“ALL MAY BE SAVED”
[A sermon for Aldersgate Sunday]

A sermon preached at the Mint Methodist Church, Exeter, by the Minister, Rev Andrew Sails at 10.30 a.m. on 23^rd May 2004 Readings: Acts 1:1-11, Luke 15:1-10 Back to Sermon Index

Lk 15:4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them.
Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country
and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?”

On 24 May 1738
John Wesley went to a meeting in Aldersgate Street in London.
There as he felt his heart strangely warmed and was converted.
And so within the Methodist Tradition
each year we celebrate at this time Aldersgate Sunday –
as we give thanks for John and Charles Wesley,
the founding fathers of the Methodist Movement.

And also on Aldersgate Sunday,
some celebrated words from John Wesley,
sometimes referred to as Wesley’s four “all”s –

All need to be saved

All may be saved

All may know that they are saved

All may be saved to the uttermost.

Wesley does not say

Some may be saved

Most may be saved

People like us may be saved

Nearly everyone may be saved

No: all may be saved –

In terms of our Gospel passage,

when 99 are safely gathered in,
even one sheep is still out there on the moor,
God will not shrug his shoulders,
but will go out amidst the night storms and the ravaging wolves
bringing to bear all his love and all his might,
to save the very last sheep which has strayed.

And we know God’s love and we know his power –

And dare we say he will not succeed??

In Wesley’s day, many of the great preachers,
including his former colleague George Whitfield,
said that all could not be saved.

Whitfield preached double predestination

Essentially this meant that God elected (in advance)
those who were to be saved, chosen, people.

All the rest were doomed to destruction

To say that all may be saved to the uttermost,
was, to Whitfield’s supporters, like a red rag to a bull.

One Sunday they picketed Wesley’s service
handing out pamphlets to the congregation
denouncing Wesley’s offer of universal salvation.
Famously Wesley stood in the pulpit
and tore up his copy of the leaflet into small pieces
and invited the congregation to follow suit –

In Leslie Griffiths’ words, what followed was a
“ticker tape welcome to a theology of grace
which should never, ever, for one moment … be lost sight of.”
[Sermon at Wesley’s Chapel, Aldersgate Sunday 2003]

Because this debate (about whether all can be saved)
is much more than a dry academic exercise in Church history.
It affects how we live our lives.

If you believe that God elects some to salvation and not others,
not only do you end up with a strangely arbitrary God
you also very easily find yourself led into harsh and unloving attitudes yourself.

The belief in the election of some and not others
has often provided a spurious theological rationale
for slavery, for apartheid
and for the imperialism of those nations believing themselves inherently superior.

As the horrors of Iraqi abuse scandal continue,
we see how if you dare believe that you or your nation is specially elect,
called, as his specially chosen crusaders ,
you can so easily fall into horrendously callous and evil deeds
against those you see as lesser mortals.

In the run up to the June elections, the Methodist Church in GB
has spoken out uncompromisingly against racist parties
such as the BNP

The BNP and other racist and imperialist groups essentially say
“We are the chosen people, the elect – the rest don’t count”

But that is to get it all wrong –
I am not part of a specially selected flock of elite sheep –

That could not be further from the truth.
In fact – if I identify with anyone in the story of the 100 sheep,
I find myself identifying with the very last sheep to be found -
rejoicing that all may be saved, even me –

“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,
that saved a wretch like me.”

[John Newton, HAP 215]

“Throughout the world its breadth is known,

Wide as infinity;
So wide it never passed by one,
Or it had passed by me”
[Charles Wesley, HAP 46]

This week we also celebrate the Sunday after ascension –
we think of Jesus going up to Heaven –
there is a lot of stuff to unpack in the ascension story –

that will have to wait for another year –
suffice here to say that this rich poetic image of Jesus rising up through the clouds
is not about him escaping from the earth, but rising up to rule over it.

The cross and the resurrection
do not just relate to a few people in one place or one time –
they relate to God’s loving approach to the whole of creation!

