LITMIR.BIZ

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being done?

      Rueben Job in Three Simple Rules tells us that these rules are simple but not easy. This first rule may seem the hardest of the three to follow; but it has clear benefits, not only to those we might harm but to ourselves. Job declares that in the middle of difficult situations "it often saved me from uttering a wrong word or considering a wrong response." This rule "can provide a safe place to stand while the hard and faithful work of discernment is done" (Three Simple Rules; p. 21). Job recommends this rule to groups engaged in conflict. Agreeing to this rule can change the climate of the conflict, keeping us from gossip, manipulation, and injury to the character of opponents. Following this rule can help us see our commonalities, reduce our fear of the other, and bring forth creativity and insight. However, following this rule can be quite challenging. It demands self-discipline and faith that God will lead us; and as Job writes, it demands "a radical trust in God's presence, power, wisdom, and guidance and a radical obedience to God's leadership" (p. 24). The rule makes further demands on us. It may take us places we'd rather not go, cause us to relinquish our power, and require us to entertain the thought that we may be wrong. Job assures us, "The good news is that we don't have to make this journey alone. There is always One who stands there with us" (p. 28).

      Reflect

      How do you respond to Job's understanding that the rule "do no harm" can provide a safe place to stand during the work of discernment? Why do you think the rule requires radical trust and obedience in God?

      John Wesley's General Rules

      When Wesley composed the General Rules for the societies, bands, and classes of the early Methodist movement, he listed some examples of harm to avoid.¹ Job describes them as sounding "quaint and dated" to our ears (Three Simple Rules; p. 17). Twenty-first-century Christians may be surprised at how many of these ways of doing harm have an economic dimension—working on Sunday, buying and selling on Sunday, slaveholding, not paying sales taxes, participating in usury (lending money at unlawful or exorbitant rates), wearing expensive clothing or jewelry, buying or selling distilled alcohol. Some of these are about harm done to our relationship with God and with other people, and some are about both.

      Wesley's list represents what he saw, and much of it was about harm to the poor. Using sources of knowledge available to him in the 18th century, Wesley looked for the root causes of poverty and saw that the shift from an agrarian economy to an industrial one was part of the problem. Britain had fenced off common land. Small farmers were getting poorer while the wealthy were getting richer from agriculture. Unskilled workers left the countryside in search of jobs in the city, sometimes to no avail. Households in the country suffered from lack of income while the increased number of unskilled workers in cities drove down wages. Some of these ways of doing harm were related to the indulgences and luxuries of the rich. Spending money on unnecessary items was a stewardship issue. Resources that could have helped the poor were often wasted by those who had money. The use of distilled alcohol and the number of horses owned by the wealthy were driving up the price of grain. Wesley saw these factors as robbing the poor.²

      Reflect

      If you were writing John Wesley's General Rules for doing no harm today, what would you put on the list?

      The Answers Depend on the Questions

      When we look at John Wesley's rule to do no harm, we may ask: what harm am I doing? We examine ourselves for ways we might hurt other people—gossiping, taking revenge on our enemies, undercutting a co-worker's efforts, starting rumors about people we don't like, or making someone else look bad. Of course, it is important to discipline ourselves to avoid doing harm; but we can also prevent harm by looking at the bigger picture. Instead of asking only "What harm am I doing?" we could begin with a more comprehensive set of questions. Who or what is being harmed? What harm is being done to them? Who, collectively, is doing it? Am I one of them? If so, what can I do to stop the harm?

      Reflect

      How do the questions in this paragraph affect your awareness of harm caused by groups or institutions? How might you unwittingly be part of the group?

      Of course, these questions work on the individual level. We may note that we are harming ourselves by not taking care of our health or not being good stewards of our resources. We may be harming our neighbors and coworkers by gossip and character defamation. We may be harming our families by neglect or poor communication. Once we identify the harm we do, we are empowered to be more vigilant not to do it.

      If John Wesley were living in the 21st century, I believe he would be reading widely, seeking to understand not only religion but also economics, sociology, globalization, science, medicine, international relations, arts, and literature. He would constantly be looking for connections among all these subjects in order to make sense of culture and the human condition, especially human suffering. He would want to know where harm is being done and what he and "the people called Methodists" could be doing to stop it.

      Wesley believed Christian discipleship was chiefly a matter of loving God and neighbor, a matter that could not be separated from seeing where and how the neighbor was being harmed. In Wesley's view, God is "the Proprietor" of creation and we human beings are stewards.³ Our bodies, our capacity to work, and indeed the created order belong to God; and God entrusted them to us. We may have used our energies and skills to buy property, but the property and the profit that comes from it belong to God. We are accountable to God for everything that is entrusted to us—talent, time, resources of nature, skills, and the tools of our trade.⁴

      A student once complained to me that she didn't like the written prayers in Sunday worship services. After all, they weren't about her. She didn't like the idea of confessing something that she didn't do. No one had ever taught her that the prayers of worship are the prayers of the Christian community or that the Lord's Prayer begins with "Our Father," not with "My Father," and that in it "we" pray for "our daily bread" and "we" ask that "our trespasses" be forgiven. We may have grown up in families or churches where sin was entirely individual. We were taught that as individuals we should not steal or lie or covet, but hardly anyone ever mentioned the sin of collections of people—corporations, institutions, and other groupings. That's why the questions about harm need to begin in a more comprehensive way that helps us to see the harm.

      When we open our eyes to the harm done, we see much—the hungry, the exploited, the jobless, the people who work for much less than a living wage, the children who lack health care, the sexually abused, the forgotten, the lost, the last, and the least. We see environmental harm— endangered species, careless use of nonrenewable resources, pollution, and global warming. And then when we ask who is doing this, if not directly, at least indirectly, we also need to ask: Are we in any way a part of that collective group; and if so, how can we stop the harm? Are we invested, either monetarily or emotionally, in efforts that cause harm? These are hard questions to ask, but if we don't ask them, we are missing the point of Christian discipleship.

      Reflect

      If you see yourself as part of the group or institution that might be causing harm, what changes could you make? How might you influence change in the group or institution to make changes that would reduce the harm being done?

      WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

      Do you remember preparing to get your driver's license? Maybe you had a little book to study to learn the rules of the road. Maybe you took a driving class in school. Either way, you learned a number of basic rules. When you first sat down behind the wheel of a car, you had to think about those rules; but after you gained some experience, they became "second nature" to you. Now you probably don't think about them much at all and if asked about their reason for being, you might look at the questioner in disbelief and say, "What do you think? They keep us from hurting and killing each other."

      Reflect on the Bible

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