THE RISE AND FALL

Three Simple Rules:

DO NO HARM

Matthew 22:34-40

Avoiding evil opens up a place

for a positive response to God.

A sermon preached by

Dr. William O. (Bud) Reeves

First United Methodist Church

Hot Springs, Arkansas

March 1, 2009

Have you ever noticed the goofy instructions you get on some of the things you buy? For example, if you buy a box of Tesco’s Tiramisu dessert, it says, “Do not turn upside down.” This, of course, is printed on the bottom of the box.

On a box of Marks and Spencer bread pudding: “Product will be hot after heating.”

On the box for a Rowenta iron: “Do not iron clothes on body.” Might do wonders for your wrinkles.

On the bottle of Nytol: “Warning: May cause drowsiness.” One would hope so.

On a kitchen knife manufactured in Korea, you find these instructions: “Warning: keep out of children.”

A string of Japanese-made Christmas lights advises, “For indoor or outdoor use only.” Where else you could you put them?

Another foreign-made food processor warns, “Not to be used for the other use.” I wonder what that could be?

On a jar of Sainsbury’s peanuts is this caution: “Warning: Contains nuts.”

And finally, the nuts who made a Swedish chain saw were careful to instruct, “Do not attempt to stop chain with your hands.”[1]

Some instructions are more helpful than others. We are beginning again the season of Lent—40 days prior to Easter in which we try to focus our lives and our spirits on the passion of Christ, leading up to the great celebration of Easter. This takes some discipline, because the world we live in is opposed to faith. The culture does not care that it is Lent. We have to intentionally carve out time to be disciplined and prepare our souls for Easter. We need a plan. We need some good instructions.

For Lent, we can return to the roots of our tradition. Christians from the earliest days have observed a holy Lent by self-examination, prayer, fasting, and giving gifts to help people. These are all good things, and they help us focus. The theological basis of Lent is found in the teachings of Jesus, whose basic instruction on life we call the Great Commandment: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”[2] Love God and love your neighbor—that’s the plan.

But how do we do that? John Wesley, our Methodist founder, reformulated the Great Commandment for his time in three simple rules. Wesley was a very practical pastor and church leader, and he wanted to give some instructions that would be helpful to his people as they faced the difficulties of the day. In many ways, Wesley’s time was not unlike ours. There was widespread economic disaster. Poverty was horrible. The invention of gin had skyrocketed alcohol abuse. Children were being neglected and abused. The church was becoming irrelevant. So Wesley made a plan, and his plan started a revival, and even today historians credit the Methodist revival with saving 18^th century England from civil war.

It all began in 1739, when a few people came to John Wesley and asked if he would meet with them weekly to give instructions on the Christian faith. Soon there was a small group meeting to pray and learn and hold one another accountable—“a company of men having the form and seeking the power of godliness, united in order to pray together, to receive the word of exhortation, and to watch over one another in love, that they may help each other to work out their salvation.”[3]

These class meetings, as they were called, became the strength of the Methodist revival. All it took to get into a group was “a desire to flee from the wrath to come, and to be saved from their sins.”[4] What it took to stay in the group was to follow three simple rules, which became known as the General Rules: “It is therefore expected of all who continue therein that they should continue to evidence their desire of salvation, First: By doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind… Secondly: By doing good; by being in every kind merciful after their power; as they have opportunity… Thirdly: By attending upon all the ordinances of God.”[5] The last one has been modernized by Bishop Reuben Job to say, “Stay in love with God.”[6]

As we begin our Lenten journey together, I want to talk about these great instructions for living the Christian way. I want to give you these three simple rules to guide your walk to Calvary, to Easter, and beyond.

What does it mean to “Do no harm,” to avoid evil of every kind? Wesley gave a list in his writings that included using the Lord’s name in vain, breaking the Sabbath, drunkenness, slaveholding, fighting, wearing costly jewelry, singing lewd songs, and other things. Those are fine things not to do, but I would like to suggest three more relevant ways we can do no harm and avoid evil today.

First, do no harm to yourself. Many of our wounds are self-inflicted. Many of our difficulties are self-induced. If we can just learn not to hurt ourselves, we can probably deal with the afflictions from outside. We need to stay healthy—emotionally, mentally, and physically. Emotionally we get anxious and worried about many things. (We talked about that last week.) We let the little things bug us, and we get mad at small provocations. Anger and anxiety harm us emotionally.

