Nobody's perfect. Or are they?
It was nothing new.
Really. The scriptures attest to it. The church fathers wrote about it. The Orthodox and Catholic traditions taught it.
But by the 1700s in England a fundamental idea about what salvation is, had been pretty much left by the wayside. The people called Methodists unearthed it and rekindled interest in a most important idea, and ended up changing the course of England and then America.
Charles Wesley and his more famous brother, John, began a movement to re-invigorate the Church of England, to help people move away from being "almost Christians" who observed the outward forms of religion. Instead, they could become people who knew and felt deeply that they had been put right with God ("justified") through the sacrifice of Jesus. Most people who think of Christianity today probably think of salvation as just that. Being rescued from eternal death or punishment through the undeserved generosity of God.
But to the Wesleys and all those who helped grow the movement, another idea was also very important: the here and now matter. God desires -- and it is very much for our own good -- that we be saved from sinning while still here on earth; that we be transformed away from self and sin and become houses for Christ, the Love Divine, to live in. A true, beautiful, joyful life is to be had, if only we'll cooperate with God's graciousness and let ourselves be remade back into his image in the here and now.
In fact they believed the scriptures taught that we could be so entirely transformed -- by the grace of God, not our own doing, of course -- that we could get to a point where (as John Wesley put it) "no wrong temper, none contrary to love, remains in the soul; and that all the thoughts, words, and actions, are governed by pure love."
In a hymn (sacred poem) in 1742, Charles expressed that one could have
A heart in every thought renew’d,
And full of love divine,
Perfect, and right, and pure and good,
A copy, Lord, of thine.
They called this way of being, Christian perfection. "Perfect" meant "completed" or "thoroughly formed" in their time. But because the word "perfect" can seem a bit off-putting in our day, another term the Wesleys used is easier for us to accept: entire sanctification. Other traditions say "theosis" or "divinization." However, the idea is essentially the same. As St. Athanasius wrote (and using here the language of his day), "God became man that man might become God."
John actually saw this idea of salvation in the here and now -- this being remade to become as God -- to be the main reason the movement existed at all. Towards the end of his life, he wrote in a letter, "this doctrine is the grand depositum which God has lodged with the people called Methodists; and for the sake of propagating this chiefly He appeared to have raised us up."
Even now when being ordained, Methodist pastors are asked, "Are you going on to perfection?" and "Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life?"
(Spoiler alert: expected answers are "yes," and "I do.")
With ears to hear, you'll recognize this thought in many of Charles Wesley's hymns, even in a fourth stanza of Hark, the Herald Angels Sing that's often omitted for some reason:
Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring Seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
These hymns, where the singers ask God for help in becoming fully holy in heart and mind, are the hymns Phil focuses on in this project. They're the ones that most resonate with him for personal reasons. Also, he believes it's a very powerful message that has kind of been left by the wayside for some reason in churches of all stripes. And, that it's a message that could be very potent and attractive to people in our fairly nonreligious era. This good news is not believing in a proposition so as to avoid Hellfire; but one of being completely in tune with the Divinity, living in love and charity with your neighbors, and walking in newness of life.
Rather than working hard at "trying to be better," let's remember to look at this possibility as a joyful and living response to God's graciousness. Let's remember that a loving God cares about us too much to leave us as we are; that God is very alive and active to help us open our hearts and be participants in the Divine nature in whom we live and move and have our being. What better life could there be?
Let's close with another example, from a hymn that hearkens back to St. Augustine noting that "our hearts are restless until they rest in thee." Here's Brother Charles's take on it. It's also how Phil chose to start and end this album. Dear friend, though far away, may it also be the prayer of your heart too:
Come, thou long-expected Jesus,
Born to set thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us.
Let us find our rest in thee.
For further reading:
• A more in-depth explanation by Dr. Steven Manskar, former Director of Wesleyan Leadership for the United Methodist Church.
• A really good blog entry about how this idea is the very reason for Methodism; by Dr. Kevin Watson, a professor of Wesleyan studies.
• John Wesley's own essay explaining what "christian perfection" is, in an online pdf.
