When did you last write a postcard? I’ve given up on them. I find them really tricky. Allow for a long address…and for oversized stamps at the top right and there isn’t much room to actually write your message. All begins well and then, as you have just got into your stride with what you want to say you realise you are running out of space, your writing gets smaller and smaller and you sign out with just your initial to convey who the card is from.
Today we are approaching the back end of the book of Romans which has given us our epistle readings through the summer. There are a few more chapters to go but next week is our Patronal Festival so we’re almost done with Romans. Today’s reading gives all the impression of that squeeze to get a lot of information into a small space. Maybe Paul’s scribe had given him a heads up (‘we’re running out of paper boss’) – but in chapters 12 and 13 Paul changes gear, he writes differently, he starts talking about different things.
It would be useful to remember where we have come from. Paul is writing to Christian communities in Rome. These communities meet in ‘house churches’. They are made up of Jewish Christians and non- Jewish converts to the new Christian faith. In amongst them there are folk who are fairly wealthy and others who are slaves. They speak a variety of languages. Men and women meet together (which needs saying because it was unusual). The one thing these people have in common is a desire to follow Jesus. Some know more about him than others. Some have inherited an understanding of the Jewish Scriptures …others have no idea of their Jewish inheritance other than knowing that Jesus lived, died and was raised in Judea. All have some sense that it is He, Jesus (the Christ, or Messiah) that has brought them into a relationship with God that is somehow more personal, more real than their religious practice up until their conversion. They have a sense of God’s presence or Spirit with them, a sense of ‘calling’ to be different, to live differently, to embody a different set of values and attitudes to the society in which they are set.
Paul has spent long chapters describing how it has been God’s purpose to bring about a new community of faith, a new ‘family of God’, a new Israel. This ‘household’ of believers embraces all peoples of the world. Yes, there has and always will be a special place for the first covenant people of God but now there is a new creation: the gospel proclaimed by Jesus and now Paul has always been about the grace and faithfulness of God who, in and through Jesus has redeemed the whole world and created a new people for His praise, a new people (the church) to live and work towards the coming of God’s kingdom on earth.
But here’s the thing: how is this new people to live? What sets this people apart? What are the characteristics of a Christian Community? For Israel the answer to those questions had been easy. The first covenant people of God were marked out by ethnicity, by observance of the Law, by what they ate, by their observance of the Sabbath and the practice of circumcision. But what happens when you take these things away? Are there things that Christians ‘do’ that mark them out as belonging to Jesus? – that mark them out as ’Christian’?
It’s the answer to that question that Paul attempts to give us. You’d expect his answer to be framed by Jewish ethics and practice. Personally, as I read these words I feel as if I can hear the Beatitudes …or the Summary of the Law…or the Lord’s Prayer behind them. It’s as if a ‘way of being Christian’ is being worked out in front of us. This is what it means. This is what it boils down to.
There are 5 themes in these verses that I can see but you might divide them differently.
The first has to be love. ‘Let love be genuine’. The Christian community is nothing unless it is filled with genuine love of the kind that is ‘patient and kind’ and forgiving and all those things that Paul writes about in 1 Corinthians 13. Love is paramount. In chapter 13 Paul says ‘Love is the fulfilling of the Law’. Love for God, love for neighbour. The hard stuff. The faithfulness, the perseverance, the hope that things can be better in our relationships even when they might go askew. ‘They’ll know you are Christians by your love’ says the song. Is that us? ‘Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in Spirit, serve the Lord.’ – love for neighbour, of course. But love for God, with heart, mind, soul and strength. You can’t be Christian without loving God, a desire to serve Him, to worship Him. Jesus didn’t just tell us to be good. He told us to love God with all of our being. ‘Kindle a flame of sacred love on the mean altar of my heart’ says the hymn.
