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F. Belton Joyner, Jr., in Being Methodist in the Bible Belt, contrasts the views of the predominant religious mentality of the Bible Belt, generally known as religious fundamentalism, with the United Methodist Church (UMC), which generally takes a moderate position in matters religious.
One area in which the UMC church differs with fundamentalism, generally, is on how we look at salvation. Joyner observes, when it comes to salvation, the Bible Belt mentality asks the question, “When did you say ‘yes’ to God?” The Methodist mentality is represented by the following question: “When did God say ‘yes’ to you?”
Whatever yes any human or people gives to Grace is reply to a prior yes. The Divine yes is a yes to all creation and the plan for the healing of all nature and humans, likewise, re-formed into the image of Pure Spirit.
John Wesley, the patriarch of the Methodist churches and Wesleyan tradition, looked at salvation backward from the end goal: The healing of creation and restoration of the God-image in humankind. This corresponds to the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a Christian scientist, who wrote of the Omega Point. Creation, taught de Chardin, has a pull toward wholeness. This pull toward wholeness, the Omega Point, inherent in creation, is the yes of God transforming all creation to Christ. So, to follow Christ means to say yes to the Divine yes, to affirm that creation is already whole in God, and to accept participation in being part of the emergence toward wholeness, toward Christ. Whenever, in any way, we are involved in healing, we are involved in the providential movement of nature to the Christ.
In the christological-teleological theory of de Chardin and Wesley’s theory, the end point is already present in God in potential and certainty and inherent in the providential working in creation, but is not determined by an imposition of the Divine Will. Another way of saying this is, “The inherent propensity and emergence of creation to wholeness is evidence of the Creator’s nature within creation, but is not evidence of an outside imposition of Divine will onto nature and its operations.”
Likewise, Wesleyans teach prevenient grace. Grace is preparing us for yes; indeed, Grace is the prior yes. Therefore, as Bede Griffiths taught, while he lived in India as a monk, “In this view Hinduism itself will be seen as a preparatio evangelica, the path by which the people of India have been led through the centuries of their history to their fulfillment in Christ and his church” ("Christ in India"). That is, Hinduism is the preparation of Hindus for the fullness of the Gospel, of Christ. Of course, what is key to this fact is implied in Griffiths not defining Christ within the boundaries of Christianity, as defined historically. Therefore, Spirit is free to work outside the church and Christianity with a yes to those who are in other religious communions. Any sincere seeking of the Good, or God, wherever such occurs, is a reply to yes, for good can only arise from the Good, and where good is practiced, God is evidencing grace.
This teaching of Wesley and its more scientific counterpart in de Chardin gives us a compassionate and timely alternative to much that goes under the word “salvation,” both in and outside the Bible Belt. Salvation is our yes to the Divine yes. In prevenient grace, any way that a person or people truly seeks God is a yes to God and, finally, to Christ, regardless of how ill-informed or unformed that human yes might be. Indeed, all human yes to God is to lead to a more wise, more insightful, and more mature yes. Likewise, to speak wrong of how another person is seeking God, even when you consider it much less insightufl than the way you seek God, is a speaking wrong of the yes of God seeking to bring that person to a fuller understanding and love of the Divine. This is another way of affirming that our yes is not dependent on our having, understanding, or agreeing on all the facts; rather, our yes is dependent only on one Fact: The Prior Yes.
Spiritual Exercises
Do you recall a specific time when you said a yes to the Divine yes? Can you recall ways that you now know God was already working in your life, saying yes to you, before you were ready to say yes, in return?
Prayer
Thank you for loving me, as I am. Thank you for loving me, as all you knew I could be. Thank you for loving me, affirming all I will be. Thank you for your yes. “Yes!” And, forgive me for making decisions about your response and work in other peoples, persons, and faiths, rather than trusting that your wisdom is vaster than my little mind and my tradition. Amen.
Brian K. Wilcox
OneLife Ministries is a pastoral outreach and nurture ministry of the First United Methodist Church, Fort Meade, FL. For Spiritual Direction, Pastoral Counseling, spiritual formation workshops, Christian meditation retreats, or more information about OneLife, write Rev. Dr. Brian K. Wilcox at briankwilcox@comcast.net.
Brian's book of mystical love poetry, An Ache for Union, can be ordered through major bookdealers.
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