May 27, 2007: Encouraging Faith of Others: Romans 14

ROMANS M 14 MESSAGE

TEXT: ROMANS 14: 1-23 07 05 23
Big Idea: Adjust your life so you can encourage the faith of others.
Introduction

If you were raised in the West and traveled to certain parts of India or south Asia, you might think it’s strange and uncultured for people to eat their meals hands.

You might think that it’s not sanitary for people to eat with their hands. You might not say it out loud, but you might quietly assume that because you use a knife and a fork, you are more civilized and more rational in the way you eat. But as cultural anthropologists have pointed out, every culture acts logically from their perspective.

If you ask someone from a culture that eats with their hands, “Why do you eat with your hands?” they may respond by asking, “Why do you go to restaurants and eat with a fork that has been in the mouths of thousands of other people?”

Every culture acts logically from their own perspective. So when people of different cultures come together, sometimes they clash because they think they are right and other person is wrong.

This was the case at the church in Rome. Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians were clashing over their cultural differences. The Jewish Christians tended to be quite strict when it came to their eating regulations whereas the Gentile Christians were much more liberal when it came to their choices of what to eat, many Jewish people strictly adhered to certain Jewish festival days, whereas Gentiles did not.

And so Paul in Romans, Chapter 14, addresses how Jew and Gentile and people of different cultures are called by God to relate to each other when their culture and values clash.

Please turn to Romans 14.

