A Snapshot of the Distinctively Christian Life Romans 12:9-21 Dr. Christopher C. F. Chapman First Baptist Church, Raleigh August 31, 2014 In his book Biblical Perspectives on Evangelism: Living in a Three-Storied Universe Walter Brueggemann says there are two reasons why people in churches like ours have struggled to share our faith with others. First, we have become inarticulate about our faith. We cringe at the language some use in the name of evangelism, but far too often, end up not sharing our faith at all. Second, we have failed to live in a way that convinces our own children that there is something different about our lives because of the Gospel. We may say that the Good News has changed us and our loyalty to Christ is the most important thing in our lives, but children pay more attention to our actions than our words. I strongly affirm Bruggemann s first claim and have addressed this issue many times from the pulpit and on Wednesday nights. Learning how to share our faith with others is a critical task and we begin by learning how to do this with one another. It s not as difficult a task as we often assume. For what we are called to do is simply share our story, tell others how we have experienced God. If we can find a way to do this with our most intimate brothers and sisters in Christ, we will grow in our witness and benefit immensely from hearing each other s stories. But as strongly as I affirm Brueggemann s first claim, I affirm his second claim even more. Children learn more from our actions than our words. It s fine to say church is important but if we drop off our children and go somewhere else while they are learning or worshiping, we send a conflicted message. It s great to say we believe in treating all people with respect but if our children see us treating others harshly, they will draw their own conclusions. The only thing I would add to the claim is that not only children pay more attention to actions. A familiar chorus says it well. They will know we are Christians by our love. I have shared with some of you the story about a man who was passing a pick-up truck with a bumper sticker that said, Honk If You 1
Love Jesus. The man loved Jesus, so he honked his horn whereupon the driver of the truck, apparently forgetting about his bumper sticker, promptly extended his middle finger at the passerby! The problem with much bumper sticker theology is that it is too often accompanied by an extended middle finger. Putting our faith out there is important but once we do, we have to live like there is something to our faith, or to use the words of the Apostle Paul writing to Philippians, live in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ. The question is what does this life look like? What is different about a distinctively Christian life? There was a time when the old rules of southern piety might have summed it up - don t drink, dance or chew or go with those who do. The trouble is David danced before the ark, Jesus drank wine; there are problems with the abuse of any substance or activity, but these rules were always limited and culture specific, not biblical and absolute. So, if these rules don t define the distinctively Christian life, what does? There may be some variation given that we are talking about the transformation of lives and since we start out at different places, the specific shape of transformation may vary as well. But if we are looking for a concise summary, a snapshot of the Jesus way, it would be difficult to find a better description than what we have read today from Romans 12. In the reading from Matthew, Jesus calls us to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him. In the reading from Romans, Paul provides a detailed picture of what following him is all about. One thing Paul says here is that love is a high priority on the Christian journey; if we take other writings of his into account, perhaps the highest priority of all. Let love be genuine, he says, hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection, outdo one another in doing honor. At the beginning of this chapter, in verses we read last week, he charges us not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. This is a part of what he is talking about. We don t treat each other like people all around us treat each other in our schools and workplaces, in the board meetings and town hall 2
settings, on Facebook and on Twitter. We love each other and treat each other with respect. In fact, we love all people and treat each child of God with respect, no matter who they are, what they have said or done, what they look like or what they believe. And if we are to follow Jesus, we love not simply with our thoughts and emotions but our actions, on behalf of the other, in the best interest of the other. The chorus is right. They will know we are Christians by our love. But to state the obvious, it is not always an easy task. A wellknown author was asked if he could ever kill another human being. He replied, Strangers, I m not sure, but some of the people I know, definitely! We understand the feeling. Many of the people we have a difficult time loving are people close to us. It should come as no surprise that most murders are crimes of passion, committed by people who know their victims. It s biblical. It started with Cain and Abel. And yet, some of the people we have difficulty loving are complete strangers - people who embrace other faiths, immigrants who come to our land in mindboggling numbers, people we interact with every day by pure chance. I will never forget a sermon illustration used by Pastoral Care Professor Wade Rowatt at Broadway Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky during the mid-1980 s. He was preaching on love, I think out of 1 Corinthians 13, and he used a confessional story. That week, while he was working on this sermon, he went to the Mall in St. Matthews, where I owned a store at the time, to buy something. It is a busy mall with too few parking spaces, and when he finally found a spot, just as he started to pull into the space, a car quickly came from the other direction and pulled in ahead of him. Many of us have been there on one side of this story or the other He found himself starting to scream at the driver, from inside the car, gesturing with his hands, but before he could get out or roll down his window and make a scene, he caught himself. Here I am, preparing a sermon on love, and this is how I react to a parking lot incident?! Then, he saw the older lady, who probably needed the space more than him, get out of her car, and he was thoroughly convicted. Sometimes it s difficult to love the person closest to us and other times it s difficult to love the complete stranger because both are capable 3
