WHAT IS GOOD? DO ALL THE GOOD YOU CAN



John 3:14-21
Acts 10:34-38

He has told you, human one, what is good and what the Lord requires from you:  to do justice, embrace faithful love [mercy, kindness], and walk humbly with your God.        Micah 6:8 (CEB)

In the latter half of 1739, a number of people, convicted of their sin and need for redemption, came to John Wesley seeking his time, teaching and counsel on how to flee the "wrath to come."  In other words, how does one live a righteous life that pleases God.  Besides forming small groups in which they could study and grow together in Christ, Wesley gave them three general rules:  do no harm, do good, and attend upon the ordinances of God.

 In responding to the question, "What is good?", we continue series about the general rules of United Methodism with "do all the good you can.

 The movie, Les Miserables (based on Victor Hugo's novel of the same name), opens with Val Jean working as a slave laborer in a French penal colony.  When Val Jean is finally released, he has only the clothes on his back and bitterness, despair and anger.  With no resources, he is required to travel across France to the town where he is to check in with local authorities.  During a dark, stormy night, one which matches the condition of his heart, Val Jean takes shelter in the doorway of a local church.

There he is found by the local parish priest and given food and a place to sleep.  In return for the priest's generosity, Val Jean steals the priest's silver dinnerware and flees into the night.  He doesn't get far before the local police find him and drag him back to the priest along with the evidence of his crime.

Instead of condemning Val Jean, the priest offers God's grace and compassion and tells the officers he gave Val Jean the silver dinnerware.  He scolds Val Jean, saying "You forgot the best," and puts two silver candlesticks in the bag.  After the police leave, the priest tells Val Jean that he has saved him for God and sent him on the way.

What the priest did for Val Jean is what Christ did for us.  Because God so loved us, unconditionally and completely, rather than see us pay for the consequences of our unloving and harmful ways, God offered up Christ as a sacrifice for us so that even though we deserve eternal death, Christ saved us.  Christ saved us from sin, death, and the darkness of our hearts for lives lived in light and truth.

Through our baptism we are claimed by God and empowered by the Holy Spirit into Christ's death and resurrection so that we may pick up the cross of Christ's ministry.   Everywhere that Christ went, he did good, showing people the glory of God's power and love for them.

In Acts 10, Peter tells Cornelius, a gentile Peter was sent to baptize, "who ever worships Him and does what is right is acceptable to God."

In the movie, Val Jean is reformed and transformed not by prison but by an act of goodness and compassion.  Val Jean is never the same, and neither are the lives of those he would later touch as he lived a life that was pleasing to God.
Doing what is right -- traveling through the days of our life as Christ traveled through Israel during his ministry, we have the opportunity to do  what is good and what the Lord requires of us.

John Wesley saw our call to do good as a 24/7 commitment of our time and our resources, every day of our lives.

"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you can.

Part of taking up the cross as Jesus did means that we willingly choose to be inconvenienced, to leave our comfort zones, to be with people we don't know,  who may be different from ourselves, and to share our resources and Christ's love as we travel beside them in their journey.

Doing good is sharing the love of Christ in ways that result in positive, light, bringing, life-changing ways in the lives of those we encounter.  Every day.  Every way.  Every where.  For every one.

This is how we faithfully respond to the love of God through Jesus Christ, to bear fruit of goodness, kindness and justice that transforms lives and the world.

God has claimed us and empowered us for such ministry.  How will we respond to the opportunities to do good that God presents to us?






  

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