Sunday, April 29, 2012

Sermon (April 29) - "Three Simple Rules: Do No Harm"


     What a wonderful celebration it was last Sunday when we launched our church’s bicentennial anniversary with the dedication of our church bell.  I want to thank Brian Bingham and our Bicentennial Committee for making last Sunday such a special day.
     The timing of our bell dedication was no accident.  It was around this time in the spring of 1812 that we were officially organized as a Methodist Episcopal Church.  The word, “church” isn’t the best word to use to describe our beginnings.  It was actually a class of only ten people.
     Now ten people might not sound like enough people to start a new church, but this was how Methodism would get its start in a new location.  Methodism had come to America as a lay movement consisting of small classes within the Church of England.
     The first official Methodist class was formed in New York City in 1766, forty-six years before our church’s first class meeting here in Lancaster.  And the person who organized this first Methodist class meeting in New York was Barbara Heck which is why she is referred to as the mother of American Methodism.  The Heck’s came to the New World from Ireland where they had become Methodists thanks to the preaching of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism.
     When the Heck’s came to New York, they no longer had their Methodist group and so they became very lax in their faith.  That is until one day when Barbara Heck walked into a room to find her friends who had also come over from Ireland, playing cards and gambling. Much to her dismay, one of the men who was gambling was Philip Embury who had served as a local Methodist preacher back in Ireland!
     Barbara immediately shared some choice words with these backslidden Methodist “wanna bees” and then she grabbed their playing cards and tossed them into the fireplace.  But she wasn’t finished.  She then turned to Embury and told him that he should begin preaching and pastoring again or their blood would be on his hands.
     Soon after this famous gambling incident, the first Methodist class meeting in America was formed, and from there, Methodist classes and small groups spread like wildfire along the East Coast.  This was all because a Methodist woman from Ireland threw some gambling cards into a fireplace because she had remembered the Methodist emphasis on doing no harm. 
     And now you know why United Methodists have a unified voice against gambling, against the lottery, and why we don’t participate in raffles.  It’s part of our belief that gambling does a society more harm than good.
     As part of our bicentennial celebration, I thought it would be good for us to take some time to think about John Wesley’s “Three Simple Rules” which Methodists have sought to live by throughout our history.  There is little doubt in my mind that when those ten Methodists gathered each week in different homes and in the two-roomed log cabin of Edward Teal here in the area that was then known as New Lancaster, that these Three Simple Rules were the main focus of their meetings.
     Today, we’re going to look at the first simple rule, “Do No Harm.”  Next Sunday, we’ll look at the second rule, “Do Good.”  And on May 13th, we conclude with the third simple rule, “Stay in Love with God.”
     What does it mean to do no harm?  Well evidently, it means to not play card games that promote gambling!
      The Apostle Paul lists a lot of things that are harmful.  In his letter to the Galatians, he refers to self-indulgence, hurting each other, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, and envy.  Paul is saying that all of these things are harmful not only to others but to ourselves.
     Since this is a year to focus on our Methodist history, one of the great Methodist preachers was Sam Jones who lived during the 1800’s.  He came from a line of seven Methodist preachers in the family.  Born in Alabama, the Jones’ family moved to Georgia when Sam was ten. 
     The hope was for Sam to attend college but that didn’t happen since he started to drink heavily.  He thought that by getting married and settling down it would help him to stop drinking, but it didn’t.  He kept on drinking his life away.  Somehow, he became a lawyer but that ended quickly because of his drinking problem. 
     By 1872, he was stoking furnaces and driving freight wagons for a living.  The death of his infant daughter sobered him for a time, before he fell off the wagon yet again.  Then in 1872, Jones was called to his father’s deathbed where his father pleaded with him to quit drinking and Sam promised he would.  A week later during a church service, he made his confession to God to turn away from all the harm he was causing himself and others and he became a Christian.
     Sam then became a Methodist preacher in the North Georgia Conference.  Before long, his talent for preaching had him leading revivals in large cities that often gathered over a thousand people.  He later became known as the Billy Graham of his day.  Sam was always preaching against sin and hypocricy.  His message was simple.  He would often say, “The best thing a person can do is to do right and the worst thing a person can do is to do wrong.”
     His most famous sermon was entitled, “Quit Your Meanness.”  In that sermon he said, “Just quit your meanness and follow along in the footsteps of Jesus.”
     You know, there are different kinds of meanness.  There’s a meanness that is deliberate and blatantly rude and disrespectful and there’s a meanness that is of a more subtle variety.
     An example of blatant meanness is when people consciously seek to harm others through words or actions.  Have you ever read the comments on newspaper blogs?  Some of those very mean and nasty comments are by people who should know better.  It’s sad that we live in a culture where we often choose to shout at each other rather than have civil conversations on politics, social issues, and theology.
