Inspired by Exodus 17:1-7, Acts 3:2-10, Matthew 21:23-27
The word discernment is defined by the Cambridge Online Dictionary as “the ability to judge people and things well”. Discernment is that brain activity that is reflective rather than reactive, considered rather than quick, open to new information and interpretations rather than stuck in dogmatism, it assesses rather than pre-judges. In other words, it is the ability to sift through all the extraneous stuff and find one’s way to the truth in a situation.
Are you aware that there is a process of spiritual discernment too? This involves an intentional seeking after and hopefully finding God’s will (individual and corporate) for our lives; plugging into what God is already doing. God’s will should be understood as God’s ongoing work of providing abundant life for all of creation. The founder of spiritual discernment was a 16th Century Spanish soldier turned mystic, name Ignatius of Loyola. Ignatian Spiritual Exercises have become over the last 500 years the standard in how to learn to discern God’s will for our lives.
About 200 years after St. Ignatius, John Wesley came on the scene. Wesleyan spiritual discernment involved the foundation of scripture augmented by the use of our God-given reason, Church tradition, and our lived experience of God in our lives. When we use all of these tools, then we can more easily discover and follow the energy of the Holy Spirit. Discernment for Wesleyans then is not just the discovery of new truth, but the Spirit-enabled capacity to discover spiritual consolation which is “inner peace, spiritual joy, hope, faith, love, tears and elevation of the mind, all of which are gifts of the Holy Spirit”.
Our scripture readings this week offer some guidance on what it looks like to live lives of faithful discernment. Moses is following God’s orders and leading the Israelites toward God’s mountain so that they can all worship God there. He has responsibility for many thousands of people of all ages, their animals and all their stuff – and they are walking through a barren, desert wilderness when the people have had enough. God has already provided quail every evening and manna every morning, but the people are thirsty and want Moses to do something about it. Moses discerns that he needs to ask God for a solution to the problem. God tells him to go strike a rock in the middle of nowhere and water will come out. God showed Moses the way when there seemed to be no way.
Peter and John are headed to the temple in the middle of the afternoon for prayer. They meet a man lame from birth who asks them for money. Instead, Peter asks the beggar to look at him and John. Looking at the man who had been unable to work his whole life, Peter discerned that what he needed more than money was healing and a return to community. Thus, Peter gave him the healing power of Jesus, and the man began walking, jumping and praising God for the miracle.
Jesus is confronted in the temple by the chief priests and elders of the people. They questioned him about who gave him the authority to teach? Jesus discerns that their question is not faithful and responds to their question with a question of his own, wondering if John’s baptism was from heaven or of human origin? The leaders are caught in their game and cannot answer without revealing their ulterior motives. Jesus discerned well the real reason for their question and left them confused and embarrassed.
Developing a discerning faith can help us to move through our lives with a greater sense of peace and serenity. How do we do that in our day, being faithful to our Wesleyan roots? Dr. Kerry Fulcher, President of Point Loma Nazarene University, has this to teach about how Wesley’s ministry embodied the discipline of discerning faith: “…Wesley lived as what we might call a ‘Way of Faithful Tension’ a life marked by continual discernment, seeking to receive the whole truth of the gospel without distortion. He insisted that faith must bear fruit in works, that grace must lead to obedient love, and that reason must remain attentive to the Spirit, all ordered under the lordship of Christ…For Wesley, this was never innovation; it was retrieval. He described his movement as ‘the old religion, the religion of the Bible, the religion of the primitive Church,’ a re-awakening rather than a reformulation of Christian truth. His discernment sought not to construct new theology but to recover the holy balance and harmony the early believers held….”
This led those early Methodists to a discerning faith that shaped their holy living in the world. Dr. Fulcher discusses how we too can live in this way in our day and time through grace and works, personal and social holiness and reason and spirit. She teaches, “…Grace and Works: Salvation is God’s free gift, yet genuine faith necessarily ‘works by love,’ producing obedience and holiness. Grace without obedience becomes license; obedience without grace becomes legalism. Both truths must be held; both distortions rejected. For Wesley, obedience was never a condition of grace, but its consequence, the outward expression of inward renewal (aka transformation).
Personal and Social Holiness: ‘The gospel of Christ knows of no religion but social, no holiness but social holiness.’ By social holiness, Wesley did not mean mere social activism or the reduction of the Gospel to political causes. He meant that holiness is formed and sustained within Christian community as believers grow together through prayer, worship, accountability, communion, and acts of mercy. Yet this shared pursuit of holy love was never inward-looking or self-contained. It naturally overflowed into public compassion, leading Wesley and the early Methodists to care for the poor, visit prisoners, open clinics, and advocate for abolition. For Wesley, personal holiness and outward mercy belonged together; to separate them was to lose sight of the fullness of the Gospel. Because the Gospel is all-encompassing in scope, the Spirit’s work of renewal extends from persons to communities and, ultimately, to creation itself (Rom. 8:21; Col. 1:19–20).
Reason and Spirit: Wesley rejected both the cold skepticism of Enlightenment rationalism and the excesses of ‘enthusiasm’ that mistook personal impulses or emotions for the voice of God. He embraced reason as a gift for ordering the mind, and he embraced the Spirit as the One who enlivens the heart. Only together, under Scripture’s authority as it bears witness to Christ, do they reflect the fullness of God’s work. For Wesley, intellect and inspiration were never rivals but partners in the pursuit of truth.
These examples show the type of integration that gave early Methodism its unique vitality. It was not either/or. It was both/and; rooted in Christ, animated by the Holy Spirit, and expressed in holiness….”
Over the last 25 years or so, I have developed a process of deep listening and faithful discernment, first through Ignatian Exercises and then moving primarily to Wesleyan discernment. I never know when an insight will occur or how it might look, but I do know that if I’m faithful, then God will be faithful to me. When an energizing idea pops into my noggin, then I take it to leaders to process it a bit and see if it has some “legs”. The leadership at both churches has been challenged by my discerning faith a couple of times over the last 6 months (some might say longer than that!).
The first discerning faith moment came following church Council meetings where members would be presented with cash flow that showed very healthy churches. Those reports also showed significant reserves. I was moved to ask the question of both church Councils – “What is God asking us to do with a portion of this reserve to help people in our area?” I believe this falls under “Personal and Social Holiness”. The other is a discernment that was brought to me independently by two leaders inquiring whether it was time to employ a part-time Administrative Assistant for the Pastor? I believe this bit of faithful discernment falls under “Grace and Works”.
Today when you arrive to the Charge luncheon, you will see three large poster boards with headings of “Grace and Works”, “Personal and Social Holiness” and “Reason and Spirit”. I’d like you to sit in tables where both churches are represented and to talk about what areas you think God might be moving us. If you have specific ideas, please write those up on the poster paper. Members of both Church Councils should disperse themselves so that they can provide some background on the two examples I mentioned of sharing a portion of the reserves with the community and the creation of an Administrative Assistant position.
Developing a discerning faith begins with conversation, an admission of how God’s unconditional love is transforming us and how we will obediently respond to that grace. John Wesley noted that a discerning faith must bear fruit in works, that grace must lead to obedient love, and that reason must remain attentive to the Spirit, all ordered under the lordship of the Christ. May God lead us all to that kind of faith…amen!