Greetings,
Several
people have asked me to comment on my preaching at Lovely Lane United Methodist Church for Pentecost Sunday. Pride is always the greatest threat to our
souls, and by God’s grace alone I will be able to talk about the experience
with pleasure and gratitude rather than pride.
Most of
you know that the Lovely Lane United Methodist Church is the “Mother Church of American Methodism.” It is not the oldest Methodist congregation,
but it is one of the earliest, with Francis Asbury being its first pastor in
1773. The second pastor was Robert
Strawbridge, the lay preacher who did the first Methodist preaching in America in 1766. It
was at the Lovely Lane Meeting House where the Christmas Conference of 1784 was
held, which formed the Methodist Episcopal Church, the first separate Methodist
denomination in the world. At that
conference Asbury was ordained a deacon on December 25th, ordained
and elder on December 26th, and consecrated as a bishop on December
27th. The current church
building was built as the Memorial Church for the 100th anniversary of the Christmas Conference. It was designed by the famous Stanford White,
and its construction is still considered an architectural miracle. The building is on the list of the 100
greatest structures in North
America. The domed ceiling is an exact representation
of the sky as it appeared the night of the consecration of the church in
1887. There are forty or so lights
around the rim of the dome which light the ceiling. Etched into the plaster over each light are
tongues of fire. (Brenda took a good
picture of the flames which she posted on Facebook – Brenda Dorsch Ibutu.)
As it was
Pentecost Sunday, I preached on “The Tongues of Fire Are Still Coming Down”
based on Acts 2:1-21 and John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15. The pastor, Rev. Nancy Nedwell, had asked me
to share with the congregation something of the heritage of The United
Methodist Church and of the Lovely Lane congregation, as they have many newer members from
the neighborhood who are not familiar with the United Methodist traditions or
the history of that congregation.
From Jesus’
promise of the Holy Spirit who will teach, testify, judge and guide us, to the
coming down of the Spirit in the form of tongues of fire on the believers, to
the appearance of the Spirit’s Light and subsequent teaching to Paul, to Paul
establishing the church at Thessalonica, to Nicholas, to Cyril and Methodius,
to John Hus and the Moravians, to John Wesley, to Francis Asbury and Robert
Strawbridge, the Truth and faith have been handed down. From the first Methodist preaching in America by Robert Strawbridge in 1766, to the formation of Methodist
meeting houses throughout the colonies, to the establishment of the first
Methodist denomination in the world in 1784 at the Lovely Lane meeting house, the faith spread through America. Always the
Church and faith was about ordinary individuals who believed the promise of
Jesus and accepted his love, forgiveness and salvation for their personal
lives. In the 228 years since, it has
continued to be about individuals making committed choices to be obedient to
God in all things.
This past week was the 228th annual
meeting of that original Baltimore Conference, now the Baltimore-Washington
Conference, and for all of its problems, all of its failures, all of its’
missteps and human sin, we heard and experienced the coming down of the Holy
Spirit in the lives of committed followers in congregations around the
Conference and the world. It is about
each person who hears the Word and believed that God so loved the world, that
God gave the only begotten Son, Jesus, that whoever believes in him should not
perish, but have eternal life.
It is
about those marvelous, miraculous, magnificent tongues of fire still coming
down.
For me
personally, it was a great pleasure and an awesome experience to stand at such
an historic pulpit, in the Centennial Anniversary Church, before the congregation of the Mother Church of
American Methodism. Fifty-three years
ago, as I watched and listened to a truly great sermon delivered from that
pulpit by Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam, I would have said it was impossible that I would
ever stand where he stood. Of course, my
sermon and situation were a far cry from his, and delivered to a much smaller
congregation, but by the grace of God’s Holy Spirit, the sermon did move people
to tears, and provoked much thought and hope.
On Thursday, at the Annual Conference, Pastor Kidwell came up to a group
of pastor friends with whom I was talking and told them about the sermon and
said that the sanctuary was still burning.
I have lived long enough and experienced enough to know that it had
nothing to do with me, and everything to do with the Holy Spirit. Yet, I also was thrilled to witness again
that “with God, all things are possible!”
Yours & His,
DED
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