while observing the 'daily office' during this lent season today, i came upon some reading in regards to john and charles wesley. in this particular reading i was reminded of john wesley's grace, even in the realm of academia. are we as gracious when we encounter those who seem to be 'less educated'. is it always about being right? or do we look beyond the surface to something to be found in a deeper sense. so often we blog about where we believe well intentioned people have missed the mark or gotten their facts mixed up. this story of john wesley reminds us that some things 'weight' more than others.
...although Wesley found it natural to approach the Gospel with habits of thought formed by a classical education, he was quick to recognize the value of other approaches. The early Methodist meetings were often led by lay preachers with very limited education. On one occasion, such a preacher took as his text Luke 19:21, "Lord, I feared thee, because thou art an austere man." Not knowing the word "austere," he thought that the text spoke of "an oyster man." He spoke about the work of those who retrieve oysters from the sea-bed. The diver plunges down from the surface, cut off from his natural environment, into bone-chilling water. He gropes in the dark, cutting his hands on the sharp edges of the shells. Now he has the oyster, and kicks back up to the surface, up to the warmth and light and air, clutching in his torn and bleeding hands the object of his search. So Christ descended from the glory of heaven into the squalor of earth, into sinful human society, in order to retrieve humans and bring them back up with Him to the glory of heaven, His torn and bleeding hands a sign of the value He has placed on the object of His quest. Twelve men were converted that evening. Afterwards, someone complained to Wesley about the inappropriateness of allowing preachers who were too ignorant to know the meaning of the texts they were preaching on. Wesley, simply said, "Never mind, the Lord got a dozen oysters tonight."
do you think we are this gracious? or are we more concerened about being right?
10 comments:
powerful story! I hope to be gracious, but it can be so much easier and sad to say at time more fun to be critical of the less educated.
Great story Brad! What’s ironic is that though he got it so wrong he also got it so right. I fear I have shared some oyster theology before myself and I pray that my oyster stories are as rich and powerful as this guy’s was.
James
dani,
i remember when i realized, for the first time, how much fun it was to criticize the people sitting around me. what was this twisted thing inside of me that was so at home with destructively criticizing people? i think it is sometimes tied to my selfishness. this is where i truly need a supernatural transformation...one that's beyond my efforts.
brad
james,
i know i've shared some oyster stories, and i'm certain that i still do (hopefully not as often as i used to). it reminds me in a way of when the disciples reported to Jesus that someone else was also working in Jesus' name. they wanted to 'shut it down'. Jesus had a more gracious attitude.
on another note...we need to meet up in fredericksburg or something for some food or espresso.
brad
You've probably already seen it, but if not, get "Still, We Believe: The Boston Red Sox Movie." I missed the first half but what I've watched is good.
eric,
i've seen the whole thing a couple times. talk about some guys who were gracious with each other!
brad
thanks for the story.
james is probably right...we've all probably shared a bit of oyster theology in our time in ministry. i wonder if anybody has ever gotten everything "right".
speaking of which, have you checked out Ben Witherington's blog entry about Rob Bell? Not quite in this vein of allowing oyster theology, but more graciously corrective. Quite helpful, if you ask me.
oh yeah, the blog is:
http://benwitherington.blogspot.com
josh,
hey man! i read ben's post the day he put it out there. i have a healthy amount of respect for ben. however, i disagree with a portion of his criticism of bell and rvl. john smulo has a pretty decent conversation about this going on over at smulospace.com under his velvit elvis review.
if you're interested, we can start a post on that and take the conversation to the new post. if you've got some thoughts on ben's piece i'd love to hear them!
brad
I thought I posed this comment earlier, but I guess it didn't go through. So here it is again.
Sorry my last comment wasn't related to the post. But I have to agree with Danielle on this one. I deal with this every day at school and it's something I'm really trying to work on. It really is so much easier to make fun and be critical.
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