September 4- Proper 18, Year A (RCL)
Have you ever had the experience
of having a conversation with someone
where you feel as if somehow
you missed the first half of whatever was being said?
they’re talking
as if you already know something
and you have absolutely no idea
what that something is,
and so you search their words
for some clue
to what its all about?
It was like that when I opened up my bible
to read our lesson from the letter to the Romans today.
It begins,
“Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”
And my immediate thought was, “Owe what? Is the apostle talking about money
or something else?
Because if it’s money
then what does it mean about loving one another?
And if it’s not money, what is it?”
But it all begins to make sense
if you go back seven verses,
to the beginning of the chapter.
The aspostle paul
has finished the long and complex discourse
that we’ve been reading the last couple of months,
the explanation
of how it is
that we experience the love of God
by grace;
now
he’s in the middle of
some practical hints
about how we live
as Christians.
And this section
begins like this:
“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgement. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval; for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience. For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, busy with this very thing. Pay to all what is due to them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honour to whom honour is due.”
Paul has this idea
that everything in the world
has a place.
There is a kind of order to it.
And that order
is something
that God is concerned in.
And something where Christians have a role to play.
Now we have to remember
that Paul is writing to the Christians
who live in Rome.
they are at
the very center
of the Empire, the center of the Empire
at the height
of its power.
And Christians have been accused,
Paul among them,
Christians have been accused
of challenging the power
of the Empire.
In effect, accused of treason.
And of course the risk is,
that if the Roman Emperor decides
that Christians are a threat
then the threat
will be removed. They’ll be destroyed.
And with them, the story of Jesus.
On the other hand, if Christians obey the government,
they’ll likely
be left alone, left alone to pray
and worship, and tell the story of Jesus,
tell it to people far and wide, and make more disciples,
until it’s so widespread
that no Emperor
will be able to snuff it out.
And of course, the Empire has been good
for Christianity.
Because a stable Empire
meant that travel was safe,
and messages could go from place to place,
and the gospel of Jesus Christ
spread easily from Jerusalem
out to the ends
of the known world.
The Roman government was good
for the work of God,
and so it makes sense
for Paul to recommend to the Christians in Rome
that they obey the government,
keep in its good graces,
So that’s the first part of this section of Romans,
talking about the very specific situation
of Christians who live in Rome.
But Paul goes on from there
to a broader principle.
“Pay to all what is due to them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honour to whom honour is due.”
And that’s where today’s reading comes in.
Paul is not talking
about money. This isn’t advice
about the wisdom or lack of wisdom
in taking out a mortgage.
Paul is talking about
how we live with other people.
He’s taking the words of Jesus
to love one another,
to love your neighbor,
and connecting them with the words Moses received on Mount Sinai,
the words we know as the ten commandments,
and putting them all together
as a principle for living as Christians.
And it’s a principle that isn’t just about
what you do with your immediate family
but how you relate to the whole world around you.
The way Paul sees it,
“Love one another”
affects everything you say and do.
It affects it in the obvious ways,
the way that are described in the ten commandments.
That’s what Paul is talking about in our reading today.
Those commandments aren’t outdated. They still apply.
In our new program for children that we’ll begin in a couple of weeks
they have a session called “The Ten Best Ways.”
It tells the story
of how the people of God
received the Ten Commandments, when Moses was on Mount Sinai.
And it tells the story like this:
“When Moses was on top of the mountain, he came so close to God, and God came so close to him, that he knew what God wanted him to do. God wanted him to write the Ten Best Ways to Live on stones and bring them down the mountain to the People.
God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses. Moses gave them to the people and they gave them to us.
Love God. Love people. God Loves us.
Don’t serve other gods.
Make no idols to worship.
Be serious when you say my name.
Keep the Sabbath holy.
Honor your mother and father.
Don’t kill.
Don’t break your marriage.
Don’t steal.
Don’t lie.
Don’t even want what others have.
I know. These are all hard. God did not say these are the “ten easy things to do.” They are the Ten Best Ways to Live, the Ten Commandments. They are hard, perhaps impossible, but we are supposed to try. They mark the best way - like stones can show the right path.”
The apostle Paul is reminding us of the part of the heart in the Godly Play lesson
that is “Love people.”
Respect them. Honor them. Do good to them. Love them.
That’s what you, as Christians, owe.
What we owe
is treating people
as God treats them.
Loving them.
And of course, as the Godly Play lesson reminds us,
it’s not easy.
But we have help. We have help
in Jesus Christ,
Thats the connection
with the last part of our reading today.
“Lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”
When we put on Jesus Christ, when we give ourselves over
to Christ’s spirit living in us, guiding us, when we constantly ask of ourselves, “What would Jesus do?”
what is impossible,
to love others,
becomes not easy, but possible.
Love God.
Love people.
God loves us.
© Raewynne J. Whiteley 2010