Wesleyan Rooted: Methodists Embrace Widely

God is prodigal, wasteful, extravagant, with grace, mercy, and love.

And God invites us to live with those same values. 

God is standing with arms wide open, waiting for us to run into the divine embrace and to bring our friends with us.

God says, “Free Hugs, Come on in Y’all!”

Methodists embrace widely.

Sermon by Rev. Beth Demme
For more information, visit www.graymumc.org

Transcript

Today's scripture you're reading is Luke chapter 15, one through three and 11 through 32. Now all the text collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him, and the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, this fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them. So he told them this parable. Then Jesus said there was a man who had two sons, the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the share of the wealth that will belong to me. So he divided his assets between them. A few days later, the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant region, and there he squandered his wealth in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that region and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that region who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 

He would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating and no one gave him anything. But when he came to his sense, he said, how many of my father's hired hands have bread, enough despair, but here I am dying of hunger. I will get up and go to my father and I will say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me like one of your hired hands. So he sat off and went to his father. But while he was still far away off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran and he put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. 

But the father said to his slaves, quickly bring out a robe, the best one, and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet and get that fatted calf and kill it and let us celebrate and eat. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found and they began to celebrate. Now, his elder son was in the field and as he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, your brother has come and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has got him back safe and sound. Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him, but he answered his father, listen, for all these years I've been working like a slave for you and I have never disobeyed your command, yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back who has devoured your assets with prostitutes and you killed the fatted calf for him, then the father said to him, son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life. He was lost and has been found.

The word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. 

So back in 2004, there was a man in Australia, an Australian man named Juan man, and he was down on his luck. He had been living in London. He had moved to London and things hadn't gone well. He had basically lost everything and decided he had to move back to Sydney, back to his hometown. He says that at that point when he flew back home to Sydney, he said, all I had left was a carry-on bag full of clothes and a world of troubles. He was not in a good place, right? So he returned to Sydney not even knowing where he was going to live. Actually, all of his friends and family had moved away. They weren't even there anymore. He was just really alone. There was no one to greet him at the airport, and it really hit him hard as he was walking through the airport after deplaning and he could see the other passengers being greeted by family and friends with smiling faces and open arms, and they were all hugging and laughing. 

Just the joy of being reunited. And it really struck him that he didn't have that in his life. And as he reflected on that experience, and to be honest, kind of wallowed in his loneliness, an idea was born out of desperation. So he got a piece of poster board and some markers, and he made a sign that said, free hugs, free hugs. And he went to the busiest intersection in Sydney and he stood there with this sign like a crazy person, and no one stopped. Not the first minute, five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes. He's just standing there, no one wanting what he's offering for free. And then finally, a woman walks past him and then circles back and taps him on the shoulder and she says, I think that's just what I need. My dog died this morning, and it's especially hard because today is the one year anniversary of the day my daughter died in a car accident. 

I think a free hug is exactly what I need. So Juan put down his sign and he held out his arms and they hugged each other. That's how a proper hug works, right? You hug each other. It's a mutual act. Two people hugging each other, just one person is hugging. We call that something different, right? Not good. Juan's idea for free hugs turned into an international movement called the Free Hugs campaign. He even got invited to be on the Oprah Winfrey show and others have picked up this idea from time to time. Free hugs campaigns pop up in various forms around the world. Sometimes during a global crisis or mental health awareness events or just spontaneous acts of kindness, these movements kind of pick up and they show us that despite our differences, there is an innate need, a human need for connection, and sometimes the simple act of offering a hug can make someone feel seen and loved and valued. 

A hug is kind of a small thing, but it's a small thing with a potentially big impact because even small, everyday acts of love, love like offering a hug, that can be a form of wide embrace. We see that in our scripture reading today. I even marked it in my bulletins about halfway down on this panel of your bulletin is our key sentence. It says He set off and went to his father. This is the younger son, right? But while he was still far off, what happens? His father saw him and was filled with compassion. The father ran and put his arms around the younger son and him. There is an embrace, there is a hug. What's happening in the scripture is that here in Luke chapter 15, Jesus has been criticized by the good church folks, the religious leaders of the day, and he's been criticized because he's been welcoming sinners and eating with sinners, people that they have deemed unworthy. 