[And if you want a Biblical doctrine of election,
you may like to reflect on the following thought:
Finally does the God of the New Testament elects but one person – that is Christ –
and in him may all find salvation – and so may we all be part of the elect?]

Last week Price Charles went on retreat to Mount Athos –
a holy place in the Greek orthodox tradition.

One of the most famous holy men of Mount Athos was
Starets or Elder Silouan who died in 1938.

A story is told of a conversation between the holy man
and a certain hermit who said to him with evident satisfaction
"God would punish all atheists. They will burn in an eternal fire."
But Elder Siluan, evidently upset, asked,
"Tell me suppose you were in heaven,
and from there you could look down
and see others burning in hellish flames, would you feel happy?"
"It can’t be helped, it’s their own fault," answered the hermit.
Father Silouan looked at him sadly and said -
"Love cannot accept that... Everyone must be prayed for."

You can’t enjoy the true bliss of heaven
whilst listening to the groans of those in torment elsewhere.

You can’t graze happily in the sheepfold
knowing that one stray sheep is still out in danger on the crag and fen

And if even we poor sinners sense such things,
how much more so our father in heaven….

This week the Mint Theatre Group
went to see a wonderful production
of GB Shaw’s Candida at the Northcott.

One of the key characters is the Rev James Morell,
a clergyman in the East End at the turn of the last century –
he lectures several times a week to left wing and workers’ groups.
In the opening scene his secretary
is trying to find a space in his diary to speak to yet another such group.
But between the Greenwich Independent Labour Party & the
Tower Hamlets Radical Club and the Mile End Social Democrats
there are just no free evenings left.
In the end the despairing secretary says to the vicar
“….Tell them you can’t come.
They’re only half a dozen conceited costermongers
without five shillings between them”

He replies “Ah but you see they are near relatives of mine”

The secretary stares at him – “Relatives of yours!”

“Yes,” says Morel, “we have the same father – in heaven”

“Oh” says the secretary, evidently relieved “is that all?”

“Ah” he says “you don’t believe it –
Everyone says it, no one believes it”

But it’s true -
One Father in heaven and whoever you are –
whatever your race, your politics, your sexuality, your wealth, your intellect, your religion, your beliefs –
you are a child of God, and we are sister and brother.

I have to say that Candida is a rather difficult play for a minister –
a fair dollop of humour is reserved for the unfortunate Rev James Morrell
who is accused by more than one character
of being a windbag more interested in seeking adulation
than in meaning what he says.
This was brought fairly forcibly to my attention during the interval
by several ever-supportive members of our congregation…

So I need to preach with care today.

And so must you.

For of course we are called to preach the Good News of God’s love

But we are called to preach not for our own glory,
but “as dying men to dying men” (Richard Baxter)
– knowing that we of all people need to be saved

10 days ago an explosion ripped through a Glasgow factory,

and rescuers worked feverishly to save the survivors.

I heard a TV interview with one of those working on the site.

“We think there is just one person left” he said

“but we are not giving up till we’ve found him”

With which he returned to the rubble.

Thus speaks and thus acts Christ –

And because of that I know that I, even I, may be saved –

for my saviour will search for me even through the deepest darkest ruins of my life,

even unto and beyond death

And if you are right now feeling that everything has collapsed about you,

listen, your rescuer is nearer at hand than you knew –

and whether you live or die in this life, he will find and save you.

If you feel like the mountaineer lost on a high and dangerous ridge,
knowing not how to go forward or back,
lost, stranded with chasms all about -
look and listen, the mountain rescue, risking all for you,
is nearer than you know.

If you feel like that one stupid, foolish, lost sheep,
cold lonely and frightened,
well see your shepherd who will lay down his very life for the sheep
coming for you.
He will not rest until you are safe home in his arms –

Whoever you are,

wherever you may be

whatever you may have become.

So as we have heard the good news in our lives,
let us tell the world,
especially those most weak and poor and vulnerable -
”God loves you, whoever you are –

For God’s love never knows when to stop –

Throughout the world its breadth is known,

Wide as infinity;
So wide it never passed by one,
Or it had passed by me”
[Charles Wesley, HAP 46]

Back to Sermon Index