Scripture: Romans 14: 1-23
The Weak and the Strong
1 Accept those whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One person's faith allows them to eat everything, but another person, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted that person. 4 Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To their own master they stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
5 Some consider one day more sacred than another; others consider every day alike. Everyone should be fully convinced in their own mind. 6 Those who regard one day as special do so to the Lord. Those who eat meat do so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and those who abstain do so to the Lord and give thanks to God. 7 For we do not live to ourselves alone and we do not die to ourselves alone.
13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. 14 I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. 15 If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother or sister for whom Christ died. 16 Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.
19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. 21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.
In Romans 14:1, Paul says:
“Accept those whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One person's faith allows them to eat everything, but another person, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted that person.”
Gentiles, especially in Rome, had long ridiculed Jewish people for what they saw as strict observance to certain eating practices.
Many people in a place like Vancouver choose to be vegetarians for health reasons or because they feel that it is cruel to slaughter animals for food. But people in Paul’s world were not vegetarians or quasi-vegetarians because they were concerned about killing a cow or a pig or for health reasons. They abstained from eating certain kinds of meat for religious reasons. Many Jews in Paul’s day wondered whether they were eating the right kind of meat. Was it pure? Had it been slaughtered in the proper manner? Had it been cooked in the right way? Some people also wondered (as Paul points out in 1 Corinthians 8) “Had this meat been sacrificed to an idol?”
Not eating certain meats was a cultural practice that helped the Hebrew people to remember they were set apart as the people of God, but now the presence of Christ in people’s showed them that they were the people of God. So the people of God could eat all meat.
Gentiles not only ridiculed Jews because of their scruples around eating, but also because they strictly observed certain festivals and holy days.
In verse 5, Paul says: “Some consider one day more sacred than another; others consider every day alike. Everyone should be fully convinced in their own mind . 6 Those who regard one day as special do so to the Lord.”
When Paul is speaking about people at the church in Rome regarding certain days as special, he is likely referring to major Jewish festivals that some Christians would keep and others would not. Paul did not regard keeping these festivals as essential to Christian faith now that what pointed to had been fulfilled in Christ: E.g. The Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur was the day where the Jews took time to reflect on the need to have their sins forgiven—but since Christ died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins to enable us to receive the forgiveness, the observation of this day was optional (And, by the way, when Paul speaks of these special days as commentators point out that he is likely referring to Jewish festivals, and not to the Sabbath, and the call to take one day in seven as a day of rest and worship, which is part of the Ten Commandments, and Thomas Cahill points out the sanest commandment ever.)
In Romans 14, verse 1, Paul we are to welcome or receive the “weak in faith.” What does he mean by this?
By weak in faith, Paul is not referring to people whose devotion to Christ is weak, or to people who are wavering in their faith in God. “Weak” in this context refers to believers in Christ have not yet come to understand that since the coming of Christ all foods have now been declared clean by God and that though it may be helpful for Christians to keep certain Jewish festival days, the Christian was free to observe, or not observe, these days since what they were pointing to had been fulfilled in Christ.
As a result of not being aware of the fact that all foods were clean and that the observance of certain festival days was optional, these believers would have experienced pangs in their conscience if they ate meat which they regarded as being unclean, or failed to observe certain holy festivals which they would have regarded as being essential. And as Paul points out in vs. 23 whenever a person acts in a way that violate their conscience—even if the thing they are doing is not wrong in of and itself—they sin by violating their conscience.
What is Paul’s exhortation? Paul says in verse 3, “The one who eats everything (that is, those who are strong) must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything ( the “weak”) must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted that person”
When Paul says here that the strong are not to judge the weak and the weak are not to judge the strong, he is not saying that all judgment is wrong and that everything is a “go” when a person is in Christ. Throughout Paul’s letters he makes various judgments as to appropriate and inappropriate ways to act. There are certain things that the Bible would clearly prohibit. These would include murder, adultery, stealing, the Ten Commandments, etc.
Paul is not saying that it is never right to make a judgment. Paul says in Romans 14:1 that we are not to judge one another over “disputable matters.” Paul is saying that we should not judge others on secondary matters which are often the result of our cultural biases, personal likes and dislikes, etc. Someone has said that in things essentials Christians are to have unity, in things non-essential liberty, in all things charity.
For the church in Rome the “non-essentials” that people were judging each other over included diet and special days on the Jewish calendar. For us today, the issues may be what kind of movies are appropriate, what kind of music is appropriate to listen to, is it appropriate to drink alcohol, use tobacco, participate in excessive partying, etc.
Paul says that when it comes to these secondary, non-essential matters, we are not to judge each other. Those who are more sensitive are not to judge people who exercise liberties in these areas, but those who exercise liberties are not to judge those who choose to restrict themselves.
Paul’s call to not judge, to be tolerant of the people who exercise liberty is very consistent, of course, with the ethos of a laid-back, west coast city like Vancouver.
But Paul is only calling people us to resist from judging people who take liberties, AND he is also calling on people who exercise their liberties to not judge people who choose to restrict themselves from certain things that the relatively liberal people see as being legitimate. We may pride ourselves in being liberal and tolerant, but may be judgmental toward people who we view as being intolerant and judgmental. If we are intolerant toward people who are intolerant. If we judge people who are judgmental we’re judgmental.
Paul, in verses 4 and 10, gives us a compelling reason as to why we can refrain from judging our brothers and sisters on non-essential matters.
Paul says, “Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To their own master that is God they will stand or fall.” In verse 10, Paul says that we ought not to treat each other with contempt for we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. And in verse 12, we will all give an account for ourselves to God, therefore (verse 13), let us stop passing judgment on one another.
We don’t need to be neurotically concerned about judging each other because God will judge each of us!
Now this attitude of not judging each other, as I said, is very consistent with the culture of our laid-back city of Vancouver. But what Paul says in verse 13, and following, is not so consistent with the ethos of our city.
In verse 13 Paul says, “Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister.”
I n verses 14 and 15, “14 I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. 15 If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating, destroy your sister or your brother for whom Christ died.”
In verses 20 and 21, “20Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. 21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.”
Paul here is calling us to do something that is really counter-cultural. Paul states here and in other places that the follower of Christ is free, but the follower of Christ is also called to limit his or her liberty out of love for others. Martin Luther said a Christian is the most free lord of all, subject to none, but a Christian is also the most dutiful servant of all, subject to all.
Paul is affirming in Romans 14 that a follower of Christ has great freedom, but there are times when a follower of Christ is called to limit their freedom and adapt their actions so that they do not hurt the faith of a brother or sister who may have a more sensitive conscience.
I have a friend who is a Christian, and feels that it is inappropriate for him to drink alcohol. He doesn’t necessarily believe that it is wrong for other people to drink, but this friend has had a tendency to use alcohol as a way to de-stress. He feels that when he is under a lot of pressure that, instead of relying on God, he turns to alcohol to take the “edge off.” He knows he ought to do more healthy things like exercise or read or spend time with people. And so, for my friend, drinking alcohol, as much as he likes it, is a violation of his conscience, and therefore a sin for him.
The Bible teaches that if we consider something to be sin in our minds and then violate our conscience, even if that thing is not wrong, in and of itself, it’s a sin for that person. And so, if you were with had a friend like him, the loving thing for you do would be to not drink when you are with him—even if drinking in moderation is ok for you.
This is what Paul is calling us to do. He is calling us to act in ways that do not hinder another person’s faith and journey with God.
Adjust your life so you can encourage the faith of others.
One of my great heroes is Eric Liddle, who is featured in the movie Chariots of Fire, (which is based on a true story). Eric Liddle was known both as a great athlete and as a committed Christian. As a young man he was a world class sprinter. He planned to become a missionary to China, but before departing for China as a missionary he decided we would serve God by using his athletic ability to represent the British Empire in the 1924 Olympics.
When Eric Liddle discovered that the qualifying heat for the 100 meters (which was specialty and the race in which he was favored to win the gold medal) was scheduled for Sunday, he withdrew because of his personal convictions about not running competitively on the Sabbath. He was also forced to weigh the effect that ignoring his convictions would have on many believers who also believed it would not be appropriate to run competitively on the Sabbath were watching him, against the effect of disappointing many of his fellow secular Britishers who were hoping that he bring would home a gold medal. Liddle held to his convictions and was replaced by another runner. Liddle eventually ran in the 400 meters which did not involve the same requirement to run on a Sunday. Eric won the gold medal in that race!
My point in using Liddle as an example is not to argue about whether it is permissible, or not permissible, to run competitively on Sundays. Some of us have the Sun Run or marathons—I am certainly speaking against that. I think that is a matter of freedom and conscience, but my point is that Eric Liddle was willing to sacrifice personal glory and advancement because he was concerned that if he ran on the Sabbath day in a culture where many Christians felt that it was inappropriate to do so, he would cause damage to the faith of many impressionable young people who were looking up to him. He was acting in love.
The spirit of Paul’s text is that we act in love in a way that doesn’t trip others up, but instead helps to strengthen their faith. Verse 19 says, “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification (or building up).”
Adjust your life so you can encourage the faith of others.
Mike Mason in his book, The Mystery of Marriage, points out that every person affects us in some way, even the person who is serving us at the cash register of a grocery store. Every person affects us in some way, we affect every person in some way.
People can a negative influence, but people can also have a very positive influence, as well.
While working as a journalist for the Chicago Tribune, Lee Strobel was assigned to report on the struggles of an impoverished, inner-city family during the weeks leading up to Christmas. A staunch atheist at the time, Strobel was mildly surprised by the family's attitude in spite of their circumstances:
The Delgados—60-year-old Perfecta and her granddaughters, Lydia and Jenny—had been burned out of their roach-infested home and were now living in a tiny, two-room apartment. As I walked in, I couldn't believe how empty it was. There was no furniture, no rugs, nothing on the walls—only a small kitchen table and one handful of rice. That's it. They were virtually had no possessions.

