The Heart-Bridge
Here we are in May, the traditional "month of Methodism". It has been called this because on the night of May 24, 1738, John Wesley was in a Methodist class meeting on Aldersgate Street and upon hearing someone read a commentary by Martin Luther on the Book of Romans, he said that suddenly, "I felt my heart strangely warmed." We Wesleyans celebrate this phrase because it represents perhaps not Wesley's "conversion", but the moment in which his heart was struck by a truth that his head had not grasped until then: that Christ had died for him, and that his own sins had been taken away by the blood of Jesus. He had known this universal truth for years but had not applied it to his own life. In the same way, he had been serving Christ for years as his Master and Lord, but now with his heart activated, his ministry began to take on new energy.
This episode in Wesley's life has several lessons, but I want to highlight here the role of the heart as the bridge between the head and the hands. To put it another way, personal experience of God’s love is the bridge between doctrinal knowledge and active service. Many Christians have knowledge of the basic Christian doctrines: the inspiration of the Scriptures, original sin, the resurrection of Jesus, justification by faith, and others. We can be very smart about the "correct" beliefs of faith. But as Wesley says in his sermon "The Almost Christian," "The devils... believe all that is written in the Old and New Testament. And yet for all this faith, they be but devils." In other words, knowledge alone is not enough.
Here you might say, "Yes, yes, that's right. Knowledge alone is not enough, if it's not put into practice." But let's stop for a second. This is not the conclusion we are drawing here. Wesley himself fell into that error for a while. As a university student and then a young priest, he was always very busy with the "things of God." He visited prisoners and the sick, constantly read the Bible, gave help to the poor, and took Holy Communion frequently. In short, he did everything a Christian is supposed to do. He combined doctrinal knowledge with active service like few others. And yet he felt like an "almost Christian" for many years.
What the night at Aldersgate showed him, and what he would emphasize for decades to come, is the role of the heart as the necessary bridge between the head and the hands. When it comes to knowledge, a heart given to God is what differentiates us from the demons. And when it comes to service, a heart overflowing with love for God is what sets us apart from the Red Cross and other aid groups. For Wesley, a heart filled with God's love gives meaning to our doctrines and enlivens our actions. It is the bridge that connects the two sides.
To see Wesley's emphasis on the loving heart, we can look at just one example, a few lines in his "Letter to a Young Disciple":
But you have all things in one, the whole of religion contracted to a point, in that word: 'Walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us.' All is contained in humble, gentle, patient love. In effect, therefore you need nothing but this.
But here we have to make one last stop. Wesley isn't saying, à la The Beatles, "All you need is love." Or at least, he doesn't mean it the way many do when talking about "love" today. We remember that love is the bridge, and if a bridge doesn’t touch both banks of the river, it is useless. On the one side, a heart overflowing with God's love has to know and defend the classical teachings of the Bible. If I allow someone to persist in ignorance or serious errors regarding the Gospel, I am not showing them love. On the other side, this heart has to express itself in active service towards others. I cannot ignore the needy in my town and say that I "love" them. If it's not a love you can see and touch, it's not love.
So, in this month of Methodism, let's reflect on one of the key facets of this experience of John Wesley. Let us take care of both our heads and our hands, both our doctrine and our service. But above all let us examine our hearts. Let us be careful not to love the Bible more than our neighbor, nor love our neighbor more than the Bible. Let's take care of our hearts, that necessary bridge between knowing and doing.
