Romans 12:9-21
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Pastor
There are certain things or events
that naturally follow other things or events.
If there is fire, naturally there will be smoke. If a tree falls in a forest, there is a loud
crash. You hear a knock on your door or
the phone rings, you go answer it. There
are certain things or events that naturally or commonly follow other things or
events.
Of course
that's not always a good thing, is it? You
miss a nail and hit your finger instead, an intense pain naturally
follows. You slip on the ice, gravity naturally takes you to the ground. Certain things or events naturally or
commonly follow other things or events. True also in our interactions with others. Maybe you get cut off by an erratic driver,
you curse at them. Your neighbor does
something that irritates you or even intentionally hurts you - well you hurt
them back. In happens all the time in our
dog eat dog world. Someone hurts someone
else or rubs them the wrong way and conflict ensues - the other party strikes
back - with words, with expressions, with actions - all aimed at "getting
even" or "protecting my rights" or "letting them know I'm
not going to take it." Our natural
instinct is to answer enmity with enmity, unkindness with unkindness. Revenge. Retaliation. It's as old as the hills, it's as old as sin
because it is a form of sin - it's the way the world operates.
Actually I
think most retaliation or striking back are just attempts to make ourselves
look better for whatever reason. It
seems that we have really come to be a "gotcha" culture. We just wait for our opponents to slip up so
we can say "gotcha" - show how inferior they are to us and how
superior we are to them. Now I'm not
saying we don't confront error - at least when and where it matters or when and
where it is our place to. I mean
certainly for example as members of the body of Christ, we are each called to
watch out for and to refute false teaching or to call our fellow Christians to
repentance when we see they are caught in sin - more on that one next week. Parents are called to offer correction to
their children. A school teacher's job
involves correcting their pupils. Police
officers and judges are appointed to punish those who break our laws. The President and congress are there to order
the military to defend our nation from attacks.
So there are certainly people whose job or position requires them to
maintain order, to judge, to punish, to retaliate.
But so much
of the conflict that goes on in our lives seems to be at best argument for the
sake of arguments sake or, at worst, vain and prideful attempts to make
ourselves look better and the one we disagree with to look worse. That's the culture we live in - that's what
comes naturally.
And so in
the midst of this culture - this conflict ridden culture - St. Paul's words for
us this morning from Holy Scripture - Romans, chapter 12 - should really cause
us to stop and to think. It should
strike us as a bit odd - unnatural even.
For in this reading,
That's a
different way, isn't it? Different from what
naturally follows, different from the ways of the world. "Bless those who persecute you; … do not
curse; do not repay evil for evil. … Do not take revenge" but leave it up
to God. That's different - that's
unnatural. …
But of course as those who have been
baptized into the name of God - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, we
know that God's ways are not the world's ways.
We know that God tends to operate in ways that a sinful fallen world
would consider to be … unnatural.
I mean
consider Jesus. I mean if there was anyone
who had excuse to lash out at His enemies, to hate, to seek revenge upon his
persecutors, it was Jesus. As the innocent
Son of God, He had done no wrong. Yet He
was treated very wrongly. Mocked. Beaten. Whipped. Declared a heretic deserving of death. The Author of life tortured and murdered by
being nailed to a tree. … An injustice of injustices. …
But why? I mean why should
He have to put up with it? Why not call
the 12 legions of angels to come and squash those coming to arrest Him? Why not allow His disciples to fight with
their swords to stop His oppressors? Why
stand silent before Pilate, the one man who could have released Him? …
It wasn't what He was sent to do, was
it? It wasn't His job at the time to
refute or to seek revenge. No rather His
job was to pray for His persecutors and enemies. His job was to bless them - to win
forgiveness for them. He was sent to die
for - His enemies. "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." …
Elsewhere in the book of
Probably don't tend think of yourself as God's enemy. I mean God's a God of love, right? But, by nature any way, apart from faith in
Christ, that is what we are - enemies of God - objects of His wrath. I mean by nature, we want God out of our life
- or at least make Him play by our rules.
Kind of like Peter in our Gospel lesson. "Jesus
began to explain to His disciples," it says, "that He must go to
Jesus - our crucified Lord - tells us
to "take up our cross and follow Him." He says "you
must deny yourself" - "put your life, all of your life
under my lordship," He says, "and accept whatever hatred or suffering
that an unbelieving world throws at you as a result." Your life is not about you, my life is not
about me - they're about following our crucified Lord in a life of service to
others. Of course we don't like that do
we? By nature we rebel - want to be our
own God - serve ourselves. .. "Get
behind me Satan," is then Jesus' rebuke of us. … Yes "enemies of God" by nature.
Of course here's the good news. Again, as Paul proclaims, "when we were God's enemies, we were
reconciled to Him through the death of His Son." .. Jesus didn't come to seek
revenge upon His enemies - He came to die for them. He came to die for you and for me.
And because He did - died on
Now does that mean that all our
troubles with others - conflicts, etc. will go away? No. Certainly not. But
notice that Paul says, "as far as it depends on you, live at peace with
everyone." "As
far as it depends on you."
You can't control what your enemy or the one who hates you is going to
say or to do, but in Christ - with His strength and His Spirit - you can
control what you say or do. Some people
- no matter what you say or do - will hold resentments, will hold grudges. But that doesn't excuse you from responding
with forgiveness and kindness and compassion.
Someone once said, "The more I get to know the human race, the more
I love my dog." Dogs are loyal,
dependable, eager to please and so quick to forgive and forget. If only people were more like that. There are too many grudges, too much
resentment in the world, and dare I say even among the people of God. That shouldn't be. With how wonderfully, how amazingly, how
infinitely we have first been loved and forgiven by God - yes even had our
sinned "removed from us as far as the east is from the west" - grudges
and resentments, they just shouldn't be among God's people. Let us repent and receive Christ's forgiveness
for our part in those grudges and resentments.
Let us repent and share that same forgiveness with even our enemies.
It doesn't
make any difference who you are or where you are. Use the God-given opportunities at school, at
work, or around the place where you live to let the love and forgiveness that
is yours in Christ Jesus show through you to others. Treat the person who hurts you as if he were
your best friend and leave God to do the judging. Your job is not to seek revenge, leave that
to God. Your part is to love your enemy and
pray for your enemy and bless him when he persecutes you. By doing that, "you
will heap burning coals upon his head." In other words, you will shock him into
thinking, "How can he help me like this when I have done so much to hurt
him? Maybe there is something to this
person and to His Christ, after all."
And when
that happens you will have "out-loved' your enemy. You will have "overcome evil with
good"; you will have let the love of God in Christ Jesus be seen in you
and flow through you.
No it doesn't come easy - certainly doesn't
come naturally. But it's the life you
have been given in Christ Jesus your Savior.
A life of compassion and forgiveness is the life you have been given by
the one who has loved and forgiven you all the way to Calvary's cross. Amen.