Author Archives: Maxie Dunnam

Resurrection: In our end is our beginning by Maxie Dunnam

This is the sixth and final article in a series of articles Maxie is writing about the beliefs behind our views of evangelism. Check out the prior articles on Wesleyan Accent (first, second, third, fourth, and fifth).

Natalie Sleeth has given us one of the most popular hymns written during the past fifty years, “Hymn of Promise.”  The last two lines of the hymn gives the core message:

In our death, a resurrection; at the last, a victory, 

unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

She wrote the hymn for her husband, the late Ronald Sleeth, who was professor of preaching at the Iliff School of Theology. He lived only twenty-one days from the day he got the diagnosis of a malignancy to death. Natalie wrote that hymn for him before he died.

A personal friend of the Sleeths told me a moving story:

For several years Natalie had battled multiple sclerosis, which ultimately took her life. Before she died she wrote a beautiful statement for her grandchildren in which she told of how she began to realize that she was growing older and that her body was beginning to wear out. She talked to God about the situation and asked God to help her.

God heard her and said, “My child, when I made the world and filled it with people, I had a plan. I wanted my people to have life for as long as they could, but not forever because then my world would be too full with no room for anybody. I planned it so that when it was time to leave the earth, my people would come and live with me in heaven where there is no pain or sadness or sickness or anything bad.”

Natalie said softly to God, “Is my time to come and live with you getting closer?” 

And God said, “Yes, but be not afraid, for I will always be with you and I will always take care of you.” 

Natalie said to God, “But I will miss my family and my friends, and they will miss me!” 

And God said, “Yes, but I will comfort them and turn their tears into joy and they will remember you with happiness and be glad of your life among them.”

Slowly Natalie began the journey to heaven and day by day drew nearer to God. In the distance she could see light and hear beautiful music and feel happiness she had never known before, and as she moved toward the gates and into the house of God, she said to herself with great joy in her heart, “That’s good! That’s good!”

Natalie Sleeth claimed one of the central truths of the Christian faith – the promise that death is not the end. The resurrection of Christ gives credence to his claim, “Because I live, you will live also” (John 14:19). The heartbeat of the gospel is the death and resurrection of Jesus. Natalie Sleeth experienced the meaning and hope of this powerful reality that Jesus died but was raised by God and offers us the same glorious possibility.

The driving power behind the Christian faith is the resurrection of Jesus. In the  beginning, as the faith was being experienced, expressed and celebrated in community, to be an apostle meant you were an eyewitness to the Resurrection. In the four Gospels there is the picture of Jesus that could have been shared only by those who had experienced him as the risen Christ. 

The Resurrection dominated the theme of every Christian sermon. The New Testament is filled with line after line affirming what Natalee Sleeth sings and concludes, 

In our end is our beginning
In our time, infinity
In our doubt, there is believing
In our life, eternity
In our death, a resurrection
At the last, a victory

Unrevealed until its season
Something God alone can see

She had affirmed it week after week in worship:

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic* church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body

and the life everlasting. Amen.

Salvation, A Thorny Issue by Maxie Dunnam

In a previous blog, we considered the nature of grace. Grace was a core issue in Wesley’s theology. He sounded the note of grace strongly in opposition to a doctrine of predestination. The doctrine of predestination has as its center an understanding of grace being limited. For Wesley, grace is not limited – it is universal. It is “free in all, and free for all.” It is free to all in the sense that it is given without price, and flows from the mercy of God.

That doesn’t mean that all persons receive this grace, or that they deliberately appropriate it, or respond to it for their salvation. They don’t. That is the reason Wesley sounded so clearly the note of repentance. God’s prevenient grace works in our lives to lead us to repentance which is a necessary response for salvation. That doesn’t mean that all persons receive this grace, or that they deliberately appropriate it, or respond to it for their salvation. They don’t.

God’s grace is universal, but a person may suppress or ignore this grace. If so, scripture warns that we may experience hardness of heart, so that the stirrings of the Spirit within will go unheeded.

