“See, I Am Making All Things New - Called to Continual Transformation: Love Is the Fulfillment of the Love” was preached at First Presbyterian Church of Allentown, PA on September 6, 2020. You can hear/watch this sermon here, starting at 33:48.
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Romans
13:8-14
8
Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another
has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You
shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other
commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10
Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
11
Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to
wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became
believers; 12 the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the
works of darkness and put on the armor of light; 13 let us live honorably as in
the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness,
not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
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I
had this unusual habit with my assignments and homework while in seminary. It
actually started back when I was in high school, but it really developed while
I was receiving my Master’s degree. If I had a big project due, you know; one
of those projects that would take weeks and days and hours to do; I would spend
my weeks and days casually approaching the assignment, nonchalantly brainstorming
ideas and collecting research; I was cool and I was calm and life was easy and
everything was just so laissez faire. … and then I would wait until the
absolute final minute to actually finish the project. And when I say the absolute
final minute to do an assignment, I meant the very last minute. Let’s say a
paper was due at Monday at 9:00 AM; then I would set my morning alarm at 4:00
AM or 3:00 AM or even 2:00 AM depending on how long I thought my paper would
take me to write, and there, for hours, I would let my fingers rapidly type the
finished project as my brain would do its best to expediently put together all
my thoughts and research that I had so coolly collected before days and weeks
before.
And
although the thought of doing work like that might freak some of you out (trust
me, it also freaked me out at times); although the thought of doing work that
like might freak us out, I will admit that it worked for me. It was the
pressure of a looming deadline that brought out some of my best work. It was do
or die; get the assignment finished or don’t. The pressure forced an urgency
and a devotion that committed me to do work both efficiently and effectively.
And somehow, maybe by the grace of God, it worked.
At
this point, all of us are familiar with deadlines and pressures. And not just
the small ones we experience here and there like finishing a project for school
or work or getting the house cleaned before guests come over.
Y’all
remember March 1st? Our country went into a state of emergency,
following states of emergency across the world. We had to reset ourselves like
this. *Snap* Overnight. The way we did nearly everything was different. Schools
and places of employment closed. And then students, workers, leaders, and
administrators had to figure out how to do all of this in a completely new way.
By the grace of God, some were able to do this quickly, saying let’s figure
this out as we go. And running necessary errands added several more important
steps to get them done, and somehow all of us got a little better with
technology. One of my grandmas even got a smart phone for the first time during
this time!
This
urgent deadline hit some of us again with completely new pressures as children,
youth, and adults returned to school this fall in a way that’s never been done
before. And somehow; maybe by the grace of God and the hard work of many, many
people; we’re making it work… or at least we’re all figuring it out together.
So
we all have experiences now with urgent, important, and looming deadlines. Let
me ask you to consider one more deadline.
Let’s
say the return of Christ will 100%, for sure happen on October 6, 2020. One
month from today. And I feel like I’m
being pretty generous in the scenario here. I’m giving us all a month. But if
you really want to feel the pressures; imagine Christ is coming two weeks from
now. Or really, what if Christ comes tomorrow?
If we were to imagine our Lord and Savior – the one that we claim to follow – coming to us in the very near future, would any of us feel the urgency to rearrange our priorities? Would we look at things any differently? Would we treat the people we encounter any differently?
So let’s keep imagining this. Christ is coming soon and the end of the world with it; what are you going to do? Quit your job? Hug your loved ones close? Travel the world?
Would we have more patience with teachers, administrators, store clerks, and other essential workers? Would we forget about the virus and just live our lives? What would we do when we see the person experiencing homelessness knowing the Jesus is right around the corner? And honestly, would we continue to say something like "well he shouldn’t have committed a crime" as another black man is shot and killed?
Christ
is coming in a month; two weeks, a day – are we really going to continue to
live our lives the way that we always have?
Okay,
so I get it. This scenario is pretty difficult to imagine. We don’t know when
Christ will return. None of us do… it could be a month from now or a day from
now or generations from now.
Now
Paul noticed the lack of knowledge of Christ’s return contributed to a
spiritual indifference among the followers of Christ; especially in the church
of Rome. The passage that we heard today is Paul trying to bring some ethical
spiritual urgency back into the lives of the early Christians. And if we’re
going to be completely honest with one another as we’re doing to do lately,
speaking the truth in love, I bet Paul or some other apostle or messenger of
the Lord would be trying to do the same for us; to bring some ethical spiritual
urgency back into our lives.