And so Jesus responds with a series of parables including this one, the one we typically call the parable of the prodigal Son, where the father runs and puts his arms around. The son embraces him, gives him a free hug, and we associate the word prodigal with wandering and wasteful. So we say, oh yeah, the prodigal son, the younger son. That's what he did. He wandered off and he wasted everything that his father had given him. But actually the word prodigal means wastefully or excessively extravagant, wastefully or recklessly extravagant. So some of the synanon for prodigal are lush, excessive, extravagant, immoderate, lavish, reckless, abundant, bountiful, copious. So it raises the question, who is actually prodigal in this parable? The younger son returns home and he's trying to offer this speech that he's been practicing along the way. Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son, but before he can even get the first word out, his father is embracing him. 

His father is hugging him. What is the father doing? He's lost all sense of decorum. He should have stood back and made the boy grovel, right? He should have withheld his forgiveness until he was really sure that the young man was truly repentant. I mean, really? What kind of message is this father sending that it's okay to just run off and be a scoundrel and engage in extravagant living and then you can just come back after you've had fun and everybody's going to act like nothing ever happened. You can almost hear the neighbors saying, that's what's wrong with the world today. Kids growing up without any consequences. How's he supposed to learn as if he hasn't learned anything from being in the pigpen of life as if he hasn't learned anything about how awful rock bottom really is? You know what? The father doesn't care what the neighbors think. 

He's so overjoyed to have his son back that he loses himself in the joy of the moment. He does the undignified socially unacceptable thing and takes off running his child whom he loves so dearly and who he has missed. So very much talk about prodigal, talk about over the top wasteful. That's what the father is doing. What is he doing? Why is he being so extravagant and wasteful with his love? Well, he's giving us a glimpse of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is a place where God comes running toward us with open arms ready to embrace us when we turn towards him. That's what the word repent means, means to turn When we turn towards God, God is there with the divine arms wide open. Remember last week I said if God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If God had a wallet, your picture would be in it. 

It's not hard to imagine the Father in today's parable reaching into his back pocket and pulling out his wallet and saying to his son, I never stopped carrying your picture and never stopped loving you even when you turned away from me. My love for you stayed constant. I'm so happy to see you. We spent the last few weeks talking about what it means to be a Wesleyan rooted Christian. We are people who are formed by God's love and loving presence, which is made known to us through the Holy Spirit. We are formed by the teachings of the Bible and we are formed by the theology of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, and we've talked about how Methodists serve impactfully and love actively and how that traces back to John and Charles Wesley, who as college students engaged in acts of piety like worship and communion and fasting and reading their Bible, and also they engaged in works of mercy. 

They visited prisoners, they helped people who were experiencing poverty. They set up schools for orphans and more and more and more so as people following in their footsteps, we believe that the love of God is slowing not only to us but through us. The love of God is flowing not only to you, but through you, into the world, through you. Dr. Chico, the Wesleyan scholar who led my recent Wesley pilgrimage, he writes this, John and Charles Wesley were faithful priests of the Church of England. They were both ordained in the Church of England. They were Anglican. They loved their church in part because of the deep spirituality it represented. Their lies were shaped in profound ways by the prayers they prayed daily from the book of common prayer. One prayer from this tradition speaks in particular about God's call for us to embrace widely and reminds us why. 

And this is that prayer. Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace. So clothe us in your spirit that we reaching forth our hands in love may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you for the honor of your name. Amen. Embracing widely was a formational foundational idea for the Wesleys. This prayer, it celebrates a God who has a wide embrace and that embrace is known to us most fully in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But how great is that image? The image of God reaching out to take everyone into a loving embrace and the prayer doesn't stop there, right? It says, we are called to imitate Christ. We are the ambassadors of God's invitation to reconciliation. 

So we have a ministry of reaching out, welcoming and embracing. This is how the world will know the love of God through us. The love of God is flowing not only to you, but through you, and it is compelling you to open your arms wider to embrace more widely. Dr. Chiko goes on whenever we make room, whenever we reach out to others with extended arms to share and embrace, God blesses us with deep joy. The Wesleys invited their followers to engage with them in the practice of extending a wide embrace, of making room for all embracing widely fueled the early Methodist movement. Was this a work of piety or a work of mercy? Well, he says it was both to make room for others entail some serious interior work. It involves making space in your heart for those who may be different from you. It means asking God to change your attitudes. 

