Word & Spirit & Tradition

Welcome Statement

Good morning everyone, last week, we wrestled with the issues of human goodness and depravity, and how we find ourselves embattled in this never-ending cycle of self-justification, until we find ourselves justified in Christ. With this recognition and understanding of our deep well of capacity to do both good and evil, we can now talk about the tensions we experience in our tradition of Methodism. There’s a concept whose term was coined by Albert C. Outler, a 20th-Century American Methodist Scholar, called the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. If you’ve heard it before, the basic premise is that this is the methodology that John Wesley appeared to or presumably used methodically for theological reflection. Like Prima Scriptura, or scripture first, it sits scripture as the basis of all authority, so where it can interpret itself, it is first and foremost, the first authority, nothing else can replace it. I also want to point out, the term quadrilateral is a sort of misnomer, as it gets misinterpreted a lot as scripture being equal when it’s not, it should be called the wesleyen tree. Where the top is Scripture, and there are three offshoots from the bottom, tradition, reason, and scripture, kind of like a stool. They have to balance eachother or it falls apart.

Tradition comes next, we find ourselves when scripture does not directly answering something, we refer to our traditions, our polity, and so forth, to find guidance. For example, how we handle baptisms, are a tradition that were expanded upon, while the trinitarian baptism is a statement, the idea of do we baptize babies or professed believers is something that was dealt with in polity through theological reflection of the church. In the case of the Methodist church we do both. We carry on the traditions of creeds as a way to bound ourselves to an interpretive lense, when we see Christ relating himself to God, we realize that through that trinitarian lense that was declared at the Council of Nicea. Wesley then argues, that one must use reason to truly understand scripture. That scripture is logically consistent, but that one still needs to be guided by the spirit, and that this is why scripture is the “prime authority”. Reason can’t produce faith, but it can help us understand difficult passages, and help us connect the dots when things don’t make sense. This is where discernment happens with the spirit. This concept in particular was something that would make eyebrows raise a long long time ago, because typically, only higher ups in the church would determine what was the canonical interpretation of scripture, now anyone can discern. Now of course, we have our canonical creeds, and Wesley still believes, as do I, we need to hold to our foundational beliefs, but this ability to reason out and wrestle our faith, allows us to dive deeper into the waters of our baptism in Christ, and find where he really wants us to understand, instead of being in the shallows of blind faith. And finally we hit a really peculiar idea of Experience. Wesley boldly proclaimed “What the scriptures promise, I enjoy”. We read about Pentecost, and we experience Pentecost. Wesley is to blame for the Pentecostal movement in this regard, he experienced his Aldersgate moment, and refused to disregard emotional and spiritual moments in his life, but would not let his emotions override scripture either. These would fuel him to do his work, but he would still let scripture lead. Our experiences of the spirit, is what allows us to relate to others, and its how we find peace in God, our experiences in Church, in community, and so forth, but those never supplant the Truth of Christ.

This framework does find itself at odds with the Lutheran framework of Sola scriptura, which argues that only scripture can be an authority, nothing else can be used to interpret Christian life, or be a lense for interpretation. In that framework, they find themselves really constrained. Note I am not arguing that sola scriptura is wrong, it is the foundation of the protestant reformation, but it is something that Wesley expanded upon.

What Wesley built was an expanded form of Prima Scriptura, where one could use multiple methodologies to apply to scripture to understand how to apply scripture to one’s context, but, Wesley never said Scripture could be uphended or replaced. Scripture always had the final word. That is the difficulty, we wrestle with. When we read scripture, do we take it at face value? Or do we go and also read the surrounding verses, perhaps make sure we understand their context? Maybe we need to read the history of the time period, or the church and issues at the time, what was going on that caused, for example, Paul to write his epistles to Corinth or to the church of Rome, to give us insight to some of his writings, to know how to interpret them. This is why we need reason and discernment, and experience, but also to rely on tradition, from the early fathers who had access to better sources than we did, to help give us insight as well. This is a tension.

In the book, This is broken down differently as Word & Spirit & Tradition. Spirit in this case would match to reason & experience as they both require the spirit’s involvement in the quadrilateral. In the book, Adam rightly says the following: Ignoring tradition makes us fools

Ignoring Scripture makes us sin

Ignoring the spirit makes us stagnate So by that token, we can’t ignore any of them. But what happens if one of them disagrees? Well. Again, Scripture comes first. We know the spirit won’t contradict scripture, this is why discernment comes in. Tradition isn’t always right either, this is why the church is always in constant reformation, the physical church is a human institution, the capital C Church is Christ’s Body, that is the one that is in a sense, already made perfect, but is still growing. Let’s reflect on this some in 2nd Peter. Now 2nd Peter is a farewell letter by Peter to the Churches of Asia Minor, as he knows he doesn’t have long to live. In this letter, he first invites the church to be participants of the divine nature of God’s own character/life and love. He is writing this letter to encourage them and remind them what the church is about, the traditions they are putting in place, and to address objections and abuses that are being done. In our case, we are going to reflect on the 1st objection he makes, which is an objection to those who accuse Peter of making myths about Jesus Christ.