Think
about it: if Jesus returned in one month, what would be the role of the Church
in these remaining days? What would be the role of First Presbyterian Church of
Allentown and all of us?
If
we found out today that Jesus was returning in the very near future, I’d like
to think we’d change our ways like this. *Snaps*
We’ve
had days and weeks and years and decades and generations to be cool, calm, and
collected; coming to church for the feel good message of “Jesus loves me”.
But
what about the other? The person that hasn’t heard or more realistically,
hasn’t felt that message. In the looming deadline, with a sense of urgency and
pressure, would we do everything we possibly can to make sure “the other” hears
and feel the same message that we always have?
A
friend and mentor of mine, The Rev. Dr. Nina Peck Reeder – hopefully you’ve all
met here once or twice she’s preached for us at the beginning of summer and
back in January when I was installed as one of your pastors – Nina rightfully
said on a recent Facebook post that Scripture could be quoted to justify a lot
of terrible things: things just as slavery, war, capital punishment, the
subjugation of minorities, the silencing of women, the denial of rights to the
LGBTQ community, the absolute reign of the government – just to name a few. Oh…
Nina is right!
Because
honestly… scripture has been used to justify all of those terrible things for
generations.. because all of those things have been a part of the church’s
history; our history…
And
when any of those things were questioned about whether these things that were
once justified might actually be terrible, there was always a pushback. “But
this is what scripture says!” – “But this isn’t what God wants!” – “But the
church shouldn’t talk politics!” – “But I would rather hear the same feel good
message that I have always heard; that Jesus loves me!”
Here’s
the good news! Jesus does, in fact, love you. And me. And the other. There’s
the feel good message of today.
Here’s
the message we need to wrestle with: The church has a responsibility to be “political.”
Because
everything that was mentioned above – you know, like slavery and the silencing
of women – was one time and maybe still is considered political. And it was the
responsibility of the church to talk about it then and it is the responsibility
of the church to talk about it now. Because it’s more than just political; it’s
the gospel.
But
once again, the good news: this could be and should be done in love, especially
in the love for the other. Now that’s really the gospel.
When
reinstating this sense of spiritual urgency to the church of Rome, Paul
restates what Jesus said is the second greatest commandment which sums up all
the other commandments: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And good thing Jesus
makes it pretty easy for us that when we do the second greatest commandment of
“Loving our neighbor as ourselves,” we also do the greatest commandment of
“Loving God with all of ourselves.”
But
let’s be clear on what it means to love our neighbor.
This
means we love the person who isn’t us; we love the person who is different than
us. To love our neighbor means to love the strangers we will encounter and the
ones we never will. To love our neighbor means to love the person we don’t
understand and to love the person we don’t always like. To love our neighbor
means to love the person we don’t agree with; to love our neighbor means to
love the person who doesn’t think or feel or look like us. To love our neighbor
means to love our enemy. And to love our neighbor doesn’t mean it’s just in the
words we say, but it’s also in the actions we take. To love in both word and
deed.
As
a predominantly white church, it is our responsibility to love our neighbor of
color.
As
a predominantly straight and cisgender church, it is our responsibility to love
our LGBTQ neighbor.
As
a church that has a long history of having a majority of male pastors,
especially only male head of staffs; well, it’s about time we have some female
leadership up in here and we better love on her too!
Politics
influence the shape of society and how people like us, and especially those
different than us, are treated. It is our responsibility to fulfill the law of
the Lord in all things; and thanks be to God, that love is the fulfillment of
that law. That’s the Gospel!
Christ
might not be coming tomorrow or next month, but can we still act with the
urgency and pressure that this is our responsibility to love our neighbor right
here and right now. And yeah, there are some political things that we need to
get done, right here and right now. After all, Paul reminds us as readers of
Romans 13, Christ’s return is nearer now than when we first believed; that it’s
nearer now than it was yesterday. By the grace of God, let’s get to loving. By
the grace of God, let’s get to fulfilling the law. By the grace of God, let’s
get to work. Amen? Amen.
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Attribution: Indiana, Robert,
1928-. Love (four ways), from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the
Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55272
[retrieved November 1, 2021]. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/unlistedsightings/2383631294/.
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