I love this line. He says, asking God to transform your hostility into hospitality. It also involves opening your arms to those around you and offering compassion to those in need. It means asking God to teach us how to create safe space for those who are outside our circle, inviting them into the inner circle of our love. A wide embrace has always characterized our tradition as Methodists. We make room for all sorts of people in our family. It's not too much to say that making room for all is in our nature. Methodists make room for all because Jesus embraces widely. Moreover, the Wesley's viewed this wide embrace hospitality and inclusivity as a critical practice in our quest for holiness. A holy life is a life of wide embrace. Methodists embrace widely. We demonstrate through our actions that we want every person to know to the very core of their being, that they are welcomed and loved and lovable. 

So many people today aren't in touch with their own lovability. They wonder about their own worthiness. And too often they've heard the church say to them, you are not worthy. Come back when you've got yourself together. And Jesus is saying the opposite. Jesus is saying, come to me as you are and I will help you be better and do better. We want to demonstrate this love to every person because we know what God has done for us. I mean, think about it in your life, be honest with yourself. In your life, how many times have you turned away from God? How many times and how many ways have you said, God, I've got this. Thanks, but no thanks. I'm going to do it my own way. I've said it plenty. How many times already today have you been like the younger son in the parable turning away from the father's love? 

Well, rest assured, when you turn back, God will be there with arms open wide to receive you. And if you ever doubt that, just remember the cross. Remember Jesus hanging there literally with his arms open for you. God is prodigal, wasteful, extravagant with grace, mercy, and love, and God invites us to live out those same values. Who is God inviting you to embrace widely? Do you hear God whispering a name to you this morning? Do you hear God shouting someone at you? You might not hear it today, but maybe you'll hear it this week. You may hear it a little more every day as we get closer and closer to the election, the alternative to embracing widely is to stand with your arms crossed. You can be God's bouncer, right? You can try to keep people out. When you're crossing your arms, who are you keeping out and can you really see Jesus standing like this? 

I don't think so. The thing is, this is how some folks see Jesus. This is how some folks have been told Jesus is, and some people really want to put up walls around Jesus as if Jesus needs to be protected. And what's really interesting about those walls, friends is that they never have anything to do with Jesus and they have everything to do with how the person putting up the walls sees other people, how they see their fellow humans. Someone sent me a video this week. Someone who was not part of a church sent me this video with a text message that said Christianity. This is a pastor named Greg Locke. He runs a church he created called Global Vision Bible Church. Tyler is going to play 30 seconds. It might be 34 seconds, but about 30 seconds of this sermon, and I want you to listen and see if you hear any trace of a wide embrace, and I want you to remember that it was sent to me with a question, Christian question mark. Okay, go ahead, Tyler. 

I'm to the place right now. If you vote Democrat, I don't even want you around this church. You can get out, you can get out you demon, you can get out you baby butchering, election thief. You cannot be a Christian and vote democratic, okay? I'm mad. That makes you, you get pissed off as you want to. You cannot be a Christian and vote Democrat in this nation. They're God denying demons that butcher babies and hate this nation. They hate this nation. Get mad all you want to. I don't care if you stand. I don't care if you throw tomatoes. Praise God. I'm about to throw a microphone up in his house. CNN can eat my dirty socks. You cannot be a Democrat and a Christian. You cannot. Somebody say Amen. The rest of you get out, get out, get out in the name of Jesus. I ain't playing your stupid games. 

He says, well, he yells that if you vote for a Democrat, I don't want you around this church. He says, if you vote for Democrats, he calls all kinds of names, right, including God denying demons. It's hard to imagine. That's part of our Christian witness in this world. I'm not the only one who sees that as a problem, am I? This is a problem. This video is two years old, but I got it this week. It's still floating around. It's still circulating Methodists. We embrace widely. We don't put walls around Jesus and try to keep people out. We are building bridges, not walls. We don't call names and spew vitriol. I did see an interview with him from this summer on PBS, and he doesn't take back any of it, so it's two years old, but it's still the view that's being shared. You might know this, but Methodism United Methodism is a denomination that crosses party lines at some pretty high levels. 

Maybe you've heard of George Bush, president George Bush, United Methodist, Hillary Clinton, United Methodist, so we don't belong to just one party. Your political party does not determine whether you belong in God's church. Universal. Your political party does not dictate whether you belong in this or any church. I've joked about it before, but I I'm no party affiliation. I'm NPA that way. Whether you're Republican or Democrat, you can think I'm wrong, right? You can all agree on that. Should your Christian values guide how you vote? Yes. Yes, they should. Your Christian values should guide everything about how you live. Your Christian values should guide not just how you vote, but how you think about and speak about and treat people who vote differently from you. As we move through the end of this election season, we do well to remember that we are bound by something much bigger than American politics. 