This raises one of the thorniest issues in theology today- the issue of universal grace and universal salvation. In addressing the issue, the uniqueness of Christ as God’s source of salvation is under attack. Our Biblical, orthodox, Wesleyan Christology is labeled exclusivistic.

Because historical relativity and religious pluralism are so pervasive, many are challenging the place of Christ as the goal of things. Is Christ really that final, definitive and normative? The uniqueness of Christ is also diminished by those in whose thinking and understanding Christians may hold to Christ as their unique Savior without necessarily claiming as much for others. Christ may be my personal Lord and Savior, but this does not mean that he is the only Savior or the only Lord for all other religions. To hold Christ as the final and normative Word of God is branded as “theological fundamentalism.” Jesus is one of the ways in which God meets the world of human experience, but it is arrogant bigotry to claim that Jesus is God’s unique way of dealing with the salvation of the world.

This kind of thinking primarily makes Christ one of many “ways” to salvation. There is an equally  forceful theological voice which does not diminish the uniqueness of Christ as Saviour. They joyfully and  confidently contend that grace will  work universally, and eventually all will come into God’s kingdom through the work of Christ. One of those voices is David Lowes Watson. Here a word from his book God Does Not Foreclose,

“When we look at the cross, and remember our own spiritual homecoming, we realize how much God was willing to risk, and continues to risk, to have us back home. For God will always give us freedom to accept this gracious invitation or refuse it. We can all recall what it is like to be rejected by someone, even by a stranger; and much worse, the shock and the pain of rejection by a friend, a spouse, a daughter, or a son. We can then begin to sense the depth of God’s anguish throughout human history. Not one prodigal, but millions of daughters and sons across the centuries have lived their lives away from their true home. Alienated from their true family, they have suffered from the ravages of human sin, either as sinners, or as those who are sinned against. It is incalculable how much grief and torment this has heaped on a God who is more loving and protective than any human mother, more trustworthy and concerned than any earthly father. This is why our surrender to God’s grace, our acceptance of God’s invitation to come home, is such an overwhelmingly joyous occasion.” (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1990, p. 95)

As we read that, we want to say, “Amen,” “Yeah!” But not to the conclusion of these voices. They are arguing and contending for a universal accomplished salvation. God does not foreclose on sinners. Confirming his argument, Watson quotes Carl Braaten. 

“The good news is that all people have been united with God in Christ. One chief difference between the Christian and the non-Christian is that the one knows and the other does not yet know.” (Journal of the Three, 1987-1988, p. 17)

My question is, is that the chief difference? Are all persons united with God in Christ, and some of us who call ourselves Christians know it, but others who don’t know it are guaranteed salvation as well

This seems to me to be begging the question. Listen again to Braaten:

The threat of eternal condemnation is real for all people. Nevertheless, there is no basis to assert that God will necessarily in the end actualize this possibility. Christians may hope and pray that all might be saved, that the distinction between those who already believe and those who do not yet believe will ultimately be destroyed by the Word of God who is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham” (Matthew 3:9).

So Braaten at least draws back from asserting that God will actualize the possibility of eternal salvation for everyone. Of course, we can hope and pray – and as Christians we will hope and pray for the redemption of all humankind. But I for one will continue to be challenged by Jesus’ parable of the last judgment, and the awful possibility that I may be among those who did not serve “the least of these” and will hear that awful verdict: “these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matt. 25:46).

Ideas have consequences. What we think about Jesus determines what we do about evangelism. And what we do about evangelism is shaped by what we think about grace.

I know that may sound dogmatic and perhaps rash. I certainly hope I have communicated that I am not eager to draw conclusions about the ultimate salvation of others. But recall what I have said. To proclaim the uniqueness of Christ and the reality of divine judgment, is not the same as pronouncing our own judgment. In the Wesleyan accent, the danger of rejecting grace is always counterbalanced by the wonder of what can happen in our lives when we accept and cooperate with it. Perhaps my putting this dogmatic assertion in a slightly different way will challenge you. What you think Jesus can do for a person will determine what you do about evangelism.

The Power of The Holy Spirit by Maxie Dunnam

This is the fourth article in a series of articles Maxie is writing about the beliefs behind our views of evangelism. Click here for the first article, here for the second, and here for the third.

