Published Online: Apr 30, 2024
Page range: 39 - 52
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/holiness-2024-0007
Keywords
© 2024 Paul W. Chilcote, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Charles Wesley's lyrical theology is a biblical theology. Scripture provides the framework, the substance, and the ultimate goal of his theological project of singing the faith. Many of the themes of his theology reflect a typical Wesleyan vocabulary. His hymns are replete, for instance, with images related to redemption, repentance, faith, and holiness. In this essay, I seek to demonstrate how his ultimate vision of the Christian life revolves around Jesus's teaching related to the kingdom of God, and how he builds a whole new language for the Methodist singer around this central theme.
Students of the biblical witness have used a plethora of terms to capture the meaning of the kingdom of God – a theme that pervades scripture and constitutes the central teaching of Jesus.
“The concept of the Kingdom of God involves, in a real sense,” claimed John Bright, “the total message of the Bible” (John Bright, Kenneth L. Smith & Ira G. Zepp, Walter Brueggemann,
Charles Wesley articulates a similarly compelling vision of God's kingdom in his lyrical theology.
See Paul W. Chilcote, Despite a pervasive reference to kingdom language and images, Wesley only uses this expression in one other hymn in his entire corpus, namely, in his lyrical exposition of Job 29:25, where he sings: “Thy sway among men to maintain, / Compassion and righteousness meet; / Thy reign is a peaceable reign, / Thy seat is a merciful seat” (
Wesley's use of the phrase “peaceable reign” undoubtedly resonates with the contemporary disciple of Jesus. Stanley Hauerwas popularized a term very similar to this – the “peaceable kingdom” – which he used as the title of his groundbreaking primer in Christian ethics, first published in 1991.
Stanley Hauerwas, See John Howard Yoder, “Artisans of a Peaceable Kingdom,” Whitworth University Forum, paper 151, 1984.
Wesley's invocation of this term follows on from a constellation of biblical texts which shape this vision and this language. Leviticus 26:3–6 describes the peaceable reign among those who walk in obedient relationship to God. Creation imagery dominates. In this kingdom rains water the land, the earth produces abundant crops, trees yield good fruit, people eat their fill, and no one lives in fear from wild beasts or human foes. According to the Psalmist, in God's peaceable reign, “steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other” (85:10). In Hosea's vision God abolishes the bow, the sword, and war from the land and enables everyone to lie down in safety (2:18–20). No biblical writer articulates this vision more pervasively and persuasively than the prophet Isaiah. In the peaceable kingdom, “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks;” he proclaims, “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (2:4). When God establishes the peaceable reign “the effect of righteousness will be peace and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places” (32:17–18).
Jesus employs all these images and embodies the peaceable reign in his own life and ministry. These are the characteristics of his reign; the manifestation of this kingdom is his primary mission. The hymn of Charles Wesley, above, demonstrates the way in which all creation groans in anticipation of God's rule. His conception of the peaceable reign of Christ points to several key elements: the gift of reconciliation; Christ's dominion in the human heart; the fruits of peace, joy, and righteousness; the practices of justice and compassion; and the already-but-not-yet character of this rule.
Given the large space devoted to the kingdom in Charles's lyrical theology, it should be no surprise that the petition in the Lord's Prayer – “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10) – figures prominently in his hymns. He refers to this verse explicitly sixteen times in the 1780
Charles yearns for all people to rediscover this “first dominion” which God's creatures rejected and ignored. As in his doctrine of redemption, the concepts of reconciliation and restoration play a central role in his concept of Christ's kingdom. People, in his view, do not build the kingdom; rather, God must restore the rule of Christ, and this entails reconciliation. Believers receive the kingdom into their hearts and then partner with God in this work in the world.
St. Paul writes to the embattled church in Corinth: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:19). This is the Authorized translation that would have been most familiar to Wesley, with this verse coming, of course, in the context of a larger discourse (namely, 2 Cor 5:11–21) in which the apostle discusses the ministry of reconciliation. Many of St. Paul's most familiar themes resound in this fifth chapter: new creation, imputation, the righteousness of God. In summary statements like this one St. Paul captures God's total mission to which, he believes, the entirety of the scriptural witness bears testimony. Friendship with God characterizes this vision of life. Those drawn into this realm love both God and neighbor. Christ makes this kind of existence possible by breaking down all the barriers that divide people and disrupt God's intended harmony in the created order. Reconciliation itself is both the foundation and the sign of God's peaceable reign and the nearness of God's rule. While the reconciliation of the believer in Christ to God is an accomplished fact, the reconciliation of the cosmos is a continuing process into which the community of faith is invited as the representative of God's alternative vision in the world. God's people are called to stand in the juncture, as it were, between the old world which is passing away and the new world – the peaceable reign – that is being birthed in Christ, despite all appearances.
