Strangely Warmed

And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us. United Methodist Communion Ritual United Methodists don't pay enough attention to this line in our communion ritual. Holy Communion is not only a gift that God gives to us, but an offering (or oblation) that the church makes to the Father. In the Eucharist, the church offers its praise and thanksgiving to God and perpetually unites itself with Christ in his once-for-all sacrifice on the cross. The prescribed sacrifices of the temple and tabernacle have not been laid aside because they were irrelevant or barbaric or represent outdated, primitive religious impulses. They were subsumed, rather, in Christ's self-offering on a hill outside Jerusalem. Jesus made the one full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice required to establish and maintain God's new covenant with his people. ...

All you need is love. That’s what the Beatles sang in 1967, and that’s what many people seem to believe. Love was also a major theme of John Wesley’s preaching in 18th century England, but Wesley would disagree with the Beatles. That’s not all John Wesley thought God required; that’s not how he read his Bible. To be sure, love is what distinguishes the altogether Christian from the almost Christian. Love is an essential element of true Christianity; it’s not the optional icing on the cake. In Wesley’s view, however, love does not replace or supersede the requirements of common decency or the law of God; it crowns them with God’s glory. I’ve been living this week with the text of Wesley’s sermon, The Almost Christian . In Wesley’s view, you aren’t really what God wants you to be as a Christian until you love him with your whole heart and your neighbor as yourself - and are filled with genuine faith. That doesn’t mean that Christians are free to ignore God’s behavioral requirement...