May She Have a Word with You?

Women as Models of How to Live in the Poems of Charles Wesley with Commentary

S T Kimbrough Jr.

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781532648052
  9781532648069
• eBook ISBN:
  9781532648076
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

Perhaps Charles Wesley's two volumes of Funeral Hymns (1746 and 1759), plus a few poems left in manuscript form, are the least known of his poetical corpus. They are a treasury, however, of his views on the importance of women in eighteenth-century England as examples of how to live the Christian life. Entries in his MS Journal indicate an extremely positive relationship with women who are his coequals in mission and in the Methodist societies, and much of the work depended on them. Furthermore, Charles wrote numerous poems about women, often occasioned by death, which lift up individual women as models for the community at large and the church. The intent of this volume is not to present a historical survey of these women or their historical place per se in the early Methodist movement, rather the primary goal is to discover a literature that helps us to see the values which women had in the early Methodist movement and how those values were acknowledged, recorded, and fostered or encouraged by Charles Wesley, particularly in his poetry. The title, May She Have a Word with You, suggests there is a need today to hear of these women's exemplary words, deeds, and lives as a whole.

Section 1

Women of the Bible

Chapter 1

Martha and Mary Magdalene

Four Poems Based on Four Lucan Passages Luke 24:10, 10:38–39, 10:42, and 10:40

We turn first to a few poems that until 19881 had remained unpublished. They provide insight into Charles’s interpretations of women of the Bible, which are timely and unique.

Wesley’s description of Mary Magdalene and the other women who are the first to encounter the resurrected Christ is penetrating and revealing. He understands them to be more courageous than the men. They are present, and the men are not. Peter had said that he would not flee even if others did, but he was nowhere to be found. The women, however, are the first recipients of resurrected grace. They are as well the first proclaimers of the gospel news—the resurrection faith—and the first to know its power. They are furthermore the first teachers of the apostles as regards the reality of the resurrection. It is fascinating that precisely the roles that often historically have been attributed to men in the church, Wesley attributes them here to the women of Easter morning: the embodiment of courage, proclamation, and teaching (of the apostles), the latter two being the offices of kerygma and didache.

Luke 24:10: “It was Mary Magdalene—and other women which told these things unto the Apostles.”

More courageous than the men,

When Christ his breath resigned,

Women first the grace obtain

Their living Lord to find;

Women first the news proclaim,

Know his resurrection’s power,

Teach th’ Apostles of the Lamb

Who lives to die no more.2

Martha and Mary

In the following poem, Wesley affirms Martha’s faith as expressed in activity and that of Mary as expressed in contemplation. Both are blessed! Reading and musing on the word, the gathering of power in silence, are held in high esteem.

Wesley does not juxtapose these two dimensions of faith response; rather activity and contemplation are presented as complementary of one another. Indeed, “joined they both are blessed.” In the second stanza, however, Wesley dwells more on the contemplative response, indicating that when one is able to be “excused from earthly care,” this leads to the “calm repose of prayer.” In addition, one studies the Scriptures and in so doing gathers all of one’s powers. Therefore, such musing on the word of God is not merely a mental exercise; it is an empowering experience. Contemplation is not simply passive; it engages all of one’s powers. This transpires in silence as one communes with God.

In stanza 3, as he often does, Wesley paints a picture of himself against the background of the words in stanzas 1 and 2. Here, for a moment, he imagines what it would be like to sit at Jesus’ feet with his beloved ones, such as Martha and Mary. There in their midst, his entire soul is sensitized. As he listens to the Savior, he says, “All my soul i...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Abbreviations
• Technical Matters
• Introduction
• Section 1: Women of the Bible
• Section 2: Women of the Eighteenth Century
• Section 3: Prose
• Summary
• Selected Bibliography