In a verse inspired by 2 Corinthians 5:17, Charles celebrates the momentous change in the believer's life effected by trust in Christ and the in-breaking rule of Christ:
He describes this true foundation of the peaceable reign as the “reconciling word:”
This reconciling word of God illuminates the soul with the gift of faith. God restores sight to the blind and rescues those who dwell in darkness. Those who entrust their lives to God through Christ by faith pray for all the fullness of God in their lives.
The gift unspeakable impart:
For those who are “reconciled by grace,” God justifies through faith alone, opens mercy's door, offers assurance of forgiveness, relieves burdens, and prepares for heaven.
For Charles Wesley, everything begins with the heart. He had been raised with the Authorized Version of Luke 17:21: “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, John Wesley,
Charles's poetic rendering of Matthew 6:10 expresses his longing for God's dominion in the hearts of all people:
“Fix in every heart of man,” he prays, “thine everlasting throne.”
Ibid., 1:160. MS Matthew, 113.
But Charles connects the interior life of the spirit intimately with the believer's engagement in “kingdom ministry.” Urgency characterizes the singer's plea:
Those who turn over their hearts to God for God's use receive God's power both to do so and to live as God's children (see 1 Cor 4:20). Whenever God imparts the Spirit, Wesley argues, “the kingdom restored is power in our hearts.” But unlike the power of the world, this power is that of Christ's passion, “the strength of salvation, / the virtue of love.”
Ibid., 2:29.
To describe the fruit of this transformation in the direction of God's rule, Wesley invariably alludes to Romans 14:17 – the kingdom of God is righteousness, and peace, and joy. In his poetic corpus he defines Christ's peaceable reign along the lines of this important trilogy.
“For the
In a reflection on Hebrews 12:2 he simply implores:
A lyrical paraphrase of Luke 17:20 – Jesus’ dialogue with the Pharisees about how and where the kingdom comes – elicits the grand trilogy:
MS Luke, 251–52.
Wesley's reflections on Matthew 5:3 celebrate the peaceable reign as “Glorious joy, / unutter’d peace, / All victorious righteousness.”
Ibid., 2:326.
In Christ's reign, peace displaces discord and anxiety, joy supplants sorrow and discouragement, and righteousness dislodges depravity and sin. The contrasts between the kingdoms of this world and the peaceable reign of Christ could not be more stark in Charles's poetry. For those who conform their lives to this world, “joy is all sadness,” “mirth is all vain,” “laughter is madness,” and “pleasure is pain.” But those who have the mind of Christ experience full and abundant life:
While each of these constitutive elements of the peaceable reign relate directly to the individual at a deeply personal level, they also have a critical social dimension. Charles perceives a peculiar trajectory related to Christ's peaceable reign. God's dominion begins in the human heart most certainly, but extends into the church, and then expands yet further to the poor, the persecuted, and those pulverized by war and strife. “For Methodists this internal transformation was not enough,” observes Andrew Winckles, “the true evidence of the kingdom of God in heart and life was in how it worked outward into community.”
Andrew Winckles, “Kingdom of God—Kingdom of Man: Freedom, Identity, and Justice in Charles Wesley and William Blake,” Unpublished paper presented at the
In his peaceable reign Christ inextricably binds righteous, joy, and peace together with justice and compassion.
Charles mandates that faithful disciples of Jesus translate the personal gifts of righteousness, joy, and peace, therefore, into concrete acts of justice and compassion in the world. In a hymn he composed for his wife on their wedding day Charles affords a unique window into the aspects of Christian character shaped by the values of God's way and rule.
The hymn encourages bride and groom to be accountable to one another in love and good works as a performance of God's rule in their lives. Their common witness to the peaceable reign meant attending to those who were distressed, afflicted, and oppressed. Their kingdom work entailed relieving prisoners, receiving strangers, and supplying all their wants. Kingdom ministry included acts of justice and compassion. The world depends on these works of mercy for there to be any hope of wolves and lambs to live together in peace and harmony.