The second theme has to be humility. ‘Outdo one another in showing honour’ says Paul, ‘ do not be haughty but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are’. This is of a piece with Jesus saying to us, ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.’ Recognising who we are is so important. At the end of the day we are all ‘dust and ashes’: no one person better than another, but ‘dust and ashes, crowned with glory and honour; children of God and heirs of the kingdom of God.’ With humility come a recognition of ‘gift’ and ‘grace’: that God has been gracious to us and we can be gracious to one another. We can’t divide each other up into the deserving and the undeserving, the wealthy and the unwealthy. When we gather at Jesus’ table we are all forgiven sinners. He it was who said the first shall be last. A Christian community that is full of itself squeezes out God’.
Love, humility and thirdly hospitality and generosity of spirit. ‘Contribute to the needs of the saints. Extend hospitality to strangers’. Christians live lightly to possessions, who have open hearts and hands…and wallets. That doesn’t mean that we are irresponsible with the gifts we have received but they are gifts to be used not possessions to be hoarded or grasped. ’All things come from you O Lord, of your own do we give you.’ ‘Where your treasure is there your heart will be also’ said Jesus. Being able to contribute, being able to give, being able to make a difference – these things are good for the soul. Closed, inward looking people and communities aren’t attractive in the least. But it’s not just money. It’s an attitude of heart towards other people, finding the good in everyone, seeing God’s image in all people. The example is Jesus and the company he kept: not just with his friends but also with those others sought to overlook. He had an ability to broaden his circle, to make room, to welcome to the top table the person you’d least expect.
Love, humility, hospitality and generosity. Fourthly: forgiveness. There’s an assumption in Paul’s words here that persecution and rejection come with the territory. Paul had seen St Stephen die. He knew of Peter and John in prison. He had been followed around the cities of Asia Minor by those who wanted him locked up, beaten or dead. But his response is to respond as Jesus had done: blessing rather than cursing. Peace rather than vengeance. ‘Do not repay anyone evil for evil’ is his encouragement. We don’t know the half of what our fellow believers experience in other parts of the world: what it is like to live in fear for your life, to be overlooked for promotion in your job or to be a second class citizen in your own country. There is in Paul’s words a desire for justice – ‘take thought for what is noble in the sight of all, hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good’ – but the stance taken in seeking this justice is that of those who will suffer for it. ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ said Jesus. Every Christian carries a cross which has the words ‘Father forgive’ carved on it.
And finally, hope and perseverance. Love, yes. Humility, yes. Hospitality and generosity, yes. Forgiveness, yes. All lived out in the knowledge that the Kingdom has both come and is yet to come. We are in that in-between time of which Paul spoke in chapter 8 where the creation is groaning, longing for the revealing of God’s children so that the fulfilment of all things might come about: heaven on earth, all things reconciled to God. Till that time we ‘rejoice in hope, we are patient in suffering and we persevere in prayer’. ‘Your kingdom come’ is the prayer. God looks for people set free from all that drags them down and prevents them revealing God’s image within them; Relationships, families, healed; Peace between nations; The hungry fed; Illness combatted; Abuse ended. We rejoice with those who rejoice, we weep with those who weep and we keep going. We are on the way. We don’t give up. We trust and pray. ‘Blessed are those who mourn’ said Jesus’ they will be comforted’. ‘Blessed are the poor in Spirit: theirs is the kingdom of heaven’.
Ours is a downpayment in the Holy Spirit. There is so much more to come. To quote the song we ‘get knocked down but we get back up again’. We all suffer setbacks. The church goes through good times and bad. But we are still here for nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. We Christians are a pesky bunch!
The writing in the letter is getting smaller. Paul has thrown so many things at us today. But this is what a Christian community looks like.
It is marked out by love for God, for one another and for neighbour. It has a big heart. It’s a place of gentleness and mercy, of humility. The church of God has a wide embrace, an open door, room for everyone. It is hospitable, not inward looking: it is generous, not pinched. To love, humility, hospitality and generosity we add forgiveness: mercy, a sure sign of God’s presence, going above and beyond in His name and, in the face of difficulty, hope and perseverance. There’s always room to do better, to grow in grace but all these things you and I see in the people alongside us week by week. Praise God for the work of His goodness in us.
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