People of God Who Do No Harm
Notes
Transcript
Watch your step. Don’t touch the stove. Fasten your seat belt. Don’t run on the stairs. Right now, my life is full of warnings. I feel like my entire parental vocabulary is chock full of statements aimed at preventing harm. Like I am a human caution label. Don’t do this. Careful with that. I don’t want you to get hurt.
And yet somehow, harm still happens. My two year old runs smack into a fence post at school and has to have stitches. I say something stupid and it’s open mouth, insert foot. I am on the tail end of moving and am creating more trash than I ever imagined. I forget a friend’s birthday. I yell at my children out of impatience. Sometimes I do harm with my words. Other times I do harm by standing on the sidelines, not saying anything at all. And then there are times where I sit in a state of shock where harm is done in the nation and world around me that I feel that I have little control over: war, mass shootings, Facebook debates, slumlords, unfair wages, inadequate healthcare, etc.
And yet, this was the first of the general rules that John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, gave to his class meeting in 1739. Do no harm. Do good. Stay in love with God. These were the rules that became the heartbeat and identity of the people called Methodists.
So how do you know you’re a United Methodist?
Garrison Keller once wrote a piece about this and included things like- “Methodists believe in prayer, but would practically die if asked to pray out loud.” “Methodists like to sing, except when confronted with a new hymn or a hymn with more than four stanzas.” “It’s 100 degrees, with 90% humidity, and you still have coffee before the service.” If there is a show-and-tell at school, the Methodist will come with a casserole (always prepared for a pot luck.)
We laugh about these common quirks, but I want you to think about your own story with the United Methodist Church this month. What is it that makes you a Methodist? Was it something someone said or did? Was it a group you were a part of or one you got invited into? Is it about shared beliefs or is it part of your family history? As Annual Conference happens this week, I thought we could take this time together to look back at some of our history and the people of God called Methodists.
The core verse of the beUMC series that we are starting today is Micah 6:8. Do Justice. Love Kindness. Walk Humbly with your God. Maybe it’s one of your favorite verses. Maybe you have it on a t-shirt or wall hanging. My sister has it painted on the floor of her home. Similar to Wesley’s three rules, this verse is presented as the general rules of Israel, what God requires of them. Rather than a cute wall hanging, this scripture is written to reflect a court session in which God is bringing his case against Israel.
God is saying, “what have I done that you would act this way? Do you not remember ? I saved you from Egypt. I redeemed you from slavery. Do you not remember the salvation of your people?
The author speaks for Israel here in saying “what should we come before the Lord with? Notice the exaggeration - shall I come with calves, thousands of rams, thousands of rivers of oil, even my firstborn? The first three chapters of Micah were set during a possible siege against Israel from the Assyrians. At the same time, Israel had fallen into its old ways. The rich were getting richer off the backs of the poor. Injustice was the name of the game. Violence had replaced peace. Chapters 4-6 were written over 100 years later possibly by one who knew Micah. So here the people have returned and everything is a mess. They are saying “look, I’m doing my part. What else do you want from me? What will it take for you to set things right? What do you require of us?”
A lot of us are still trying to figure out how to return to normal after the pandemic. Maybe we are surprised to find that it’s harder to just go back than we thought. Maybe we too need to ask, “what is required of us to set things right?”
To which we hear “He has told you O mortal, what is good- what is the opposite of harm- and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.
Maybe Israel was warming the pews of the temple. Maybe they had their tithes and their burnt offerings in order. Maybe they were following the letter of the law. But God skips over all this, for it was all name only. This is what John Wesley referred to as nominal Christianity. All the outward signs were there, but there was no inward transformation.
Israel was playing the part, but harm was being done. The ancestors of the enslaved had now become the oppressors. Peace had given way to violence. Idols had been added to the one true God. And God is saying, no more. Have you forgotten who you are? Have you forgotten who I have called you to be? Have you forgotten what sets you apart as my people?
Do No Harm, Wesley says. It is the first of the general rules. Now perhaps you feel like others in the past and think it seems a bit odd, a bit out of order. Shouldn’t walking humbly with God be first? What about doing good? But instead, first and foremost, do no harm. Wesley went further to identify behaviors that we should refrain from that are often repeated. This included things like:
-Taking the Lord’s name in vain
-Working on a Sunday
-Drunkenness
-Uncharitable conversation
-Speaking ill of others
-Wearing expensive clothes or jewelry
-Singing songs or reading books that do not tend to the love of God.
I could keep going, but you get the point. Seems like the early Methodists were a bunch of strict religious snobs doesn’t it? If we are honest, some of us break these rules weekly if not more often. Or maybe you’re thinking, well, I don’t meet any of those categories so I must be good.
But doing no harm is more than a checklist. It is something we do, and not just on Sundays but every day. We are meant to be a people who do justice. Sometimes this is also translated as seek. This term here is not maintaining law and order, it is advocating for the lowly for the justice of God is never about “just us.” Bishop Swanson defines doing justice as “working to create a world where all people have equal opportunity to thrive.” In other words, working to advance the “kindom” of God. Doing no harm requires more of us than simply trying to be a decent person. It requires loving people more than issues. It requires more than a sympathetic casserole, a polite smile, a thank- you note, and sending our thoughts and prayers.
But if we are honest, recently we have witnessed and joined in loving our issues more than people. We have become known by what divides us. We have become identified by who we exclude. I have family who have left the institutional church because the witness became more akin to a hate group than a house for sinners. Or worse, the world would be in chaos, and on Sundays it was like you entered Pleasantville in which nothing was said or done. But the justice of God calls us to more.
Consider Isaiah 58:6-7 in which we see the context of divine justice that Micah is referencing. Here God doesn’t want some symbolic fast. What is the symbol, the marker of following God instead? To loose the bonds of injustice, to let the oppressed go free, to share bread with the hungry, to bring the homeless into your house, and to cover the naked. While we certainly do need to be in prayer, our prayers should lead us to be involved in ways to dismantle harm, to raise up the lowly, to bind up the broken-hearted, and to set the captives free.
As I mentioned earlier, my sister has this verse painted on the floor of her home, but that only came out of it being written on her heart. She has no time for debates about who is in and who is out. She has little patience for a diatribe and excuses. She really is on the fence about the goodness of God and the often poor witness of the church. But she opens the doors of her home. To single moms. To those in abusive situations. To friends struggling with finances. To addicts. To those who will never be able to pay her back. She is a mom, a friend, and an advocate to so many, including her own children who have their own set of physical and mental conditions to contend with. To her, church isn’t church unless all are welcome. And church isn’t really church if it leads those who need it most out the door.
Do no harm. Simple, but not easy. Bishop Michael Curry once noted that “being a Christian is not essentially about joining a church or being a nice person, but about following in the footsteps of Jesus, taking his teachings seriously, letting his Spirit take the lead in our lives, and in so doing helping to change the world from our nightmare into God’s dream.”
What has God required of us today? Who has God called us to be as a people called Methodists?
Let us remember. Remember our roots. Remember our salvation in God. Reminded our calling as a church, as a people of God, as United Methodists, to seek mercy, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God. To turn our nightmare into God’s dream. Then and only then, may we do no harm.