In my reflection on evangelism I have made three bold claims.

  1. What you think about Christ determines what you do about evangelism. If we don’t have confidence in the gospel, and if we are not solidly convicted about the uniqueness of Christ, it is not likely that evangelism will have much priority in our personal ministry and/or in our church.
  2. What we do about evangelism is shaped by what we think about grace. If we think that grace is limited, or that all people are automatically saved, we will not be likely to proclaim the message of grace with any urgency to all people. If, on the other hand, we realize that grace is unlimited, and that salvation can be rejected, we will share urgently and with all.
  3. What you think Jesus can do for a person will determine what you do about evangelism. This is one of the greatest motivations possible to share the good news with others. Do we really care not only about our own family and circle of friends, but our neighbors we don’t even yet know even though they have been “neighbors” for two or three years? The question has a more expansive focus. Jesus talked about “the uttermost parts of the world.”

So I move my reflection beyond “What we think about Jesus” determining our expression of evangelism. I move beyond the level of evangelistic content with this bold assertion: What you think about evangelism won’t matter much unless the Holy Spirit empowers you.

At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus gave us the charter of the kingdom when he announced his mission:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Luke 4:18-19). 

At the close of his ministry, he commissioned us for kingdom work:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of age” (Matthew 28:19-20)

At the center of his charter and his commission for the kingdom is the Holy Spirit: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me … Go … make disciples … baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Not only are the charter and the commission of the kingdom centered in the Spirit, his commitment to provide us power is Spirit-centered.

Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 

He said to them:  “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts l:608 NIV)

It’s too clear for us to miss. According to Jesus, at the heart of kingdom business is evangelism, and the power source of evangelism is the Holy Spirit. What you think about evangelism won’t matter much unless the Holy Spirit empowers your effort.

 

Pictured: Painting by Kerry Dunnam Peeples

The Nature of Grace by Maxie Dunnam

This is the third article in a series of articles Maxie is writing about the beliefs behind our views of evangelism.  Click here for the first article and here for the second.

In a previous article we focused on the uniqueness of Christ, insisting that ideas have consequences. What we think about Christ determines what we do about evangelism. If we are not solidly convicted about the uniqueness of Christ, it is not likely that evangelism will have priority in our personal ministry and/or the church.

Recall Archbishop William Temple’s definition of evangelism: “Evangelism is the winning of persons to acknowledge Christ as their Savior and King, so that they may give themselves to his service in the fellowship of the church.” Reflecting on the uniqueness of Christ Christ as Savior and King leads to another theological issue: the nature of grace.

Grace is the heart of the Gospel. Beliefs matter. Ideas have consequences. Grace. Amazing, yes! What we think about it shapes our evangelistic message and determines our evangelistic urgency.

The apostle John captured it in this encompassing word: 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17).

And this is what Paul argued about so convincingly with the Romans:

“Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith” (Romans 8:23-25).

John Wesley did a great service and provided a distinctive emphasis by talking about grace impinging upon us and working in three specific ways: prevenient grace, justifying grace, and sanctifying grace. Prevenient grace is the grace of God going before us, pulling us, wooing us, seeking to open our minds and hearts, and eventually giving us faith. Justifying grace is the forgiving love of God, freely given to us, reconciling us, putting us right with God, making Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf. Sanctifying grace is the work and Spirit of Christ within us, restoring the broken image, completing the salvation, which was begun in justification, and bringing us to complete newness of life and perfection in love.

Certainly, our understanding and experience of grace impacts our witness and determines in large part the way we do evangelism. If we believe that God loves us and all people, seeking us and them before we seek God, we can witness with confidence, but also in humility, knowing that we cannot limit the saving love of God, and that we don’t do the saving work – God does.

It is not free only for those whom God has ordained to life, but it is like the air we breathe, or the wind that blows in our faces. The big question is, have we sincerely accepted that gift? Or, have we sought to live as though we could earn God’s favor and salvation?

In the first five chapters of Romans Paul gives his reason in the doctrine of justification by grace through faith. We have absolutely nothing for which to boast, and we can do nothing to earn the favor of God. Everything is grace!

