PRINCETON UMC
As a child, when I sat next to my mother in church, I noticed she did not join in the prayer of confession: “There is nothing good in me, O Lord, have mercy upon me, a miserable sinner.” When I asked why, she said she considered herself to be a good person who had not committed a terrible sin. Repenting, to her and to many of us, implies being judged, and why should we be scolded when we haven’t done anything really bad?
She would have been glad to read As If the Heart Mattered: A Wesleyan Spirituality by Gregory F. Clapper, the book on which our “Amazing Grace” sermon series is based. Clapper uses hymn verses, Bible stories, and popular references to explain that “if you want to know what a person truly is, you have to find out what they love, what they hate, what they take joy in, what they fear, and in what they find peace. . . If Christianity does not affect a person on this most elemental level, then it has not really taken root.”
John Wesley’s “religion of the heart” does not involve being scolded for our sins, “as though God were a parent who is always telling us to ‘Stand up straight’ when we would rather slouch,” writes Clapper. In contrast, “Repentance is an understanding that does not crush the human spirit, but instead gives us new life in surprising and powerful ways.”
To gain new life, in the Wesleyan tradition, we need to know ourselves. “Wesley’s use of self-knowledge offers insight into the human heart: we do not truly know who we are until we confess our sinfulness.” The author quotes Bob Dylan to illustrate the idea of repentance as self-knowledge. In “When He Returns” on the album Slow Train Coming, Dylan sings, How long can you falsify and deny what is real? How long can you hate yourself for the weakness you conceal?
“When we are completely honest with ourselves,” writes Clapper, “we cannot help but know that we are not holy, and it is liberating to speak this truth. . .When we repent, instead of denying ourselves, we name the truth of who we are.”
In another chapter, the author uses the character of Valjean in the novel and the musical “Les Miserables” to show “how forgiveness of our sins can lead us to a life of love.”
I’m looking forward to reading and rereading this book to get a better understanding of how Wesley’s “religion of the heart” can help me find more opportunities to understand God’s grace.
It’s short, just 111 pages, including a glossary of often misunderstood terms like “holiness,” “works of piety,” and “orthodoxy.”
It’s well organized. After explaining why anyone should care about a “Wesleyan spirituality,” Clapper explains the “architecture” of a metaphorical House of Religion: The Porch of Repentance, the Door of Faith, the House of Holiness, and Living a Heart Religion in the World Today.
As If the Heart Mattered: A Wesleyan Spirituality, by Gregory F. Clapper. Paperback copies are available in the Sanford Davis Room and here is the link to order either the paper copy or the Kindle version.
