Three Simple Rules: Do Good Sermon Romans 12:9-21

Prepare our hearts, O God, to accept you Word. Silence in us any voices but your own, so that we may hear your Word and also do it; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Have you ever seen the movie Pay It Forward? It is a movie based on a book and it is about a boy, named Trevor, who is given an assignment by his teacher to come up with an idea to change the world. Trevor’s idea is called pay it forward. Instead of paying a favor back to the one who gave it, you pay it forward to someone else and then that person pays it forward and so on.

We are a generous country when the need is great. After 9/11 our country came together to help those who had lost loved ones. Strangers went to ground zero to help other strangers out of the rubble to the detriment of their own health. After the tsunamis in Southeast Asia in 2004 many Americans gave food, money, and time to help those people in need. I know several medical students who took their vacation time to travel to those countries to help the people in recovery. In 2005, three years ago this week, we joined together again to help the people of New Orleans and the Gulf coast after Hurricane Katrina. Many church groups are still there helping in the very slow rebuilding process.

We do well when times are hard, when tragedies of natural or man-made origin occur; we ban together and help out our neighbors, even perfect strangers. What about the rest of the time? What about when there is not a national tragedy? What happens then? We don’t do as well with the doing good, do we? Why does it take a national tragedy for humans to treat each other as God intended? Why can’t we do good all the time?

That is our second rule. Do we remember the first simple rule? Do no harm. The second rule is like the first and is as easy to remember it is do good. That does sound simple doesn’t it? Do good. But what does it really mean? It is easy to remember, but it is much more challenging to put it into practice. Paul spoke about is in Romans 12. He said “love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor” and “Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.” Paul knew because he learned from the example of Jesus, who spent his entire ministry doing good for all the people he encountered. Jesus teaches us to love everyone even our enemies and to do good even to those who persecute you.
You might be saying, well I already do good. I make a monthly donation to the Help Center. I give toys for the Toys for Tots program, I support the fish-fries that help the local clubs, and I help out my neighbors when they need help. Those are all good things and they are worthy of recognition and honor, but there is always more to be done. Because this rule like the one before it is not just something we do on occasion. It is not something we do hoping to get a checkmark or a gold start by our name on the heavenly rolls. It is a way of life. It is a way of living that permeates everything we do and everything we are. The rule of do no harm and do good should govern all the actions of our lives. It should become like second nature to us, as easy and as natural as breathing. It is like a litmus test. Every action we take, everything we do or say should be run passed these rules and if they do no harm and do good only then should we speak or act. It is not enough that our actions do no harm; they must also do good in the world.

This lifestyle is not just reactive, but proactive. In other words, it does not depend on what others do to us first. This rule is not I’ll be good to you if you are good to me first. Paul says in Romans 12 that in all cases we should do good in the world. Even when evil is done upon us, he says Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. He goes on to say, Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Our goodness does not depend on the actions of others. We should do good to all even the ones we might not like. We have a tendency to do good only to those who we like, to those who look, act, and think like us. However do good is a universal command which means that it is not based on whom we might deem worthy. We do not get to pick and choose who we do goodness to. Instead we are to do good to everyone, even to those who might do harm to us first.

Our goodness should not be limited to those who will be appreciative to that goodness. Our goodness might be rejected, ridiculed, and misused. One of the biggest reasons why people refuse to give money to the homeless is because they think that the homeless person will take the money and buy booze or drugs with it. But this rule does not take it into account. Our goodness is still good in God’s eyes even if it is misused by those who receive our goodness. We know that our goodness is a sacrifice to God that is pleasing even if it is misused or rejected.
Our desire to do good should not be limited to the thoughts and actions of others. Our goodness is not a response to the world, but a response to the grace of God that we have received. God has done and continues to do such great things for us. We cannot hope to count the blessings we receive because there are has numerous as the stars. We respond to God’s love and blessings by loving and blessing others.
Now we come to the nuts and bolts of this second rule. How do we live out this rule? First remember that it is not just about money. Although the church and other benevolent organizations need our donations of money, doing good is not limited to our financial resources. These are just a few ways of doing good that are free or only cost a little bit. One is smile. We have lost the art of smiling. We aren’t friendly to the people we meet on the street. We aren’t as friendly to the people who wait on us in restaurants or in stores. I don’t know if we are in too much of a hurry or what. You would be amazed at how people react to you when we offer them a smile and a kind word first.