But we can do something, in fact we must do something. We must believe that God lovingly and passionately wants us to have the salvation he offers. Believing that, we confess, repent and receive the gift that is ours

Our calling is to do everything we can to assure that everyone hears that message.

That is the reason Wesley sounded so clearly the note of repentance. God’s prevenient grace works in our lives to lead us to repentance which is a necessary response for salvation. Repentance is both a step and an ongoing response. God’s grace is universal, but prevenient grace is not sufficient for salvation. A person may suppress or ignore this grace. If so, scripture warns that we may experience hardness of heart, so that the stirrings of the Spirit within will go unheeded.

Our preaching, teaching, and witnessing must make the nature of grace clear. Grace is always available, but we must make a personal faith commitment to receive it.

 

This is the third article in a series Maxie is writing on the beliefs we hold about evangelism. Come back to Wesleyan Accent next week for the fourth installment.

The Uniqueness of Christ by Maxie Dunnam

This is the second article in a series of articles Maxie is writing about the beliefs of evangelism. Click here for the first article.

For most of my ministry life, over 70 years, my calling has been expressed as a pastor in a local congregation. Evangelism is a matter of the Christian community sharing the good news of a Savior with those who do not know him. So, evangelism is neither Christian proclamation alone, nor Christian presence alone. It is both. Thus my understanding, reflecting, and teaching on evangelism is focused in the local church. It is essential then that we first reflect on that which shapes the church.

The Church is God’s idea – the continuing incarnation of Christ in the world. But your church, my church, is a community of folks who have a specific identity at the corner of Poplar Avenue and Grove Park in Memphis. Sometimes what shapes our church and the church is quite different.

The degree to which our church looks like the church is dependent upon our whole being – our ideas and how we put those ideas into action.

The relation between what we think and what we do, what we say and how we live, is a very important one for us as Christians. This relation between word and deed is one that generates a great deal of debate. Some, like the great theologian Karl Barth, have said that evangelism, and thus faith and conversion, can only begin with what we know, say, and preach about Christ. Others, like some contemporary liberation theologians, argue that the words of the evangelist are empty unless they are preceded by deeds which meet the needs and bind up the wounds of those who suffer as they watch and listen.

Much is at stake in this debate. There are dangers on every side. Some fear that if we concentrate on doing deeds of mercy and justice, we will lose the unique focus on Christ which gives us our identity. Others point out that a concern only with preaching and right dogma can render our words empty, meaningless, and irrelevant.

No one has solved every riddle that resides at the heart of this debate, but we can’t simply cast it aside. I recognize the importance of the debate, and I want to address pastors and laity of local congregations about where I believe we must take our main bearings. The fact to keep in mind is this: ideas have consequences.

To underscore that fact I begin with this dogmatic assertion: What you think of Jesus Christ will determine what you do about evangelism. I believe the greatest theological barrier to evangelism today is a diminished belief in the uniqueness of Christ. What we think of Christ determines what we do about evangelism.

This has been the ongoing debate of the World Council of Churches for years. In 1968, on the eve of the WCC Assembly, Donald McGavran asked, “Will Upsala betray the 2 billion?” He charged that the World Council had given up concern for the 2 billion people of the earth who had neither heard of Jesus Christ nor had any real chance to believe in him as Lord and Savior.

Philip Potter, who was then secretary of evangelism for the WCC, addressed similar issues in 1967 when he asked the central committee, “Is evangelism at the heart of the life and work of the WCC? What does the WCC mean when it speaks of evangelism? What is to be done to manifest more evidently the central concern of the WCC and its member churches for evangelism?” 

Both Potter and McGavan were raising the question of ‘where is Christ in what we proclaim?’

It continues to be good for every level of the church to ask itself, “Is evangelism at the heart of our life and work?” 

Again, ideas have consequences. No matter where we begin, or how we pursue the notion that evangelism is the core mission of the church, the central issue is the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. He is the incarnate love of God offered as God’s saving grace for lost humanity. What we think about Jesus Christ determines what we do about evangelism.

