“What We’re Shooting For”

(Romans 12:9-21)

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.  Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.  Rejoice in hope; be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.  Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.  Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.  Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty;  but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are.  Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.  If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.  Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”  No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.”  Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

            You know there are a lot of people around who claim they are living the Christian life.  Now I am not one who normally gets involved in deciding who is Christian and who is not.  Still, if we really take the apostle Paul seriously, it’s pretty clear that there are those who may not deserve to hold themselves up as Christian.  Not naming any names or pointing any fingers, but I think you know what I’m talking about.  And I am sure you know what Paul is talking about in today’s lesson. 

            What you heard in the first section of today’s reading is all about the way we build community, the way individual Christians and churches are to behave.  It’s pretty straightforward.  No surprises there. 

            Listen to it from Eugene Peterson’s translation: “Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it.  Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good.  Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.  Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame.  Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant.  Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder.  Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.”

            You know, we each could take one phrase of these words, carry it in our pockets for a day or a week, and it could change our outlook, maybe even our behavior.  Now, I know we are all essentially good people, but this is a way to go to a higher plane.  We could pray these words from an old hymn, “Lord, lift me up, and let me stand  by faith on Canaan’s tableland; A higher plane than I have found,  Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”

Paul is calling us to that higher ground here.  John Wesley speaks of this as “going on to perfection.”  Of course, we know we’ll never quite get there, but it’s always good to shoot for better.

This is, of course, in contrast to those who, for some reason, think they have bragging rights about character or about behavior because they do identify as Christian.

Now, to the next part, and I think this is what is a challenge to me and maybe to some of you.  This business of living peacefully with all is hard.  In my case it is so easy to love those who are hurting or who are being persecuted or who are looked down upon or who are grieving or who are not receiving the care and the help they deserve. 

…It’s much harder for me to live peacefully with those who differ from me in ways that are very important to me.  It’s harder for me to live peacefully with those who seem to be itching for a fight.  For example, I see organizations wanting to bring together folks with different views politically.  They want people with different viewpoints to come to the table to have a dialogue.  Now, this sounds really good in theory, but my experience with this is that those of us who come with an open heart and open mind get shouted down and called names and made to look like perpetrators of evil that we haven’t caused.  So, I’m really cautious with these sorts of opportunities—REALLY cautious.

            …I noticed the other day that OPEN-M is having a panel for their breakfast fund raiser and that our own Sylvia Trundle is the moderator.  God bless her.  Moderating anything these days can be fraught.  This event is called the “Open Your Heart Breakfast.”  With the subtitle of Envisioning a More Equitable and Sustainable Future for our Community. It looks like a really good event.   

I did not get the impression that this would be a controversial topic nor that there would be contention.  But, still, it is so important that we have these dialogues among our community leaders.  And really important that they are facilitated by people who are open-minded and open-hearted.

But back to my struggle that today’s text speaks to.  We’re told to live in harmony with one another.  “Sure,” I think, “I’ll be glad to live in harmony as soon as ‘they’ stop being hateful and disruptive.”  “Also,” I think, “THEY have told lies that have sucked regular people into their web of control.”  Oh, I could go on and on….

But then Paul tells us this, “Do not repay evil with evil.  Never avenge yourself because vengeance really does belong to God, not to us.”  Eugene Peterson’s Message translation says, “Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone ‘(that’s a tough one).’  If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody.  Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do.  ‘I’ll do the judging,’ says God.  ‘I’ll take care of it.’”

Finally, let’s look at that last chunk of scripture. I don’t really want to spend much time on the thought that “doing good stuff just heaps burning coals upon the heads” of those enemies we have been trying to do good things for.  You’ve heard the expression “killing them with kindness.”  I think that’s kind of what’s happening here, but it’s misleading and perhaps a misuse of a verse from Proverbs. 

So let’s try it Peterson’s way in The Message.  “Our scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he’s thirsty, get him a drink.  Your generosity will surprise him with goodness.  Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.”

Now, this sounds a lot like Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.  Listen to this from Matthew chapter 5: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes the sun shine on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?  Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others?  Do not even the Gentiles do the same?  Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

So, we’re back to that perfect thing, are we?  Well, we’re never going to be perfect, but we are going to be pulled up short when we think that we are the more “righteous” group and can rest on our laurels in our goodness. 

I admit that I went through a period when I was so angry because of the politics in our nation, that I could barely see straight.  Now, I don’t think that I was wrong in my thinking about the state of things in our nation, but I came to discover that that anger was having a great influence on my speech and in my demeanor and in the way that I was perceiving the world and those with whom I disagree.

So, through prayer and conversation, and some external changes that took place, I mostly got through that dark period, but it is always good to go back to the scripture lesson from today to ground myself and to humble myself, to be honest about who I am and who I need to be as a follower of Jesus.

To be clear, Jesus did not mince words when it came to calling out evil and malice, nor should we.  But he also called us to a higher moral ground.  We are still called to love in a way that rises above an eye for an eye, that calls us to feed all God’s children, even our enemies, that challenges us to a love that is genuine, not colored by partisanship.

Now, all that said, the hate crime killings that happened in Jacksonville, Florida this past week were absolutely despicable.  That man was targeting African-Americans pure and simple.  The language and the rhetoric that this very sick person utilized in his social media was that of people who are hunting to kill a group of people.  We cannot minimize the damage that these hate groups are doing to non-white people in our nation, to Jews and to Muslims.  We cannot look the other way.  Let’s not pretend that it’s nothing to be concerned about.  Our brothers and sisters of color are being hunted. 

As Christians we are called in every way possible to stand up for love, to love from the center of who we are, to not fake it and pretend that we are followers of Jesus if, for even a moment, we are motivated by hate.  We need to hold on for dear life to good and run for dear life away from evil.  It is our everyday task to find beauty in everyone we meet, to call out the good in whomever we see.  And we must stand up for what is right, for justice, for the good—and we know what is right, what is just, what is good, don’t we? 

Our challenge is to hold these realities at the same time: always stand up for what is right and good and, at the same time, find, deep in our hearts, God’s love for everyone we meet.  Amen.         

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