Stay Connected to God
Three Rules for Life
By Ed Winkler
Text: Mark
[28] And one of the scribes came up and
heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well,
asked (Jesus), "Which commandment is the first of all?" [29] Jesus answered, "The first
is, `Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; [30] and you shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and
with all your strength.' [31]
The second is this, `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no
other commandment greater than these." [32] And the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher; you
have truly said that he is one, and there is no other but he; [33] and to love him with all the
heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love
one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and
sacrifices." [34] And when
Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from
the
This is the third and final message in the series, “Rules
for Life.” These rules are based on John Wesley’s three General Rules for the
Methodist societies. Wesley’s rules are
1. Do no harm.
2. Do good.
3. Attend to the
ordinances of God, or as I put it, stay connected to God.
What Wesley meant by the ordinances of God are those
practices that keep us connected to God. They are practices that help us live
in harmony with God. Sometimes, we call those practices, “spiritual
disciplines.” Regardless of what we call them, they are the practices that help
us meet God and remember God’s care for us.
I’m going to briefly describe some practices or disciplines
that will help us stay connected to God. All except one of these practices are
straight from John Wesley. I’m sure that Wesley would approve of the other
practice, even if he didn’t call it an ordinance.
The first practice that keeps us connected to God is
worship. Worship is sacred to Christians. Worship is what we do as Christians.
If we do nothing else, we worship God. When I say worship, I mean worshiping
God with other Christians. Walking through the woods has its spiritual value,
but it isn’t worship. Admiring the beauty of God’s creation has its spiritual
value, but it isn’t worship. We worship in a group with other Christians.
Christians don’t have to have an ordained pastor to worship; Christians don’t
have to have a building to worship; but Christians do have to have a
congregation to worship. I’ll admit the possibility, but I’ve never known
anyone who could keep up any kind of worship life alone. Even monks, who only
speak when absolutely necessary, worship together. The most important hour of the
week is our time together worshiping God.
Our worship together is important because it puts God first.
That may seem obvious, but the fact is that very little in our culture
encourages us to put God first. We live in a time that pushes us to put ourselves
first, last, and foremost. When we come together in God’s name, read the Word
of God, and sing hymns to God, it reminds us that the world is not about us.
Worship reminds us who we are. We are God’s creatures, put here for God’s
reasons. Sometimes, that’s a life-changing discovery.
Worship feeds us. We are fed spiritually when we hear the
Bible read and explained, when we sing hymns that
teach us and inspire us, when we see the visual symbols of the faith, and when
we worship with others who are also pilgrims on a spiritual journey. Worship
prepares us for the outside world. Coming here on Sundays is sort of like
retreating from the world for an hour or so every week and getting a breather.
Now that we’ve gotten our breath back, we’re ready for the joys and battles of
the outside world.
People say all the time that they didn’t feel like coming to
church, but after being here, they feel much better. Sometimes, it’s singing a
familiar hymn; sometimes, it’s learning a new hymn; sometimes, it’s hearing the
choir sing; sometimes, it’s hearing an old, familiar Bible story; sometimes,
it’s being with friends; and sometimes, it’s the message touches people.
Different elements of worship touch different people. That’s why we do
different things in a worship service. For some people, the message is a waste
of time, but the hymns speak to them. For other people, the hymns are just
marking time until the message. If we come with an open heart and mind,
something in worship will almost always speak to us.
There is a requirement about worship, however. Worship
really only works when we make it a habit. It really takes worshiping every
week to make a difference in our lives. Worshiping once in awhile, like
Christmas and Easter, seldom changes our lives. Worship is sort of like
medicine. There are certain medicines that only work after you’ve taken them
for awhile. Doctors call it “reaching the therapeutic level.” Worship has a
therapeutic level. One Sunday may make us feel good, but it takes many Sundays
to change a life. Worship is our number one way of staying connected to God. If
we aren’t worshiping, it’s impossible to stay connected to God.
Wesley told his 18th century Methodists to
partake in the Lord’s Supper as often as possible, and he usually took
communion five or six times a week. It’s hard for Christians sometimes to
explain why communion is meaningful, but the faces of people when they receive
the bread and the juice tell us that it touches something deep inside them. In
technical terms, we talk about the real presence of Christ. That is, Christ is
present with us as we eat the bread and drink the juice. We don’t believe that
the bread is anything other than bread and the juice is still juice, but we
somehow sense that Christ is with us as we cup our hands to receive the bread.
Communion is not just a symbol for us; Christ is here and blesses us.
Years ago, Nina and I belonged to a large, urban church. One
year, there was an exchange student from
A third way we stay connected to God is through prayer.
