August 10, 2025
Sermon Title: Love Boldly
Scriptures: Matthew 22:37-39 & John 13:34-35
Most people don’t know that I have worn glasses since the third grade. The reason people don’t realize this is because I have worn contacts since about 7th grade. But in honor of “Back to School Sunday” and starting our new series a “New Vision,” I have decided to wear my glasses today. I’m pretty sure this is my first time ever preaching in glasses.
I’ll admit, I was never good at wearing my glasses. When I was in elementary school, I would often forget to wear them and have trouble seeing the board in school. And I didn’t really like to wear them because I’d look outside my glasses, and I’d get a headache from my eyes going from looking out of my glasses to looking through my glasses. So I have never liked wearing glasses. But then I got contacts, and it didn’t matter where I turned my eyes, I was able to see.
A few months back, the Bishops of the United Methodist Church announced a new vision statement. And a vision statement is like glasses or contacts; it helps to guide us so that we can see what we are doing. Sometimes in our mission and ministry we might lose sight of our vision, our eyes might stray outside like my eyes looking outside of my glasses. But the vision, like glasses or contacts, is to keep us on track. The vision reminds us of why we are doing what we are doing.
So here is the new vision statement of the United Methodist Church:
“The United Methodist Church forms disciples of Jesus Christ who, empowered by the Holy Spirit love boldly, serve joyfully, and lead courageously in local communities and worldwide connections.”
So first, we are forming disciples of Jesus Christ. We are working to make people who follow Jesus Christ, and think and act more like Jesus Christ every day of their lives.
This year as I was Back to School Shopping, one of the items on the list was playdough. And just like children shape and form playdough into all sorts of objects, we are being shaped and formed into disciples of Jesus Christ.
As we are celebrating children this morning for “Back to School Sunday”, I want us to be asking, how are we forming disciples of Jesus Christ? Specifically, children, but also adults. How are we as Tomoka UMC forming disciples of Jesus Christ? Through the hymns, through the Sunday School Lessons, through the sermon, through the scripture reading, through our various missions and ministries, how are we helping people to become more and more like Jesus Christ?
And then, the vision statement tells us these disciples of Jesus Christ are empowered by the Holy Spirit. I have to tell you, I’m so thankful for the Holy Spirit. I’m so glad that when I get up hear and lead worship, or lead a meeting, or meet with someone, it’s not through my own strength or own power, its through the power of the Holy Spirit.
And what is the Holy Spirit empowering us to do? Many things. But for the purpose of this vision statement, the Holy Spirit is empowering us to love boldly, serve joyfully, and lead courageously in our local communities and worldwide connections.
These next 3 weeks we’re going to focus on a different part of the vision statement. Today we’re focusing on the part about “loving boldly.”
The Bishops of the UMC also put together verses in scripture that helped them to come up with this vision. So the scripture for today is what the bishops listed for what it means to “love boldly.” All of the scriptures the next 3 weeks are the scriptures the bishops listed along with the various parts of the vision statement.
Today’s scripture I’m guessing is familiar to most of us. It’s probably a favorite for many of us. Its 2 separate places in scripture where Jesus commands us to love others.
School is starting tomorrow here in Volusia County and I’m guessing that in every grade level K-12, classroom rules will be discussed in one shape or another. If we remember back to school, we can probably remember some rules like, “raise your hand to speak,” or you need a hall pass to go to other areas of the school, or last year when Ellie started kindergarten, I learned that the kids can’t wear open toe shoes.
Even outside of school, we have rules in our workplaces. Maybe something as simple as be on time, clock in and out, turn in a timesheet. Here at church, we have rules around child protection.
And while we may not like the idea of rules, rules help to guide us and lead us. And in today’s scripture, Jesus is giving us a simple rule, or a commandment. Jesus is giving us the rule of love.
My all-time favorite Christmas Song is “O Holy Night;” you might even hear me sing it around Christmas time. And for some reason, all my favorite lines in that song come from the third verse. And one of my favorite lines in that verse is “his law is love, and his Gospel is peace.”
His law is love. God’s rules, God’s laws, God’s commandments can all be summed up in one commandment: the commandment to love.
We heard two scriptures this morning. One from the gospel of Matthew, and the second from the Gospel of John.
In the scripture from Matthew, Jesus is being questioned by the Pharisees. They are trying to trap him and make him not look good. They ask him what the greatest law is.
And Jesus responds with today’s scripture. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Basically, love God with all that you are. And, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
We are to love God with all that we are, and we are to love our neighbors in the same way that we love ourselves.
