“Love Boldly, Serve Joyfully, Lead Courageously”based on Isaiah 1:1, 10-20

The radicalness of our ancient Jewish ancestors in faith was that they came to understand their God as a God who cared about how people treated each other. This was a faith revolution in its time and place in the world. Surrounding nations believed in gods and goddesses who were fundamentally self-serving and needed to be cajoled and bribed to care about people. Our ancestors in faith came to know and understand a God whose care about people is foundational, immutable, and unchanging.

God’s steadfast love endures forever. That’s how they described God, that’s the faith that has been handed down to us over many generations. We know and connect with God whose steadfast love endures forever, whose fundamental nature is love, who assesses how the people are doing by how they’re caring for the vulnerable.

According to the prophet Isaiah, the people were not doing well. They were engaging in the acts and rituals of prayer and worship, the things intended to help them connect with God and God’s ways, but they did so without following the most basic facet of God’s wishes: caring for the vulnerable.

God accuses them of praying with the blood of the vulnerable on their hands.

And then asks them to wash their hands and try again, “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove your evil deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil;

learn to do good; seek justice; rescue the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow.” (Isaiah 1:16-17) This God whose nature is love, whose care is for people, is really quite radical. Not only does God care and love, God’s care and love isn’t centered on the king, it is centered on the vulnerable.

I remain so grateful for those who listened well enough to God’s voice to differentiate what they expected to hear from what God was actually saying! And all of those since then who have affirmed the importance of knowing a God of love.

In 2008 The United Methodist Church updated it’s mission statement. The original one, passed in 2000 was “To make disciples of Jesus Christ.” In 2008 a second phrase was added, “To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” I’ve been grateful for the addition, as I believe the point of connecting with Jesus and God is increasing the capacity to love the world into fullness.

We all see, every day, examples of injustice and wrongness and extreme examples of the sorts of things God was mad about in Isaiah 1. The world is in need of serious transformation. Most recently The United Methodist Church’s Council of Bishops added a vision statement to complement our mission statement. I admit to a healthy amount of skepticism about how much things like that matter, but it turns out I like it.

The new vision states: 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.1 Now, it is too wordy. But the keys are “love boldly, serve joyfully, and lead courageously,” which is explained this way:

• Love Boldly: Passionately love God and, like Jesus, embrace and include people of every age, nation, race, gender and walk of life.2
• Serve Joyfully: With a Christ-like heart, journey alongside the most vulnerable, offering care and compassion with joy.3
• Lead Courageously: Follow Jesus’ example by resisting and dismantling all systems of evil, injustice, and oppression, striving for peace, justice and reconciliation.4

It seems to me that the guidance of the Holy Spirit that helped people hear the radical nature of God’s love in ancient times is still working among us and prodding us forward. These are words about caring for the vulnerable, taking notice of who the modern “widows, orphans, and foreigners” are today. (Sometimes they are widows, orphans, and foreigners even today.) These are words calling us together to do the real work of God – LOVING. Even better, they feel like words we need right now, because loving with God’s love today does take a lot of courage and one of the best ways to have courage and maintain love is to use the resilience given to us by joy!

Isaiah tells us God wants us to “learn to do good; seek justice; rescue the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow.” The Council of Bishops says we can do that by loving boldly, serving joyfully, and leading courageously.

Thanks be to God for being the God whose Steadfast Love Endures forever. And, thanks be to God for the chance to be in a church-at-large – a denomination – who is working together for good. Amen

1https://www.umcjustice.org/latest/the-united-methodist-church-unveils-new-guiding-vision-statement-5983

2Inspired by Matthew 22:37-39 and John 13:34-35

3Inspired by Psalm 100:1, Nehemiah 8:10, John 13:14-15 and 1 Peter 4:10

4 Inspired by Joshua 1:9 and Ephesians 6:10)

Rev. Sara E. Baron 
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady 
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305 
Pronouns: she/her/hers 
http://fumcschenectady.org/ 
https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

August 10, 2025