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.
An Urgent Appeal
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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This sermon was preached originally for Redeemer Episcopal Church the September 6th worship service. You can read the sermon below or you can watch the whole worship service at this link. I hope that the Spirit can speak through these words to you.
Let us pray: God who first showed us how to love, continue to remind us of your love and the ultimate demonstration of that love in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus, so that we might learn to love one another and all of creation. Amen.
I have read a lot of really tragic news lately. It seems unavoidable. Whether it is about the world at large or within our own community, we have seen a lot of death in particular lately. Too many lives have ended too quickly, too unexpectedly.
Just a few days ago, I was scrolling through Facebook and saw that four friends were mourning the loss of their family members. At the end of each story about their loved one, the post read something like this: “tell people you love them when you have the opportunity because you never know when it will be too late.”
This is often the sentiment when people die unexpectedly or too young: tell people you love them.
Saint Paul, I think, would share that sentiment. But I’d imagine he would emphasize something a bit different: show people you love them, especially before it is too late.
I love this passage in Paul’s letter to the Romans. It is quoted so often. Many people have it memorized. And of course, it kind of sums up the golden rule that most major religions have and that we have heard from a very young age: love your neighbor as yourself.
Paul seems to be making things easier on us in this passage. He does what all of my students hope their professors will do by the end of the semester. He takes all of these complicated teachings about the commandments and he reduces them down to this one commandment, that he says sums up all of the law: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” It seems simpler. He seems to have uncomplicated a lot of things and even made things easier to memorize.
But Paul is actually upping the ante. Instead of following the commandments that said things like “do not murder, do not steal, do not covet,” which, all things considered, seem like pretty easy commandments to keep. Paul says that simply not murdering is not good enough. We must love one another. There is a huge gap between not murdering your neighbor and loving them.
Following the ten commandments does not seem quite as difficult as loving your neighbor. I mean think of how difficult it is to love your own family members sometimes. But that is supposed to extend to our neighbors? And Jesus tells us that our neighbors are actually all the people, everyone. Every single one of them. We are supposed to love all the people like we love ourselves.
That’s already quite a high order. And I think it is only going to get harder as the next few months approach. As tensions rise even higher, as rhetoric gets even more divisive on the national and international stage… loving our neighbors might even feel impossible.
It will be easier to be angry, to be upset, to blame, to name-call our neighbors. In some cases it already is easier to do that, isn’t it? I don’t know what it is about our human condition, but it seems like being hateful is just easier than loving one another. And as much as I hate to say it, I think in these next couple of months it will be much more difficult to like people, especially people who have different opinions from ours, people who watch different news programs than we do, people who are on the other side of the political spectrum than we are… it is going to be so hard to like people, let alone love them.
So how do we do it? How do we love one another in a time like this when it doesn’t seem like most of us can agree on anything? Paul gives us a hint in this new commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself. We must see ourselves in the other person. We must see that they too are just as sinful and just as beloved by God as we are. We must remember that God loves us IN SPITE OF our flaws and sin and in spite of the number of times we have turned away from God. We must remember that we do not have all the answers, and neither do our neighbors. We must see ourselves in our neighbors.
More important that that, we must see God in them. We must recognize that they too are a child of God, someone that God has named and called beloved, someone that God longs to be close to and someone who God loves dearly. If we are able to remember that, it might be, perhaps, a bit easier for us to love one another.
But Jesus, in the gospel reading for this morning, also reminds us that we have been given a process for working though conflict with our siblings when we have not been loving toward one another. Loving one another does not mean being stepped on or taken advantage of. Jesus reminds us that healthy relationships have boundaries. This too, is often difficult to remember. But it helps us love one another better.
And God knows that we will not always be loving to one another or toward creation. We have the whole history the human race that tells us that we are actually pretty bad at loving one another when it all comes down to it.
That is why God has given us the gift of grace, mercy, and forgiveness in Christ Jesus so that we might learn from his example and grow in love. We have all of these stories, so many chapters of Jesus’ life to reference in order to see what true love looks like.
But we have to listen to his story, we have to hear his words, and see his actions. I promise the church’s attempts at Bible studies and faith formation opportunities are not just for fun. Our hope for our community is that we might know Jesus more fully. We must intimately know who Jesus is to understand God’s love for us and for all of creation. And ultimately, we must continue to tell this story, the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, as a witness to God’s love for the whole world. It is one of the ways, God tells us, that we are to love our neighbor.
These next few months might be easier in some ways, as we begin to join one another for worship again and life feels like it’s getting closer to normal again. But as we come physically closer to one another, we must also remember to see God in one another, to be patient and kind, to love one another. And Paul says we must love one another now and not wait around until it is easier— because we never know how long we have and the Kingdom of God is closer than we could ever imagine.
So despite the fact that it sometimes feels impossible, we can and should remember that God has called us to this work— to love, truly love, one another, just as God loves us. And we must remember that it is a simple, difficult commandment that can truly change the world. Amen.
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