Various forms of injustice clamored for attention in Wesley's day. His hymns encouraged commitment to God's vision of the peaceable reign and active engagement in ministries of justice. In one of his
The singer intercedes on behalf of humanity with regard to the atrocities associated with a fallen world. Charles calls upon Jesus to intervene:
He locates the hope for peace in the transformation of the human heart and calls on all faithful disciples of Jesus “To follow after peace, and prize / The blessings of thy righteous reign.” This, and only this, will restore “The paradise of perfect love.”
Isaiah's iconic vision provides the imagery for many of his hymns in which he describes the reign of Christ. His brilliant lyrical paraphrase of Isaiah 11:6–7 provides a powerful illustration of the theme:
In Charles's poetry, war always represents the antithesis of this peaceable reign.
Ibid., 1:305.
There is also an amazing body of hymnody related to the poor in Wesley's collected works. Work alongside the poor requires both elements of the reign – justice and compassion. “Perhaps the uniqueness of his contribution lies,” as Kimbrough has argued, “in the way he opened for the church to remember its responsibility to the dispossessed of the earth.”
S T Kimbrough, Jr., “Charles Wesley and the Poor,” in Ibid., 155.
MS Acts, 421.
Charles depicts the compassionate character of those whose lives have been conformed to the image of Christ through their ministry alongside the marginalized. Mary Naylor was one such woman, an active leader of the Methodist Society in Bristol noted for God's rule in her life:
An affective experience of God's rule and an outward performance of the kingdom defined Wesley's doctrine of the peaceable reign of Christ. As Winckles has observed, the genius of Methodism in this regard was “a subjectivity founded not upon individual autonomy and rights but on the freedom to do God's will, to enact the kingdom on earth.”
Winckles, “Kingdom of God.”
Wesley encouraged the church, like the individual disciple, to strive for perfection. But he also acknowledged the elusive nature of perfect love. God's dominion has come in Jesus Christ and yet the church still prays for it to come. With regard to the peaceable reign of Christ there is an “already but not yet” dynamic at work. George Eldon Ladd popularized this language in the 1950s, describing both a present and future dimension of the kingdom of God in scripture.
See George Eldon Ladd,
He bears witness to the present rule of Christ in a lyrical reflection on Daniel 7:18.
Daniel's description of the God of heaven who destroys, breaks in pieces, and consumes all other kingdoms provides the graphic language that suits Charles's vision well. “Thy kingdom come,” he prays, “All these worldly powers o’erthrow, / And scatter, and consume!” And he anticipates a divine monarchy that will be “founded in perpetual grace.”
Ibid., 2:143.
Sometimes the present and future coalesce in Wesley's poetry. The imagery of the heavenly banquet in his Eucharistic hymns, in particular, evokes this eschatological fusion.
At the table the community of faith dwells, as it were, in both kingdoms, present and future. Only a thin veil separates the one from the other.
Gathered around the table for “thy great kingdom feast,” the faithful feel God's promise of “eternal rest.” “Yet still an higher seat,” Wesley proclaims, “We in thy kingdom claim.”
He articulates an inclusive vision of Christ's peaceable reign in a lyrical paraphrase of the parable of the great banquet in Luke 14:15–24. In this hymn he sounds a note of eschatological urgency with regard to the ultimate victory of God's inclusive love. In the peaceable reign of Christ, God invites all to the table. God offers grace to every soul. God excludes none from the gracious offer of life in the reign of shalom to come. Wesley paints a compelling and dynamic portrait of the peaceable reign through the imagery related to this banquet:
Permanency characterizes the peaceable reign of Christ, and Wesley invests his life and places his hope in this ultimate promise of God:
MS Luke, 7.
In Charles's mind this eternal reign is nothing less than “paradise restor’d,”
Charles Wesley's portrait of the peaceable reign of Christ functions like an icon that draws us into the reality of God's love. We yearn and pray for this kingdom to come. Engaging this work of art entails deep heart work, with reconciliation providing the primary background for the image that emerges. Charles floods his canvas with the colors of righteousness, joy, peace, justice and compassion. But the painting remains unfinished until we add the colors of our own lives and live into the shalom that God intends for every living creature. Wesley's lyrical vision of the peaceable reign of Christ invites us in. It invites us to embrace one another. It invites us to love with a passion like that of Jesus.