When clergy in the Methodist tradition are ordained, there are many questions that are asked. In the tradition begun by John Wesley, we meet in the Clergy Executive Session either prior to or at the beginning of the gathering of the Annual Conference and we consider and approve what is known as the Business of the Annual Conference (concerning clergy matters).

The format of this meeting is question and answer as we consider, among many things, who have been approved as candidates, who are coming for commissioning or ordination, who have who have surrendered ministerial credentials or had their ministerial credentials revoked, who have retired, and who have died.

Then there are the questions asked of those being commissioned and ordained. It is an examination that comes straight from John Wesley’s own words used to examine those being ordained.

Among them is THE QUESTION:

Are you going on to perfection?

The only pathway to ordination is to answer in the affirmative, and yet the true answer to this question is found only in a lifetime of faith and learning. The question, you see, is not about being flawless or without sin. By sin, I am using the Greek αμαρτία (hamartia), which means “missing the mark.” Christian perfection is more about wholeness and vitality than it is about being flawless or without sin.

The mystics use the phrase “unitive consciousness” to describe this idea of perfection. This includes mystics from many religious traditions, and it is what has helped Christian mystics add a greater depth to this idea of Christian Perfection.

It Comes Through Both Action and Contemplation

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, is where we find the Center for Action and Contemplation. This is a center founded by Fr. Richard Rohr, the Franciscan priest, who believes that the notions of Christian Action and Christian Contemplation cannot be divorced from each other.

Fr. Rohr has written extensively, and many people in my congregation read his work on a regular basis. His epic work, The Universal Christ, was foundational for me as I began to see more clearly (even as I was well into my 50’s) that this notion of Christian Perfection … unitive consciousness … begins in both action and contemplation.

We are called to engage injustice in our world … we are called to stand with those in the margins …. we are called to speak truth to power.

Yet we are also called to sit quietly and just see … see where God is at work in the world … see how Christ is found in “the least of these” … see the Christ who is in every single person (even in those who tend to cover up the Christ in them with a veil of evil around them).

It is to see Christ in every single part of creation and to let the Christ in us connect to the Christ in others.

And when we have discovered Christ in others … when we see Christ in God’s created universe … then we will have taken a step toward this unitive consciousness, and we will have taken a step toward perfection.

Perfected in Love

Wesley’s understanding of the doctrine of Christian Perfection was based in his understanding of love. The journey toward perfection was using love as the supreme act of faith. It is the love we know as αγάπη (agape), and it is an ultimate letting go of self. It is moving from an egoic sense of self to what we know in mysticism and psychology as “the true self” or “the authentic self.”

It is that true self that can see and love the Christ in the other. It is that true self that can even love even the enemy.

So I believe this is a question not just for the clergy. It is a question for all of us: Are you going on to perfection?

The last stanza of Charles Wesley’s great hymn of praise, Love Divine All Loves Excelling, ends with an aspirational word of hope that is foundation for this understanding of Christian Perfection. I have sung this hymn for a lifetime, yet each time I read or sing these words, I am reminded of the journey to which I am called. It is the path to a greater unity.

Finish, then, thy new creation;
pure and spotless let us be;
let us see thy great salvation
perfectly restored in thee:
changed from glory into glory,
till in heaven we take our place,
till we cast our crowns before thee,
lost in wonder, love and praise.

You are invited to journey with me as we seek this wholeness and unity in Christ. It is a unity that the world so desperately needs in this very moment.