The saints among us

In my study of John Wesley, one thing that has really stuck out at me is the way that Wesley was so drawn to individual examples of holy living. I write about this in my newest column in the Covenant Discipleship Quarterly. In a number of different genres of writing - sermons, journaling, and essays - Wesley consistently highlighted examples of sanctified lives as a public witness to others.

The reason Wesley pointed to these living saints was because of the good that viewing their lives could do for others. By seeing the living witness of a holy man or woman, others might be moved by the Spirit to receive God's grace for themselves and be similarly transformed.

Another interesting thing about Wesley's focus on sanctified lives is the diversity of those he focused upon: Henry Lascelles, an immigrant to the colony of Georgia in the 1730s; Jane Cooper and Jane Muncy, both women active in the Methodist revival; the Rev. John Fletcher, an articulate theologian and one of Wesley's ablest allies among the Anglican clergy.

I think Wesley's tendency to look at holy lives can offer us something today. The messages we get are confused, because the sources are so scattered. From friends, to media sources, to so-called "authority" figures, it can be unclear what we can trust and what should be discarded. But what does not fail is the testimony that is offered through demonstrated, holy lives. Their witness to us can be a means of grace in and of themselves.