BLOCK IT AWAY – DO NO HARM
Third John 9–11
LUKE 6: 27-37
OCTOBER 11, 2026 – WESLY SERMON SERIES
I know better than to ask this church family what the two essential Commandments of God are … God has issued them and Jesus has taught them with such clarity that anyone who has ever opened their personal copy of this book knows them.
There are clear directives in Scripture about these Two Commandments on which all other laws and commandments stand; we heard the words of Jesus Christ this morning the ongoing message of love commands for people like us. Love and living a life that welcomes others; we should be living a life that shares love with strangers; living a life as taught by John Wesley, the Anglican priest who along with his brother Charles, and influential men of faith like George Whitfield, and Frances Asbury founders of the Methodism movement who energized the reality of God’s Social Gospel establishing hospitals, orphanages, soup kitchens and schools that followed the teaching of Jesus to both spread the Gospel and serve all people. Concepts that some in our world of politics would be quick to condemn … sharing what we have with others … loving every human … feeding the hungry, caring for the poor … well you can read Matthew 25 for more.
When I started this series on the roots of Methodism I began with the reminder to DO GOOD. A reminder that I find on my wristband honoring Megan … “Be a difference maker … share hugs like Megan.” But directly tied into that simple lesson from John Wesley is another, which if we seriously consider ourselves to be aligned with Christ and value worshipping the God of Creation a truth that we should hold true in our hearts. It is perhaps more difficult to accept and follow because the world we live in urges us to counter it … it is simply DO NO HARM.
In the same way that the Wesleyan teaching to DO GOOD is an activist phrase so too is the teaching to DO NO HARM. As United Methodists, we have established Social Principles rooted in this concept that comes from Scripture. When the Lord God spoke to the Prophet Micah who had asked, “With what should I approach the Lord and bow down before God on high?” God replied, “I have told you human one, what is good and what does the Lord require from you: to do justice, embrace faithful love of all, and walk humbly with your God.”
Doing justice means doing what we can with our lives to block harm away from others … to do good not to sit back and be spectators watching the world’s show go by while allowing strangers or even those we know to be harmed. Jesus in today’s Gospel lesson went so far as to teach us, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you … if someone takes your coat, don’t withhold your shirt either” and then the real reminder coming from Jesus Christ … our Lord … our Master … the essence of why we are Christians, “If you love those who love you, why should you be commended? Even sinners do that. Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate.” So those unnamed humans … we see out there in the world … Jesus commands us to love them too; to feed them and clothe them; and PROTECT them.
DO GOOD … DO NO HARM … when I went to the service of Holy Communion this past Wednesday … I found this sheet as I entered the chapel and the Scripture lessons were another reminder. How often do you pick up Scripture … your Bibles … to get reminders. I knew I was preaching on DO NO HARM today and right here in the First Lesson from James … “You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to anger for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness … be doers of the Word and not merely hearers … being not hearers who forget but doers who act they will be blessed in their doing.” The second lesson began … “Whoever leads a blameless life and DOES WHAT IS RIGHT who speaks truth from his heart there is no guile upon his tongue he does no evil to his friend … he does not heap contempt on his neighbor.”
DO GOOD … DO NO HARM
You do know that there are many humans in this world who embrace doing harm to others. Some use violence … but more commonly it is words that do the most damage. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but hurtful words destroy human beings.
The picture you are seeing is of a young man named Alex. As you look at this young man, I again want to remind you that faith involves trusting God rather than aligning with humanity’s pressures. Jesus in Luke’s Gospel talks about giving up one’s possessions if one chooses to follow Jesus and what He meant was that faith calls on us to embrace God … to carefully listen to Jesus’ teaching … to trust God’s call to DO GOOD, LOVE ALL of our NEIGHBORS, and to DO JUSTICE.
I have never met Alex but I see his posts on FACEBOOK. It is obvious that Alex has a developmental disability. It is clear that he can read and he can write and he absolutely loves his Buffalo Sabres’ hockey team. In all of Alex’s innocence, he posts photos of himself with Sabres players, he writes about Sabres’ players, and some Sabres’ players have even chosen to follow Alex’s Instagram and Facebook accounts, which Alex then shares in joy with the social media world. Alex takes selfies with Sabres’ players and has lots of current and past Sabres’ players autographs. He reminds me of Megan … who loved her Phillies and her Eagles … shhh no reporting of scores this morning.
A few weeks ago … on his Facebook page as he celebrated getting a selfie with two players three individuals decided to mock Alex with vicious words … they wrote curse words attacking him all because in his sweet innocent way of life impacted by an obvious disability … Alex was sharing joy. Who knows why some joined in the attack after seeing the first one, but I know Alex read those attacks … I know Alex was hurt by the attacks … and anyone who chuckled or giggled with junior high bully mentalities damaged this kind young adult … they were doing HARM. The good news is that many individuals joined me in writing supportive statements saying how much we enjoy his posts and photos but the hurt was already there … sticks and stones may break my bones but hurtful words destroy human beings. His mother has posted online pleading for the hate and mocking language to stop sharing that Alex is disabled.
