I don’t know of a whole lot of people who
wish that we had more rules than what we already have. Rules often feel like a
killjoy. Some of you who just moved here may have already paid a price for not
obeying the parking rules in our fine community.
Some rules seem sillier than others. Here
are some random silly rules that people have sent in from all over the country.
I’ll list a couple of my favorite ones.
Here’s a silly rule in Youngstown, Ohio
for example. They have a law that says you’re not allowed to run out of gas.
Actually, that’s a personal rule I try to live by whenever I drive my car.
Did you know that supposedly in Oklahoma,
it is illegal to have a sleeping donkey in your bathtub after 7 pm? That's a crazy rule, right? 7 pm is just way too early in my opinion.
In Louisville, Kentucky, I understand that
there is a law that says it is illegal to walk down a street, public or private
with an ice cream cone tucked in your back pocket. This is one of the reasons I
love living in Athens. You can do things like that.
This is too much fun. OK, just one more
silly rule. In Baltimore, Maryland, there is a law that says that you are not
allowed to take a lion to the movies. That’s crazy, right? And I am not “lion”
about this. I am not “lion” about this. I am not “lion”…
Well, that’s enough of the silly rules. I
actually don’t know if any of these are actually true or not. I found them on
the internet. You might want to do some fact checking to see if these laws are
still on the books.
The point is that we can have too many
rules. But, imagine if we had no rules. Things would get really chaotic. What
if baseball didn’t have any rules? There would be no point in playing the game,
right? Rules can be helpful.
Someone once asked John Wesley, the 18th
century founder of the Methodist movement in England, what it meant to be a
Methodist. And he basically said that Methodists are Christians who follow
three simple rules.
The three rules are #1) Do no harm. #2) Do good. And he said the 3rd
rule was to stay in love with God.
Those are easy enough to remember. #1) Do no harm. #2) Do good. #3) Stay in love with God.
That’s all we need to remember.
John Wesley said that these three rules
summarize what it means to be a Methodist.
Our scripture reading from Hebrews this
morning touch on all three of Wesley’s simple rules to some degree which is why
I thought it would be good for us to reflect on these this morning.
Simple Rule #1 - Do No Harm
The first simple rule is to do no harm. Do
no harm. The author of Hebrews gives us some examples of what it means to do no
harm. In verses four and five, he warns how dishonesty in a relationship and
the misuse of money, can cause harm.
Of course, there are many other ways that
we can do harm to others in addition to dishonesty and greed, but these are two
important ones that we need to guard against. If all we care about is getting
ahead and what’s in it for me, then we will make things more important than
people.
What does it look like to live out this
first simple rule of doing no harm?
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 just 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 hypocrisy.
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.” I love that sermon title! In that sermon he
said, “Just quit your meanness and follow
along in the footsteps of Jesus.”
To
be sure, there are many different kinds of meanness. There’s a meanness that is deliberate, blatantly
rude and disrespectful.
Our
family went to a minor league baseball game one year with some friends. We were
pretty close to the action, so the players were able to easily hear what people
were shouting from the stands.
There was a guy who was sitting pretty close to us and he was really
obnoxious toward one of the players who was waiting in the on deck circle. I
mean, it was awkward because the player was only like 20 or so yards from us,
and this fan was just being over the top rude.
His
favorite line was something like…and keep in mind that I have to clean up the
language to share this with you in church. He yelled out, “You can’t make it to the big leagues because you always strike out.
You stink!” And he kept repeating that over and over again.
Now,
my wife isn’t one to make a scene in a public place, but after about three
innings of this guy spouting off, she couldn’t take it anymore. So after this
guy yelled out, “You always strike out,” for
like the 20th time, she
yells out, “If you wouldn’t be yelling at
him all the time, maybe he could get a hit!”
Everybody around us applauded because they were
tired of hearing this guy, too! My wife is my hero for sticking up for that player!
Sometimes, “doing no harm,” isn’t easy to follow. We can all be tempted
to say something we shouldn’t say or do something we shouldn’t do.
One
of our membership vows when we join the church asks, “Do you accept the freedom
and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever
forms they present themselves?”
I
love that question because it reminds us that in any given moment, God’s grace
is always reaching out to us to help us do the right thing in any given
situation. The question is if we are
open to receiving God’s grace to help us exercise self-control and to do no
harm.
Simple rule #1 is to do no harm.
Simple Rule #2 - Do Good
The
second simple rule is to do good. Our scripture reading gives us lots of
examples of doing good. He tells us to love each other like family, be
hospitable, do good, and share what you have with others.
This
is a good time for me to offer a shout out to our Monday Lunch crew. For the
past several years, they have been doing so much good by providing a hot lunch for
the people in our community. Tom Murray and Allene Kilgore help coordinate this
ministry and many of you volunteer. This weekly lunch is a very practical way
for our church to “do good.”
Here’s what impresses me the most about Monday Lunch. Often times, there
will be construction workers working outside on some project near our church
building, and somebody from our Monday Lunch will personally invite those
workers to join us for lunch. Isn’t that great?
That’s living out this 2nd rule of doing good by just being
aware of the needs around us and then finding a way to fill that need. Jesus
talks about even offering a cup of cold water as a way of doing good.
I
admire people who are so good at anticipating a need and then doing something
about it. They inspire me to look for those little ways of doing good.
