I thought since I am currently delivering my first sermon ever, I would schedule the written form to go out over my blog simultaneously.  Ah, the wonders of technology.  Anyways, it is based in the text Romans 12:9-21, which might help to read first here.  Also, I apologize for editing mistakes, grammar, and the like.  I wrote it like I would speak it, so if it doesn’t sound right, just imagine Martin Luther King Jr. orating it, and it should sound better…

Good morning!  Paul says, “Contribute to the needs of the saints; Extend hospitality to strangers.”  As a stranger to ________, you have extended much more than your fair share of hospitality to me.  From the time Harold jumped up to greet me on my first Sunday here, through Vacation Bible School where the ladies welcomed me with so much excitement each day – I even arrived late to the Swiss Steak Dinner, and you still let me eat!  The church’s and Pastor ___’s willingness to include me in the work of the church for this month was an offering of acceptance that I think embodies the essence of hospitality.  From my experience, I would say that you all have set a pretty good example of the way Paul instructs us to be hospitable.

It makes sense that he stresses hospitality here.  After all, it was crucial to the operation of the early church.  As you know, Paul and his fellow church leaders had to physically travel from city to city, checking in and making sure that everything was going smoothly.  In reality, they couldn’t have started the early church without the hospitality of early believers.

I think about it sometimes when I am making my arrangements for this year.  As most of you know, I am moving on from here to stay for a month each at different churches for the rest of the year, and it’s sometimes difficult for me to ask for too much help while I’m there – it’s probably some sort of need for independence or something, I don’t know.  I mean, I didn’t even want to eat Host’s home-cooked meals when I first got here because I wanted to be as self-supporting as possible! (Don’t worry, I quickly gave in on that after the first dinner of grilled salmon and steamed vegetables).

Paul never seems to have the same qualms about asking for help that I do.  He ends one letter, in fact, with the rather blunt instruction: “One more thing:  Prepare a guest room for me.”  Clearly, hospitality is important for Paul.

Of course, hospitality is just one aspect of a broader theme that is repeated in this passage.  You see, Paul also tells us to “love one another with mutual affection,” elsewhere to “live in harmony with each other,” and to “live peaceably.”  Are you noticing a common thread?  The instructions seem to be about living together in Christian community. 

It’s surprisingly practical, when you think about it.  I mean, up until this point, the book of Romans has been devoted to all of this theological talk about sanctification and justification; faith, and the law – all of these complex issues that theologians still argue about today.  Then, all of a sudden in chapter 12, Paul takes a step back and seems to say, “But you know what – you all just need to learn how to get along with each other.”

Why does he feel the need to address something like getting along in a community that, to me at least, seems a lot less important than some of his other messages?  Well, for one, how to live together in community has been a big issue since long before Paul, and even before Jesus.  One of my favorite examples in the Bible of how a group learns to deal with community problems comes from the Exodus story, when the Israelites are out in the desert in the 18^th chapter, and Moses decides to sit as a judge for the people of Israel.  Up until now, the Israelites have been going, going, going, nonstop since they were in Egypt – first they had to escape from Pharaoh’s army through the Red Sea, then they couldn’t find water for 3 days, then they couldn’t find food, then they couldn’t find water again, then, of all things, the Amalekite army attacks them – all said, the people of Israel had not had a moment to breathe and just deal with the day-to-day problems and arguments that I imagine traveling through the desert with so many people would present.

So, in response to this, Moses finally says. “OK, I’m going to sit as a judge for all of the people, no matter how long it takes, and I will get all of this sorted out myself.”  Well, Exodus chapter 18 tells us that he does this all day, “from morning until night,” before his father-in-law, Jethro, finally walks up to him and asks Moses why on earth he is doing this, sitting there all day long while everyone brings their problems to him.  Moses says, “When they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another.”  In other words, the Israelites don’t have any guidelines for how they are supposed to deal with these problems in a Godly way, so Moses has to settle everything himself.

Well, Jethro responds bluntly and says, “What you are doing is not good.”  Leave it to the father-in-law to tell him what he’s doing wrong.  Jethro continues, and he tells Moses that if he keeps this up, he is going to wear himself out, because “the task is too heavy” for him, and he “cannot do it alone.”  Instead, he tells Moses to “teach them the statutes and instructions and make known to them the way they are to go and the things they are to do.”  Thank God for the wisdom of those fathers-in-law!

I love this chapter because it tells us a couple of things.  First, of course, Jethro’s point is that the people need to take some responsibility for themselves.  If they are going to live in community together, then they need to be able to implement some ground rules for settling arguments, instead of just asking Moses who’s right all the time.  I can’t get this picture out of my head of two grown men stomping up to Moses, and one whining at him, “Moses!  He took my favorite staff!”  “Oh yeah, well HE started it!”  Jethro is saying that these people need to learn how to live in peace on their own, because, quite simply, Moses isn’t always going to be there.

The other nice thing about this story is that it reminds us that even when we feel absolutely pushed to our limits in terms of time, stress, or obligations, it is still important to deal with the simple problems of living in a community – that no matter what other world-shaking events are taking place, we still need to cultivate and mend our relationships with the people around us.

Going back to Romans, I think that is why Paul takes this moment in Chapter 12 to talk to us about community.  He realizes that the church is going to have some serious tension, both within it and with those outside of it, and he is not always going to be there.  He is taking a cue from Jethro and telling us the “way we are to go and things we are to do.”  You can tell because he urges the Romans (and us) to “rejoice in hope” and “persevere in prayer.”  He is not idealistic; he’s saying, “yes, you will have problems, but with hope and prayer, and an overall reliance on God, you will make it through.”