In fact, 11-year-old Lydia and 13-year-old Jenny owned only one short-sleeved dress each, plus one thin, gray sweater between them. When they walked the half-mile to school through the biting cold, Lydia would wear the sweater for part of the distance and then hand it to her shivering sister, who would wear it the rest of the way.
But despite their poverty and the painful arthritis that kept Perfecta from working, she still talked confidently about her faith in Jesus. She was convinced Jesus had not abandoned them. I never sensed despair or self-pity in her home; instead, there was a gentle feeling of hope and peace.
Strobel completed his article, then moved on to more high-profile assignments. But when Christmas Eve arrived, he found his thoughts drifting back to the Delgados and their unflinching belief in God's providence. In his words: "I continued to wrestle with the irony of the situation. Here was a family that had nothing but faith, and yet seemed happy, while I had everything I needed materially, but lacked faith—and inside I felt as empty and barren as their apartment."
In the middle of a slow news day, Strobel decided to pay a visit to the Delgados. When he arrived, he was amazed at what he saw. Readers of his article had responded to the family's need in overwhelming fashion, filling the small apartment with donations. Once inside, Strobel encountered new furniture, appliances, and rugs; a large Christmas tree and stacks of wrapped presents; bags of food; and a large selection of warm winter clothing. Readers had even donated a generous amount of cash.
But it wasn't the gifts that shocked Lee Strobel, an atheist in the middle of Christmas generosity. It was the family's response to those gifts. In his words:
As surprised as I was by this outpouring, I was even more astonished by what my visit was interrupting: Perfecta and her granddaughters were getting ready to give away much of their newfound wealth. When I asked Perfecta why, she replied in halting English: "Our neighbors are still in need. We cannot have plenty while they have nothing. This is what Jesus would want us to do!" That blew me away! If I had been in their position at that time in my life, I would have been hoarding everything. I asked Perfecta what she thought about the generosity of the people who had sent all of these goodies, and again her response amazed me. "This is wonderful; this is very good," she said, gesturing toward the largess. "We did nothing to deserve this—it's a gift from God. But," she added, "It is not his greatest gift. No, we celebrate that tomorrow. That is Jesus."

Something inside of me wanted desperately to know this Jesus—because, in a sense, I saw Jesus in Perfecta and her granddaughters.

This atheist Lee Strobel ended up giving his life to Christ, and wrote the highly influential book The Case for Christ.
Consciously or unconsciously the Delgados were living in ways that drew people to Christ.
On Monday, my wife and I were at a Christian conference center called the Firs. The Firs is set on Lake Whatcom on the outskirts of Bellingham. It’s a very special place to me. As 15 year old I spent a week there and camp counselor from California, whose camp name was Bam Bam (from the Flintstones). He spent all week with our small group of teens, driving the boat as we water-skied, played basketball with us, he took us to place where we rappel down a face of cliff. He was tanned and fun and cool and caring and totally centered on God… and the energy of life, led me to commit my life to God.
At the end week, he very naturally from his own life, how he thought that if person committed their life to God, they would miss out, but he had the a life wholly given over to God was greatest, fullest life possible.
Consciously or unconsciously, he lived his life in way that fosters faith in me.
I want to live that way to.
What about you?
Paul says in verse 17, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit…” I don’t want my life to be centered on secondary things, but on first things. Like the Delgados, like Bam Bam, I want my life to be used to draw people to God, and not away from God.
And that is God’s call to each of us. But how do we become like that? How do we become that Paul upholds in Romans 14? People of healthy conviction, humble enough to not judge others on secondary matters, and loving enough to limit our freedom in ways that draw people to God who may be different from us culturally?
By centering our lives on the one who obeyed God perfectly, but also lived with perfect freedom.
By receiving the Spirit the one who according to Romans and the book Philippians being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage, but poured himself out so that we could come to know God… by embracing Christ.
Pray.

(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)

May 13, 2007: Romans 12:9-12

ROMANS M 12 MESSAGE

TEXT: ROMANS 12: 9-21

Big Idea: We love our enemies because God us loved us when we were God’s enemies.