This is the second article in a series Maxie is writing on the beliefs we hold about evangelism. Come back to Wesleyan Accent next week for the third installment.

My Calling by Maxie Dunnam

I’m 89 years old. I received what was called a “local preacher’s license” when I was 17. During these 72 years since, though the expression of my calling at times has differed, I have sought to be an effective pastor and preacher.

I have kept two “heroes” alive in memory as I have exercised my calling. One of those is Wiley Grissom. In my book, God Outwitted Me,  this is a part of what I wrote about this hero. 

“Brother Grissom, a John the Baptist kind of guy, was the pastor of Eastside Baptist Church,…He was a fifth-grade educated preacher, with no formal theological training, but he was a powerful preacher. Years later, at age 60, I became the president of Asbury Theological Seminary, a graduate school training young men and women for ministry. In that setting…I often thought of Brother Grissom. Memory of him kept me aware of the fact that calling and anointing are as important as education.”

My calling was to preach. That calling has been formally expressed in different ways. It has not been restricted to preaching; it has been witnessing, with the whole of my life, to the salvation that is ours in Jesus Christ. I’m going to reflect on it in blogs/articles in the weeks ahead. I seek to keep the fact that beliefs matter alive in my awareness.

Just in case we need some definitions as we begin, the word evangel is a transliteration of a Greek word which means “good tidings” or “‘good news.” The New Testament word had two basic uses: one, the good news proclaimed regarding the kingdom of God; two, the good news about Jesus. Jesus both proclaimed the good news of the coming of the kingdom and embodied the good news in his life. Jesus’ life, his relations with people, his teaching and preaching, his healings and other miracles, culminating in his death, resurrection, and ascension, revealed and manifested in what the kingdom is like. 

God’s sovereign future rule broke into the present in Jesus Christ. Through his love and forgiveness, his ministry of compassion, a new life of freedom and service and an entry into God’s kingdom were made available. That ministry was continued by the early Christians “in the name of Jesus Christ.” They testified and preached about Jesus Christ. They acted in his name, and those who responded became part of the Christian community. So, evangelism is the demonstration and proclamation of the gospel.

We need to remember that the evangelistic activity of the early church was not limited to preaching. Everything the church was called to be and do in its worship, witness, fellowship, and service was infused and informed by evangelism.

That’s my frame of reference in talking about evangelism. But, I don’t mean by this that evangelism is everything the church does. That’s far too broad to have driving meaning. I do mean that everything the church does should contribute to its evangelistic task. Archbishop William Temple’s definition of evangelism is a good one: “Evangelism is the winning of persons to acknowledge Christ as their Savior and King, so that they may give themselves to his service in the fellowship of the church”!

Nothing less than that is evangelism. It’s a matter of the Christian community sharing the good news of a Savior with those who do not know him. So, evangelism is neither Christian proclamation alone, nor Christian presence alone. It is both. 

This is the first article in a series Maxie is writing on the beliefs we hold about evangelism. Come back to Wesleyan Accent next week for the second installment.

Little Christs by Maxie Dunnam

Christians are “little Christs.” Being Christian is being Christ in the world. What Christ has been and done for us, as Christians we must be and do for the others. We must live as Christ in our daily relationships.

If my expression, “little Christ,” is new to you, maybe even a bit troubling, I remind you that Martin Luther was convinced that Christians are to be “little Christs.” We Christians are to be a continuation of the Incarnation. 

The apostle Paul talked about the Church being the Body of Christ – a continuation of the incarnation. He expressed it concretely, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, … and has given us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19, 18 NKJV). What Christ has been and done for us, as Christians we must be and do for the world.

What does it mean to communicate Christ’s presence to others, to be “little Christs” to the world? Two biblical images are useful: disciple and pilgrim. 

As disciples, we are apprenticed to our Master, Jesus Christ. A disciple is a learner, not in an academic sort of way, but in the same way that one is an apprentice to a craft-person; learning the craft at the work site while doing the actual work. So, as Christians, we are always in a growing-learning relationship with Jesus Christ.