So what does he tell us to do?  Well, there are lots of specific instructions.  He tells us to show “mutual affection” to one another.  He tells us to serve each other and to show one another honor.  He tells us to weep with those who weep – meaning, to be there for those who are suffering, even if you are at that point where you feel like you have finally reached some peace in your life and the last thing you want to do is be brought down by someone else’s problems.  Even then, you weep with those who weep. But also, of course, he says to rejoice with those who are rejoicing.

I wanted to share with you a funny note on this last verse from John Wesley that I came across while researching for this sermon.  He has a comment on that verse, “rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep” where he gives his own explanation of why Paul chose the word “rejoice” as the counterpart to “weeping.”  You see, Wesley said that, actually, the “direct opposite of weeping is laughter” – not rejoicing.  So why doesn’t Paul say “Laugh with those who laugh,” according to Wesley?  Well, in his 17^th century Puritan-influenced way, he explained that Paul uses the word “rejoice” because laughter “does not so well suit a Christian.”  I think we can agree today, though, that laughter might be an acceptable alternative to weeping.  In fact, if the point of this verse is just to say that we need to be there for one another no matter what, then laughter might be a more tangible way to understand this instruction to rejoice.  So, rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, and by all means, feel free to laugh with those who laugh!  I think your time for the prayers of the people at the beginning of each service are the perfect example of this.

Anyway, the passage goes on to tell us exactly what it takes to live together in harmony:  “Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly” – In today’s world where the rich and the poor are put in ever-increasing contact with each other, I’d say this rings especially true.  “Do not claim to be wiser than you are” – well, that’s just another way of saying have some humility!  “Do not repay evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all” – In other words, pay more attention to exercising the honorable example that Jesus set for us, rather than making sure we get back at the people who did us wrong.  In sum, as Paul puts it, “So far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” And there you have it, Romans 12:9-21 is simply a prescription that will help members of church congregations get along better, and that’s it.

Or is it?  Is it just about living in community with other Christians?  The more I think about it… I don’t think so.  I think it starts out addressing the community problems of the Christian church in Rome, but I think the point is much bigger than that.  Look again at how Paul concludes this passage:  He says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”  Now, I don’t know about you, but that seems to be a bit overdramatic if all he’s talking about is petty disputes in a community.

So, since I have not been to seminary and don’t know as much about Paul’s beliefs as some people, I did a little research on what he means by “overcoming evil with good.”  It turns out that what a lot of the smartest teachers of the Bible think is that, for Paul, one way of defining evil is as any way that the power of sin works to create disunity in the body of Christ.  Strife within the Christian community, in other words, is actually a marker of the power of “evil” It is “sin in action.”

Why is this such a bad thing?  Because for Paul, strife, disunity, infighting, these are all markers, not of the church, but of a world that is corrupted by sin.  The church, on the other hand, is supposed to be a transforming force!  It is supposed to be a visible marker of God’s goodness and grace in this otherwise pretty confused world.  The church, as one person I read put it, is “a living witness to God’s abundant grace and power.”

That is why it is so important that we live together well in community:  because people outside of the church are looking at us.  And if we can’t even get along with each other, then how are we supposed to lead the rest of the world into God’s grace?

If you can kind of agree with this interpretation – that Paul is telling us how to live in community because we need to be an example for the rest of the world – then I think the instructions of this passage do not stop at the walls of the church.  I think it also tells us how to treat those outside of the community.   It is not just instructions to tell the church – whether that means Lakewood UMC, The United Methodist Church, or Christians as whole – how to get along better, but it is instruction for how we can be a community that invites others in.  A community that is defined so much by God’s love and God’s grace that others can’t help but be attracted to it!

So with this new way of thinking about the passage, each instruction takes on a different meaning.  When Paul says to “extend hospitality to strangers,” it doesn’t just mean, if some young, crazy, Christian guy comes into your community, you give them a place to stay.  Now, it also means, when you, as a church, see someone in need – Christian or not, you extend that same hospitality to them.  When Paul says to “weep with those who weep,” that means to find the suffering out there in the world, and to be a force of comfort and empathy.  And, when Paul tells us not to repay evil with evil, he’s not just talking about one individual to another.  He means that the church must treat those who do evil to it with the same love that God shows to us.  That’s why he goes on to say “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.”

Now, before you think that this last phrase about burning coals means that kindness toward enemies is just a roundabout way of getting them back, I want to suggest a different meaning.  Yes, at first glance, it sounds like Paul is simply saying, be extra kind to those who are mean to you, because that will really make them mad!  I don’t think that’s the point.  It turns out that a lot of those smart people who know more than me about biblical matters, they think that this imagery of “heaping burning coals on their heads” was used by Paul to symbolize an ancient ritual of atonement that would have been familiar to his readers.  In this ritual, those who have sinned would come to have the smoke from burning coals waved over their heads by a Priest – it was a way to atone for what one had done wrong.  If we take that interpretation, then Paul tells us to feed our enemies not simply because it will make them feel bad for hurting us, but because it is a way of extending the forgiving love of Jesus to them.  It is a way to invite them into the Christian life that will ultimately release them from their sins.

Now, that whole bit about the purification ritual may be a bunch of baloney, I don’t know, but I think it gets to the heart of the matter, nonetheless:  We are to do all of these things – to love one another and those we encounter out in the world – because we are exemplifying Christ’s love, not because we are trying to incur guilt.  In fact, Paul starts this passage by saying “Let love be genuine,” and I think, in the end, that’s the bottom line.  When we are hospitable to strangers, when we live together in Christian community peaceably, when we love those outside of the Christian community, when we overcome the evil of the world with good, we are inviting that world to know God’s love, and to experience God’s grace.

Selah