I don’t know if you’ve seen the Nov. 13 issue of TIME with the story God vs. Science.

Last fall TIME Magazine featured a debate between scientist Dr. Richard Dawkins, author of the God Delusion and Dr. Francis Collins, who led the successful effort to complete Human Genome Project which mapped the entire human DNA.

Richard Dawkins in his book the God Delusion has argued that altruism is part of survival of the fittest instinct. If you help a family member, there’s a better chance that your family gene pool will survive. If you help someone, they may help you survive later.

But, Dr. Francis Collins argues that there are many acts of altruism that are directed to people who are not part of our family or who can pay us back. He cites Oskar Schindler risking his life to save more than a thousand Jews from the gas chamber during World War II would be the opposite of this. He risked his life help others who don’t belong to his clan.

One of the great proofs that a person is not merely a product of naturalistic evolution alone, but has been animated by the spirit of the living God, is that he is able to love as God loves.

And Paul gives us a window into how this happens in Romans 12:
Paul says:
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is true worship.
Paul in Romans 12:1 urges his listeners, in view of God’s great mercy to them, to offer their bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. In view of God’s mercy to us in becoming a human being and dying on a Roman cross, to absorb our sin in his body so that we could be forgiven, welcomed into God’s living room without shame as God’s sons and daughters, receive God’s Spirit, become new people, Paul says let us offer our whole selves to God as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is true worship.

As we saw two weeks ago, part of what it means to offer our whole selves means that we offer our minds to God. And as we saw last Sunday, another part of what it means to offer our whole selves is to offer our talents and gifts to God.

Today, we’re going to unpack a third part of what it means to offer our whole selves is to offer our “love” to God.

Notice vs. 9:
Love in Action
9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. [a] Do not think you are superior.
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," [b] says the Lord. 20 On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." [c]
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Paul in verses 9-21 describes what it means to love for a person who has given his or her life to God.

Paul says we must hate what is evil and cling to what is good (vs 9). Discernment is needed in love. Love is not merely blind sentiment. It is discerning. It is so devoted to the well-being of the beloved that it hates every evil which is incompatible with the beloved’s greatest well-being. Love is also patient when it’s hard to love (vs 12). Paul says that love must be hospitable (vs. 13). Henri Nouwen defines “hospitality” as creating space in our hearts for others.

We tend to think of love as an emotion, and there certainly is an emotional part to certain kinds of love, such as eros. But when God calls us to “agape” love, as he does in Romans 12: 9-11, is he is not calling us primarily to muster up a warm emotion. He is calling us to do something—to act in a way that reflects the character of God—the God who has Paul points out in Romans 5:8 even when we were his enemies, served us in the greatest way building a bridge at greatest of costs to create a way for us to come home.

This morning we are going to focus on verses 14-21. In these verses, the apostle Paul calls us to love our enemies. He calls to love our enemies, reflecting the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.

When Paul calls us to bless and love our enemies and to not exact vengeance on them, Paul is not saying that it is a sin to experience anger against those who hurt us or those we care about. Paul makes it very clear in Eph. 4:26 that it is possible to be angry and to not sin. The Bible also tells us that God gets angry at sin, evil, injustice, oppression. God is a perfect being, and so if God is perfect and God gets angry, we can deduce that all not all anger is sinful. Sometimes anger is not only appropriate, but a helpful emotion to have. Anger can move us to appropriately resist evil being done to us or others. Anger can show we care about something that really matters, like justice…

When Paul calls us to bless our enemies and to not exact vengeance, he is not saying that all anger is evil. Nor is Paul saying that people who perpetuate injustices against us and others are not culpable. The Bible clearly teaches that the wicked will be held to account for what they do. And while Paul calls us in Romans 12 call us to refrain from personally exacting vengeance, in Romans 13, as we will see next week as Mardi leads us through this text, God has ordained government to punish evil-doers. Paul in Romans 13:4, tells us that governments are ordained by God to bring punishment to wrong-doers. Governments of course don’t always punish wrong-doers appropriately or justly, but Paul’s point is that government has been ordained by God in part to hold wrong-doers to account.

The Bible teaches in our passage, where Paul says God will “avenge” the evildoer and the book of Revelation and other passages of Scripture, that God will also hold those who are evil to account—if not in this life, certainly on the final day of judgment.
The doctrine of God’s judgment, in general, and hell in particular, are unpopular doctrines today. Some people say, “I can’t believe in a God who judges. I only believe in a God of love. Some people think that believing in a God who judges is a very primitive notion of God.
Miroslav Volf is a theologian who teaches at Yale and who is originally from war-torn Croatia. He spoke here in Vancouver in the fall. Professor Volf says you can only say “I won’t believe in a God who judges and avenges if you have grown up in the quiet seclusion of the suburbs. You cannot say that if you have been with people as I have been with people, whose cities and villages have been first plundered and then burned to the ground, whose fathers and brothers have had their throats slit, and whose daughters and sisters have been raped.”
He says, “In that kind of world, the only thing that can keep a person from taking up the sword is a belief that God will take up the sword.” Volf is saying that when we believe that God will judge the wicked in this life or the next, then, and only then, will we be able to refrain from taking up the sword of vengeance.

