The biggest challenge in reading his sermons is that they were written in a language that was familiar to the people at the time, but isn’t to us. So, if he were writing today, here’s what that first statement might look like.
From there he says we need to know two things:
- What does almost mean?
- What does being a Christian mean?
Almost, as my dad would say, repeatedly when I was growing up, only cuts it in love, horsehoes, jazz, hand grenades, and nuclear war. The rest of the time it doesn’t get us anywhere.
What I love about this sermon, is that it still applies today, because for Wesley, almost means being very critical of Christian Culture that doesn’t actually make it to Christian faith, and is therefore not much different than what he calls, “heathen honesty.”
That term, when I read it, both struck me as incredibly important, but it also convicted me that I’m not going to come out of this unscathed. I’m going to be in trouble as I read through this sermon.
Heathen honesty means just what you think it does. Its what regular non Christian people do as a part of our everyday world, and it is the first piece of the Almost Christian puzzle.
For Wesley, this isn’t the end goal of anything, but it’s the lowest level of who we hope to be, not even who we are yet. For him, there is nothing special about this. Even though some would argue that this is all that is needed. This is why I started to feel uncomfortable.
The Christian Shell is the next piece. It is also full of good things, but is not enough.
But then after this, Wesley has this great line, that I had to read several times before it hit me, and then it came down like a ton of bricks.
If I wasn’t sitting, I’d be sitting down at this point, because this was the point in his sermon when I was starting to get convicted, because in addressing what was going on in his time, he is addressing us, and me today. He says this about sincerity,
By sincerity I mean, a real, inward principle of religion, from whence these outward actions flow.--John Wesley, Sermon #2 “The Almost Christian”
And me, being the smart alec that I am, snickered for a second at the “Principal of Religion” because all I thought of was one of my school principals, but then he describes what he is talking about. And I want you to read what he is saying here, and I don’t even have to translate it, because it is very plainly said.
Sincerity, therefore, is necessarily implied in the being almost a Christian; a real design to serve God, a hearty desire to do his will. It is necessarily implied, that a man have a sincere view of pleasing God in all things; in all his conversation; in all his actions; in all he does or leaves undone. This design, if any man be almost a Christian, runs through the whole tenor of his life. This is the moving principle, both in his doing good, his abstaining from evil, and his using the ordinances of God. --John Wesley, Sermon #2 "The Almost Christian"
What’s wrong with that? That sounds good doesn’t it? That sounds like if you are doing that, then you should be a Christian, except that Wesley responds with this
False start, offense, #19, half the distance to the goal line, still first down
And what happens if you pile enough of those kinds of penalties on? You never cross the finish line do you? You can’t, and Wesley asks the question, if what he’s saying is true, is anyone ever actually an “almost Christian?” The thought is that if you make it that far, then you would have to make it all the way. How could you not?
And Wesley says, that not only is it true, but it happens a lot, and then he names names, specifically, he names himself. And says that he had been doing it not wrong, but he was missing something important.
Go back to our scripture reading for this post out of Acts. Wesley uses at the basis for his sermon Acts 26:28
Paul, at this point in the story, finds himself in prison. First under one governor, and then under another. Until eventually, he appeals to be brought to Caesar for trial. Before he gets there, King Agrippa comes and he questions Paul. This is in Acts 24-28 where all of this is taking place.
And what comes out through all of these discussions is this. Paul is calm and reasonable, by everyone’s account, except the Jewish religious leaders who are trying to charge Paul with anything they can get to stick. And here is where it gets bad for us and for the Jewish leaders of the time. The governor, in explaining how all of this came about and the charge were made says this.
These, seemingly enormous religious divisions by those in the middle of them, were seen as petty quibbles by the rest of the world outside of them, and not just that, but that Paul was the reasonable one and these others were making stuff up. But it doesn’t end there.
Paul makes his own defense, not against the charges as much as about the “almost” religious life of the people who were bringing the charges, and then how he found something different.
He tells Agrippa, that he’s had the Heathen Honesty, he’s had the Christian Shell, and worse yet, he’s been so very Sincere in everything that he did for his faith, but it all brought him half the distance to the goal line! He says he never crossed over. Not until he had the moment when he truly met Jesus for the first time on that road to Damascus and his life was changed!
Moreover, he hasn’t hidden this from anyone, least of all Agrippa who has heard all that he has been saying, and this is when Agrippa replies with Almost thou persuades me to be a Christian.
What was missing? Paul had everything going right, and was doing everything right, but he missed the point. He was only ever going to get half the distance to the goal.
The same is true of John Wesley. He, in his life, had done everything right, but until he had his Damascus road encounter, for him it was at Aldersgate, he was only ever getting half the distance.
What is the difference?
It’s not about doing all the right things. Paul had done all the right things, Wesley had done all the right things, but do you know what others saw in them before they changed? They saw was the governor saw in the others. They saw quibbling of bits of religion that no one else understood or cared about. That they believed all the good that they were doing could be done by people without religion or faith of any sort. That’s the heathen honesty.
But Wesley describes something different, the thing that has the power to change the world isn’t in just getting half way to the goal.
He says its first about loving God with all that you are, such that God is the first, middle, and last priority in life. And that we love our neighbors, not just doing good things for them, but truly loving them, warts and all, and that takes a bigger step. Because then you have to accept them, and not just accept them, but show them love, which means that we have to change in response to our love for others.
But most important Wesley says this,
If you don’t repent, if you don’t live love, and do good works that are rooted in love, then it’s not right faith, it’s being an Almost Christian. We cross the goal line, when we stop worrying about the goal line. Paul could care less about whether or not he was doing all the right things. John Wesley got in trouble because he was constantly, and consciously, disregarding all of the “right things,” the “respectable things” that he was told to do.
Their faith and love of Jesus Christ wasn’t quibbled over, but it was felt and seen through every action and every word. They didn’t hide from their failures or mistakes. They didn’t try to find cover in the government and then get dismissed for their quibbling over things that no one else cared about. They lived their faith and their love of God and they were transformed by it, made stronger by it, because their lives were devoted to it!
Is yours?
They didn’t get it right over night. Paul especially, after his Damascus road conversion, spent a great deal of time away before returning to preach. The good news is that this isn’t a game that needs to be won, and the very act of trying to win means that we are only almost.
Instead, this is a journey where we grow each day, where we work to let go of our heathen honesty, or our church shells, or our sincerity that only ever takes us half way.
Instead, each day, we search for the light of Christ that gives us strength. Each day we live a little bit more in the light of our creator. Each day, we feel the breath of the Holy Spirit as it directs us which way to go.
And when the time comes, we are not just almost there, but
Go this week, don’t be almost, but live fully in the grace that comes from God our Father, Jesus Christ his Son, and through the work of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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