Old Testament Reading - 2 Peter 1:16-21 NRSV

2 Peter 1:16–21 NRSV

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain. So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

We heard this ourselves

Peter boldly declares that they heard this voice from heaven themselves. repeating the words of what was heard from Christ’s baptism, as the Holy Spirit came down like a dove. These prophetic words of great things to come. The first instance of Spirit. Then we see Peter say something even more strict. That no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. This is one of the places we understand that all authentic scripture is an authority that must be taken seriously. But what about understanding prophecy? Does this mean literalness is required? Well hold on, if we want to be technical, taking words literally is an interpretative framework, because Christ himself used parables. If we took them literally, we would find ourselves in trouble. So what is going on here?

The point actually being said is that this isn’t just simply “sorta-inspired words” in a lukewarm sense. These are actual word-for-word prophetic texts. The letters Paul wrote, although his own words, he was given just the right things to say by the Holy Spirit. Something happened in transmission to make it be what it needed to be for millenia to come. That is the mystery of God and faith, and we have to become more comfortable about that collaboration with God that happened. That is true inspiration. The truth is that we have really cryptic verses like in Revelation that we won’t know what they entirely mean until they happen, we can prepare, but we only have a murky veil for preparation with the frameworks we have. The NIV makes this more clear:

2 Peter 1:20 NIV

Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things.

It didn’t come about by the prophet’s own interpretation of event’s, it came by what the prophets were exactly inspired to write. Learning scripture daily is important, but we must apply it, and this is where we find tradition to be important.

Traditional Rythm

In the 2nd Letter to the Thessalonians. He was getting a report in Thessolonica that persecution of Christians there was getting even worse after his first letter to them and that there was a lot of confusion about the return of Jesus, when it would happen, what would happen, etc. While we won’t get into these details much specifically. It’s important, that we understand this context as it helps explain why Paul talks about holding fast to the works and traditions of the faith that they had taught and passed on.

New Testament Reading - 2 Thessalonians 2:15, 3:6-15

2 Thessalonians 2:15 NRSV

So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by our letter.

2 Thessalonians 3:6–15 NRSV

Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, and we did not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it; but with toil and labor we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right. Take note of those who do not obey what we say in this letter; have nothing to do with them, so that they may be ashamed. Do not regard them as enemies, but warn them as believers.

Stand Firm in the Tradition

We see here an affirmation from Paul that traditions rooted from the early Apostles, need to continue forth, not just only the traditions set forth by Jesus, but those examples set forth by those spiritual giants after him. Of course, not that we should venerate them, no, but they should be sources of inspiration to show that it is indeed possible for us to follow in Christ’s footsteps. That Denying Peter still fulfilled his part in God’s plan, that the persecuter of Christians was converted on the road to Damascus and became a writer of many epistles, a theologian full of richness that inspired us to a meaning of life and hope, that man being Paul. These people were thinking Jesus was returning soon, so they lived a disordered life and thought “Why work? Jesus is coming soon! There is no consequence to this world!”. Paul made it clear that he was challenging their idlness as it was important to stop speculating on the timeline of Jesus’ return, and to actually find a way to provide for themselves. This is a godly call to work, even if it is a secular job. Paul found himself a vocation to provide, so that he could help fund the church, and help expand it. Those of us that are able to help fund the church do this with our own vocations, no matter how small. These traditions of the offering plate for example, they carry forth to the next generation, even if they change in how they are delivered or shared. Paul is calling people to an orderly life instead of a life of irresponsibility and laziness, so we can provide for others and to the lord’s table, that is why we find the Methodist tradition so rich in the ideas of piety and social holiness, to serve our fellow man. If we can’t help ourselves, how do we help others? I know this is an overused phrase, but self-care is important, and part of that self-care is stabilizing our own lives, God developed order in this world for a reason. But we can’t do any of this without the spirit, as we recall from Pentecost Sunday a couple of verses from Acts 2

Acts 2:1–4 NRSV

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Recall what I have said about the law on paper versus being inscribed on your heart. When it is inscribed on the heart, or as it is said in hebrew, the levav, it is inscribed in love. For the hebrew understanding, this meant the heart and mind. So we get this both rational and emotional understanding of how to love thy neighbor, there is no loopholes, there is no getting out of it. You know if you understand God’s love or not. There is always the mystery to the depth and breadth of it, but you know if you are respecting the will of God in spirit. Think of the phrase, spirit of the law, are we abusing God’s law for our own pleasure? Or are we fullfilling it, and perhaps exceeding it to his pleasure? Not for works righteousness, but because of our abundanceof love and thanks tot he fruit of the spirit. To close, we have to find this stability in all three. We need scripture above all else to find God, as in the beginning was the word. We understand that God’s word is more than ink and parchment, but we hear it through scripture and spirit, as well as echoes through tradition to set examples before us. We know we must stay biblical by always referring first to scripture. But we cannot refer to scripture without the spirit. And when scripture is unclear to us, we must refer to tradition to help guide us as well. To help establish this dichotomy, Adam has a diagram that I will paraphrase into words. To maintain all three in high tension, you will study the word faithfully to maintain a high degree of biblical understanding, you will keep your heart open to the spirit at all times for its healing power and prescense to stay spiritual, and you will maintain a high degree of wisdom and connectedness through tradition to keep a stable foundation. Maintaining all three together is a road to a high degree of faithfulness in our Methodist tradition, and more importantly in God almighty, and will allow us to stay on the narrow path during times of trouble, and when the world seems to be falling apart around us. Let us pray.

Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father, adfs asdfa

Amen.

Doxology / Benediction / Closing

May you Have a Blessed Sunday, and rest of your Week! Amen!