Love Boldly
Love Boldly
July 5, 2026
By: Marlys McCurdy
As I was pondering this sermon, I was thinking of using the parable of the good Samaritan as my main theme. Then I spent three rather long days at annual conference, listened to bishop Cedric preach on loving boldly and experienced the moving last Sunday of Mike preaching. This is what came out of this amalgamation of thoughts.
Prayer – lord may the meditations of my heart and words of my mouth be acceptable in thy sight.
The council of bishops met last fall and expanded the vision of the methodist church.
The Mission—The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Book of Discipline
Renewed vision statement 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.
Lovely words, but what do they mean to us here in Pocatello Idaho, inside of each one our lives and those around us
Today the world is fraught with pain and suffering. Every where you look you see contention and anger. We have wars ongoing everywhere. We have conflict in our life continually and it wears us down.
Jesus and the council of bishops are calling us to love boldly…..daily………here and now. There’s a tall order for us
God loves us so we can love each other. In John 13:34-35, Jesus says love one another as I have loved you. Another tall order
Christ didn’t hesitate to love boldly. His love wasn’t necessarily sweet and tender. He was bold, breaking rules and upsetting laws that had stood for centuries. He healed, even on Sundays, he forgave continuously, he called us to DO something!
He dined with tax collectors and the lowliest of the low.
Sing Zachias was a wee little man…
Zachias was a tax collector. One of the hated ones in society of the day. He made life hard for everyone, imposing the taxes of the government on every family and household in the land. Yet Jesus went to his house and dined with him. I’m sure Jesus touched and influenced Zachias. I am sure Zachias came away with a good hefty dose of the holy spirit that day. I also imagine that Jesus dining with a tax collector was not lost on the crowd that day. Neither was it lost on his disciples.
Jesus recognized the humanity of all men and women, and though we are flawed -declared it good.
He fed the poor, restored the sick and injured, welcomed children to come to him, taught us endless stories and parables to expand the understanding within our souls of what it means to love boldly.
Let’s explore one:
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Who is my neighbor?? Somedays this question is easy. It’s the guy next door, the person you live with, the people of your church community. All of us.
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
What was that experience really like?
Let’s go back to Judea sometime in the first century. Take a deep breath, Close your eyes, get comfortable and let your mind travel with me.
It is unbearably hot. You were just travelling this well-known road. You didn’t fear walking alone. You’ve walked this road many times.
The sun is scorching you. It is hot on your skin. It burns! They took your clothes.
You are thirsty. You can taste the dust in your throat in your mouth..
You are injured and bleeding. You just want to close your eyes and sleep. To give up.
The thieves left you beaten and discarded on the road. You HURT. (feel his pain)
You cannot seem to get up! Please someone HELP ME. Here comes someone…
They walk by
Here comes someone else… They walk by.
Someone is coming again. It is a Samaritan. He won’t stop for me. I am a Jew.
Wait he’s stopping! Praise God
We know from the parable that the Samaritan not only treated the man’s wounds. He anointed him with oil, gave his food and water and loaded him up on the Samaritan’s horse or donkey. Opinions vary. He takes him to an Inn and pays for his care, leaving money with the innkeeper. He returns later to pay the additional bill.
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
The Samaritan was loving boldly.
What would you have done? Would you have passed by, called 911, reached out and helped him as the Samaritan did?
Bishop Cedric Bridgeforth preached on Loving Boldly at Conference. I am going to share some his thoughts with you.
I always find Bishop Cedric so inspiring. He is a very dynamic and insightful speaker. He has had an interesting life and shared with us when he felt the call to ordained ministry. He was attending a church in South Los Angeles. The church did what they could for the street people – food, clothing, help with their houselessness. That church was loving boldly and investing in their neighbors.
And the street people returned the favor by protecting cars in the parking lot during church activities. Every day they met Bishop Cedric at the bus stop and walked him through their neighborhood to the church to protect him. They did this daily, month after month. One day the crowd of escorts was particularly excited almost frantic when he stepped off the bus.
He wondered what drugs they had taken that day. It was that type of neighborhood. But he went with it as they walked him to a flop house where he found a woman near death. They had brought him there to serve communion to her. They called him pastor and told the woman, Linda, that he was there to visit with her and serve her communion because she needed it. This was the moment that the Bishop realized he was called to ordained ministry. Loving Boldly in the South Los Angeles poverty-ridden neighborhood set him on a path that eventually led him to us!
So, Bishop Cedric loved boldly even before his call happened. He understood about loving boldly and loving his neighbors.
Back to the parable
The expert in the law knew that the merciful Samaritan was the one that Jesus saw as doing the right thing.
Jesus spoke of loving neighbors as He loved us. The Expert asked “who is my neighbor”.
That is a big question. Is it just your church congregation, just your friends and relatives, just your neighborhood neighbors?
In scripture Jesus says ‘truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”
Bishop Cedric called the roll “Whether we know them or not, we must protect the orphans, the widows, the immigrants… the strangers, the misfits, the rebels, the renegades, the dreamers, the free thinkers, the early adapters, the innovators, the motivators, the resisters, the midwives. And all those who put themselves on the line to serve and to care for others.
Loving boldly will enlighten , even lighten you, when they say you’re too young, too old, too big, too small, too dark, too light, too smart, too woke, too gay too Christian, or just too much!!!”
He also warned us that it wouldn’t necessarily be easy. But this is what we are called to do.
Here is a suggested list I found online on one of the church’s sites.
· The mom checking our behind you in the grocery store.
· The man walking down the road as you drive by.
· The child giggling next to you in the movie theater.
· The woman sitting across from you in the hospital waiting room.
· The man on your TV sharing the news from states away.
· The father behind you in the school pick-up line.
· The child living in Poverty on the other side of the world.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all paid more attention to the people and needs around us. We can all be Love ambassadors! The Council of Bishops of the UMC invites us to “reclaim a deeper identity.”
I’m quoting from an article published by Discipleship Ministries entitled: Love Boldly: The First Step Toward Discipleship That Transforms.
“Jesus’ love wasn’t necessarily sweet and gentle. It was Bold. His love disrupted systems, crossed boundaries, and healed wounds other wouldn’t touch. He restored people to themselves, to their communities and to wholeness. He ate with sinners and tax collectors, stood with the lost and forgotten, and refused to meet violence with more violence.”
They say that landing is sermon is the hardest part>
I’m going to share Bishop Cedric’s landing
“What if every disciple of Jesus Christ actually showed up loving boldly? Yes. What if every minister of the gospel preached loving boldly and then followed it up by living that out? What is every person here became a love ambassador. What would happen in the world?
We are the ones called to love boldly. We are the ones who need to show up and feed those who are hungry. We are the ones who are to give a drink to those who are thirsty. We are the ones who are to give a room to those who are on the street. We are the ones to give clothes to those who are shivering and naked. We are the ones to tend the sick. We are the ones to go the the prisons.”
So my message to you is LOVE BOLDLY
Amen