of causing us great offense, or what we think is great offense at the time. Of course, just as often we are the one causing the offense. We are not perfect, we all fall sort of the goal, but those who seek not to be conformed to this world, those who seek to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Jesus, do our best to love others no matter what, love all others from our closest friends to complete strangers. Love is a high priority in the distinctively Christian life, according to Paul. So is grounding our life in habits of spiritual discipline. Do not lag in zeal, Paul says, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord, rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer, contribute to the needs of the saints, extend hospitality to strangers. If Paul were standing here today, proclaiming this message, many of us would say, Slow down! You re covering a lot of ground here. Say more about all of this. But Paul is not here. So, let me try to pull this together. What Paul is talking about is spiritual discipline, habits of faith, an inner life and an outer life that form us as disciples of Jesus. Prayer, devotion, service, stewardship and hospitality are spiritual practices, forms of spiritual discipline. Joy, patience and perseverance are qualities we reveal and develop when we center our lives in Christ. But the larger point Paul is making is that people who want to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, people who seek to be different from the world around us as we follow Jesus, engage in habits of discipline. It doesn t happen magically. It is an ongoing intentional process which connects us with God and makes us different. We are not talking about a difference in the kind of life experiences that come our way. Christians experience loss and sadness like everyone else. Be patient in suffering, Paul says, assuming that we will suffer. Christians also struggle with financial challenges like everyone else. How much material wealth did Jesus have? What we are talking about is a different way of greeting life s challenges with perseverance and hope because we have centered our lives in Christ. Our resilience in the midst of challenges, not our aloofness or immunity from struggle, our stubborn refusal to give up 4
faith and hope, even as tears pour down our face, is what sets us apart and provides a witness to the world. We are also not talking about making a show of our faith in a way that bumps up against Jesus warning in The Sermon on the Mount. Rather we are talking about authentic practices of faith that have a natural way of shining through our lives without having to make a show. The story was told in another setting of a pastor who served the church decades before me. If a group was out to eat at a restaurant, he would not only insist on a blessing, but shout until the whole restaurant was quiet, say, We re going to have a prayer now, and effectively force everyone there to join him. I am not judging that practice, and this was another time, though the church members who told the story were made to feel awkward by the practice, but I do wonder whether there is not a way to honor our faith without making a show. I am much more moved by a person bowing briefly in silent prayer, trying to honor his/her beliefs without calling attention to him/herself. There is no right and wrong here but the kind of spiritual discipline Paul talks about has a natural way of bubbling up in our lives. We don t need a neon light all the time. And Paul goes on to talk about not being haughty, living in harmony with others, associating with the lowly and not claiming to be wiser than we are. In a word, he is talking about humility. This is, after all, the way of appropriate self-denial, the way of the cross. Authentic spiritual discipline begins in humility. But it is a part of the distinctively Christian life. In Paul s snapshot of our calling, followers of Jesus are always seeking to love one another and this love is grounded in habits of faith that connect us to God prayer, service, stewardship and hospitality all bathed in humility. There is one other priority Paul names in this text, the priority of grace, not repaying evil for evil, blessing those who persecute us, leaving vengeance to God, feeding our enemies, overcoming evil with good. Again, it is the way of cross. Rather than overwhelming his opponents with military power, Jesus sacrifices his life in love, and in the end this love overcomes all fear, hatred and evil. It even overcomes 5
death itself. If we want to consider living in a way that is different from the world around us, this is it! Yet, who among us is willing to go there? It seems crazy. Let our personal enemies do their worst and just take it, bless them for their efforts and offer hospitality? Not fight back against people with different agendas, people up to no good? And how about our enemies on a global scale, how will this philosophy play out? Some might argue that Paul isn't talking about this. He's talking about interpersonal enemies. That certainly would make the text easier to embrace. But it is an interpretation of convenience. Paul writes to believers who live under oppression, people whose faith in Christ makes them enemies of the state, people whose enemies have the power to lock them up and throw away the key or put them to death, all of which they do to Paul. And Paul says, "Bless those who persecute you... Do not repay anyone evil for evil... Never avenge yourselves... Overcome evil with good." It just sounds crazy. And yet, what is the alternative? Consider the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Thank God for the current ceasefire but how long will it last? On either side, Paul's counsel seems ridiculous. To let the other side do its worst and not fight back is national suicide. But to keep fighting is to continue a vicious cycle that will never end. Each party wants to keep fighting until the score is even, but the score will never be even because the parties don't agree upon who started it much less who has a right to the land. The only way out of this cycle is a radical departure from the ways of this world, a willingness to embrace the crazy suggestions of people like Jesus and Paul, to stop repaying evil for evil and start feeding the enemy who is hungry, to overcome evil with good. Crazy or not, this is happening already. The Interreligious Coordination Council of Israel (ICCI), a group made up of Jews, Christians and Muslims, brings together Israeli and Palestinian youth to learn a different way of relating to each other. They do not engage political issues. Their hope is that the political issues will get worked out, but when they do, the people will have to live together. How will they be able to do that if they do not know each other? The ICCI is preparing for that day, building bridges, overcoming evil with good. 6
Desmond Tutu says he is often asked how The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South African can work. How can people hear about the atrocities committed against loved ones during Apartheid and forgive the people who committed them? He says they do so, following a rabbi who said of his enemies from the very cross they had put him on, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." Then, he goes on to say that practicing forgiveness is not crazy. It is practical politics. For without forgiveness there is no way forward. This is the case whether the conflict is personal, national or international. The way forward involves forgiveness. There must be truth telling for genuine reconciliation to occur, but there must also be a willingness to not repay evil for evil. It is not a path many pursue, but it is the way of the cross, the way in which we are called to live. There is more to the distinctively Christian life than Paul can include in a snapshot and there is more in the text than I can explore today. But if we pursue these qualities, our lives will be different and the transforming power of the Gospel will be revealed - to love everyone we meet, to ground that love in humble habits of genuine devotion and to respond to every insult and slight we receive with grace. I think of the agnostic journalist who was witnessed to by a couple of ministers when he was on his deathbed. When they finally came up for air, he said, "Christianity, life lived according to the teachings of Jesus? I'm all for it! When does it begin?" We are surrounded by people who say the same thing. We need to keep working on our verbal witness. This is not an either-or consideration. But we also need to keep working on our manner of life. Imagine how much different the world might be if every person who claims the name of Jesus would embody the qualities we see in Paul's snapshot! Imagine how much more effective our witness to Christ would become! 7