Mount Sterling First United Methodist Church
Love Without Borders

  • Hearing God: Listening in a Noisy World

    Last week I asked if you ever had a problem praying to God, knowing what to say, what to think, what or who to pray for. Prayer is our ultimate deep relationship with God, so it is the best way that we can individually and collectively mature and deepen our connection with God. This week we will discuss how to hear God in a very noisy world.
    Hearing God means we are actively listening and in-tune with God’s voice, God’s prompting, God’s encouragement, God’s motivation, and God’s Spirit. Listening is an intentional act of inviting an outside force into your mind that will offer new information, new data, that could possibly change who you are, confirm who you are, and encourage your present day walk.
    Think through your life and how so much has changed, yet one force that has change, and yet remained, is the noise of life. When you are younger, you have the noise of your ever developing body, your parents/guardians, grandparents, siblings, extended family, friends from the neighborhood, friends from school, rules of school, rules of home, rules of the community you live, and the list goes on and on.
    When you get older your noise changes into adult responsibilities. You have the noise of paying bills, the noise of fixing things that are broken, the noise of family, employment, government, neighborhood, other people’s opinions, and the list goes on and on.
    In your retirement the noise changes again but is still present. You now have noises much like when you were younger and your body is doing things that you’ve never experienced before and you may not like it. You also have the noise of hoping you will have enough money to live on, wanting to be available to have fun, desiring to be with family, more medical appointments than you desire, traveling to new places, and the noise of silence as you see more friends start to leave you one by one.

    God speaks in many ways

    In all of noise of life, in every stage of your life, God still speaks. When you’re younger God speaks in a way that is relevant to a youthful age, in your busy adult years God is speaking above, in between, and beneath the cracks of life, in your maturing years of retirement God is speaking in the silence, the mundane, the unwanted, the joy, and the freedom that this life stage provides. God is always speaking but does so in many different ways so that every age and every culture will be able to hear, and hopefully listen.
    So, in the noise of your life, in whatever stage you are in, how does God speak to you? As a United Methodist Christian how does God speak to you? Looking upon our United Methodist heritage, God is said to speak to us through Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and Experience.
    God’s voice is heard through scripture as it is a collection of 66+ books/letters/poems/songs that were constructed to evidence God engaging in relationship with humanity throughout many millennia. Scripture is one of our ultimate guides for reflection of religious interaction with a holy God and humanity on the onward and upward holiness progression of love. Mark Twain said,
    Most people are bothered by those passages in Scripture which they cannot understand; but as for me, I always noticed that the passages in Scripture which trouble me most are those which I do understand.
    Mark Twain
    For non-Christians scripture can still speak to their existence but other religious or humanistic writings may play a larger role, this is to be expected but for us United Methodist Christians, scripture is still essential in our overall understanding of how God can speak through the generations.
    Tradition is another way God can speak to us. Tradition in the USA in 2024 is going to be different than Tradition in Rome in 1200 or Babylon in 300BC. God will speak through the present day culture in a way that is significant, symbolic, while emphasizing God’s holiness and illuminating human understanding through the ever-present and moving Spirit. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said,
    We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden.
    Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
    Traditions can come and go depending on the nature of what is needed and necessary for the people, at the time. Some Traditions can also last too long where no one understands why we do this specific act anymore. Traditions can also be good and deepen a prayerful relationship with God. God definitely speaks through the ritualistic acts that we, as a people, choose to do.
    Reason proclaims the active and ongoing knowledge that humans gain over time. You may have heard the phrase before, “we don’t check our brains at the door of the church”, this should be true of every church that you enter. If something simply does not make sense and new knowledge or data on a certain topic proves otherwise, especially if it speaks against a traditional interpretation of scripture, then reason should be highly considered as more relevant. Francis Bacon said,
    A little philosophy inclines men’s minds to atheism, but depth in philosophy brings men’s minds about to religion.
    —Francis Bacon
    Francis Bacon (Philosopher)
    God speaks through education as we learn more about this world, we do learn more about God and can learn to hear God’s voice in new and exciting ways. Reason is good so don’t easily cast it away when you may not fully understand something new.
    Experience is not new but was an addition from Wesley to the people called Methodists. Wesley added experience to the 3-fold Scripture, Tradition, and Reason from the Church of England. Experience is the active voice of the Holy Spirit in the daily life events, activities, and ever evolving culture of humanity. Humanity must listen to God through experiencing life for the maintenance of old relationships and the establishment of new relationships all consists of new and maturing experiences of life. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said,
    We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.
    Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
    God definitely speaks through experiences that are new, frightening, uncomfortable, and confirming.
    Tradition, Reason, and Experience all speak to Scripture, as Scripture also speaks to Tradition, Reason, and Experience. God throughout time has spoken when there was no Scripture, no Tradition, and very limited Reason and Experience.

