Thursday, March 13, 2008

 

How Will They Know Series

 

Luke 2:37 “..for nothing is impossible with God.”

 

One Man’s Vision

 

The United Methodist Church began with a vision of John Wesley.  He wanted the world to live by the standards of Christ and he was willing to change the world to do so. 

 

In the 1700’s there were no laws protecting children.  The Methodist movement responded to that need.  Wesley and his little band became involved with the plight of the young pre-adolescent boys who were sent into the gruesome mines to dig in small holes for coal all over England.  Because they were small, they were sent with pickaxes to dig the mine shafts.

 

Of course, there were many accidents.  The shafts commonly collapsed.  There were pockets of poisonous gas and, of course, the propensity of coal dust to exasperate tuberculosis, the most common killer of that day.  Each day these young boys could see their companions killed or horribly maimed.

 

The young girls would work at the looms and were sent, because of their light weight, on fragile scaffolding.  The smaller girls were chosen because their tiny hands could tie back the knots in the huge looms.  Often the looms that they would work cycled back and forth and would crush these young girls.  Many of the little girls would see their friends die horrible deaths.  Wesley and the band of Methodists were at the looms witnessing to their faith.  They also used any political means they could to bring about reform in child labor. 

 

Sunday, the only day off from their grueling sixteen hour days, the children would go with their parents to the local pubs and drink immense quantities of gin.  Along with their parents, they tried to forget the futility of their lives.  Wesley and their band were there in the pubs on Sundays sharing Christ.  The songs we sing and know as hymns were originally set to bar tunes with the words changed to bring about, in some hopes, the repetition of Christian words. 

 

Wesley had been an Anglican priest and was thought of as a fanatic by the powers of his day.  The newspapers turned his work in the mines and the looms and the bars into what they labeled a religious fanatic.  No matter, Wesley preached that Jesus cared for all of them and he would say over and over again “that Jesus cares for their burdens and their labors”.

 

Wesley showed that the Christian movement could be a sleeping giant that was awakened to the needs of a hurting world.  If we are the Christians we say we are then we need to awake from our slumber and face the issues of our day.  Many an injustice must be addressed, addiction issues are huge in our country and people today at all economic levels are struggling to find meaning in life.  We can address through our faith these issues. 

 

Prayer:  Dear God, help me to be a strong Christian and face the issues of this world.  Amen.