Do Good

July 24, 2011 Kingdomtide 6

Romans 12: 9-20 , plus Mark 12: 28-34 (Jesus gives the greatest commandment.)

Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living[1] (3rd in Series) "Do Good"

Today we are up to the 3rd in our series Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living. This morning we will be looking at the 2nd of the Three Simple Rules, "Do Good." Some of you may not have been here over the last week or two and have not heard the introduction for this series. Let me just say that this series is based on the great commandment given by our Lord Jesus Christ and found in Mark 12:28 – 34. The series is also based on the General Rules which are found in the United Methodist Book of Discipline (¶ 103).

When Jesus was asked by the scribes which commandment is the most important of all, Jesus said these words: "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The 2nd one is this: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater Commandment than these."

As we have been learning over the last 2 weeks it is from these words of the Lord Jesus Christ, that John Wesley and the Methodist movement defined the General Rules for living as a Methodist Christians. Bishop Ruben Job has simplified the rules in his book: Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living.

1. Do No Harm

2. Do Good

3. Stay in Love with God

So today we are focusing on rule number 2: Do Good

Today we have been given a wonderful example of people doing good. This week as the children have attended VBS (Pandamania), I have seen youth and adult volunteers giving time, energy, money, and huge amounts of love... In doing good.

Several years ago, Target ran an ad campaign with the slogan, "Doing Good is Easy When Doing Good is Automatic." I suppose if I wanted to summarize this sermon in 4 short words, I would borrow Target's idea: Make Doing Good Automatic.

The apostle Paul, missionary, preacher, teacher, and church planter, was a man who spent his life doing good. When we study the life of Paul, we see a man who was filled with passion for God. When he met Jesus on the Damascus Road, and Jesus asked him why he was persecuting him, Paul's passion for the Law was transformed into a passion for Love, love for Jesus Christ and love for others.

It was this passion that the apostle Paul continually tried to convey to other followers of Jesus Christ. In Paul's letter to the Romans that we read this morning Paul encourages the members of the church at Rome, to "outdo one another in showing honor." I love those words. Paul continues exhorting them to rejoice in hope, contribute to the needs of all and to continually seek to show hospitality. In essence what Paul was saying is duplicated in the United Methodist Book of Discipline, General Rules, which says: live... "By doing good; by being in every kind merciful...as [you] have the opportunity, doing good of every possible sort; and as far as possible, to all..."(¶ 103).

The words Paul wrote to the Romans speaks to us today exhorting us as well as do the words from our Book of Discipline. To live our lives as Christians, Methodists, as Wesleyan's, we are to continually seek to do good or as Target's ad says, make doing good automatic.

It would seem that following this simple rule, "Do Good," would be pretty easy to do. The problem comes in when we realize that we must do good, not only to our friends and loved ones, our fellow church members and those in our community, but also to our enemies, the good, the bad, and the ugly. In doing good, friends, there in is the rub. Once again we realize that this simple rule to do good requires a high degree of Christian discipline.

Sometimes we believe that doing good will begin to control our whole life. That in actuality, continually focusing on doing good will somehow take away from our life. Well, I must say that to make the decision to make doing good automatic in our life will in some ways control the way we act, think, and relate to others.

This week it seemed that as I was preparing for VBS I made continual trips to Walmart and to the dollar store to pick up things I needed. But, at Walmart I was rewarded because I saw there a wonderful example of someone whose life was being controlled by doing good.

It was very hot that morning, and as I was entering the store, I noticed a weary looking mama walking away from the store. She was bent over, and had 2 little boys trailing behind her. The mama was also trying to push a cart, carry her pocketbook, while gently cupping something small and fragile in her hands.

As I passed by her I noticed that she was carrying a small butterfly. As she walked along this busy mama was explaining to her boys that the small insect had run into the building, and was probably stunned. I heard her say to her boys as she gently carried the butterfly, "we'll take him over to the grass under the trees so that he can recover, because if we leave him, stunned as he is here in the hot sun (it was about 95° at the moment) that he will surely die. Not only was this busy mama doing good for one of the most insignificant creatures of the earth, she was also passing along to her sons how doing good can be automatic.

I'm sure that this busy mama had a lot more important things to be doing at the moment. Picking up a tiny insect who had slammed into the hot Walmart building turned into something that was controlling her life...at least at the moment, but what a beautiful, graceful and good thing to do for one of God's creatures.

Another reason it takes discipline to make doing good automatic, is that sometimes our good deeds, our goodwill, our good words are rejected. I don't know about you but I don't like rejection. Yet, I say that to live our life following Jesus means that sometimes we have to take a chance that we will be rejected. Jesus took that chance for us; he was rejected; and his life has made all the difference. Because of his life we have been saved.

Often, when we think of doing good, maybe giving someone a donation, we want to control what happens to the money we give. We fear that the good we are trying to do might actually do harm. We fear that our donation may be misused, and we allow that fear to stop us from doing good. I'm not saying that that is not a legitimate concern, because we all have seen news coverage of various charity organizations who have squandered and misused funds. Yet...that's on them, not on us and our motives for doing good...which is to follow Jesus' example.

Sometimes we also think that the needs of our world are just too big. What can we really do to change anything? But here's what I believe: 1st of all it's not the size of the need nor the size of the deed that is important to God. What is important to God, is that we love each other, and do good to one another.

Secondly our good deeds are not nullified by rejection. We may offer a good word, or good deed to someone who simply rejects what we are doing, but we never know how God may use our efforts. God may take our "doing good" and use it as a seed to be planted in the heart of an individual who desperately needs to know about kindness, goodness and love..

And lastly, we will never be able to control how people misuse the good gifts they are given. The fact that people may take what we do and misuse the money we donate, the gifts we give, the words we speak does not nullified the love we show in doing good. Doing good to others, to the creatures of the earth and to the earth, all these things witness to the life that God wants all of us to live.

Bishop Job says that doing good is a "pro-active way to live."[2] Being pro-active means that we take the 1st step. Doing good is our response to God's call on our life to follow Jesus. The thing that we can control is how we respond to God's call to do good. Like with giving our life to Jesus Christ, our response is our decision to:

1. decide to extend hospitality, goodness, friendship to everyone I meet

2. decide to do good to those who disagree with me, don't like me, consider me as an enemy, talk about me, reject me

After a while of living a pro-active life in doing good, doing good will become automatic.

We can all find ways to follow the simple rule of doing good, of loving our enemies, of treating the earth, and the creatures of the earth as God would have us to. That's what it means to lead a life of holiness, and that is the life we are called to. Holiness is not only an inward thing, it is an outward thing. It involves action, commitment, and discipline.

As I said this week I have seen many, many examples of people doing good. Maybe today God is calling you to:

· listen, be a leaning post to a friend without trying to advise, fix, control, or correct

· teach a child to read

· let someone go ahead of you in line

· teach an adult to speak English

· carry someone's book back, groceries, or heavy boxes

· mow somebody's grass

· pick up the trash on the street

· teach Sunday school

· smile, be friendly, show kindness

· donate money to a worthy charity

· carry a stunned butterfly from a place of disaster to a place of life

There are as many ways to do good in the world as there are people. And God is calling all of us to make doing good automatic. Amen.

[1] This is the title of the book by Reuben P. Job. Abingdon Press: Nashville. 2007.

[2] Job. 37.