    The Role of Discernment

    This bring us to discernment. We all have the ability to perceive or recognize differences to judge what is right and wrong, good and evil, the voice of God and the will of humanity. Unfortunately, we’ve all come across people who who have very little discernment. There is a quote from an unknown author that says:
    ​
    Little [people] with little minds and little imaginations go through life in little ruts, smugly resisting all changes which would jar their little worlds.
    Unknown
    In other words, there are some people who simply do not have any common sense to see life with another person’s vision or walk through this world in another person’s shoes. In our 1Kings scripture reading , we have the story of Elijah running for his life after the prophets of Baal were killed. Elijah proclaimed God’s word, held to his cultural traditions, reasoned with his real life circumstances, and experienced God anew in a relational conversation. The bookend of this experience was God questioning Elijah, “Why are you here?” God spoke with Elijah to confirm who he was, confirm his prophetic action, confirm that throughout all the noise around him that God is not in the noise of the world. God is ultimately received and heard in the thin, quiet moments of reflection, discernment, and interpretation while journeying in all the noise of this crazy world. Catherine of Siena said,
    The core of pride is impatience and its offshoot is the lack of any discernment.
    Saint Catherine of Siena
    Discerning God’s voice, while in the noisy moments of life, help us to do what the Psalmist invites the readers on multiple occasions-SELAH, to pause, to sit, to reflect, and then act. When one has a prayer life whose foundation is built upon divine discernment then you will have a pray-er who intentionally seeks God’s will as God’s ambassador not the world’s warrior. When we take time to discern we then will be able to hear the voice of God. John 10.27 says
    John 10:27 CEB
    My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me.
    In the stillness of life we are able to be attentive to the voice of our Savior, to hear, to listen, and then to follow.

    God desires genuine relationships

    The busyness of life can be so noisy that we, at times, choose to deny God the relationship of his desire. That relationship is to give and receive love with you. The God/human relationship is one of intimacy in prayer, intimacy in action, intimacy in private, and intimacy in public. God never stops pursuing you for there is not an end point to a relationship. In prayer we continue to communicate with God and time with God is needed especially when the world’s noise can be too distracting. Thomas Schreiner says,
    Love for God cannot be sustained without a relationship with him, and such a relationship is nurtured by prayer.
    Thomas Schreiner
    A deeply held prayer life does not have to be one that is outlandish where you are always the person asked to pray in public settings; don’ worry that is always reserved for the pastor, even if the pastor don’t want to do it. A deeply held prayer life can also be very subtle. A deeply held prayer life can be very private. A deeply held prayer life is true prayer. R.T. France says,
    True prayer is not a technique nor a performance, but a relationship.
    R. T. France
    A true relationship with God must have true prayer from the believer or the seeker of the divine. Prayer enters one into the presence of God. Prayer strengthens the relationship with God. Prayer emboldens the faith of the believer in a noisy world. When you are soaked in prayer then you are transformed into your prayers. Warren Wiersbe says,
    Prayer is not something that I do; prayer is something that I am.
    Warren W. Wiersbe
    As we continue to develop our prayerful skills, we develop our listening skills, which develop our divine loving skills. A prayerful heart that listens to and connects with God is an act of love. Saint Augustine said,
    What you love you worship; true prayer, real prayer, is nothing but loving: what you love, that you pray to.
    Saint Augustine of Hippo
    As we pray to that which we love, our words and our actions will unite together as one. Our relationship with God will grow, the deafening noise of the world will extinguish, the words from our tongue will be praise, and people will see a prayerful life of love in action. So whether we are asleep or awake a life of prayer will guide us and help us to hear God more. John Wesley said,
    The moment I awaked, ‘Jesus, Master,’ was in my heart and in my mouth; and I found all my strength lay in keeping my eye fixed upon Him, and my soul waiting on Him continually.
    John Wesley (Founder of the Methodist Movement)

    Silent Reflection and Mindfulness

    As we enter into a new week, I encourage you to take time in silent reflection and mindfully focus upon God in prayer. Last week I invited you to pray the open-hearted disciples prayer. This week I invite you to say a prayer that has been said for many generations, The Jesus Prayer.
    Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner
    Amen.
  • In Christ There Is No East Or West
  • We Are Called

