Jesus Christ hears you.  Being God transcendent and omnipresent, He can handle all of the prayers in the universe all at once; but ----- you ever have somebody call your name and after you stop what you’re doing and leave where you are to respond they say, “Oh.  Nothing”?    You know how irritating that is?  Now multiply that by 7 ½ billion.  

God is real.  If you’re going to call Him, have something to say.  Just basic conversational courtesy.

It’s common to take the name of God in vain grammatically conversationally and deceptively. 

The 9^th Commandment is  “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor;” (Exodus 20:16) or, as we often paraphrase, “Thou shalt not LIE.”

Now check this out.

The Hebrew word translated vain or in vain in the 3^rd Commandments (Exodus 20:7; Deuteronomy 5:11) is the same word rendered false in the 9^th Commandment.

To take the name of the Lord in vain is to lie ---- and put your lie on God.  It’s to be so vain that you speak for God what God hasn’t spoken.

When you declare and decree and prophesy that sowing a $200 seed in your service, or ordering the anointed bottle of holy water with the Dasani label scraped off, or liking and sharing that picture of stacks of $100 bills with a photo-shopped White Jesus in the background will force God to give them a blessing---- you are taking God’s name in vain.

And the Lord said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart.” (Jeremiah 14:14)

How many times do you have to NOT receive what they declared and decreed before you stop replying, “I receive that, in Jesus name”?  

And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’—when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has NOT spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him. (Deuteronomy 18: 21-22)

Make up motivational stories if you want to, but leave Jesus’ name out of it.

Grammatically

Conversationally

Deceptively

And (last one) relationally.

I am a child of God.  I am a follower of Jesus Christ.  I’m a servant of the Lord, indwelled by the Holy Spirit.  I wear the Lord’s name as a token of identity, purpose, and spiritual authority. 

But, I have these little quirks, these habits, these tendencies to do the evil that I don’t want to do.  I have a sin nature.  You do, too.  But, if I’m going to call myself by His name  then I can’t let what comes naturally define me.  I’m supposed to be a different.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5: 17)

So, I struggle.  I wage an internal war against my flesh.  And if I fall, I don’t use His name as an excuse.   No.  His name on my life compels me to  humble myself, and pray and seek His face, and turn from my wicked ways (2 Chronicles 7: 14)

We can’t just go, “Mmm.  Nobody’s perfect” It would be dishonoring the Name we bear.  We would be like the people Isaiah and Jesus confronted.

These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ” (Matthew 15: 1-3, 7-9, referencing Isaiah 29: 13)

We can’t do that.   I know everybody else does.  But we can’t.  Not if His name means as much as it should.

 ---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com  

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter  @AndersonTGraves  

#Awordtothewise

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

“THE GENERAL IDEA”: Blogging through the General Rules of the CME Church

So John the Baptist would start off a sermon like this: “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”  (Luke 3: 7)

Basically, “Hey, losers!  Do any of you wanna not go to Hell?”

(John the Baptist cares nothing for your motivational speaking techniques.)

John referred to the congregation as bunch of snakes.  He questioned their ancestry (verse 8).  He called them a bunch of useless trees waiting to be chopped down (verse 9).

From John the Baptist this wasn’t a series of  insults.  Well, it WAS a series of insults, but it wasn’t ONLY  a series of insults.  John’s introduction was also an invitation.  An angry, sarcastic, magnificently effective invitation.

They flocked to the altar. (Actually they flocked to the muddy edge of the Jordan river bank, but you get the imagery.)  Peasants, tax collectors, Romans, Galilean fishermen---- they asked, “What should we do, Reverend John.  We want to change.  We want to get right before the Messiah comes to judge us with His winnowing fan in His hand.  WHAT SHALL WE DO?!”

John answered them all.  Whatever their ethnicity, status, occupation, or past performance, he gave them pastoral counsel about what lifestyle changes to make to align their daily lives with the will of God. 

The membership policy of the angry, sarcastic fire-and-brimstone Baptist preacher is the official membership policy of the Methodist movement.

One of the defining documents of the Methodist movement is John Wesley’s General Rules.

The introduction to the General Rules says:

The General Rules of the "United Societies" organized by Mr. Wesley in 1739 are as follows:

There is only one condition previously required of those who desire admission into these societies, a "desire to flee from the wrath to come, and to be saved from their sins." 

That’s it.

No religious resume requirement.  No Bible literacy exam.  No financial disclosure statement.  You don’t have to first prove your worth or your commitment.  You just have to not want to go to Hell when Jesus comes to judge the world.