Another pastor and I were driving back from a conference meeting. This
other pastor asked me if I would mind pulling into the next fast food drive
through so she could buy a cold drink. I said, “sure,” and I got off at an exit
with a McDonalds.
I
went through the drive thru and placed my order. As I was pulling up to the
window, my pastor friend said, “When we
get up to the window, ask the person if he has any prayer concerns.” I
said, “What??”
She said, “You
heard me. I do this all the time. Ask him if he has any prayer concerns that we
can lift up in prayer.”
When we finally pull up to the window, he takes
my money and as I’m waiting for my change, my pastor friend tugs at my shoulder
and says, “Ask him. Ask him”
I
said, “You ask him.” She says, “No, you’re closer. Ask him.”
Feeling a little uncomfortable in that moment, “I said, OK, OK, I’ll do it.”
So when the guy gives me my change, I somehow
got enough courage to ask him to share any prayer concerns with us. I know it
was the Holy Spirit, because there’s no way I would have done this on my own.
Surprisingly, he says, “Well yeah.
Actually, I have a son in Texas who lives with his mom and I haven’ seen him
for a while. Maybe say a prayer for my son. That would be great.”
I was stunned that in that brief moment, he had
shared such a heartfelt prayer request. It took me off guard. So I said, “I’ll just offer a quick prayer for him now.”
I couldn’t believe it. I was praying in this drive thru line with cars
behind me.
Peeking
up at his name badge, I prayed, “Dear
God, be with Kevin’s son down in Texas. Help his son to know that his dad here
in Columbus, Ohio loves him very much. Bless Kevin as well. In Jesus’ name.
Amen.”
After that 7 second prayer, Kevin looked down
at me in my car and said, “I really
appreciate it. Thanks.”
As I began driving forward, my pastor friend tapped
me on the shoulder and with a great big smile she said, “I’m proud of you. I’m going to make a Christian out of you, yet!”
That
drive-thru experience reminded me that there are opportunities all around us to
do good. It also reminded me that we need to be open to those Holy Spirit
moments when God nudges us to step out of our comfort zones and to bless
somebody’s day.
We
have an incredible opportunity to do a lot of good as a church this upcoming
Saturday morning. It’s our monthly “Athens First Saturday” outreach where we
meet here at 8:30 in the morning and then we go out to do good in our community
and we conclude before noon.
There’s something for all ages. Now that the Fall semester has started,
we are looking forward to having a lot of college students serve with us.
Many
of us wear our red “Athens First Saturday” t-shirts when we serve on these
“First Saturdays” to let our community know that we are a church that is
seeking to do good in our community. We should change our name to “First United
Methodist Do Gooder Church.”
Join
us this Saturday, at 8:30 in the morning as we live out this second simple rule
of doing good.
Simple Rule #3 - Stay in Love with God
Do
no harm. Do good. And the third simple rule is to stay in love with God. This
was an important rule for Wesley because he knew that when we stay in love with
God, it helps us to live out the first two rules.
What
does it means to stay in love with God? The author of Hebrews speaks about remembering
God’s Word which we would associate with the scriptures. We are also told to
offer our praises to God.
One
of the best ways to stay in love with God is through weekly worship like we’re
doing right now. Weekly worship is how we remember God’s Word and offer our
praises.
Sunday morning worship continues to be one of the best bargains in town.
There’s no cost. The offering is voluntary. The sermons are halfway decent most
of the time. The music is inspirational. And we always offer a continental
breakfast with flavored coffee.
Seriously, Sunday worship is like a family reunion where we gather each
week to be in fellowship and to honor and glorify God. If you attend Sunday
worship on a weekly basis, you will be able to follow the entire life and
ministry of Jesus Christ. You will be in sync with the Christian year.
Forget about summer, fall, winter, and spring. Forget about semesters.
Think about the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and
Kingdomtide. These are the seasons that matter the most, the seasons that
invite us to follow the entire life of Christ.
Shaping our lives around these seasons of the church year by attending
church every Sunday, unless we are sick or out of town, will help us to be the
people that God has called us to be. These church seasons will help us to stay
in love with God.
Another great way to stay in love with God is by participating in one of
our awesome small groups. Our several small groups meet on various times and
days during the week.
Their main focus is to give everyone an opportunity to share how they
have experienced God’s presence in their lives, especially since their small
group last met. We have been calling these, “Thin Place Moments.”
These
groups meet no longer than an hour and fifteen minutes so that we respect your
time. We also use questions based on the previous Sunday’s worship theme.
I
have invited on of our small group participants to share how their small group
has been helping them to stay in love with God.
(Small Group Member Shares)
We are able to stay in love with God by
attending weekly worship and by participating in a small group where we can
share our faith with each other.
What
does it mean to be a Methodist? No, it doesn’t mean you have to attend so many
covered dishes per year or join so many committees, or have read all 52 of John
Wesley’s sermons.
Being a Methodist is really just about focusing on these three simple
rules:
Do
no harm. Do good. Stay in love with God.
Three Simple Rules
Small Group Questions
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
August 28, 2016
Simple Rule #1 - Do no harm
Share a time when you were tempted to do harm to someone. What helped you to resist?
Simple Rule #2 - Do good
Share a time when you stepped out of your comfort zone to do something good. What helped you to do good?
Simple Rule #3 - Stay in love with God.
Share how you are seeking to stay in love with God. How does your small group help you to stay in love with God?
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