Pilgrim adds to the meaning of being a disciple because it suggests that we are going someplace; we are on a journey. We are journeying to God, and on that journey we walk in the company of Jesus, who is our guide.

Jesus expressed it emphatically: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). When Jesus wanted to define the meaning of discipleship, he asked people to grow and go with Him.

A story in the New Testament clarifies this call of Jesus. A young rich man, a ruler of the people, came to Jesus and asked, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus told him to keep the commandments. He responded that he had kept the commandments; that was the desire of his life, and he was committed to doing that. But Jesus, always perceptive about persons, made this piercing observation, “You lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” Then he added this invitation, “Come, follow me.” (Luke 18:18-22 MKJV)

The call is clear – it is a  call to be a pilgrim, to walk with Jesus, to be his disciple.

One in Whom Christ is Felt to Live Again by Maxie Dunnam

Someone has defined a saint as “one in whom Christ is felt to live again.” That really is a definition of any of us who would be truly and fully Christian. The whole meaning of living the Christian life is continuing the life of Christ, replicating that life in the world. This happens through the power of the Holy Spirit and obedience–our seeking to be and do everything Christ calls us to be and do, which means that what Christ has been and done for us, we must be and do for others. Clearly this is a journey that continues into eternity.

One of the most Christlike persons I have known is Pauline Hord, an older member of a congregation I served. She was the most unique blending of prayer and personal piety with servant ministry and social concern I have known …

Pauline’s passion was literacy and prison ministry. She worked with our public schools, training teachers in a new literacy method. Until she simply “gave out”, she gave three days a week, four or five hours a day, to teaching this new method of literacy in model programs.

But, also, once a week she drove from Memphis to Parchman State Prison in Mississippi, to teach prisoners to read and write. Along with this, she ministered to them in a more encompassing way as she shared her love and faith, and witnessed to the power of the gospel …

During his administration, President George Bush started a program in the United States called “Points of Light.” He was calling for citizens to exercise positive and creative influence and service in the areas where they lived. In the different cities and communities of America, people were recognized for being “points of light.” I nominated Pauline Hord for that honor, and she was written up in our daily newspaper.

President Bush came to Memphis to honor the seven most outstanding “points of light” in our city – the people who had done the most for the sake of humankind. Pauline Hord was one of those selected. The President invited those seven to have lunch with him when he came for his visit to Memphis.

But he made a mistake, setting the luncheon on a Wednesday. When Pauline received the invitation, she apologized. Wednesday was her day to go to Parchman Prison to teach prisoners to read and write, and witness to them of the love of Christ. She could not give that up to have lunch with the President.

To have known Pauline was to catch a concrete vision of what it means to live as a Christian, one in whom Christ was felt to live again.

Being Christian by Maxie Dunnam

Often, when I’m teaching the Christian faith, I ask people to name one person who best communicates the meaning of the Christian faith and way. One of the persons that is most mentioned is Mother Teresa. I have probably read as much of what others have written about her and her own writing, as I have about any other “hero of the faith.” I know a lot about her but I did not know her personally.

I met her once. She came to Memphis to dedicate a convent of her Missionaries of Charity. There was a great worship service and celebration of Mass in the Coliseum with over eight thousand people attending. A “holy hush” fell over that huge gathering as she and her sisters entered. 

My wife and I were fortunate to be among a few the Bishop invited to meet and be blessed by her after the Mass. My experience in that service and her hand on my forehead blessing me is a lifetime memory. I understood, in that brief encounter, how she became the influence she was in Malcolm Muggeridge’s conversion.

Muggeridge wrote one of my favorite books about her. He was a brilliant newspaperman in Great Britain and an antagonist of the Church and the Christian faith. Late in life, primarily through the influence of Mother Teresa, he was converted to Christianity and became a powerful defender of the faith. He spoke of Mother Teresa in this way, “In the face of a Mother Teresa I trace the very geography of Jesus’s Kingdom; all the contours and valleys and waterways. I need no other map.”

