On being ready to share life-giving news and compassionate actions.
In the nineteenth century England, the Christian faith had become largely individualised. Sydney was little different. Once right with God, little attention was given to the circumstances of others. People living in poverty were not given attention. There was a housing crisis. The rent on houses exceeded the capacity of the poor to pay, hence house-crowding. Some people owned multiple empty houses preferring to keep them empty rather than lower the exorbitant rent, while others slept in filth, in overcrowded conditions, under bridges and in drains. Often multiple families were jammed into a single house. It is hard to imagine that sometimes a family and animals lived in a laundry. There were no minimum wages and no social support. The church and much of society gave the matter little attention.
In London a congregational minister, Andrew Mearns, visited these places of poverty and wrote a pamphlet about the dire situation. It was called The Bitter Cry of Outcast London. It had little immediate effect. Little effect until W.T. Stead, a Christian and the new editor of a newspaper, The Pall Mall Gazette, decided to take up the cry. He published the pamphlet in serial form over many months and in his editorials used expressive language (‘reeking tenements,’ ‘stunted squalid savages of civilisation,’ ‘the foul ulcer of London’) to make the point. The paper was circulated over much of Great Britian and beyond. The response was dramatic. It led to a Royal Commission into housing that set various principles in place regarding affordable housing, and rents.
The church woke up. One person who led the response was Hugh Price Hughes, a Wesleyan minister. He had been dissatisfied with the individualisation of Christianity. He became the Superintendent of West London Mission and started a work that combined evangelism and compassion towards people living in poverty. It aligns with the vision of Isaiah 61/62 and the manifesto of Jesus in Luke 4:16-21. The whole attention of the church mission was towards the people who were living a wretched life. Hughes started a paper, The Methodist Times. It was in competition with the official Methodist Church paper, The Methodist Recorder which perpetuated an individualistic Christianity. The Methodist Times gave attention to the need to attend to the whole person in the whole of society. The paper was widely circulated. Change was underway.
Hughes spoke about the centrality of the cross of Christ for evangelism and social and political activities. Jesus died of a broken heart for the whole of humanity, was Hughes theology of the cross. Following in the way of Christ, meant for Hughes, the ‘breaking of the heart;’ having compassion for people. It was an engagement in the synthesis of evangelism and actions of compassion. For many since, such as Alan Walker, formerly of Wesley Mission Sydney, good works without evangelism is only part of the gospel. Evangelism without the compassionate actions of Christ is an incomplete gospel. Walker spoke of the whole gospel for the whole world.
The whole gospel for the whole world, simultaneously holding together the telling of the life-giving news of Jesus with compassionate actions, is different to seeking justice. Justice is an important approach that might take a stand and raise matters of concern to a broader public. Justice may be concerned with matters of great conviction and importance. Ending government sponsored slavery was important, though different to compassion. Compassion is sitting with the other, hearing their story, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and doing something practical to assist, like giving the thirsty person a glass of water. It is possible to be committed to justice and have no compassion.
Hughes spoke of the Wesleyan idea of growing in holiness through being constantly filled with the Holy Spirit. Such growing in holiness was evidenced in the surrender of one’s whole life to Christ. Hughes suggested (like the gospel writers before him) that Christ is present among those who were rejected, the poor, the people in some form of captivity – prison or people living with an unmedicated mental illness, or people locked in substance or gambling addictions. Hughes’ slogan was “where Christ is there is the church.” Therefore, growing in holiness, or perhaps expressed as growing in Christlikeness, was evidenced in living a life ready to speak Christ’s life-giving words and do compassionate action. What he and others were saying is that a life lived for oneself is less than the Christian way.
Just ponder for a moment the magnitude of that Hughes saying, where “Christ is there is the church.”
For Hugh Price Hughes in London, William George Taylor who started what today we call Wesley Mission Sydney, and Alan Walker who was later the mission superintendent, the ‘starting point’ for the synthesis of evangelism and compassionate action is worship/prayer. Worship/prayer that seeks after God, considers contemporary issues, encourages Holy Spirit energised engagement, and in so doing gives glory to God. The gathered community at worship leads to a life of prayerful engagement in evangelism – telling the good news of Jesus – and compassionate actions towards the other. The purpose of such living is in order that God may be glorified in the whole of life, and all might have a world fit to live in. For Hughes, Taylor and Walker, that last point of working for a world fit for all to live in was of great importance.
The foregoing could seem academic or perhaps overwhelming. But, the big message of Matthew’s gospel, is that Jesus is God with us. Not God in comfortable places nor God giving a comfortable life. The Sermon on the Mount and the teachings of Matthew, if read carefully, bring discomfort, perhaps even a queasy feeling in the gut. Can we really live faithful lives and not be concerned about people’s places disappearing under the sea? Can we live faithful lives while not having compassion towards those who have no where to live, or live in squalor, or currently being moved on from Berry Park, Kelso? We are rapidly heading towards a situation not unlike nineteenth century London and central Sydney, now far more widespread.
The temptation is of course to respond to the dire circumstances in our own strength. That becomes an impossibly heavy burden. Matthew’s Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount has words for this. “Come to me all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” We need humility. Hugh Price Hughes suggested that we can only be engaged in this work in the strength of the Holy Spirit. Hughes suggested we need constant ‘filling’ of the Holy Spirit- like fuelling up for the journey. Fuel for this journey is provided through worship of the living God, daily prayers and Christian study. They help prevent apathy or burnout.
There is much to be concerned about today. Lack of affordable housing to rent or purchase, in part created through the greed of many and unfair tax breaks. Our neighbours in the Pacific are dealing with rising sea levels drowning their homelands. It is getting hotter. Loneliness is widespread. Rising anger is just below the surface and bursts out with seemingly little provocation and often fatal consequences. Of course, one individual or church cannot do everything. While our church in Bathurst is not complacent, we are active, it is possible individually to be self-focussed. Listening humbly and carefully to the Holy Spirit, we might discern the wisdom of the risen crucified Christ of when, how and where to share the life-giving news and the compassion of Jesus.
Blessings
Keith Hamilton