Let us pray: Come Holy Spirit, enliven these words. Help us to live in love and leave the judging to your mercy. In the name of the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer. Amen.
Last week Sharon talked about the gifts that we’ve been given for the good of all. The gifts of teaching, the gift of generosity, and the gift of compassion that brings joy. Today’s reading from Romans tells us how to use our gifts to live well with others.
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, 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.
An excellent list of how to fashion our lives after Jesus. Genuine love, hate for evil, mutual affection, honoring others, serving God with gusto, rejoicing in hope, finding patience amidst suffering, remembering to always pray and bring our lives to God, sharing and helping others, and welcoming the stranger. These are solid actions for us aspire to as we seek to live out God’s love today, but…but what about when people are stupid, or mean, or judgmental, hateful, or just plain wrong? Then what?
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good
Ahh, that, I see. As followers of Jesus, we are called to bless and NOT curse those who do us harm. When others are rejoicing, we join in celebrating with them, and when they are weeping, we weep with them. We are to work to live together in harmony, not thinking we’re better than others, or thinking some are below us, or that we know SO much more than they do, no. We are not to pay anyone back for the bad things they’ve done to us, but we’re called to rise above it, to be noble. If possible, and this is a big if, we are called to live at peace with everyone. We must never seek revenge but leave it up to God. I will repay says the Lord. We are to outdo one another in showing honor and to return hate with love, to offer food and drink to even our enemies. We are to overcome evil with good.
Hate only breeds more hate, we know that. Violence creates more violence, insults and judgments lead to more and more of the same. But…when we, like Jesus, do NOT return hate but instead counter it with love…watch out! They weren’t expecting that! That can change everything. Leaving people frozen in their tracks. Remember the actions of Jesus and his words as he hung on the cross? Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. In the second chapter of James is a verse that I’ve been remembering and sharing a lot lately: the second half of verse 13 says, Mercy triumphs over judgment. Mercy triumphs over judgment. God’s mercy, God’s grace, God’s desire that ALL should come to know their beloved status, will, in the end, win out. From John 3:16 AND 17: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him.” NOT to condemn, but to save. And in psalm 103, verse 8, we are reminded of God’s nature: The Lord is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great kindness.
I want to pose a question, one that I have been thinking about and talking to a few of you about this past week. I wonder… I wonder what it would look like for us and for our lives, if we were able to let God do the judging? I wonder what our interactions and relationships would look like if we could let go and let God. Let God handle the actions of others and the outcomes of their lives based on those actions.
In today’s gospel lesson Peter who just proclaimed Jesus the Messiah gets rebuked. “Get behind me Satan…you are setting your mind on human things, not on divine things.” If we want to follow Jesus, we too need to set our minds of divine things, to try and understand God’s way of doing business. We need to look past ourselves and our own interests and put God first, picking up our crosses, laying down our lives to really find them. Our new, full, abundant lives permeated with the good news of God’s redeeming, transforming love for our world revealed in Jesus on the cross. Did you notice this verse? “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. At first, this verse bothered me and then, it delighted me. We are called to look toward the return of Jesus in glory and then Jesus will repay. Jesus will judge. Jesus will decide, according to what has been done. WE don’t NEED to judge others. It’s not our job! We are free to NOT worry about that! Just imagine how much better our lives would be if we decided to leave judgment up to our just and merciful God? We’d all be so much freer to receive and share God’s love, so much freer to focus on creating loving relationships based on mercy and forgiveness.
Vengeance is mine says the Lord. Jesus will repay. Bless and curse not. Give food and drink to your enemies. We are called to focus on living together in harmony, sharing, loving, and building beloved community. God will judge. And the mercy of God always triumphs over judgment. Amen.
