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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion January 1, 2008 The Golden Rule |
A daily |
Frontline Devotion for Tuesday, January 1, 2008 by Gary
Shaffer
Reprinted from June 16, 2005
“BE NICE! How would you like it if someone did that to you?” Familiar words. Heard often as I was growing up and spoken often since I’ve grown up. Words that form the bottom line of all ethical teaching, a basic truth – “What you do not wish to be done to you, do not do to anyone else.” Simple to understand it forms the basis of most of our law. This is a teaching that preceded Jesus as a part of Jewish, Greek and Roman writings. But Jesus said it differently, very differently. He took the basic teaching of ethics and made it the pinnacle of social ethics. The negative form is not particularly religious. It involves nothing more than not doing certain things. Jesus demands more.
There are some teachings of Jesus that are so familiar to me that I know they were among the first lessons that I was ever taught. At times they may be too familiar and consequently lose some of the impact they should have. And so it may be with “The Golden Rule”. It is possibly the most universally familiar thing that Jesus ever said. It was one of His most radically new teachings. Yet it can seem so basic, so familiar, so accepted, that it loses much of the challenge or power inherent in the words: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” That is how I learned it. The whole law summarized in a few very powerful words. To really follow what Jesus demands requires that a person has the love of Christ in their heart. Jesus does not say, “Do no one harm” but “You, do what is necessary to help another.”
In my years as a youth worker, I learned many lessons from the students I was supposed to be teaching. There is one lesson that I particularly remember and pray that I will never forget. Our junior high school was experiencing a very difficult situation where certain students were really being verbally abused and mistreated in the school. The students had become the victims of bullying at its ugliest. The school administrators, counselors and teachers had been frustrated in all attempts to change the attitude of the students, eliminate the bullying, remedy what had become a culture of “meanness”. They contacted the youth workers in the town’s churches and asked us for help. The junior high group at our church was quite large and very active. I agreed to try and develop a program that might help the situation. I don’t remember the program but I have never forgotten the conclusion.
The program built up to the following question: “Do you think it would make a difference in the school if those of you here were to go to school and treat all the other students with kindness and respect? Treat other kids like you want to be treated?” I was completely prepared to deal with the inevitable answer of “No, it really wouldn’t change anything.” I was prepared to challenge them to try it for the next week. To see if anything changed. I wasn’t prepared for the answer I got. A young man responded immediately, “Are you stupid? Of course it would. Just look around at who all is in the room. It would change everything.” Caught off guard, I looked at him and asked somewhat innocently, “So why don’t you do it?” He did not see it as an innocent question but as an accusatory response and answered quite angrily, “That’s unfair! Why don’t you adults act differently? That would certainly change things too.”
I had a close friend in college who used to say that the biggest problem with the church was that it was filled with people who would proclaim that “Jesus was Lord” and then live their lives like it made no difference. William Barclay ends his Daily Study Bible Series commentary on Matthew 7:12 with this thought, “…if the world was filled with people who sought to obey this rule, it would be a new world.” Oh what a difference we could make.
Prayer for the day: Heavenly Father please help me to become the person you would have me be and open my heart to the needs of those around me. Give me the courage, wisdom and strength to serve you this day. Amen.
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All are welcome to join and share in our Devotional Ministry on the "Frontlines" of the world. Frontline Devotions are sent via email daily. Sign up by clicking on the box to the left. Pastor Dave welcomes feedback. Contact him at pastordave@goodshepherdonline.org. |
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