The 3 Simple Rules and My 4th of July…

I have been looking foward to this weekend’s celebration of the 4th of July. Mostly because it means a long weekend before I start this sermon series on Sunday. (I didn’t even know Chapelwood’s office would be closed today, Thursday, until just two days ago! I even made plans to have lunch with Tom Brandino, thinking I’d be at the office. Unfortunately, once I found out the office was closed, I immediately forgot the lunch and I stood Tom up!! Sorry, Tom.)

Anyway, my daughter Lauren came home from her semester in England three weeks ago, and has been somewhat bored since. Few of her friends are around this summer. She has taken on something of an international flair of late — having spent a month on mission in China last May and her 5 months in England and touring Europe. She also works in the international student office at the University of North Texas during the school year. So Susan put her in touch with Adria Baker who is in Susan’s Sunday School class. Adria heads the international student office at Rice University. She asked Lauren if she would like to meet some international students who are studying at Rice.

You can probably see where this is going! Lauren jumped at the chance and invited them to our house for the 4th of July! What better way to get to know some foreign folks than to invite them to an old-fashioned Amercian tradition — swim in the pool, grill some burgers and hotdogs, maybe take in some fireworks, etc. Of the twelve, five accepted the offer (seems that the older students have a test they’re studying for).

So I’ve been given the chance to “do good” by extending hospitality to five international students. While I might have preferred a “quiet” 4th at home with my family, since I’m trying to ‘do good,” I can’t give up the chance that’s been handed to me. I’m beginning to sense that God may say to me during this experiment of living the 3 simple rules, “How far do you want to take this…?”

Stay tuned. I’ll write about my experience tomorrow. Happy 4th of July!

What Do the General Rules Look Like Today?

(The following was written by Rev. Melissa Maher, Pastor of Serving Ministries at Chapelwood United Methodist. Used by permission.)

• Do no harm
• Do good
• Stay in love with God

These simple rules for living form the structure of what it means to obey the Great Commandment which is expressed in two ways: love God and love neighbor. But these rules also bring about questions and call us to action. What does it mean to be loved, do no harm, do good and abide in God’s love? How do I (we) follow this blueprint to wholeness? John Wesley believed you did so by practicing works of piety and works of mercy.

Works of piety are those practices that draw us into God’s presence so we hear God’s still, small voice guiding us, God’s song of redemption sung over us, and God’s words of promise to always be with us. These works of piety are practiced in private when it is just God and us. They are also lived out publicly in corporate worship or small groups. Works of piety include reading scripture, praying, fasting, and taking time for solitude.

Works of mercy are those practices that draw us closer to one another through the presence of the Spirit. Jesus told His disciples that His followers be recognized for how they loved and served one another. Scholars have noted about John Wesley and the Methodists that “it was not so much that the Methodists were among the poor as the poor were among the Methodists.” In other words, a shared life together which crosses economic, social, or ethnic boundaries and calls people to inward and outward expressions of holy love is the calling of the Christian life. To hear the cry of the needy is to hear the cry of all of God’s children-the orphaned child in Zimbabwe, the single mother in Houston, the homeless man on the corner of Westheimer, the CEO in Houston, the migrant worker from Mexico, and the family in the suburbs. To hear and respond to the cry of human need has been God’s work of reconciliation from the beginning of time. For God is rich in mercy and has made us alive in Christ (Eph 2:4-5), and His justice will roll like a river (Amos 5:24). In these promises, we place our faith and hope.

Mother Teresa said, “If we want the poor to see Christ in us, we have to see the image of Christ in the poor.”

Three simple rules came to life in Wesley’s practical, daily responses to loving God and loving neighbor. He spoke out against

• slavery which deprived humanity of freedom and dignity
• alcoholism which used grain for fermented spirits instead of food for the hungry
• health care which favored only those with money and denied care and compassion for the poor.

He encouraged his small groups to be among the poor, to visit the sick, and to witness with their eyes the deplorable conditions of those who go without.

The General Rules — Outdated?

I recently returned from a trip to England to visit my daughter. While there, my wife Susan and I visited some of the historic John Wesley (founder of Methodism) sites — namely, Epworth (the parsonage where Wesley grew up), pictured at left, and Wesley’s Chapel in London, where we celebrated Easter.

This trip aroused some of my long held passions for things Wesley! Not long after I returned home, I attended General Conference in Ft. Worth (as a visitor, not a delegate) and while there, came across Rueben P. Job’s book, Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living. This is the updated title that Bishop Job has given to the early Methodist “General Rules.” As he frames the rules, they are:

• Do no harm
• Do good
• Stay in love with God

After buying and reading the book, I began to wonder: Can I live by them? The “General Rules?” were the heartbeat of the Methodist societies. Keeping the General Rules was what one did to show desire to “flee from the wrath to come.” To this day, when Methodist pastors are ordained — including me — we are asked by our bishop, “Do you know the General Rules of our Church?” And then the harder follow-up question, “Will you keep them?”

So, freshly inspired by my visit to Mr. Wesley’s home turf, and fired up by Rueben Job’s book, I decided to try an experiment. During the month of July, I am going to preach a sermon series called 3 Simple Rules: Treasure from our Methodist Heritage. (You can access my 3 simple rules web site at Chapelwood.org here.) In addition to preaching about the 3 simple rules, I am going to attempt to live them. “The Rules are simple, but the way is not easy,” Bishop Job writes. So simple as they sound, I expect to encounter some bumps along the way.

Join me as I embark starting July 1 on a 4-week experiment of living the “3 simple rules,” and blogging about my experience. I invite your comments as well!

Bob