– Vickie Ripley, GMUMC Lay Leader
Recently, at Rafa’s invitation, I had the opportunity to actually bring the message on Sunday morning. It was an interesting experience. Although I have been involved in worship services for many years, and am a certified lay servant with all the training that goes with that, I had never preached in a real church service. I have been teaching graduate students for many years, but it’s expected that I know more than my students and have information to give them. But, this was different. All sorts of things went through my mind – what do I say, why do I think I have anything to say, why would anyone want to listen to what I say, what if people don’t agree with me? I prayed about it, a lot, and the thought came to me to use the Matthew 22: 36-40 passage about the greatest commandment – Jesus said there are two, love God and love people, and that sums up everything, that all the commandments are based on these two. That idea seemed safe enough. I researched the background and setting in which that question came to him from the religious leaders of the day – it was a challenge, an attempt to show him up. I also researched what Jesus and the Bible say about what Christian love is. Several of Jesus’ parables and First Corinthians 13 say it quite well, but summed up, it means to show care, empathy, and compassion to everyone. That then lead me to wonder just exactly who he is referring to. All people, those like us, those we get along with, those, we agree with? What about people who sin? Well, that would be everybody wouldn’t it? But, maybe some sins are worse than others? How do we decide whose sins we accept and whose we don’t? in looking for that clarification, I came across a whole lot of scripture that says we are not to judge people – that is God’s job description, not ours, and the Bible makes that very clear. During the time I was preparing for this endeavor, Becky and I went to Pennsylvania to visit her new grandson Paul, and his parents. We had dinner one night at the home of friends of theirs. The family included an eight year old boy and his seven year old sister, Evangeline, who was doing everything she could to be the boss of him, telling him what to do and what not do. Suddenly, their mother stepped out of the kitchen and said, “Evangeline, stop that right now. You are neither the mommy nor the daddy!” I found myself realizing that is what God is telling us sometimes – “stop that, you are not God! I know how to do my job, you just do yours”. There are actually many scriptures throughout the Bible that clearly state this. We too often decide to ignore them.
People said nice things after my sermon and I appreciated that. And, as is often the case, I found that the best way to learn something is to teach it. Let’s think about what God expects from us, and as John Wesley said – do good, do not harm, stay in love with God. The world would be a better place if we can all remember to do these things.