Now our second scripture that we heard today has a very different context, but the same message. This isn’t Pharisees trying to trick or trap Jesus. This isn’t Jesus trying to think quick on his feet. This is actually the night before Jesus will die on the cross for us. He knows it’s his last night with his disciples. He has just gotten done washing their feet. And like anyone who knows they don’t have much time left with someone, Jesus wants to give them important holy words, and he gives them these words.
Jesus says, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Jesus doesn’t just say we should love one another. Jesus commands us to love one another. He gives us a mandate to love one another. And it’s how others can tell that we are true disciples of Jesus Christ is the way by which we love one another.
This specific scripture is why during Holy Week, we call the Thursday of Holy Week, Maundy Thursday, because Maundy comes from the Latin word for Mandate. And here in today’s scripture, Jesus has given his disciples a mandate. A mandate to love.
So these are the verses that inspired the Bishops to tell us to “love boldly.” Not just because its nice and sounds good, but because Jesus himself commanded us to love one another.
But what I especially like about the new UMC Vision Statement is that it doesn’t just say “love.” It says to “love boldly.”
If you read the church newsletter, or the bulletin, or even a printed version of my sermon, you will see some things typed in bold print. And what do we do that? Why does anyone put anything in bold? It’s to make something stand out right? It’s to get our attention. So, to me, loving boldly means loving in a way that stands out. It means loving in a way that gets people’s attention. It means loving in a way that is different from the rest of the world.
While I’m not Roman Catholic, I very much admired many of things Pope Francis did, and I’m looking forward to seeing what Pope Leo does as well. But one of the things that always stood out to me was how Pope Francis would wash people’s feet on Maundy Thursday. He would not just preach this command, this rule, this mandate to love. He would live it out.
During his time as Pope, Pope Francis washed the feet of both men and women, refugees, disabled, prisoners, you name it. And in 2024 he washed the feet of all female prisoners. This was believed to be the first time he washed only women’s feet.
What a beautiful image of loving boldly.
When you think about the opposite of love, the word that probably comes to mind is hate. You might even picture violence or wars. In our world today you might picture Israel and Palestine hating one another, or Ukraine and Russia, or even here in our own country you might picture Democrats and Republicans hating one another.
I learned this week that there is an organization called “Musalaha” which according to their website is “a faith-based organization that teaches, trains and facilitates reconciliation mainly between Israelis and Palestinians from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds, and also international groups, based on biblical principles of reconciliation.” They have programs for women, youth, young adults, and children. And they work to bring reconciliation especially between Israelis and Palestinians.
Think about that, many of these people groups have hated one another for as long as they can remember. And they are working together toward reconciliation through various programs. If loving your literal enemy is not “loving boldly,” I don’t know what is.
Now this might be an extreme example of “loving boldly.” Teaching reconciliation between groups of people who have been at war with one another. But what would it look like in your life to “love boldly?” Maybe in your personal life it means forgiving someone who has hurt you deeply. Maybe it means asking forgiveness because you have realized you have hurt someone deeply. Maybe it means simply buying extra school supplies for your neighbor or friend who can’t afford them this year. Maybe loving boldly means having a conversation over dinner, not through social media posts with someone who thinks, acts, and even votes differently from the way you do.
What would it look like in the life of this church, Tomoka UMC to love boldly? I think one way we can see this morning that we are loving boldly is through the school supplies collected and the underwear and shorts collected for our local schools. I think we’re loving boldly through praying over our students and teachers who will be going back to school tomorrow. I think we’re loving boldly through Dinner Church and our many various missions here at Tomoka.
How are you loving boldly? How can we continue as a church to work on loving boldly?
Now whether you wear glasses, or you prefer contacts like me, or you were just blessed with twenty-twenty perfect vision, I encourage us all to put on this New Vision of the UMC like we would put on a new pair of glasses or a new pair of contacts. I want this vision to lead and direct how we make decisions, and how we decide what is a priority to us as a church.
Everything we do should be asking the question, how are we loving boldly, how are we serving joyfully, and how are we leading courageously?
Next week will focus on what it means to serve joyfully.
But for today and this week, I encourage you to sit with the idea of loving boldly. What does this look like in your personal life? And what does this look like in the life of our church?
May we keep Jesus’s commands to love God and love others. And love in a way that stands out and is different from the ways of the world. May we as a church love boldly. May we love in a way that grabs others attention.
Amen