A Light in the Window

A Light in the Window
Susan Hoyle, pastor Trinity United Methodist Church

There are rules for us to follow every day. Some rules we like, others not so much. There are rules given to us by others for the common good, like we drive on the right side of the road in the United States. There are rules given to us by our families, you have to clean up your room before you go out with friends or a parent is supposed to attend every single spors activity that your children participate in. We even give ourselves rules, no desert before vegetables. Yes, we know a lot about rules.

God gives us rules such as Mark 12:29-31, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and the Ten Commandments. God gives us rules to protect us (who knows the chaos if we each followed our own rules and no other rules for the common good), to give us boundaries and to keep us on the Christian path towards a closer relationship with Jesus.

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, knew that people needed simple rules for living a Christian life. Their lives were difficult at times and they needed simple rules to keep walking on the path towards God. Wesley searched Scripture and developed three simple rules for Christian living: do no harm, do good and follow the ordinances of God. The ordinances are ways we deepen our relationship with God such as prayer, Scripture, walking in Creation, being a part of small groups and fasting. Another way to state this rule is to stay in love with God.

What does it mean to do no harm? We don’t intentionally harm anyone. We know harm by watching the news or reading the newspapers. Yet, when we think about it, we may be doing harm unintentionally to God, each other and to creation.

We harm God when we get so busy we don’t think about God, all that we give God is a quick prayer when we go to sleep. We harm God when we take God’s name in vain, when we say, “oh my god.” We know we’re saying it with a small g, but do other people know that? We harm God when we put so many things before God. You know, we give God our offering after we’ve paid all of our bills not before and God gets our leftovers.

We harm each other when we gossip and when we’re negative about things we don’t like in our families, our workplaces, our neighborhoods and our churches. We harm each other when we say things like, “gee, that was stupid’ and the other person hears “I’m stupid.” We harm each other when we look at someone who is different than us and we see right through them as if they are an object and not a child of God.

We harm creation by throwing away things that can be recycled like cardboard, tin cans and water bottles. Our landfills are getting so full and recycling helps in so many ways. We harm creation when we top off our gas tanks because it adds more toxins to the air and when we use Styrofoam because it never breaks down in the landfill. I learned this from daughter and made a decision to change these two small things.