This is My Story, This is My Song

I arrived at Heathrow around 6:30 AM on Sunday and took the train to Paddington Station.  I had consulted the map of the Tube and knew which line I needed to take, but due to closures, I had to resort to plan B and C and then D, all while jet-lagged and hungry.  But I managed to figure things out  (not being too proud to ask for help is always a good thing!) and finally arrived at Wesley's Chapel around 9AM, chatted with my gracious hosts, took a shower, and stepped across the courtyard for worship.

It was a very full service, complete with confirmation and the sacrament of Holy Communion, and twice we sang bits of "Blessed Assurance," a much-beloved hymn written by Fanny Crosby, a Methodist laywoman who wrote thousands of hymns.  It was one of my mother's favorites, and I can almost hear her voice in my ear, particularly during the chorus.  "This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long ..."

Story. Song.  Both of those are integral to understanding this thing called Methodism.  Methodism is a movement born of a flaming desire to tell and to live out THE story, a movement nurtured in the communal singing of that story, a movement marked by honoring both heart and head in the striving for a life of holiness.   

My last sermon at First Presbyterian Church was rooted in the epistle lesson designated by the lectionary for June 23, Galatians 3: 23-29.  These verses are Paul's reminder that our most essential identity is our oneness in Christ and not our racial/ethnic or socio-economic status, nor our gender identity or political affiliation,which is not to say that those things don't matter.  However, for Christians, it is who we are in Christ, as individuals and as a community whose story-threads are woven together into God's story, that tells us who we are and what we are to be about.

I watched some of the proceedings of the Methodist Conference via live stream while I was still in North Carolina, and was delighted to hear that the theme taken by the new president, the Rev. Barbara Glasson  is "So What's the Story?"  In her address to Conference, she spoke of the necessity of hearing and honoring each other's stories and of our calling to keep telling "the old, old story of Jesus and his love" in new ways, giving a faithful account that points to the nourishing life that comes from following Jesus as we encounter others and listen to their stories.

The Holy Spirit is actively working in the world, within and through us, enabling us to remember that we have a story and a song to share with the world.  And so I close with that question that calls us to remember who we are and to whom we belong, a question that demands that we pay attention to our neighbors and the threads that bind us to them and us all to God. And I also close with the words of another Methodist woman and her poetry that proclaims that the good news of Love in Jesus Christ IS our story and our song, and so with our lives as well as our lips, we will praise him all the day long.

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God, 
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

This is my story, this is my song, 
praising my Savior all the day long; 
this is my story, this is my song, 
praising my Savior all the day long.