He had seen her and her Missionaries of Charity in the slums of Calcutta go about Jesus’s work of love with incomparable dedication. He wrote, 

When I think of them, as I have seen them at work and at their devotion, I want to put away all the books, tear up all the scribbled notes. There are no more doubts or dilemmas; everything is perfectly clear….What mind has conceived a discourse, or tongue spoken it, which conveys even to a minute degree the light they shine before men?

I wish I had known her personally. I met her only once. With Muggeridge, “In the face of a Mother Teresa I trace the very geography of Jesus’s Kingdom.”

Unexpectedly: The Holy Spirit around the Globe by Maxie Dunnam

I received what was called a local preacher’s license in 1952, when I was only 17 years old. That means I have been at this business of preaching for 68 years. I have been the pastor of nine local churches and the organizing pastor of three of those nine. You may wonder why I’m sharing that…and you may consider it a bit boastful. Not so, not so at all. I share it as a part of a confession. The question really is, what sort of church did I plant?

Our scripture lesson – Acts 2:1-14, 42-47–tells the story of the first church plant in Christian history.  At first blush, that certainly was not a good way to start a church. There was the disturbance of a roaring wind that would drown out any speaking. Then uneducated people speaking in languages they had never heard. And not only a roaring wind, and strange speaking, but what was described as “tongues of fire” resting on each of them.

Unbridled excitement and strange acting. What a way to start a church! The question has to be, what was happening here, anyway?  And that is what my sermon is all about: what was happening here?Let’s think about it.

The first is this: God came unexpectedly, which of course is nothing new. God seems to make it a habit of sneaking up on the human race. Appearing unrepentantly, when no one is looking or knows what is going on, God is in their midst.

The kind of thing that happened at Pentecost had happened before. Moses was out in the field alone, taking care of his father-in-law’s flock. And there it was – a burning bush, and a voice coming out of the bush, and Moses was called to lead God’s children out of Egyptian bondage.

And now, here at Pentecost, is this little band of frightened disciples whose leader has gone off and left them; they are stunned, confused, and unable to figure out what to do. The only instruction they had was, “stay, just stay in Jerusalem, until you receive the gift the Father has promised.” What gift, they must have wondered! Then along comes God unexpectedly when they were not even looking.

Friends, I remind you: that kind of God action has not ceased. I have seen dramatic witnesses of it.  One of the joys of my life was to chair the Evangelism Committee of the World Methodist Council for 20 years. This gave me opportunity to travel the world and meet extraordinary Christians. Two of those were Nelson Mandela and Stanley Mogoba. You know about Mandela, the man whose life and witness led to breaking the back of that awful oppressive system of apartheid. But you probably have not heard of Stanley Mogoba. He was the first Black person to be the presiding bishop of the Methodist Church of South Africa.

About the time Nelson Mandela was sent to prison, Stanley met with a group of angry students and sought to dissuade them from violent demonstration. Just for that – trying to avert violence – he was arrested and imprisoned for six years on the notorious Robben Island.  Mandela was already in prison there. He and Mogoba became friends there in prison.

One day someone pushed a religious tract under Mogoba’s cell door. Parenthetically, don’t ever forget: most people become Christian not by big events, but by relationship and simple actions like a person putting a tract beneath a prison cell door. By reading that little tract and responding to the Holy Spirit, Mogoba became a Christian. He quoted the words of Charles Wesley’s hymn to describe his experience:

“Thine eye diffused a quickening ray
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
my chains fell off; my heart was free,
I rose, went forth and followed thee.”

God showed up, in a prison and in a simple gospel tract, and something unexpected happened. A person who was to lead the Methodist movement in South Africa was converted.

Are you listening? God who came unexpectedly at Pentecost continues to show up today…in prisons, on the streets, in person, in the Church.

Yes, in the Church. And that leads to the second thing I would say. Pentecost was a missionary event. Jesus made it clear that he would send the Holy Spirit to empower us for ministry. Listen to Acts l:8: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

It shouldn’t surprise us, friends, when the Holy Spirit comes roaring through our lives and our communities; change will happen, people will be called to minister. People who have never known Jesus before will come to the altar to praise him.