In March, in Cambodia I stood at Pol Pot’s grave along with some of my missions teammates from here at Tenth. Pol Pot was the ruthless dictator in Cambodia directly or indirectly responsible for the killing of 2-3 million of his fellow Cambodians. Every family in Cambodia has a father, brother, cousin or loved one killed in the Khmer Rouge massacre… John, a missionary in Cambodia, stood by Pol Pot’s grave with tears coming down his checks, he prayed “God help me to let go and trust you are the God who will one day bring Pol Pot and all who do evil to account.

So when Paul calls us to not exact vengeance on our own, he is not saying that evil-doers are not culpable, that they will not be held responsible. No, God has ordained government to exact judgment on evil-doers and that God, himself, will enact judgment in this life or the next on the evil.

When we know this—then we are freer to let go and live out God’s call to love our enemies as God loved us when we were his enemies.

Part of the reason God calls us to love our enemies as God loves his enemies is for our sake, so we don’t become like our enemies.

Ironically, we tend to become what we most hate.

Carl Jung said, “You always become the thing you fight most.”
Nietzsche when we fight monsters we must be careful that we don’t become monsters.
And whether in Rwanda or the Balkans, people fight against other brutal aggressors and they themselves become brutal aggressors. When a son or a daughter passionately hates a father, they are susceptible to becoming like the father they hate.

So when God calls us to not take vengeance upon our enemies, part of the reason is for our sake--so that we don’t become like them.

When Jesus, in his great Sermon on the Mount, calls us to love our enemies, he calls us to not only care for them and pray for them, so that we are not like our enemies, but also so that we are like our father in heaven--who blesses his enemies and prays for those who persecute him.
In Romans 12:20 Paul calls us to love our enemies. He cites Proverbs 25:20 when he says, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him/her; if he is thirsty, give him/her something to drink. In doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head.”

Why is Paul saying these strange words? What do they mean? Does it mean that if we love our enemies, God will zap them with fire?

Augustine, Jerome, and more recently, Waltke and other great commentators have pointed that when we offer good deeds in return for evil done, it can have the effect of creating “burning pangs of shame.” Not that I know from experience, but if you were to put hot coals on someone’s head, that person would turn red. And if you show kindness to someone in return for evil, he or she may turn red with shame.

Paul’s central message in the book of Romans is the Gospel of God. The Gospel of God is the good news that even when we were God’s enemies, God sought to reconcile us to himself by demonstrating his love for us on the cross by bearing our sins in his body so that we could be forgiven. And through that act of amazing love, as Paul points out in Romans 2, God wills that all people will repent (i.e., turn from their sin) and seek God.

We are called to be imitators of the living God. We are called to embody the Gospel. God is calling us to act in a kind of third way that will help the perpetrator repent and turn to God. Why? Because this is how God loved us when we were His enemies.

Walter Wink, in his excellent book, The Powers That Be, describes how the followers of Jesus can engage in practical non-violence. Wink points out that women who are beaten by their husbands or sometimes told by Christian leaders to “turn the other cheek” and let men continue to brutalize them is a total misunderstanding of Jesus’ words which if understood in the cultural context actually empowers the powerless (when Jesus says turn the other cheek he is referring to something slapping the right side of your cheek with the back of your right hand—if you turn the other cheek as some commentators point out you you avoid being slapped again) .
We are called to love others. It is not a loving thing to allow other people to continue with their sin by letting them abuse us. Wink points out that we would instead do better to counsel the abused woman to move to a shelter for battered women, expose her husband’s behaviour publicly and thereby break the vicious cycle of humiliation, guilt and bruising.

Wink points out that many social workers says the most loving thing a battered wife can do is to have her husband arrested. This will bring the issue out in the open, it will put him under a court injunction that will mean jail if violence continues, and positions him so that his self-interest is served by joining a therapy group for batterers. This could begin a process that might not only deliver the woman from being battered, but free the man from a spiral of battering, as well. This is a creative way to love an enemy that may lead to reconciliation.

Another way to creatively love our enemies that may lead to their restoration and reconciliation with God and others is to refuse to act like a victim.

Angie O’Gorman (also cited in Wink’s book) points out that often assailants work from a definite set of expectations as to how the victim will respond. They often need the victim to act like a victim. Angie O’Gorman points out that provoking a sense of wonder instead of acting like a victim may diffuse the hostility.

O’Gorman herself describes being awakened late one by a man kicking open the door to her bedroom. The house was empty. The phone was downstairs.

“He was somewhat verbally abusive as he walked over to my bed,” she says. “I could not see his eyes in the darkness, but could see the outline of his form. As I lay there feeling fear and vulnerability like I had never before experienced, several thoughts ran through my head—all in a matter of seconds. The first was the useless of screaming. The second was the fallacy of thinking safety depends on having a gun under your pillow. (Somehow I could not imagine this man waiting patiently while I reached under my pillow for my gun.) The third thought, I believe, saved my life. I realized with a certain clarity that either he and I could make it through this situation—safely—or would both be damaged. Our safety was connected. If he raped me, I would be hurt both physically and emotionally. If he raped me, he would be hurt as well. If he went to prison, the damage would be greater. That thought disarmed me. It freed me from my own desire to lash out and at the same time freed me from my own paralysis. It did not free me from feelings of fear but from fear’s control over my ability to respond. I found myself acting out of a concern for both our safety which caused me to react with a certain firmness but with surprising little hostility in my voice.

