Wilber Force -- FPC sermon excerpt

Exactly 220 years ago, an Englishman named William Wilberforce became a Christian. Then, 20 years later, in the year 1807, the British slave trade was abolished.

An awakening of the spirit, followed by the abolition of slavery. There’s a connection between the two.

According to The Economist magazine (February 24, 2007), William Wilberforce was a front-line fighter in the British campaign to end slavery. He was also a passionate Christian who took sin seriously, and stressed the importance of getting right with God. Today, political progressives see him as a pioneer of social justice, while conservatives see him as a faith-based leader of compassionate conservatism.

He is truly a man for all seasons.

So what can Wilberforce teach us today, exactly two centuries after his greatest triumph? For starters, he did not see his faith as a private matter, nor did he make a distinction between social justice and Christian morality. He professed two goals in his life — to abolish slavery and to raise Britain’s moral tone — and he pursued them with united and unending passion.

For Wilberforce, the elimination of slavery was part of a broader project to bring people to God. Like so many great reformers, he was able to see the big picture, and he made connections that many people failed to grasp. For instance, he was alarmed at the frequency of executions by hanging that were occurring at the time. He knew that people were being executed for very serious crimes, but he also understood that sin can start small and then grow into greater offenses. So Wilberforce started small and campaigned against immoral behavior — he tried to turn people away from gambling, heavy drinking, and promiscuity.

He knew about slippery slopes. He understood that quarreling can lead to killing, and drunkenness to rape and robbery. He agreed with the apostle Paul’s words to the Romans, “Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy” (13:12-13).

The bottom line is this: When you put on the armor of light, you are not going to be properly outfitted for gambling, heavy drinking, robbery, or murder. You are not going to be wearing the right clothes for the slave trade, as William Wilberforce discovered over 200 years ago.

Check the clock, writes Paul — “it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep” (v. 11). Salvation is near, so it’s time for us to put on our Christian clothes and get to work. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” says Paul, “and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (v. 14).

It’s time for us to follow the apostle Paul and William Wilberforce, and to pay attention to both Christian morality and social justice. Not just morality, and not only justice, but both. We are challenged to be a force for good in our communities, our schools, and our workplaces … what I would call “a Wilber force.”

That’s exactly what the Christian community should be — a force that raises our nation’s moral tone, while also working for a better society. We should be a Wilber Force.