If you "desire to flee from the wrath to come, and to be saved from their sins," we’ll work with you on the rest.  The rest, of course, refers to those lifestyle changes.

The General Rules continue:

But wherever this is really fixed in the soul, it will be shown by its fruits. It is therefore, expected of all who continue therein that they shall continue to evidence their desire of salvation,

First, by doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind…

Secondly, by doing good…

Thirdly, by attending on all the ordinances of God…

I’m a Methodist pastor, and I don’t know for sure who in my church is truly saved, wherever this is really fixed in the soul.  But we can all know the evidence of at least their desire of salvation because it will be shown by its fruits.

We all come into the church as broken, unholy people; but in the church we strive together for wholeness and holiness.    In the church, we help each other align our daily lives with the will of God,

First, by doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind…

Secondly, by doing good…

Thirdly, by attending on all the ordinances of God…

Methodism is an open door to discipleship.  Membership is easy.  Discipleship is work.  From as far back at least as John the Baptist, that’s been the “general” idea.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

#Awordtothewise

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

METHODISTS AND MONEY. #24, Blogging through the Articles of Religion

Article XXIV - Of Christian Men's Goods

The riches and goods of Christians are not common as touching the right, title, and possession of the same, as some do falsely boast. Notwithstanding, every man ought, of such things as he possesseth, liberally to give alms to the poor, according to his ability.

In the early days of the Christian movement in Jerusalem, believers “had all things in common, sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.” (Acts 2: 44, 45)

By the end of Acts 4, donating 100% had become the norm in church culture.  Lay people did it.  Even up and coming preachers like Barnabas liquidated their assets and handed the money over to the apostles (Acts 4: 34-37).  Once giving at that level became the tradition, it stopped being about God to some some church-folks.  Giving became about how holy they LOOKED to everybody else.   

In Acts 5, a Christian couple, Ananias and his wife Sapphira, sold some land, and contribute part of the proceeds to the church.  Only, Ananias and Saphhira lied.  They said that they were contributing all of the money---- just like Barnabas ‘n’em*.

*’n’em also ‘nem = unauthorized contraction for “and them”

Long story short, God was pissed.  He struck husband and wife dead.  D-E-A-D.   But not because they gave less than 100%.  God was angry abot the lie, not the amount of the gift.    Peter said, “While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” (Acts 5:4)

“While it remained, was it not your own?”   

Yes it was.

“And after it was sold, was it not in your own control?”

Also, yes.

Barnabas. Ananaias.  Sapphira. And let’s not forget Lydia. 

In Acts 16, a successful businesswoman named Lydia became a Christian convert.  She gave moral and material support to Paul’s missionary work, but she didn’t sell her business or sign the profits over to the church.

The moral of the stories is: A congregation can pool its financial resources up to and including every dime each person makes, but they don’t have to.  God’s fine with any one in any congregation who opts out of direct deposit.   You don’t forfeit your salvation by declining to forfeit your check. 

(That said, I can’t think of one example since Acts 4 of religious collective economics that’s worked long-term.  It usually ends with an investigation, or gunfire.)

The church doesn’t own your money. 

But then again, if you’re a Chrisitian, neither do you.

Stewardship

The key word for Christians and money is STEWARDSHIP.  Stewards exercise authority over their Master’s goods for purposes defined by their Master.  For followers of Jesus, money is a gift that God gives us to use for godly purposes.   

Based on Jesus’ parables on stewardship, John Wesley preached a sermon called “The Use of Money.” The message presented “three plain rules” for godly stewardship of money.  The three rules are inseparable.  They’re effective only when considered as one comprehensive rule:  Gain all you can; save all you can; give all you can.

Gain all you can gain but not at the expense of life, health, mind, or the good of our neighbors.

Save all you can by avoiding expense that feed gluttony, vanity, pride, the desire to impress others, and sensuality (indulgence of any senses: taste, smell, sight, etc.). 

Giving begins with the tithe.  Begins.  Wesley himself lived off close to 10% of his every increasing income and gave away the rest.    Giving begins with the church.  Begins.  Wesley didn’t give exclusively to his church. He probably gave more to the needy individuals who crossed his path than he formally contributed to Methodist or Anglican activities. 

Now go back to Acts 2.

Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. (verses 44, 45)

The first church’s budget was something like 100% charity and benevolence. 

