Western North Carolina Conference | Aug. 6, 2-26
Scripture Reading: Matthew 22:34-40
The calling we undertake in the present moment is to represent our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And if we are to express that calling in the present moment, we will find ourselves engaged in two actions.
We will love boldly.
And we will serve joyfully.
To love boldly is to love my neighbor, to love the stranger, to love your enemy. It is to love without the expectation of receiving love in return.
In this way love is not a transaction. It is not conditional. In this way love is transformational. It is the gift of the greatest resource you have, your time, all of your time, in order to be a sign of God's love wherever you are, in a small town, in a large city, in a hospital or school or mission field.
Love is sometimes contrasted with law. Jesus was asked a question by a lawyer, and he spoke not about laws but about love.
To love is the first and greatest commandment of Jesus. To love is to bear the first fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Law is transactional. You will gain certain rights through being licensed, commissioned, or ordained. This is the church law, the Book of Discipline.
Love is transformational. You are making promises, undertaking vows, placing yourself under the authority of others, the laity in your local churches, a superintendent, a bishop.
And people will be under your authority. Do not use the role from a human point of view. This is the flesh. This is the law. Allow the fruit of the Holy Spirit to change you. To love boldly is to bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
This is not a transaction. This is transformation.
A transformation I hope for you is that you will come to love the people you serve. This will be a risk that you take. It is a question that many people ask about the pastor who comes to serve among them. Does this pastor love us?
Now two important words about love. First, love does not harm, love does not violate. Ministry is a sacred task, and those we serve have sacred worth. Second, love sometimes requires that we say the hard thing. Love is not telling people what they want to hear. That is not love.
The prophets loved the people. That is why they could say and do hard things. And this is one of the ways love can become bold.
I want you to know about the ministry of Derry Barnhardt, who was a local pastor in this conference, and has gone on to be with the Lord.
Derry joined our pastoral team during my years in Winston-Salem. He had previously served in Lexington, and what I want to share happened there.
Derry came to be the pastor of a church in Lexington. One of their members, he quickly learned, was in prison, two hours away, serving time for murder. Derry began to visit the young man every week, on Saturday, a four-hour round trip drive. Derry was a good shepherd. He loved his people. And they began to love Derry.
After more than a year of these visits, another resident of the prison was overheard to confess to the murder of which the young man in Lexington was being held. And the member of the church was released.
The church rejoiced, the prodigal son was returning home, they threw a feast. And Derry's ministry was celebrated. You might think that was the end of the story, but it was not.
Derry received a letter from the inmate who had committed the murder, whose name was Rickie Lee Sanderson. He wrote to Derry, "Would you come and visit me?"
And so, Derry made the trip to the prison. He knew the way. And he continued, week after week, Saturday after Saturday. He was a good shepherd. Did the church celebrate what Derry was doing? Not quite. Over time Rickie Lee came to love Derry, and to know that God loved him, through Derry. That's transformation. He asked if Derry would be present at his execution. Derry was present. He asked if Derry would preside at his burial. Derry did preside.
This is loving boldly. It involves risk, and energy, and stretching the boundaries of who God loves. Rickie Lee Sanderson could not do anything for Derry, other than make his life more complicated. Not a transaction. A transformation.
Now, can we get theological just for a moment?
Imagine that you and I are Rickie Lee Sanderson, and we are imprisoned in some way, by sin or addiction or the way we have been traumatized or the harm we have done to someone, and imagine that Jesus came to find us in those places.
He descended into hell.
Jesus does find us in those places and asks us to die to something, so that we might live. It begins when we know that someone loves us.
Jesus loves me. This I know.
For the Bible tells me so.
And that is bold love.
While we were yet sinners Christ died for us. When we love boldly there is a transformation. This changes the one who loves and the ones who are loved. And in God's economy it is never clear who is loving and who is being loved.
It is a relationship. Love is the greatest commandment, love of God, love of neighbor. Love is the fulfillment, the completion of the law, Jesus did for us what we could not do in the law. Law is easy, love is hard. When we love our enemies it will be misunderstood or criticized. When we love out loud it will be accused of being political.
I had the privilege last winter of walking one day with William Barber in eastern North Carolina. Early in the morning he said to a few of us, "today we have to convince people that we love them, even people who do not agree with us."
Today, how are we being called to convince people that we love them? How are we being called to love boldly?
(This reflection is taken from Bishop Carter's sermon on the Ordering of Ministry at the Western NC Annual Conference, Lake Junaluksa, June 20, 2026.)