I asked him, “What time is it?” he answered. That was good sign. I commented that his watch and the clock on my night table had different times. His said 2:30; mine said 2:45. I had just set mine. I hoped his watch wasn’t broken When had he last set it? He answered. I answered. The time seemed endless. When the atmosphere began to calm a little I asked him how he had gotten into the house. He’d broken through the glass in the back door. I told him that presented me with a problem as I did not have the money to buy new glass. He talked about some financial difficulties of his own. We talked until we were no longer strangers and I felt it was safe to ask him to leave. He didn’t want to,he said he had no place to go. Knowing I did not have the physical power to force him out, I told him firmly but respectfully, as equal to equal, I would give him a clean set of sheets but he would have to make his own bed downstairs. He went downstairs and I sat up in bed, wide awake and shaking for the rest of the night. The next morning we ate breakfast together and he left.”
By treating her intruder as a human being, Angie O’Gorman caught him off guard. Conversation defused his violence. Through the effects of prayer, meditation, training in non-violence, and the experience of lesser kinds of assault, she had been able to allow a context for conversion to emerge. Such a response could come to her because she had been rehearsing non-violence beforehand.

Angie Gorman demonstrates a creative way to love an enemy that neither encourages his violence nor condones it, but enables her to respond to him like God responds to His enemies in ways that foster his restoration and reconciliation.

This third way is the way of the Gospel and it is not easy. Walter Wink cites the story told by Janet Wolf, a Methodist pastor. Janet describes having a Bible study during the middle of the week.

She said we try to use it as a time to both hold each other and hold each other accountable. I mean, how have we done in loving this stuff out.

And John came in one night. John is homeless, as are a number of the folks in our congregation. And he said, alright I’m gonna tell this story on myself before anybody tells it….you all know I’ve trying to turn my life around and it’s not been easy. What you don’t know probably is how bad I was. I was so bad I had all the cars and the women and the money and the power that anyone could want. I was so bad that when I walked down the street folks crossed to the other side just to get out of my way.

I’m trying to turn my life around and my life’s gotten worse. Last night I spent the night at the Mission—nowhere else to go. I wake up this morning and someone has stolen my shoes. Youall hear what I am talking about? Someone stole my shoes…So I get my knife out. I hadn’t given up that part of my old life yet. It’s a big knife and everyone knows that I might just use it again. I get out my knife and I’m walking down those tables ’cause I mean to get my shoes back. And Jim starts hollering from the other side of the room.

“You remember what we talked about in Bible study ‘bout if they take your cloak and you get another one give ‘em that one too. John, put down that knife. They took your shoes; give ‘em your socks.”

And I tell them, huh-uh, I’m not giving ‘em my socks. I want my shoes.

And Jim keeps hollering and he hollers and he hollers, “Put down that knife; give ‘em your socks.”

So I folded up my knife, slowly, but I folded it up. I put it in my pocket. I walked barefoot to the service centre this morning. I begged another pair of shoes. Damn, if it isn’t hard to live this stuff out.

We are called as followers of Jesus to be filled with the very wisdom and character of God to love our enemies as God does. But as John points out, “Damn, if it isn’t hard to live this stuff out!”
Why do we love our enemies and bless them? We do so because, as we bless them and pray for them and love them, they stand the greatest chance of being restored to themselves and reconciled to God.

Why would we do that instead of just condemning them to hell? Because this is what God is like. Romans 5:8 tells us that God demonstrates his own love for us in this: “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” While we were still enemies of God, God loved us to the point where he was willing down his life for us in Christ to reconcile us back to him. We love our enemies because God us loved us when we were God’s enemies:

Paul says, “In view of God’s mercy, offer your whole selves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God,” this is true worship. Offer your mind, your gifts, and offer your love as well.

(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)

May 6, 2007: Romans Serving

Romans M 11 Serving

Text: Romans 12:1-8

Big Idea: When use our gifts for God and others we develop our gifts, bless people, and honor God.

Introduction
John Ortberg, a pastor in the San Francisco Bay area, tells about the time after his grandmother had died…
His grandfather called his mother and said "I found this old box of dishes in the attic. Would you like to come and take a look at them? If you don’t want them, I'll give them to the Salvation Army." When his mother came to look at the dishes, she was taken aback.
Here was the most exquisite set of Bavarian china she had ever seen. Each piece had been beautifully hand painted and the cups were rimmed with gold. The plates had been inlaid with mother-of-pearl. They found out later that the factory in Bavaria had been destroyed during the war and so these pieces were irreplaceable and priceless.
John said his mother had never seen this set of china. Eventually they found out the story of the china. It seems that when his grandmother was very young the family would give her a piece of this china for special occasions like birthdays, graduation, her confirmation in the church. And because they were so expensive his grandmother who was not from a wealthy family would carefully wrap them up and store them in a box in the attic waiting for a special occasion to use them. Evidently that special occasion never came and so his grandmother went to her grave with the greatest gift of her life never having been used.
Some people are like that with the “gifts” and talents…that God has given them… They remain un-opened and unused…
I have a hunch that on judgment day when we stand before God and give an account for our lives the biggest deal may not be some indiscretion we made in our youth, God may be more concerned about the fact we did not use the gifts and opportunities, that we did not use our potential…