We are bound by the love of God. We are bound by the saving grace that Jesus enacted on the cross. As Methodists, we believe that God's saving grace is meant for everyone. Now, we acknowledge that not everybody's going to think alike, right? But we do believe that everyone can love alike. This is a billboard that started running in Western North Carolina shortly before Hurricane Helene. I hope many of them are still up. It's a joint effort by the United Methodist Church and the Episcopal Church and it says, hate divides, love unites Methodists embrace widely. We open our arms, we build bridges. We do not try to gate keep God's grace. In fact, one distinctive Wesleyan emphasis is the idea of prevet grace. That's a belief that gatekeeping isn't possible when it comes to God's love. Preve grace goes ahead of us. It goes ahead of each person. 

It's the love of God that reaches out to humanity before we are even aware of it, and it preserves in us the image of God so that we can never be totally separate from God. Prevenient grace means God's love is for all people. So just start with yourself. Start with your understanding of what God has done for you. Grasp the depth of God's love for you because when you can do that, it will change you. It transforms our hearts and our minds, and when we are transformed by God's love, we no longer see people as other or unworthy. We just see them as God's beloved children. If I'm beloved, then so you and so are they. Whoever they are. When we're secure in our knowledge of God's love for us, we're freed from the need to judge or exclude or condemn or be God's bouncer. 

We're free to love without limits, to embrace widely the way God loves us. Our love for God flows out of God's love for us, and this love is not passive or conditional. It is active. It is transformational. It calls us to cross boundaries, to reach out to people who are marginalized, to create communities where all people are welcomed, valued, and loved this, I think. But in the United Methodist Church, we practice an open table when it comes to communion, meaning everyone is welcome to receive holy communion regardless of whether they are a member of this or any church, regardless of whether they have ever been baptized, regardless of whether they consider themselves a Christian. Why do we do that? Why do we embrace that widely? Because of our belief in prevenient grace and our experience that God works through this sacrament. This is God's table, not our table. 

This is God's church, not our church, and I love that we're talking about embracing widely on world communion Sunday. Today, our act of welcoming all people to the table reflects our understanding that God's grace isn't limited to a select group in a select place, right? God's grace and love are everywhere. So we remember today that we're just one congregation among many. We're going to celebrate communion along with many siblings in Christ from all walks of life and from every part of the globe, various cultures, traditions, and languages that make up the Christian Church because the church is not defined by one culture or one language, right? No. The church is enriched by its diversity. This diversity reflects the wide embrace that God calls us to embody. Just as God loves and accepts people from every nation and every background, we too are called to open our arms to people who are different from us. 

They don't have to think like us or live like us to be loved by us world. Communion Sunday is a reminder that the church's mission is to build bridges, not walls, that we celebrate the beauty of diversity within the unity of Christ. I want to close with one more quick story. Jennifer Skinner and I were talking this week and she told me about when Uncle Willard and Aunt Sally moved to Tallahassee and she wanted to find for him a group of Christian men who he could be in community with, and I asked her if I could share the story because I think it's such a great illustration of what it means to not embrace widely and then to embrace widely. So she took him to a men's group, but you know what they said? They said, we don't really want him to come back. He was visually impaired and they said, ah, that's just a lot of bother. We just really don't want to mess with that. That just is a lot of trouble. So this probably isn't the right group for him. That's not a very wide embrace. 

What happened in response to that? Well, Jennifer created a group and cooked for them, invited people to it. She lived out the ethic of a wide embrace. She literally made room for people at the table so that Uncle Willard could have community. That is beautiful. She didn't stand there with her arms crossed, right? She didn't try to exclude people from the table. She opened up her arms and she said, come on in, y'all Methodist embrace widely makes me think of Peter story, a Methodist pastor in South Africa. He says, you know that when we say come into my heart, Lord Jesus, that Jesus says, great, I'd love to, but only if I can bring my friends. Jesus is going to bring friends with him. God is prodigal, wasteful, extravagant with grace, mercy, and love, and God invites us to live with those same values. God is standing there with arms wide open waiting for us to run into the divine embrace and to bring our friends with us. God is like, free hug, y'all. Come on in. Amen.