Wednesday, December 18, 2024

*** This is a rough transcript of today’s show ***

It is the 18th of December 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

There is a non-zero chance that as long as December 18th falls on a weekday, I will be looking at the calendar, plotting my upcoming shows and the Christmas season, that I will once again forget and then be delighted to remember that a man without whom our Christmases would not be the same was born on the second day of “Golden Nights” in the run-up to Christmas in the season of Advent.

His story is also one for younger siblings everywhere as he is usually referenced as “one of the Wesley Brothers” or “John’s little brother” or only in conjunction with his brother (and the two would disagree on some big things!). But his story is also an Advent and Christmas story as his hymns- Charles Wesley’s hymns of the season (and every other church season, for that matter) have likely done more to teach and preach Jesus in this season than any other in the English language. If I could say one thing about the diverse audience of this podcast, is would suggest that what we all have in common is having sung:

• Lo He Comes with Clouds Descending
• Hark the Herald Angels Sing
• Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
• Christ the Lord is Risen Today
• O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing
• Christ Whose Glory Fills the Sky
• Love Divine All Loves Excelling

He may have written upwards of 9,000 hymns in 50 years-  it didn’t start until his ministry was almost over, a failed missionary in the New World.  

Charles was born on December 18, 1707, the 18th of 20 children, and the youngest of the 10 surviving. His brother Samuel was 17 years his senior, and the only other boy in the lot was John, about four years older.

Charles followed his brothers to Oxford and was ordained in the Anglican Church. He then followed his brother John to the new colony of Georgia, where he served as a minister until conflict with the governor and his brother led to the boys' return home. It was on a trip across the Atlantic that John and Charles were introduced to Reformation thought through the exiled Moravians.

Despite being a former missionary and an ordained minister, Charles was asked by a Moravian, Peter Boehler, why he believed himself to be saved. Charles responded with his actions and response to Jesus and was rebuffed. Charles was initially offended at the suggestion that the Gospel wasn’t something he himself did but was, at its heart, a story of redemption from outside. A judgement made on our behalf, the righteousness of another made OURS.

He and John would often fall out—John’s story is often told—and his younger brother is a throw-in. But it was Charles who started the small groups that adopted the pejorative “Methodist. “Charles saw their group as a renewal movement within the Church of England, and he was the one whose works people purchased (his sermons were more popular than his brothers').

It was Charles's lyricism and ability to blend the objective and subjective truths of Christianity that have made him, in the long run, more historically relevant across denominations. Where John’s call for absolute holiness might come off as harsh, it was his younger brother who wrote:

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th'eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

I’ve often quoted from his Christmas hymn, perhaps the most famous in English: Hark The Herald Angels Sing with its glorious:

Peace on Earth and Mercy Mild/God and Sinners Reconciled

Part of his effectiveness, I believe, was a result of his melancholy or depression, that when all was said and done- even when he wasn’t “feeling it,” he could proclaim, in Advent and at other times, what you may have already sung this season:

Come, thou long expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.

Born on this, the 18th of December in 1707, Charles died in 1788 at 80- we will hear from the great poet of Advent and Christmas for our last word.

 

The last word for today is from Charles Wesley and the Advent hymn, Lo He Comes with Clouds Descending:

Lo! He comes, with clouds descending,
once for favored sinners slain;
thousand thousand saints attending
swell the triumph of His train:
alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

God appears on earth to reign.
Now redemption, long expected,
see in solemn pomp appear!
And His saints, by men rejected,
coming with Him in the air.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

See the day of God appear!
Yea, amen! Let all adore Thee,
high on Thine eternal throne;
Savior, take the pow'r and glory,
claim the kingdom for Thine own;
O come quickly, O come quickly, O come quickly!
Alleluia! Come, Lord, come!

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 18th of December 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by, “Lo! Hark! Behold!” He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who sees the temperature might reach 80 tomorrow… Merry Christmas is dumb (but beautiful!) California- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.