This sermon was the last sermon John preached at Oxford college – he preached it in a room full of professors,  college officials, other preachers, preachers to be, and students….and he absolutely burned them all down..after preaching it, he wrote “I preached, I suppose for the last time, at St. Mary’s, I am now clear of the blood of these men and have fully delivered my own soul” he went for broke, and it worked.

This is the sermon that got John Wesley banned from Oxford – it’s very simple, really – and, like all of Wesley’s sermons, it follows very plain logic, informed by a practical take on the Bible and Christian living.

Wesley lays the groundwork like this: When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, the followers of Jesus started doing all sorts of crazy, Spirit empowered things. Some of those were very visible ‘supernatural’ acts like speaking in other languages or healing – but Wesley says that it seems like these ‘outward’ signs were the exception, not the rule. He says that the defining trait wasn’t the flashy outward signs, it was the Spirit inspired Holy living. Those first converts in the early church were noticeable because of their love for God and neighbor – and Wesley went out of his way to make sure we knew that love of neighbor meant taking care of the most vulnerable people: the poor- widows – the fatherless – people sick or in prison….the mark of conversion, for Wesley, was seen when people starting doing those things – because “Christianity is not a word that describes a set of opinions or doctrines, it refers to people’s hearts and lives”

Nothing shocking going on here, I’ll bet all the professors and pastors, and hot shots were totally on board with this simple idea – that the miracle of Pentecost was seen most clearly when the early church began living in radical love for God and others.

So, why did he get banned for life from this sermon?
He wonders, aloud why there are no Christians living such radical, Spirit inspired lives now? Wasn’t this the faith that the disciples spread? Did we not inherit  what they were passing along through the generations? Isn’t this our faith?

And then – he goes for broke, he doesn’t just wonder why an obscure ‘on one’ is living this way – he starts making lists:

He wonders if his beloved country, England, was embodying this radical love? Were the poor and fatherless being taken care of, were Christians eager to reach out to friends and enemy to share both their radical love, and their things? Could you look at the governmental policy and see marks of radical, self-giving love?  No. Wesley plainly says that he has never seen a Christian country on the face of the Earth, and that’s the sort of thing that will get you banned.  Even though it’s plainly true – it was true then and it’s true now.

If your idea of radical Christian love looks exactly like the structure and policy of your country’s government or your party’s platform – you’ve got Christian love twisted. I’m an American, and I am a pastor in the tradition Wesley started, and what he said about his country is true of my country – we may have plenty of things that are good an honorable, as well as plenty of brokenness and sin, but to call us collectively – as a country – Christian – misunderstands what radical, global, self-giving, Spirit empowered love looks like. You can see how this sort of talk could cause a stir in a room full of stuffy bigwigs. That sort of talk can get you booted from a pulpit today, but Wesley’s just getting started…

He goes on to take this simple logic and apply it to every sort of person who is in the room:
Professors: does your life look like the upside down, Spirit inspired life of the first believers, who gave it all up for the sake of others? Are the students you guide doing the sort of things the first Church did? Probably not.

Pastors, you’re gifted speakers, I`m sure, and your people probably love you – but is your own life defined first and foremost by the fruit of the Spirit…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self control? I doubt it, you probably all look like everyone around you, Wesley says

Students, you don’t’ get a pass, what about you? Are you diligent and hardworking, showing respect to the folks who have come before you? That’s not the word on the street. He even challenges them directly – from the pulpit – like “you think you’re living the sold out life of the early disciples, come step up to the podium and tell us all about it.” No one stepped up.

Wesley believes that we are all made of the same stuff as the disciples who became legends in self-sacrifice and love. And he believes that the Holy Spirit is still the same, teaching us and giving us power to do all that God asks – and God asks for some crazy things in our pursuit of more perfect love. And, if those things are true, Wesley wonders….how come no one is out here doing it?

And that’s the sort of sermon that gets the pulpit taken from you, which is what happened to Wesley.

I’m going to close us with this beautiful and brutal tirade on comfortable living, straight from the mouth of a ‘full speed ahead, damn the torpedoes” Wesley he wonders…
“Where does Christianity now exist? Where, I pray, do Christians live? What country is filled with the Holy Ghost..where the people are of one heart and of one soul, where they can not stand to see anyone among them lack anything, but continually give to every man as he has need..who, one and all, have the love of God filling their hearts, and constraining them to love their neighbor as themselves, who have all put on mercy, humbleness of mind, gentleness, patience – who offend not in any kind either by word or deed against justice, mercy, or truth..but in every point do unto all men as they would these should do unto them? With what propriety can we term any a Christian country (I’ll add, in keeping with this sermon Christian professor, politician, student, or pastor) can we call anyone a Christian which does not answer that description?

In reading this to you all, I don’t see myself as Wesley, coming at you all as fake Christians because your lives look so normal. I see myself as the pastor – or the proud Englishman – the one Wesley is so confused about. How could we follow a God who transformed the world with radical peace and love, who offers the Spirit of God so that we could do the same – and still live such ordinary lives? If I  was in the pews, hearing this, among the scowls of the important gatekeepers and ambitious student preachers, I would have dismissed Wesely as a radical and never offered him the pulpit again.

But that doesn’t mean he was wrong.

The word Amen means ‘so be it’ may every follower of Jesus live a life that looks so radically different from the world around them, that people can’t help but see Jesus. May we follow God’s Spirit into radical new places and  – in doing so – become a more credible witness for Jesus.