In 1773 John Wesley wrote an essay explaining why his country was lacking food and what to do about it.

He was particularly concerned with the poor, whom he had seen gathering food from trash bins around London. Wesley had a few explanations – first, and all of you traditional small government anti-tax conservatives will love this one…he was worried that the tax rate was too high and had stifled the ability for people to find work.

However, tax was not his main complaint – I”ll let Wesley say it himself:
“To sum up the whole: Thousands of people throughout the land are perishing for want of food. This is owing to various causes; but above all, to distilling, taxes, and luxury”

Taxes and alcohol…two favorite whipping boys of Wesley, add luxury a word we might replace with consumerism – and John is really in his wheelhouse here.

Wouldn’t there be more corn to go around, if we stopped using corn to make liquor – and just, you know, ate the corn? And wouldn’t you all be better off if you stopped drinking this “deadly poison; poison that naturally destroys not only the strength and life, but also the morals, of our countrymen?”  If you didn’t know, Wesley hated alcohol.

He goes on like this, “if you all didn’t fancy your horse drawn carriages – we could all be eating the oats that the horses eat! Oh, and if you all started walking again – the cattle ranchers would go back to producing meat for consumption instead of horses for luxurious buggying!

This, by the way, is the primary logic behind why I occasionally stop eating meat as a new year’s resolution. All of the water and grain that goes into producing meat is wasteful, bad for the environment, and bad stewardship of our God given resources. If we just drank the water ourselves, and ate the plants that are turned into feed to produce meat – we’d be living a more efficient and responsible lifestyle! Same logic as Wesley, don’t drink the corn liquor, eat the corn.

If you’ve got three cars for two people, why? Give one away.
If your house has empty rooms, and you know there are kids without families – which you do know, because I just told you. There are kids without families! Why not fill those empty rooms, with kids! – or sell your house, move to a smaller one, and give the money away.
If your coat is good, and keeps you warm, why buy another one for yourself? This is how Wesley’s logic works.

Wesley’s ‘use less, so there is more to go around’ philosophy is a common theme in his life.
There is a legend about him, that he set his salary at a certain stage in his life, when he calculated exactly how much he needed to live on – then resolved to live on that amount forevermore.  As he grew older and sold more penny tracts, he was creating enough income to be rich, but he had resolved to live at that set salary and give away the rest, regardless of how much he made! More income, for Wesley, just turned into more giving. Why would he buy more, when he could be giving more.

So to pivot here, from a history lesson to a sermon:
Jesus said “from everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded”
Uncle Ben from Spider Man said “with great power comes great responsibility”
And John Wesley Said “Get off your high horse, and stop drinking that liquor so there is more food to go around”

We are all responsible for what we have, not just for ourselves – not even just for our families
But for the good of all of God’s people.

The word Amen means ‘so be it’— Live a simple life, reveling in God’s great gifts as a good steward of all God has provided, always with an open mind, open heart, and open hands to hand to those in need.