What if you saw a man who looks like this? Would you mock him? Call him names? Laugh at his physical disability? His name is Serge Kov-a-leski. His work has earned him a Pulitzer Prize. He suffers from arthro-gry-posis … a condition causing a severe joint contracture of his right arm … and millions have mocked him for what ails him. Perhaps some of you did … DO GOOD … DO NO HARM
I want you to look at Alex again because this morning I looked at Alex’s post not knowing what would happen to him last night nor what he’d write this morning. A stranger and his family invited Alex to the Sabres’ hockey game last night. Alex was so excited and he posted about getting a ticket that he and his family could not afford. At the game, apparently as a joke, someone called security on Alex claiming he was causing a disturbance. Sometimes those with disabilities are loud and don’t look like the rest of us or maybe it was someone who chose to curse at Alex online getting their giggles. After security determined Alex was just a fan … he returned to his seat with the family who had brought him to the game but late last night Alex wrote these words … “I’m trying to enjoy my peace and life with the Sabres and this won’t end … it’s killing me!!!” Three exclamation marks.
And, on Tuesday I had lunch with 30 high school classmates. One woman who had not come to any of our past reunions asked me, “Do you know what happened to that guy with the heart condition and acne?” Perhaps she was feeling guilt because most of us at least once or twice had mocked Jimmy Roland … thin, acne, unable to do anything physical, with an odd voice, lonely … teenagers … junior high bullies loved pushing him around … I know what happened … Jimmy committed suicide in his early twenties.
DO GOOD … DO NO HARM
John Wesley tried to incorporate Jesus’ teaching into the essential elements for this Methodist Movement. In his journal he wrote, “Keep close to every means of grace. Strive to walk in all the ordinances and commandments of God. Add to your faith kindness and to kindness charity.” In reflecting on Jesus’ answer to the lawyer who asked about what one must do to receive eternal life when Jesus then told the story of the Good Samaritan … Wesley writes, “to continue on the way of salvation, that is living in harmony with God, we should begin by doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind, especially that which I is most generally practiced.” We need to be on guard … on guard to ensure all of our actions including the action of silence will not add harm to another one of God’s children or any part of God’s creation. If we aren’t willing to do that, we are complicit in causing harm, which contradicts the teaching of Jesus Christ.
I admit that is a huge step for many … even though in our baptism vows we affirm to renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness and reject the evil powers of this world.
On August 14th 1936 … Rainey Bethea died in Owensboro Kentucky. He died in front of approximately 20,000 humans who came to cheer on the execution … the hanging … of a black man. Refreshments were sold … a spectacle created … it was like a circus … come watch us kill a man. I bet they would have streamed the killing live if they could have. 18 months late Kentucky outlawed public executions there was one more in 1937 Roscoe Jackson, a black man hung in Galena Missouri and that was the last public execution in these United States … until now.
145 nations of the world have abolished the death penalty for all crimes and earlier this year Lebanon passed legislation joining them THOU SHALT NOT KILL SAYS THE LORD … only 17 nations such as Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, Vietnam, Yemen, Pakistan, Singapore, and the United States are still killing their citizens who have committed crimes some of whom may have been innocent as proven by so many reversals of execution here in America.
Our United Methodist Social Principles, rooted in the teachings of Jesus Christ, state our unequivocal opposition to capital punishment and the principles of this church urge the complete removal of capital punishment from all criminal codes in our nation and anywhere in the world.
The fact that our Secretary of War who insisted on changing his title from Secretary of Defense to Secretary of War wants to live stream the shooting of a criminal who will be seated in his wheelchair since he is unable to even stand is an EVIL ACT … it brings great harm and we all know that there are some parents in this nation who will bring out the popcorn and sit the kids down in front of the TV screen to watch soldiers of our nation trained to fight our enemies ordered to take aim and fire bullets into this man, a criminal, who will then bleed out over the arms of his wheelchair for all to see.
Humans throughout the world … whose nations have banned executions will witness a new low for this nation … we will join with Al Queda whose evil leaders filmed executions of good humans … with Iran who uses truck mounted cranes as gallows for all to see … with the Taliban who execute humans in sports arenas. We will be showcasing it on live … will actually on death TV … wonder if there will be an instant replay or slow motion added for extra effect to teach us all a lesson.
I was asked if I’d preach about the Cornell fraternity cover up … but all I wanted to do was share the Wesleyan connection to the teaching of Jesus Christ … DO NO HARM … DO GOOD … and instead I am broken down by the world we live in. LORD HAVE MERCY … And, Jesus said … “Whoever believes in me believes in Him who sent me. I have come as light into the world so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in darkness. I have come to save the world.” AMEN