Another way to do good is to offer a random act of kindness. You can do something nice for someone you don’t know. Do it everyday. Send a card to some random name in the phone book telling that person you are praying for them and that no matter what God loves them. I heard an idea a few months ago about a lady who was in line at the drive thru at McDonald’s and she paid for the two people behind her. She didn’t want praise or a thank you; she did it to be good to someone else. When someone asks you how they can repay you for your kindness tell them to pay it forward and do something for someone else.

Another way we can live the do good lifestyle is to offer forgiveness to those who do us wrong. We should not hold on to grudges or hold past sins over the heads of others. This only widens divisions between people. You might have been hurt by someone and it might take time but we should always offer forgiveness after time. Only then can we truly heal our wounds. Vengeance is not our reward, but it is God’s justice. That means that God does not get even with people, but God does exact divine justice with grace. We should not repay evil with evil that only throws gas on the fire. Instead offer goodness to those who do evil to us and then maybe those people would change and see God’s love and mercy in you. These are just a few examples of how we can live the do good lifestyle.

Now we come to the so what question. Why is living this lifestyle important? In addition to the reasons we talked about last week, the fact that it is world changing and that it brings us to a closer walk with God, living out these rules gives us a deeper understanding of God and Christ. Our faith deepens when we think and act more like Christ. When we offer sacrifice and forgiveness and goodness then we begin to understand what God did for us on the cross and what God continues to do for us everyday.

Another reason is that when we exude positivity then positive things happen to us and the same is true when we act negatively. Some of you might have heard of the Hindu/Buddhist concept of karma. A very basic understanding of karma is what goes around comes around. What we do comes back to us. I don’t know how true that is, but I do know that the world is much easier to live in when we are positive people doing good things.

These rules change not only how we live, but also why we live. When we follow these rules we begin to live for God instead of ourselves. We respond to God’s love with love of our own. Like the first rule, we might not complete the journey in this lifetime, but it does not mean that we should not start the journey. Let us start that journey together today. Let us not just do no harm, but let us do good in the world.

Let us pray…
Grant, O Lord,
that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,
and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;
through Jesus Christ our Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Three Simple Rules: Do No Harm Sermon Romans 12:1-8

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

Let’s play a fill in the blank game this morning. Like a good neighbor…is there. I wish I was an… Bring out the … and bring out the best. A…is forever. Have a … and a smile. Please don’t squeeze the … Plop, plop, fizz, fizz oh… These slogans are engrained deep in our minds and companies pay millions of dollars to advertising agencies to come up with these catchy slogans so that you will remember to buy their product. Some of these slogans become so popular that they become pop culture icons. But why? They are short, pithy, and easy to remember.

Sometimes we need those pithy slogans in other parts of our lives to help us to remember to do the things we need to do. When Methodism was in its infancy the people asked John Wesley to give them some rules to live by and work toward. Wesley looked at Scripture and he looked at what he was preaching to the people and he developed the General Rules of the United Societies. He developed three rules that are short, pithy, and easy to remember. They are do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God. These were the standards that the people called Methodists were held to and worked toward. These three rules were the exemplary ideals of the Christian life. If a person held to these rules perfectly then that person would reach Christian perfection, of course that never happened and no one has ever reached perfection in this life. However, this does not mean that we should not try to work toward that goal. These rules are not only life changing they are world changing. If we all worked to adhere to these rules together, think of how the world could change.

Bishop Ruben Job, a retired bishop from the Iowa Episcopal area, wrote a new book, called Three Simple Rules that remind us not only of our Methodist heritage, but also of these three rules that are meant not only for Methodists, but for all Christians. For the next three weeks I am going to be looking at these rules one by one to see how we can implement them in our own lives, how these rules can change our lives, and why we should be doing it in the first place.