Prayer is a time to talk to and to listen to God—what more connection can there
be than that? Yet prayer is one of the most problematic parts of our faith.
Prayer is the most commonly requested topic when I’m asked to give
presentations. It seems that we’re all trying to improve our prayer lives. I
have a shelf of books on prayer and still feel like a beginner.
Here are a few things I’ve learned about prayer. It’s OK to
ask God for what we want. Jesus tells us to do that. Sometimes, people say: “I
don’t want to pray for myself” or “my problems aren’t big enough to bother God
with.” Says who? It’s OK to ask God for what we want. God can sort it out. God
will not be overloaded. Prayer should also be about listening. Frankly, here’s
where I flunk because it’s hard for me to quiet my mind enough to be still and
listen. But listening is as much a part of prayer as asking. And our prayers
don’t have to be original. John Wesley and many Christian saints used written
prayers. There are a lot of good prayer books that can lead us through prayer.
As a professional pray-er, some of
Jesus’ words hit home to me. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told his
disciples not to be like the hypocrites who stand and pray in the synagogues,
but to go into their rooms and pray in secret. That seems to me to be a key to
prayer: it’s about being alone with God—being connected with God. It’s not
about the words. It’s not about the show. Prayer is a way that we stay
connected to God.
Wesley urged his followers to take part in family and group
Bible study. The Bible is our record of what God has revealed to humanity. It’s
not always easy to read, but people who engage in serious Bible study
invariably find it fascinating and, well, fun. The best way to study the Bible
is in a group. In a group, we can help each other learn. We fortunately have
four adult Sunday school classes, a weekly Bible study on Thursday nights, and
classes for children and youth. We’re planning an intense 34 week Bible study
called “Disciple” this fall. There is a Bible study for everyone.
This comes with a warning: seriously studying the Bible will
change your life. It’s impossible to read the Bible without God speaking to us.
When God speaks to us, changes are about to happen.
The last of Wesley’s ordinances is one that most modern
people don’t like to hear about. Wesley recommended fasting for Methodists.
Wesley himself didn’t eat anything from sun up to sun down on Wednesdays and
Fridays. Here is a shocking, but true, fact: it is possible to live without
food for a few hours. I don’t do it regularly, but I have fasted and I’m still
alive and kicking and obviously not wasting away.
Here’s something I did that was worthwhile. Each member of a
covenant group to which I belonged fasted for a meal and then took the money we
would have spent on that meal and gave it to a fund or organization that would
help the hungry. The fast helped me understand what it is like to be hungry.
Plus I used the time for Bible study. If giving up food sounds too difficult,
try this: fast from TV for an hour a week and use that time to study, pray, or
be in service to others. Fasting can truly help us stay connected to God.
It’s not one of Wesley’s ordinances, but I’m sure that
Wesley would agree that serving others is also a way of staying connected to
God. Today’s scripture reading reminds us that loving our neighbors is part of
loving God. Jesus told his disciples to see him in the faces of the poor, the
hungry, the thirsty, the naked, and the imprisoned. Service to others helps us
stay connected to God.
One of our bishops calls this last rule, “Stay in love with
God.” The fact is that sometimes it’s hard to stay in love with God. Even the
most faithful of us is likely to feel God’s absence in times of loss or
frustration. It’s easy to wonder where God is when we’ve been betrayed. But we
can stay connected to God through these spiritual practices even if we’re not
always feeling in love with God.
Everyone who has been married for more than a few months
knows that we don’t always feel passionately in love with our partners. Love is
not always intense. But we keep marriages going by staying connected, by not
giving up. When
These practices, these ordinances, are more than just a list
of things to do. They also tell us how much God wants to be connected to us.
God wants to be connected with us so much that God is present at our worship
and in our communion. God wants to be connected with us so much that God listens
to our prayers and speaks to us. God wants to be connected with us so much that
God revealed God’s self to us in scripture and in the faces of those in need.
God loves us so much that God cares about us and wants to be connected to us.
To stay connected to God, worship, even when you’d rather be
somewhere else. To stay connected to God, take communion, knowing that Christ
is here with us. To stay connected to God, pray, confident that God will answer
in the best way. To stay connected to God, read the Bible, even if it’s
sometimes hard to understand. To stay connected to God, fast, knowing that we
can live without what we give up. To stay connected to God, serve others
because we know that we see Christ in the faces of the least, the last, the
lost, and the lonely. To stay connected to God is to be part of God’s kingdom,
doing God’s work. It is a connection we will never regret.
© 2008 by Ed Winkler