If we really take to heart the Gospel and understand and respond to God’s mercy, it will be hard for us to not realize our potential… as Paul points out in Romans 12:1

Into the Central Message

The apostle Paul in Romans 12:1-2 says:
A Living Sacrifice
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is true worship.
In the first 11 chapters of the book of Romans Paul has explained how God, in his great mercy, has become a human being in the person of Jesus Christ and has absorbed in his body our sins, so that we could be forgiven, welcomed into God’s living room, receive the very spirit of God, and, as a result of that, new life… Paul says in view of this mercy of God, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is true worship.
When Paul says offer your bodies as living sacrifices to God, he is urging us to offer every part of ourselves to God.
And then, as we focused on last Sunday, Paul says that we are to offer our minds to God. He says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
When Paul talks about the fact that we are not to be conformed to the pattern of this world, as we saw last week, the Greek word that he is using here can be literally translated “don’t be conformed to this present age.” Paul don’t be conformed to the temporal, fleeting values of this passing age…. But be transformed by the renewing of your mind… last Sunday we talked about how we can do this by taking on an eternal perspective… by living for the “line of eternity,” rather than the “dot” of this temporary existence.
Paul says in view of God’s mercy offer all of yourselves to God as living sacrifices, your mind, and then your gifts and talents.
Notice what Paul says in verses 4 and 5, he says:
4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your [a] faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give
encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, [b] do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. (Paul also lists gifts in 1 Cor.:12, as well as in Eph.4.)

Paul is urging the church at Rome and us to offer all of ourselves to God, including our body, mind, and gifts and talents to God.

Paul is urging us to unwrap our gifts and then to use them, recognizing that we don’t own ourselves or our gifts, but we, along with our gifts, belong to each other in the body (community) of Christ… God has entrusts you with certain talents at your birth, certain spiritual gifts when you are reborn into God’s family… their yours, but their not yours, you are called to unwrap them and use them for the community, the common good.

My wife recently gave me a copy of the book Bushido a book on Samurai ethics…

Part of what it means to live in a community of Samurai is to live a life of service and compassion… Part of my own family heritage--if I trace it back far enough is one of one where people use their gifts in the service of the larger community…

If you are a part of God’s family, to use Paul’s metaphor part of the body of Christ, you also have part of great family heritage tracing back to Abraham of service in the community…

Paul urges us here in Romans 12 to discover what our gifts are and use them to use them in service of the common good…

Is it telling the Word of God? Is it serving? Is it teaching? Is it encouraging? Is it giving? Is it showing mercy? (Paul also lists gifts in 1 Cor.:12, as well as in Eph.4.) If we are not sure what our gift is, we do well to experiment with all kinds of service and through that discover what one or two areas we might focus in on… (gifts assessment surveys can be helpful, but the best way to discover your gifts is to experiment and to discover what how you can bless others and what you’re passionate about).

What will would happen if and wrap and used our gifts?

At least three things happen: it develops us, blesses the world, and honors God.

In our small group the other Tuesday night in our home, we were discussing this passage, and someone talked about how when we use our gifts, we are able to develop our gifts.

When we recognize that when use our gifts, we are not just doing what we are doing for other human beings, but when we use our gifts, we are doing them for God. That provides the greatest of all motivations to offer our best, because what we do is done unto God and when happens we also grow our gifts.

You might have a gift, for example, in the area of teaching. You may have an opportunity to teach a small group of people. If you do your best and unto God, not only will you bless people if you have the gift, but you will also develop that gift. If you think your gift may be listening to people and helping them gain clarity by your listening people into speech…if you give your people your best attention, not only will you bless them, but you will develop your gift in helping bring direction to people by helping them hear their own voice.

Sometimes people will ask me how does a person learn to do what you do—pastor a church? How did you learn to do what you do? Where did you go to seminary?

I’m very grateful for my seminary education…

But as I look back I learned to do now what I do through “needs” and opportunities to serve.

When I was a high school student and new Christian, the youth pastor at our church went to Africa to serve as a missionary… There was no pastor to lead our group…there was a need, so a friend and I volunteered to the lead the group. I had no idea that one day, I’d be a pastor then. But I saw a need and wanted to help fill it and I guess looking back I “developed” through that experience.

When I was working for the SONY group in Tokyo in my early twenties, I started going to a church in Northeast Tokyo with about 20-25 people at their main Sunday service. The pastor was about 80 years old. He needed a relief hitter (preacher/teacher)… and so though I had majored in economics and philosophy as an undergrad… and had not been to seminary at the point in my life, I began to speak to usually the afternoon service which sometimes only had 10 people attending… I was shaky preacher…. (arguably still am!) But I did my best as unto God… I developed… that’s were I cut my teeth… I didn’t know then I would be a full-time pastor one day… but the helping to meet the need helped me to grow…

Perhaps most important of all, at our little church once a month, we’d have lunch after the morning at the church… curry or something like that, and after lunch I’d enjoying going into the kitchen to do the dishes… mostly because it would provoke people. The Japanese older traditional women would freak out (at first), objecting saying, that as a man I should not be doing the dishes… (sometimes it’s to good to break cultural stereotypes that aren’t helpful)...