      • Luke 10:25–37CEB

      • Galatians 3:26–28CEB

  • There’s something deeply subversive about love that refuses to stop at borders. Borders, after all, are meant to divide—this side versus that side, us versus them, citizen versus foreigner, safe versus dangerous, good versus bad. Borders mark where rights begin and end, where obligations change, and where some lives are deemed more valuable than others.
    The gospel doesn’t draw maps like that. The gospel doesn’t patrol the edges of belonging. The gospel doesn’t need passports or pedigree. The gospel, in its truest form, erases dividing lines. Real, Christ-like, cruciform love crosses every single one of them.
    We’re continuing our work as ambassadors this month, not ambassadors of a nation, but ambassadors of the Kingdom of God. The kingdom we represent knows no borders. The realm of Christ’s love is bigger than race, class, citizenship, language, sexuality, gender, theology, denomination, or even religion. This vision is not just idealistic; it is deeply rooted in Scripture. It is the pattern Jesus lived. It is the calling the Spirit places on our lives. So let’s begin where Jesus does: with a question.*
    The Question Behind the Question
    A legal expert—a theologian, really—comes to Jesus with a familiar question:
    “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
    Now, this was not a hostile question. It was a test, yes, but not necessarily a trap. This man wants to know the boundaries. He wants to know what qualifies someone for life in God’s realm. In response, Jesus redirects the question: “What does the law say?”. The man answers correctly: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus affirms him: “Do this, and you will live. But the man isn’t satisfied. He wants clarity. He wants a border. “Who is my neighbor?”
    This is more than an academic inquiry. It’s a question of limitation. It’s as if he’s saying, “Okay, Jesus, but surely I’m not supposed to love everyone. Surely there are some people who don’t qualify as ‘neighbor.’” This is when Jesus tells a story that shatters every cultural and religious boundary of his time.*
    The Samaritan Scandal
    We often call it “The Good Samaritan,” but to Jesus’ Jewish audience, that phrase would’ve sounded like a contradiction in terms. The hostility between Jews and Samaritans was long-standing and deeply rooted in centuries of political, theological, historical, and ethnic tension. To suggest a Samaritan as a moral example would’ve been offensive, even inflammatory. Jesus is not concerned with preserving social comfort. His focus is dismantling artificial divisions. 
    A man is assaulted, attacked, beaten, stripped, and left for dead on the side of the road. A priest approaches and sees him but passes by. A Levite sees him and does the same. Then a Samaritan, an outsider, a heretic, a racial and religious enemy sees the man and is “moved with compassion.”
    This Samaritan does more than feel pity. He stops. He kneels. He treats the wounds. He lifts the man onto his own animal. He walks beside him. He pays for the lodging. He promises to return and settle the debt.
    He crosses every line: social, religious, national, economic, and physical. Jesus ends the story with a reversal: “Which of these three was a neighbor to the man?” The answer, from the legal expert: “The one who showed mercy.” Jesus says, “Go and do likewise.”
    It’s not about who qualifies as your neighbor. It’s about whether you are being a neighbor. The border, Jesus reveals, isn’t around the other person. The border is around your own heart. The gospel call obliterates it.*
    A Kingdom Without Categories
    Paul reinforces this vision in Galatians 3:28 when he writes: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” This isn’t about erasing identity. Paul isn’t calling for colorblindness, tribal syncretism, or promoting a generic gender uniformity. He’s making a radical claim: that in Christ, the systems that divide us no longer define us or determine our worth.
    In the Roman Empire, those categories were destiny. Your ethnicity, your social class, your gender, all of it determined your value, your rights, your dignity. Paul insists that the gospel breaks those bonds. The cross disarms those systems. The resurrection redefines who we are and how we belong.
    You don’t have to become someone else to belong in God’s family. You don’t have to erase your story to be part of Christ’s story. The community of Christ does not require assimilation. You don’t need citizenship papers to enter the Kingdom. You are already beloved. You are already included. You are already neighbor. Anyone—any church, any leader, any movement—that tries to rebuild what Christ tore down is not preaching the gospel. They’re stepping away from the gospel and preaching empire.*
    Love That Crosses Modern Borders
    I can’t be more clear when I say that nationalism is too small a frame to contain God’s love. We live in a world obsessed with borders. Immigration debates rage while children die in detention centers. Churches fly national flags in sanctuaries meant to worship the one true God of all nations while forgetting that sacred space belongs to God alone. Legislation is proposed to protect “Christian values” while denying resources to refugees, immigrants, and those seeking asylum.
