Pastor Scott Jonas
Romans 12:9-13
September 3, 2017
September 3, 2017
When I attended a public college in California, God led me to a Christian Fraternity. Most fraternities were started by Christians but over decades they have slipped away from the faith. They are shells of their former self. Alpha Gamma Omega, on the other hand, was a true Christian community. We were thirty guys from every denomination Baptist, Catholic, greek orthodox, Presbyterian and me the token Lutheran. I experienced real brotherhood in Christ. We lived together, worshipped together, laughed together and studied God’s word together. My brothers in Christ, stood next to me at my wedding to Ann, consoled me when I tore my knee ligament, encouraged me to go into churchwork and exhorted me when I messed up. One of the requirements of joining the fraternity was memorizing and presenting Romans 12, our text for today. I have a special place in my heart for this chapter. Our Lord hands it to us as a gift.
Romans 12 verses 9-13 “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit,[g] serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.”
When you hear those words from God, how do you react? Let love be genuine. Abhor evil. Cling to good, Love one another. Out due one another. Don’t be lazy. Serve. Rejoice. Pray. Contribute. If we hear these words as the hammer of the Law then we cringe. Not all of my love is genuine. Sometimes I will like a story on twitter just because so I appear to care. I will nod when someone recalls a national tragedy but I don’t do anything about it. Resisting evil is hard too. It’s much easier to just ignore it or let someone else do the heavy lifting. Look at Jeremiah. He abhorred evil and it became a full time calling. Who has the time? Loving others is exhausting. I can be lazy. How can I constantly be in prayer and get anything done? I know I don’t contribute enough. I can’t live up to these verses. Can you?
It’s like Peter in our Gospel reading. He wants to do the right thing. Jesus says that he must die and Peter says “never Lord.” He was probably thinking he would get a “Thanks Peter”, that’s really sweet of you. Instead Jesus says “Get behind me Satan.” Peter fails to live up to expectations again.
But Paul does not want us to despair. He is not giving us the Law so to drive us to the Gospel. He does not want us to read these words without context. He has carefully prepared the church to understand these words with the 11 chapters that proceed it.
In His letter to the Romans, Paul starts with the rebelliousness of humankind. Men and women have been going against God’s design for humanity from the beginning. This has led to a broken world, a torn apart community. But Jesus Christ is bringing together the world through his work on the cross. His life, death and resurrection is bringing peace to his creation. It is bringing people together bit by bit. The order of things has changed. We are no longer a slave to the Law. Instead we belong to the Spirit. The Love of God is so powerful that it can reorder the universe. The Lord has showed his restoration plan through Jesus. The plan includes uniting Jews and Gentiles, men and women, old and young. Jesus is bringing True community.
In Romans 12:1, Paul says, “I appeal to you therefore brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God.” Everything that comes after those words are to be put into that framework. The mercies of God. The Gospel. The Cross.
The rest of Romans is not to be read solely as Law. Do this. Don’t do that. Though that is a part of it. Instead, Paul is painting a picture of true community. Imagine a community with genuine love. Not people pretending to love but real love. People aren’t acting a way because it is expected. There is no hypocrisy. Everything comes from the heart. Imagine a community that hates the devil and all his works and all his ways but clings to beautiful things like baptism, family, friendship and love. Imagine a community where you can see and feel the affection of the group. People hug. They call when they know that someone is sad. They laugh easily and often. Imagine a community where they compete to honor each other. People standing at doors saying “After you, no after you.” Fighting over who gets to invite the new person over for dinner. The old honoring the young and the young honoring the old.
Imagine a community that is full of passion. People get emotional because they care so much about Jesus and His church. People cry when a member leaves. People get upset when they see injustice. This moves them to serve the Lord and make things better. Imagine a community that rejoices in hope. They are thrilled at what the future holds because God is good. He has a plan to restore all things and they get to be a part of it. They know the story ends perfectly but their part is a mystery day by day. Makes it dramatic. Imagine a community that was patient in tribulation. They expected the world to be broken. They were ready for Hurricanes that killed, Politicians who lied and church family who let them down. Jesus warned them ahead of time. It is normal but won’t last forever. Imagine a community that constantly at prayer. That’s impossible for one person but as a team someone was talking to God. And when they weren’t praying, the Spirit was praying on their behalf and the Father’s ears were open.
Paul is saying imagine a community in which people consistently ask “What can I do to help?” People are ready to unload a moving van or pull out their check book if someone in the group is in need. Imagine a community where you always have a place to sleep even if you dont know the person. Imagine. Put the last two paragraphs to John Lennon’s Imagine and I would like that song.
Paul is painting this picture of True community in the church. With humans this picture will not be completed. We cannot do this on our own. But Jesus Christ is creating this picture. He is making it happen. Everything good in this church is from God. It is not from us. These words are a lot like Paul’s 13th chapter to the Corinthians. Love is patient. Love is kind. Here he only uses three words as well. The Love Genuine. The Agape Genuine. No verb. It is not an imperitive, so it’s not a command. Love Genuine.
Joel Osteen is a pastor in Houston. Maybe you’ve heard of him. He has written best sellers like “Youre Best Life Now.” He reportedly has a net worth of $50 million. He pastors a congregation of 20,000. It is so large that they worship in an arena where the Houston Rockets used to play. Many questioned Osteen’s decision to not make his church a refuge for Harvey victims. His church has this great facility outside of Houston that could house temporary homeless but he declined. Many outside the church are accusing Osteen of hypocrisy. The church is supposed to be a community that cares about hurting people but they turned their back. They let furniture stores and shopping malls provide hospitality instead. People are really good at sniffing out hypocrisy. We intuitively know that love is sincere. True community is without hypocrisy.
The situation actually makes me take a look at myself. If St. Louis was flooded would we open our doors to stranded people? Would we welcome dirty, wet strangers to sleep in our sanctuary. Would we adjust worship in order to save people? I will not pile on Joel Osteen. Instead I will say, “Brother, God is recreating the world in his image. It is beautiful. Be a part of it.”
Sometimes God’s law is meant to be prophetic. He is saying that he will accomplish what he is asking us to do. For example, look at the Ten Commandments. You shall have no other gods before me. We can read that as God sternly looking at us, waging his finger and saying “You better not have any other Gods but me!” But there is another way of looking at it. You shall have no other gods before me is also a prediction. There will come a day when you will have no other gods but me. I will destroy the puny gods. There will only be me, my people and creation. All of it will be restored. God is making that happen and when he returns we will have no other gods forever. So too, God is forming us into a True community. One day it will be complete. There will be no hypocrisy, evil, laziness or tribulation. It will be wiped away along with every tear. Jesus will sign his painting and it will be complete.
This is also an aspirational picture. We see it and want to be a part of it. Maybe you’ve seen aspirational pictures on facebook. A line of men, women that extends for blocks in Houston. They look excited and ready to reach the front. Are they waiting for food? Water? A place to sleep? No. They are waiting to volunteer. Did you see that picture? It motivates you to want to get in that line. Or the picture of teenagers driving their boat to search for stranded people. I wish I got to have an adventure like that. I want to be on that boat. Or the picture of the man carrying the woman and her baby. That brings me to tears. I want to be a part of that community that is saving people. Don’t you?