Some times I go down to the kitchen here at Tenth… and do some dishes … and once in a while someone older and more traditional, will say half-jokingly, half seriously the pastor shouldn’t be doing the dishes!

Doing dishes with those older Japanese women helped shed in me a sense of entitlement that males can become afflicted with in Japan and grow in some needed ways…

Offering your gifts to God not only enables you to grow, but enables you to impact the world.

There are so may examples I could give from this community. Last Sunday in between services we honored Linda Wirch… one of the women here at Tenth in her senior years--who volunteers so much of her time and energy in the service of others in this church… and has done that for many years. Now that the kitchen is being closed for the rebuild she’s taking this transition as an opportunity to step back from some of her volunteering and to create space to care for her husband Art who’s suffering from Parkinson’s disease…

Linda’s been so faithful… Among the many other things each Tuesday she’s been cooking and loving the people of Oasis, some of whom are homeless or un or underemployed…

They call her mom… She’d been a mother and incarnation of God’s love the people at Oasis.

Her life has been well lived in service for others… It has been lived well.

According to yesterday Vancouver Sun the average life expectancy for a person in Vancouver is 81.9 years. We tend to emphasize physical healthy and longevity in our city, but what really matters to God is not so much the duration of our life, but the donation of it.

When I was first getting to know Sakiko, the woman I would eventually marry, one of the things she shared with me was that the Lord had told her that she was like Isaac. She did not know exactly what meant, but as she read about Isaac in the book of Genesis 26 was that Isaac’s crops increased 100-fold. And Sakiko said that, like Isaac, she wanted to live a life that would be used 100-fold for God’s glory.

I don’t know if you have ever thought about what you would like to have written on your tombstone. I know of someone who wants to engraved on their tombstone the words I TOLD YOU I WAS SICK.

I know of someone else, a business man named Bob Buford, wants simply 4 characters: 100 and then the letter “x” as a statement that he has lived a 100-fold life, meaning that the gifts and the opportunities that God had given to Bob were multiplied 100 times to bless people and to the glory of God. When we use our gifts to the glory of God, we can lead lives that are 10-fold, perhaps 20-fold, perhaps 50-fold, perhaps even 100-fold…and that is a great life…

And finally, and most importantly, when we offer our gifts to God, we worship God. In a story from the life of Moses, which doesn’t come from the Bible, but comes from Hebrew folklore. But it is a beautiful story and I want to share it with you.

Moses finds a shepherd in the desert. He spends a day with the shepherd and helps him milk his ewes. At the end of the day he sees that the shepherd puts the best milk that he has in a wooden bowl and places it on a flat stone some distance away.

So Moses asks him, “What is it for?”

The shepherd replies, “This is God’s milk.”

Moses is puzzled and he asks him, “What do you mean?”

The shepherd says, “I always take the best milk that I possess and I bring it as an offering to God.”

Moses, who is much more sophisticated than the shepherd with his naïve faith, asks, “And does God drink it?”

“Yes,” the shepherd replies, “He does.”

Then Moses feels compelled to enlighten the poor shepherd and he explains that God, who is pure Spirit, does not drink milk. But the shepherd is sure that he does so they get into an argument which ends with Moses telling the shepherd to hide behind the bushes to find out whether, in fact, God comes to drink the milk.

Moses then goes out to pray in the desert. The shepherd hides. The night comes…and in the moonlight the shepherd sees a little fox that comes trotting from the desert. Looks right…looks left…heads straight to the milk which he laps up, and then disappears into the desert again.

The next morning Moses finds the shepherd quite depressed and downcast.

“What is the matter?” he asks.

The shepherd says, “You were right. God is pure Spirit. And he doesn’t want my milk.”

Moses is surprised. He says, ‘You should be happy. You know more about God than you did before.”

“Yes, I do,” said the shepherd, “but the only thing I could do to express my love for him has been taken away from me.”

Moses sees the point. He retires into the desert and prays hard. In the night, in a vision God speaks to him and says, “Moses, you were wrong. It is true that I am pure Spirit, nevertheless, I also accepted with gratitude the milk which the shepherd offered me, but since being pure Spirit, I do not need the milk. I shared it with the little fox who is very fond of milk.”

When we offer our gifts to God we not only develop our ability to serve, not only do we bless people, but most important we bless and honor the God…

Why do we do this?

As for Paul rightly says, “In view of God’s mercy to us, his great mercy in Christ… offer yourselves your mind, soul and gifts to God as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God this is true worship…

And how did show his mercy to us? 2000 years ago… Jesus on the night before he was betrayed took bread… and broke it and said this in my body given for you…

The next he was crucified on a Roman…

Whether you’re a member here or not…

So take his body offered for you and respond by giving your body to God, your whole self…

(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)