Stumbling toward the light
The Rev. Canon Frank Logue preached this sermon in Reynolds Square in Savannah, GA
on All Saints’ Day 2019 for the ordination of Kevin Veitinger and Nathan Wilson
Stumbling toward the light
Ephesians 1:11-23
We gather under the gaze of a zealous minister of the Gospel on this All Saints’ Day to ordain Kevin and Nathan as deacons. It should be intimidating to proclaim the Gospel while overshadowed by a statue of the great revivalist John Wesley, who himself preached many times in the open air. Though his legacy as the founder of the Methodist movement has born so much good fruit for almost three centuries, John’s ministry in Georgia went catastrophically wrong.
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Wesley arrived to a Savannah that was a village of two hundred houses. In less than two years, a 44-person grand jury, making up a significant percentage of the population, would approve a 10-count indictment against their idealistic minister. John had been felled by a rigid faith and a broken heart. One colonist described John’s spiritual leadership as “religious Tyranny.” To make matters worse, John had fallen for Sophia Hopkey who he tutored in French on the ship from England and continued to see regularly. She even nursed the pastor through a fever. But John became convinced that marriage would get in the way of his ministry and he told the apparently equally infatuated 18-year old that he could not marry until he accomplished his mission to the Indians. Wesley’s words did not strike the young woman as the words of a soul mate. Sophia married William Williamson. John’s diary on the day he heard the news says only, “Could not pray. Tried to pray—lost—sunk.”
The pastor excommunicated Sophy a few months later citing “falseness and inconsistency of life,” creating a stir in the gossipy colony. Nine more charges flowed from his rigid religiosity. Wesley wrote, “I shook off the dust of my feet, and left Georgia, having preached the Gospel there with much weakness indeed and many infirmities, not as I ought but as I was able.” He added, “This have I learned in the ends of the earth, that I am fallen short of the glory of God, that my whole heart is altogether corrupt and abominable.”
This All Saints’ Day, we gather under a statue of a Saint of Georgia who stumbled his way toward the light. This is the best that can be said of any saint, that he or she stumbled toward the light of Christ. For saints are not perfect people, but women and men, perfected by Christ working in and through them. We gather in this context to put forward two imperfect people, Kevin and Nathan, for ministry, asking the Holy Spirit to fill them with grace and power that through these two deacons who will become priests, many people may come to know Christ and to make Christ known.
To continue reading this sermon, click here: Stumbling toward the light, continued.
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