Social Holiness – Faith in Action
Continuing with our theme of Christianity being a social religion, let's be reminded today from John Wesley that even holiness is not only a personal thing. All that talk about Christian perfection last week may have caused us to think that it is our own personal victory over sin that matters. But listen to Wesley again in a sermon: "There is no such thing as solitary religion. 'Holy solitaries' is a phrase no more consistent with the Gospel than 'holy adulterers'. The Gospel of Christ knows of no religion but social; no holiness, but social holiness."
That's a startling one isn't it? A holy loner is no more a Christian idea than a holy adulterer, Wesley claims. Because holiness, by its very nature, implies a life of good works lived out in the community in which you are placed, not a life withdrawn from the community and staring at the face of God all day long.
Wesley's Practical Ministry
There are many stories of how the Wesleys themselves embodied this social holiness. John Wesley was never content to sit and write about God and holiness without going out and doing good. Listen to a quote from his diary: "At this time of year (winter), we usually distribute bread and coals among the poor of our society. But now I realized they needed clothes as well as food. So on this and the following four days I walked through the town and begged 200 pounds, to clothe them that needed it most. It was hard work, as most of the streets were filled with melting snow, often ankle deep, so that my feet were steeped in snow-water from morning til evening. I held out pretty well till Saturday morning."
He was in his 80s when he wrote that!
True Fasting Leads to Action
This was truly characteristic of his whole life. Wesley was forever collecting money for the poor, helping people find jobs; he set up schools and visited prisons; he helped widows find accommodation; he set up the first free medical clinic in London; he campaigned against slavery. His was no theoretical Christian life. He lived it.
How about us this Lent? Are we so busy fasting and focusing on ourselves, that we've forgotten that holiness is a social thing, above all?
In Isaiah 58, God has some harsh words for those who fast and put ash on their heads, but don't do good. He says: "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?" (Isaiah 58:6-7 NIV11)
Let's remember that our call to holiness, to scriptural perfection (to use our phrase from last week) is not just about personal victory over sin. It's about doing good works and caring for people, in the name of Jesus.
May we do more than just fast and pray and worship. May we be practitioners of true social holiness.