Today’s simple rule is “do no harm”. It seems odd that Wesley would begin with a negatively based rule, by telling us what not to do. However, if we look at the Ten Commandments then we see that most of those rules are do not and shall not. Perhaps John Wesley understood as God understands that we need to be taught what NOT to do first. Do no harm, it seems like a simple thing to do. We don’t do anyone any harm. We don’t beat up on people, we don’t have someone locked in the trunk of our cars. This seems like an easy rule to follow, but is it?

This rule is not just some rule we follow, it is a way of living. It is a way of interacting with people we meet and with people a world away that we will never meet. Doing no harm means, as we talked about last week, seeing each and every person as a child of God worthy of our love and respect. When we do this and when we approach people with the understanding that we will do them no harm then it changes us. It makes us look at others in a different way. Instead of seeing people in a negative light, we see them as a child of God.

You might be thinking, well I already to that. I don’t go around beating up on people or crashing my car into people. I am doing no one any harm. Doing no harm does not just mean physical harm. It means that I will not undermine anyone to get what I want. I will not cheat you, swindle you, or talk you into something I know will lead to harm. I will not gossip behind your back, I will not spread rumors about you. I will not call you stupid or ignorant because of how you dress, or act, or believe. I will not think you are stupid because you do things or believe differently. I will not tear you down in order to build myself up. I will not mutter under my breath with you cut me off. I will not smile to your face and then stick a knife in your back. The list goes on and on and new items are added everyday. So maybe this rule isn’t as easy as we first thought. But imagine the possibilities. Imagine for instance a presidential election where the two candidates followed this rule. There wouldn’t many of those TV commercials, would there?

How do we implement this rule in our lives? First we have to inventory our lives. We have to look at our routines and ask the question, does this harm another person directly or indirectly. Do the choices I make negatively affect other people? Each decision we make should be prefaced with the question, will this cause anyone any harm?

This leads us to the second phase of implementing this rule in our lives. We have to educate ourselves on how our actions, the actions of the companies we support with our money, and the actions of our government cause harm to people around the world. We need to know if the shoes or clothes we wear were made by people in sweat shops for pennies a day. We need to know if the food we eat was grown by people making pennies a day. We need to know if the companies that get our money are harming their employees, the environment, or anyone else. Once we know that our actions cause harm we must change. We must find alternatives and new ways of living that are in harmony with our neighbors worldwide.

We cannot avoid the topic. If we do nothing we only perpetuate the harm that is done in the world. We cannot remain silent or apathetic because silence and apathy causes harm. We must speak for those who have no voice. We must cry out against the wrongs we see done at home, at work, in our cities, in our state, in our nation, and in the world. We can be the change we want to see in the world.

As Paul says in our lesson from Romans “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.” When we follow this rule we reject the conformity of this world. We become different, we become lights in the midst of darkness. We have seen, over and over again, how the kingdom walk, the gospel walk, is different than the worldly walk. The values of God are not the world’s values. It will take time to change. In fact, in all likelihood it will take a lifetime and even then we will not perfectly follow this rule, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.

So the question before us is this, so what? Why should we adhere to this rule? Why should we go into our lives and examine the harm we are causing? What difference can one person make? First, when we change our lives we begin to change the world. We become examples to live by; we become ambassadors of God’s love and forgiveness. We become living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God. We become the hope we read about in Scripture and we become the change we want to see in the world.

We also become closer to Christ. We do what God has called us to do, to be what God has called us to be. Jesus lived his life on earth following fully the rule of do no harm. He lived with malice toward no one and no harm to anyone even to those who nailed him to the cross. Imagine that, he forgave those people even as they nailed him to the cross. He offered no revenge, no hatred, and no harm to those who sent him to his death. When we follow this rule we walk closer to Jesus. We become more Christlike and that is the point of the Christian life. We should strive each day to be more and more like Christ.

This simple rule is not meant to confine us but to renew us into a Christlike life. It is meant to help us live with our brothers and sisters in the world in the way that God wanted. God loves us so much and gives us so much that following this rule is a worshipful response to that love and grace. As the body of Christ we can make a difference, if we all make the decision to change our lifestyles and approach everyone with knowledge that we mean them no harm then we can make a big change in the world. It is not easy and it takes a lifetime to master, but in Christ all things are possible.

Let us pray…
Grant, O Lord,
that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,
and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;
through Jesus Christ our Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.