Mentally, we have become watchers of the screen. Televisions, computers, and now telephones all have screens that demand our attention. As a culture, we have lost the ability to read, to think, to interact with other people in ways that stretch our minds and deepen our thoughts and understanding. The latest Nielsen study of television habits found that the average American watches 151 hours of TV a month.[7] That’s five hours a day! How can we do that and stay mentally fit?

Or physically fit? Government statistics indicate that about 1/3 of American adults are obese, and another 1/3 are overweight. Almost 20% of children ages 2-19 are clinically obese.[8] We are harming ourselves by the way we treat our bodies.

Many of you recognize the name of Jared Fogle. You have seen him in all those hours of watching TV. He’s the guy that lost about 240 pounds by eating Subway low-fat sandwiches. (And he exercised regularly, too.) As a junior in high school, Jared weighed 425 pounds. After he lost down to about 185 pounds, Subway heard about his diet and hired him to be their spokesperson. In 2008, he celebrated 10 years of healthy weight by carrying around the country a pair of his former jeans you could camp in—they called it the “Tour de Pants.”[9] For Jared, the real satisfaction he gets is the inspiration he gives to other people who are trying to get healthy and stay healthy.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.”[10] Sometimes the temple needs to be cleansed. It’s never too late to turn things around, to learn better habits, and to practice emotional, mental, and physical health.

Second, do no harm to your relationships. Life is all about our relationships. Living is about loving. But sometimes we fail to act in loving ways, don’t we? The other day Karen and I were in Target, walking up to the check-out, and there was a mother who was just letting her daughter have it. The girl looked to be about 10 or 11 years old. I don’t know what she had done or said, but nobody deserves to get a tongue-lashing in public like that. Finally the girl turned to her mother with tears streaming down her face and said, “I hate the way you talk to me!” I almost had tears streaming down my face to imagine the harm being done to that child.

Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment at the Last Supper, “Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”[11] He also had a rule we call the Golden Rule: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”[12] How would you like to be treated? With love, kindness, consideration, faithfulness, and loyalty? Then treat others that way, and you will avoid harm.

Finally, I want to share with you an idea John Wesley didn’t think of, but we need to be thinking about it now. Do no harm to God’s world. The psalmist sings, “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it.”[13] God has given us a magnificent place in which to live. We need to do everything we can not to harm God’s world—our environment—any more than we have already. We are facing grave issues worldwide with climate change. The latest studies show that the pace of global warming is accelerating faster than the scientists previously thought. We need to be serious about finding sources of renewable, non-polluting energy, not only to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but to prepare for the day when the petroleum fields that took millions of years to form will run dry.[14]

Most of us are not in a position to do much about public policy on environmental issues. But we can make some commitments to personal stewardship that, taken together, will make a difference and do less harm to the world. Simple measures like recycling, using less heat and air conditioning, changing light bulbs to more efficient fluorescents, driving less and combining trips, buying energy-efficient products, using less hot water, planting a tree, getting a home energy audit, and being an advocate for energy conservation—these and other common-sense steps will cause less harm to God’s world and make it more livable for future generations.[15] We even have a church “green team” that is studying ways that we as a church can be more aware and practice better stewardship. That’s part of our discipleship, too.

As people of faith, we are not of the world, but we are in the world. We have a citizenship in heaven, but we live out our faith in the everyday, practical matters of life. Being a Christian is not brain surgery or rocket science, but it does take intentionality and discipline. Patrick Lencioni, an expert on leadership, says that success “ultimately comes down to practicing a small set of principles over a long period of time. Success is not a matter of mastering subtle, sophisticated theory, but rather of embracing common sense with uncommon levels of discipline and persistence.”[16] That’s why we have Lent. That’s why Wesley thought up the Three Simple Rules.

One of the practical, everyday things Jesus did was to eat with his disciples. So the elements of the meal—bread and wine—became a symbol of the abiding presence of our Lord. As you come to the Table today, remember the instructions he gave. Love God. Love your neighbor. Do no harm to your self, to your relationships, or to your world. Follow these instructions, and you will be blessed with success. Amen!