How and why? Because God is a missionary God, and the Holy Spirit is the chief evangelist. Hold that tightly in your mind. The Holy Spirit has the power to create joy in the midst of sorrow and dancing in place of mourning. The Holy Spirit has the power to bring healing for our anguish and rescue life from the jaws of death. The Holy Spirit of God signals a time of restoration, awakening, and revival.

Pentecost was a missionary event. Remember, I asked you to hold tightly in your mind. The Holy Spirit is the chief evangelist. I believe revival is coming, because I believe the Holy Spirit is alive and active in our day, and we are moving toward a global Methodist church, an orthodox, evangelical, Wesleyan, Methodist Church.

We have been in a tumultuous time, contending with a mysterious virus; then came massive and widespread demonstrations calling us to racial justice. Our nation is politically divided, and hatred is blatantly present across the land. At the same time, we are also struggling with a painful divide in our United Methodist Church. It is a tough, heavy time.  Discussion of separation is rampant, and I do believe separation is coming. Please hear me now. Separation doesn’t have to be bitter and angry. It can be redemptive. In fact, I believe it is going to be redemptive. That was signaled in a Holy Spirit event on December 17, 2019.  Leaders from different perspectives of the church – from the most liberal to the most conservative – signed a “Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace through Separation.” I believe that if we had not had to cancel the General Conference that was to happen in May, that protocol would have passed and we would be on our way to a new global Methodist church.

People who know me and my history in the United Methodist Church are sometimes surprised about my position on some issues and my confidence that revival is coming. Some are surprised that I now believe separation is essential and can be redemptive. For decades, I have worked as hard as any lay person, minister, bishop or other leader in the church to preserve unity as we have struggled. So, let me share how I have come through the struggle to the place I am now in. The bishops called a special session of the General Conference in 2019 because the denomination was on the verge of implosion. We traditionalists prevailed at that General Conference in preserving the authority of Scripture. However, when we had done that by standard procedural vote, the conference deteriorated into a shouting match of anger, hateful accusations, and debate. I left the conference feeling with the psalmist, “Why are you cast down, O my soul?”

That was my state, when two weeks later I went to Cuba. I had visited Cuba twice before, and I knew revival was taking place, but I was not prepared for the robust power of the Holy Spirit being demonstrated in the church there. My time there was redemptive. It was a spiritual time of recovery in the wake of the General Conference experience.

The Church in Cuba is not affiliated with the UMC, it is the Methodist Church of Cuba. Bishop Pereira is a dynamic, Spirit-filled, Spirited-guided leader. Normally he would have attended our special General Conference, but he was needed at home. The communist government was seeking to change the legal definition of marriage. The government wanted to change that to simply a union between two persons. The bishop of the Methodist Church of Cuba had stayed in his country to lead his church in opposing what the government was proposing.  I had come from a meeting in which I and others opposed a part of our church, including many bishops, seeking to do what would have resulted in the same thing the Cuban government was seeking to do. It was the church in Cuba, not the government, that prevailed.

Our missionary God has sent his primary evangelist, the Holy Spirit whose power cannot be denied. I’m going back to Cuba as soon as Covid will allow. I want to be encouraged by the hundreds of little bands of Christians that are being formed every year. The government will not allow the building of churches. So these little groups meet in homes, house churches being established all over. And one day, that government will discover that Holy Spirit power is more dynamic than anything they can design and impose on the people.

In Havana, there is a statue of the Risen Christ towering over the city, almost as high as the famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro. Not far from that statue is Che Guevara’s house, the companion of Castro as he seized leadership of Cuba in 1959.

Our small group shared communion at the feet of Christ, literally, as we gathered at the base of the statue on the morning we were leaving Cuba. There we were at the feet of Jesus, with his shadow falling over the city. When we took the bread and wine, we knew and proclaimed who is Lord, and that one day, he will claim the kingdoms of this world as his own.

More than ever, I believe that Holy Spirit revival is coming, and I pray regularly the prayer we pray during our Walk to Emmaus weekends:

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and kindle in them the fire of Thy love. Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created, and You shalt renew the face of the earth. Amen.

Featured image courtesy Hasan Almasi for Unsplash.