     A friend of mine who is in my monthly small group, has a son who’s in junior high at a school district in our county.  At one of our small group meetings this past fall, he showed me a picture of his son following surgery that he had on his broken nose.  He was the victim of a bully at school who beat him up in the boy’s locker room requiring him to have surgery.
     Bullying isn’t confined to a boy’s locker room.  It also happens in board rooms, in offices, behind people’s backs, and through social media. In addition to the blatant and conscious meanness that can cause so much harm, there’s also what I would call the more subtle type of meanness.
     A couple of months ago, I read the revised edition of the popular book, “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” by Steven Covey.  And in his book, he shares a personal example of how he participated in this more subtle type of meanness while on a New York subway one Sunday morning.
     He writes, “People were sitting quietly – some reading newspapers, some lost in thought, some resting with their eyes closed.  It was a calm, peaceful scene.
     Then suddenly, a man and his children entered the subway car.  The children were so loud and rambunctious that instantly the whole climate changed.
     The man sat down next to me and closed his eyes, apparently oblivious to the situation.  The children were yelling back and forth, throwing things, even grabbing people’s papers.  It was very disturbing.  And yet, the man sitting next to me did nothing.
     It was difficult not to feel irritated.  I could not believe that he could be so insensitive as to let his children run wild like that and do nothing about it, taking no responsibility at all.
     It was easy to see that everyone else on the subway felt irritated too.  So finally, with what I felt was unusual patience and restraint, I turned to him and said, “Sir, your children are really disturbing a lot of people.  I wonder if you couldn’t control them a little more?”
     The man lifted his gaze as if to come to a consciousness of the situation for the first time and said softly, ‘Oh, you’re right.  I guess I should do something about it.  We just came from the hospital where their mother died about an hour ago.  I don’t know what to think, and I guess they don’t know how to handle it either.’
     You can imagine how Steven Covey felt in that moment.  In an instant, his heart was filled with sympathy and compassion and he said to the man, ‘Your wife just died? Oh, I’m so sorry!  Can you tell me about it?  What can I do to help?’”
     This little story reminds us that even when we think we’re in the right that we need to remember to tread lightly with our words.  Treading lightly means that we acknowledge the other person as a child of God.  Treading lightly means that we seek to be humble because we probably don’t know the full story.  Treading lightly means that we have the mind of Christ which includes compassion, patience, humility, and love.
     Paul’s words to us from Galatians are reminding us to tread lightly, to stop the meanness, and to do no harm.
     This past November, the news of the Penn State child abuse scandal was all over the news.  For at least a week after the news broke out that the university failed to act upon information of child abuse by a former assistant football coach, it seemed like every media outlet covered this tragic story.  As a Pennsylvania native, my heart has been sickened over this scandal for the child abuse victims as well as the way the investigation process by university officials was handled.
     About a month before the news of the scandal broke out, I had attended a Penn State football game.  They played Iowa that day.  I don’t always pay attention to the words of the alma mater song when it’s played during the game, but for some reason, I did this time. I’d like us to hear the words of this song because they speak of our topic today of doing no harm.  It was the final verse of this song that made me stop and think and keep in mind that this was a month before the child abuse scandal broke out.  Let’s listen.
     Two hundred years ago, the ten people who helped to begin First United Methodist Church met weekly to review three simple rules.  Are you doing no harm?  Are you doing good?  And how are you staying in love with God?
     Today’s simple rule is to help us be more like Christ.  More loving, more caring, more gracious.  
     May no act of ours bring shame.  Do no harm.


Three Simple Rules: Do No Harm
Pastor Robert McDowell
Galatians 5:13-21
April 29, 2012

Our Methodist History of Doing No Harm

  • Barbara  Heck, 1766
  • Opposition to Gambling
  • John Wesley’s Three Simple Rules:
1) Do No Harm (April 29)
2) Do Good (May 6)
3) Stay in Love with God (May 13)
The Apostle Paul – Do No Harm
     “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.  I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” – Galatians 5:19-21

The Story of Methodist Preacher, Sam Jones (19th Century)

     “Quit your meanness.”

Types of Meanness

1) _____________________________________________

2) _____________________________________________

A University’s Alma Mater – Do No Harm

Thoughts/Action Steps for the Week

1. Retired United Methodist Bishop, Reuben Job has written a very small book called, Three Simple Rules, Abingdon Press, 2007.  It’s a great resource to reflect on these important rules of our faith.  You can purchase a copy at our book table in the parlor.

2. Invite Jesus to reveal areas of your life where this first simple rule, “Do No Harm” can help you to become more Christ-like and loving toward yourself and with others.

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