Whether I like it or not it is over. What’s over? Summer! Yes, I know that technically summer lasts until September 21st or thereabouts but I can’t help but feel like summer ends with the arrival of Labor Day. By now, for most of us, vacations have come and gone, a new academic year has commenced, and it is time to get back in to the swing of things. So with one last trip to the ocean last week, I bid goodbye to summer. A sunset on the last night of our vacation offered a beautiful benediction to a great but busy summer. Thanks be to God.
But in saying goodbye to something we open ourselves and prepare ourselves to say hello to what comes next. What comes next? In this case a very exciting fall at St. Mark’s. This coming Sunday, September 14th, we will celebrate the start of our new year with what we are calling an Old Fashioned Covered Dish Lunch. Lunch will be followed by the unveiling and launch of our new website. We will also be offering tours of our newly renovated Youth space as well as a fantastic Ministry Fair. Make plans now to bring a friend, a covered dish to share, and some canned food for North Raleigh Ministries. I promise you will not find a better meal in all of Raleigh this Sunday.
Our theme for the coming year is Bearing the Kingdom to World. We will be preaching as well as teaching around how it is that we are called to bear the Good News in word and deed into the world. We start this Sunday, September 14th, with a 3-week sermon series based upon Bishop Rueben Job’s book entitled Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living. In his book, Job builds upon John Wesley’s General Rules: Do no harm, Do good, and Stay in love with God. On one level these rules sound elementary, basic, and yes, rather simple. But try living them out. Try bearing them out in the world. Suddenly you will find, at least I did, that they are simply hard to follow.
This week we start with rule one: Do no harm. I get it. I understand it. I can remember it. It seems simple. But over the course of the just the past three days as I studied, prepared, and worked on my sermon about doing no harm, I found that on multiple occasions I was doing harm! I spoke too quickly and with a less than gracious tone to a fellow committee member, I failed to listen fully to a staff member, I rushed to judgement about a person, I participated in unprofitable conversation and I did things that did not promote unity and oneness within the body of Christ. Like I said these rules while simple are simply hard to live out. But I, we, must press on and with God’s help continue to seek to become all God dreamed us to be.
So as we say goodbye to summer and hello to fall, I hope that you will join me in pursuit of a more faithful way of Christ-centered living – a way framed around these 3 simple rules. With great anticipation I look forward to Sunday and our launch as well as our year together as we seek to bear God’s kingdom in the world. Now for our benediction…
Go forth this day to do no harm; ”invested in the effort to bring healing instead of hurt; wholeness instead of division; and harmony with the ways of Jesus rather than with the ways of the world.” (From Rueben Job’s book Three Simple Rules 31)