    This is not the gospel. This is the empire in a clerical collar. God’s love doesn’t check passports and it’s not limited by documentation. The Kingdom of God has no ICE agents. The Kingdom of God has no racial quota. The Kingdom of God has no ID checkpoints, no voter ID suppression, no “go back to your country” rhetoric. The Kingdom of God welcomes. Period.
    To embody that Kingdom means we love across borders by welcoming immigrants in our communities, not just with handouts but with handshakes, hugs, meals, and hospitality. The kingdom ethic advocates for the undocumented and the displaced, not labeling them as criminals but as Christ-bearers. When we confront racism in our own institutions, workplaces, and family tables, we refuse to let comfort silence truth. When we create churches where LGBTQ+ siblings are not just tolerated, but fully embraced as image-bearers of God, they will finally be seen as full participants in the life of the Church. When we refuse to let theology become an excuse for cruelty, we will experience true worship and the destruction of trauma producing events. When we love our Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, and atheist neighbors not as “evangelism projects,” but as sacred lives, we will demonstrate how wide and open the table of the Lord truly is.
    The Samaritan had no reason to help that man on the road. Compassion gave him a reason to stop. Compassion is the true citizenship of the Kingdom of God.*
    Empathy as Kingdom Practice
    If the Kingdom has no borders, then empathy becomes the passport. The Samaritan “was moved with compassion.” He didn’t just feel bad. He didn’t say, “thoughts and prayers, thoughts and prayers” He actually closed the distance and moved toward the pain. He engaged. He bled with the bleeding. He paid the cost.
    Empathy, my friends, is not weakness. Empathy is holy defiance and sacred resistance. In a world that trains us to harden our hearts, empathy is reaches out. In a culture that says, “Protect your own,” empathy says, “Who is left out?” In a society that teaches fear, empathy takes a risk and leans in with mercy.
    Church, we are the body of Christ, we are not border patrol agents for the gospel. We are first responders to pain. We are cupbearers of compassion. We are ambassadors of mercy. That means we don’t wait for permission to love. We don’t ask if someone is “worthy” before we help. We don’t scan for theology before we show kindness. We don’t build fences around grace.
    The Samaritan did not say, “I wonder if this man shares my doctrine.” He simply saw a fellow human in pain and acted accordingly. That’s our ethic. That’s our mandate. That’s what it means to be in Christ because this is the call of Christ.*
    From Mt. Sterling to the Margins
    This work is not theoretical. It is local. It is tangible. It starts in Mt. Sterling. It starts in your neighborhood. It starts in your local schools. It starts in your family.
    There are people in our own communities who feel like outsiders, I’m sure of it. Over the decades, they’ve been told by churches that they don’t belong, maybe our own church participated in this rhetoric. They’re too poor, too different, too liberal, too conservative, too divorced, too gay, too Black, too immigrant, too loud, too broken, too wounded, too complicated, and the list goes on.
    The gospel compels us to draw near, not to defend boundaries but to dissolve them. Where there are dividing lines, we show up with communion tables. Where there are walls, we carry ladders of grace. Where there is “othering,” we speak belonging. Where there is policy of exclusion, we embody welcome. Where there is violence, we show mercy. Where there is fear, we testify to love. Christ did not die to protect our preferences. Christ died to give evidence to our becoming while showing us all the possibilities to unify as one. Now we are the ones sent out to go and do likewise.*
    The Ambassadors of the Borderless God
    We are ambassadors of a borderless God. Not borderless in truth but borderless in love. God’s love is not indiscriminate; it is radically inclusive. God’s love doesn’t flatten identity; it uplifts dignity. God’s love doesn’t erase history; it redeems it. God’s love doesn’t protect power; it pours itself out. God’s love crosses every boundary and calls us to follow.
    As ambassadors of the gospel of Jesus Christ, you are not sent to maintain the borders of the church. You were not sent to gatekeep the gospel. You were not sent to protect human created traditions. You were not sent to represent a denomination or a doctrine or a national identity. You were not called to fight for religious supremacy. 
    You were sent, like the Samaritan, to show mercy. You were sent, like Paul, to proclaim unity. You were sent, like Jesus, to cross the borders that others built and to love without limits and without fear.
    So, my fellow disciples of Jesus, what kind of neighbors will we be? Will we love beyond our comfort? Will we welcome beyond our borders? Will we testify to the radical, reckless, reconciling love of Christ?
    Let us not be found asking, “Who is my neighbor?” Let us be found loving, so boldly, that no one ever has to ask. Amen.
Mount Sterling First United Methodist Church
sterlingfirstumc@yahoo.com
(740) 869-3577
http://www.sterlingfumc.com
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