The Biblical background of Article 24 calls on the church to minimize its overhead while maximizing our generosity.   

 “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith” (Gal. 6:10). After the Christian has provided for the family, the creditors, and the business, the next obligation is to use any money that is left to meet the needs of others. (Charles White, “What Wesley Practiced and Preached About Money” )

Wesley preached that every Christian should:

 First, provide things needful for yourself; food to eat, raiment to put on, whatever nature moderately requires for preserving the body in health and strength.

Secondly, provide these for your wife, your children, your servants, or any others who pertain to your household.

If when this is done there be an overplus left, then ‘do good to them that are of the household of faith.’

If there be an overplus still, ‘as you have opportunity, do good unto all men.’ In so doing, you give all you can; nay, in a sound sense, all you have.

All we have.

All I have.

All you have.

Let us pray.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

#Awordtothewise

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

ORIGINAL POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: #23, Blogging Through the Articles of Religion

Article XXIII - Of the Rulers of the United States of America

The President, the Congress, the general assemblies, the governors, and the councils of state, as the delegates of the people, are the rulers of the United States of America, according to the division of power made to them by the Constitution of the United States and by the constitutions of their respective states. And the said states are a sovereign and independent nation, and ought not to be subject to any foreign jurisdiction.

For weeks, I searched the scriptures for an explanation of this Article.  I read scholarly and semi-scholarly interpretations of Jesus’ views on government.  I  examined the theology of the founding fathers.  I started and restarted this blog article at least 10 times.  But the Holy Spirit wouldn’t green-light any of it.  I couldn’t get peace over the Biblical justification for this doctrinal pronouncement.  

Then I realized:  there isn’t one.

Article 23 has nothing to do with the Bible.  This one is all about political correctness.

John Wesley (1703-1791) was the founder of Methodism and an ordained priest in the Anglican Church.  Legally, the Anglican Church, also known as the Church of England, was an extension of the government of Great Britain.   During the early days of Methodism in the American colonies, Wesley didn’t ordain any colonial preacher, so the sacraments were administered by British clergy who sailed over from England.  That worked well enough until the American colonies rebelled against Great Britain.

When the American Revolution ended in 1783, the British government, and therefore the  Church of England, no longer had any jurisdiction in the newly formed United States of America.  America needed a Methodist Church with its own ordained pastors.  So, despite the concerns of other British Methodists, including his own brother, Charles, John Wesley ordained Thomas Coke as superintendent to the United States, and sent him across the Atlantic with instructions to serve in America and to ordain Frances Asbury as co-superintendent. (The title superintendent was later changed to bishop.)  With Coke, Wesley also sent a Methodist hymnal and a revised version of the Anglican Articles of Religion.  Wesley had trimmed the 39 Articles of the Church of England down to a Methodist-friendly 24.   

On December 24, 1784, the Christmas Conference in Baltimore formally created the Methodist Episcopal Church in America.  This conference, the first Methodist General Conference, established the tradition of electing superintendents (bishops). It also adopted Wesley’s 24 articles of religion as the foundational doctrine of the Methodist Church in America.

Now, Baltimore one year after the American Revolution wasn’t exactly the ideal setting to launch a church whose clerical authority derived from a Englishman who held office in an extension of British government.  The delegates of the first General Conference knew that they had to do something to reassure the ultra-patriotic culture that Methodists hated the evil British Empire just as much as anybody else. 

So, the first General Conference in America added an additional item to the articles of religion.  The additional item was inserted as Article XXIII.  

Article 23 is true but it really shouldn’t be a doctrine. It isn’t anti-Biblical.  It’s just non-Biblical.  It’s not about freedom from Catholicism.  It’s not about a separation between church and state.  It’ not about anything spiritual or ecclesiastical. 

Article 23 is an acquiescence to socio-political pressure.  The words are the sound of the 18^th century church pleading, “Hey, America, please like us. We’re just like you.”

Article 23 is the sound of the Methodist church being politically correct.

I really wish we were over that, but we’re not.

America ca. 2015 is as politically volatile as America 1784.  If the CME Church removed Article 23 we’d be accused of everything from hating America to collaborating with foreign states.  So, #23, the least Biblical of the 25 Articles needs to stay---- for the same non-Biblical reasons it was written in the first place.

But knowing now what it looks like to our descendants when we manifest political correctness as non-Biblical statements of doctrine, perhaps future General Conference will find the courage to say NO to proclamations that please the present culture but ignore the Bible.

Perhaps. 

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

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