January 7th, 2007


Scripture:

Romans 12:14-21
(Intro to John Drescher and chapel service where he impacted me so much)

Drescher: “A young pastor once wrote me, telling me that he had been upset and publicly taken me to task some years ago in a conference because I put so much emphasis on the cultivation and discipline of the inner life. He felt we should get busy in the work of the church. I did not remember the incident. Now, he confessed, that he realized his inner emptiness and how essential it is to get to the source of spiritual strength and service. In cultivating his own spiritual life, a whole new spiritual world began to unfold before him. In John 15, Jesus tells us twice that unless we abide in him and he abides in us we will accomplish nothing of spiritual or eternal worth.

Strength of the Anabaptist church from the very beginning was a deep emphasis on being Biblical people, on taking Jesus at his word as to how we are to live, and on service, humble service and obedience to what God expects from us, no matter what the cost…and our ancestors in our heritage paid a terrible cost with their lives for this commitment. And you know, as we have existed in a society of comfort and affluence, as centuries have passed, on some level in the Church of the Brethren, the deep emphasis on being Biblical, God-centered people has passed by the wayside as we have become so caught up in our daily lives and expectations today that we often neglect Biblical study and prayer, or just choose to ignore the expectations of God because we think we know better, and as time has passed by, we’ve lost the emphasis on taking Jesus at his word, especially in his harder teachings, because some of the things he taught just downright don’t make sense or line up with the goals that our society demands of us today, but as time has passed by, the Church of the Brethren still maintains a tremendous legacy of service to the world. Disaster Response and real practical mission work is a strength of the Church of the Brethren. The problem, though, that exists is when the willingness to serve as people doesn’t have a Biblical foundation of what is faithful and what is not and doesn’t carry that basic, simple commitment to following Jesus even if it seems to not make sense or lead to “success” as the world terms it, and we can find ourselves serving in places where we think we’re needed without considering the deeper question of God’s expectations for us. The Church of the Brethren is mostly a blue-collar, working class group of people that carry a tremendous willingness to hop to and serve, and so the challenge that faces us as a denomination, and the challenge that faces us as a church family here at Middle River is this: can we take this foundation of service and expand our vision to think about the role we can play as those who are willing to love and serve and care for others surrounding us in the name of Christ, while pursuing being a deeply Biblical people who listen to God and act according to his desires for us first, can we take Jesus’ simple teachings as instruction for our lives that rises above anything else we may hear or see? Would this provide a vision for us as a church as we pursue an identity in rebuilding?

These consistent questions that God brings before us: Do you want me first? Are you committed to me first? Will you listen to me first? Do you love me first, and most? Will you love this world and work for transformation in this world the same way I do? is deeply important for us as talk about Romans 12:14-21 today, as we stand on the brink of Romans 13:1-7 next week, and look ahead to Romans 13:8-14 on January 21^st. It is my belief that Romans 13:1-7 is the most misunderstood, poorly thought through piece of Scripture facing the church today, especially in countries of tremendous power and influence in the world. And Romans 13:1-7 says some pretty straight-forward things that seem obvious if the passage stands alone by itself. But it doesn’t. It is preceded by our passage of study today on love, and what that looks like practically, and it is followed from verse 8 on with the reminder again that we are to love as Jesus did, no more, no less. And so we have to take what we see in verses 1-7 and put it context if we really want to understand the meaning it carries for the people of God.

Vv. 14-16: Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited

There are many great goals here in this batch of verses; living in harmony with others, showing the ability to share joy and grief with others in our lives. Being a safe place for our friends to laugh with, listen to, and weep with. But I’d like to focus on the phrase in verse 16, “but associate with people of low position,” This phrase was meant to jolt the church in Rome. Literally it is “be carried away with the lowly (things and people).” And the only other two places where the word “carried away with” is found is in Galatians 2, where Barnabas is “carried away with” Peter’s hypocrisy, and 2 Peter 3, where people are “carried away with” the error of lawlessness. In other words, Paul chose a phrase that would not only shock us, but compel us to action. We are not just choosing to associate with the poverty-stricken, we are affected, we are compelled to care and invest our lives in them. This is what it means to be Christian. What is a priority to God should be a priority to us. And the Bible is filled to the brim with the truth that God cares deeply about the poor and the suffering, and cares deeply about his people investing their lives in them.

Psalm 72: Vv. 1-4

Give the king your justice, O God,and your righteousness to a king's son. May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice. May the mountains yield prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness. May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor.

Vv 11-14
“May all kings fall down before him, all nations give him service. For he delivers the needy when they call, the poor and those who have no helper. He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy. From oppression and violence he redeems their life; and precious is their blood in his sight.”

Caring for the poor is JUST AS MUCH a part of the whole gospel message as sharing your faith with someone. Just as much.

Vv. 17-19: Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge, I will repay, says the Lord.”

God’s Wrath: Let the apostle John remind us of how terrible and eternal the wrath of God is with just one of his most dreadful images. In Revelation 19:15 he describes Christ in his second coming: “From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.”

First: God is “almighty.” We are dealing here not with a mere world ruler, like the president of the United States or Prime Minister of Britain. They are as nothing compared to the power of the Creator of the Universe. “Almighty” means that God has all the power in the universe.

Second: this almighty God will pour out his wrath. God’s great love includes not only his mercy, but is full of holiness and justice and wrath. His wrath is full of fury. John speaks of “the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.” The wrath is not cool opposition. It is furiously angry opposition against those who have corrupted and rebelled against God’s good rule and intentions for all of creation. That means that those who ultimately rebelled and did not repent are like grapes under the feet of the fury of Christ, and are crushed until their blood runs like wine from the press. NOT a G-rated movie. If we know God—really know God—for who He is in the greatness of his holiness and justice and wrath and grace, we will tremble in his presence. And this is not something we will grow out of. In fact, the immature must grow into it.

And ironically, we can take comfort in that if we are committed to following Jesus because we’re not living in rebellion; we put ourselves in the position where we hold the highest respect for God’s expectations, we listen to God and act accordingly, and there’s security in that!

But the central things Paul is calling us to here as God’s people is to separate the action of God from our calling as followers. God is righteous and just and perfect in his action; we are not, we are flawed and inconsistent and twisted…so what do we do? What did he just say to us before here? (do not repay evil for evil…do NOT take revenge)

If you say—which you should—“But doesn’t the Bible teach us not to fear? Aren’t there many commands like, ‘Fear not, for I am with you’? What do they mean? They mean once central thing; Don’t fear man, fear God. Jesus made this very clear in Matthew 10:28, saying“do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” We should tremble at the prospect of distrusting God, not displeasing man.

So instead of repaying evil with evil, what do we do?

Vv. 20-21: 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.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

If you do these things, you’re stupid. There’s no other way around it. Which person in their right mind would act in such a manner to their enemies? (Jesus did, Paul did, Peter did, millions of Jesus’ followers throughout the ages have.) Why? If we would identify ourselves as Christians, then we are the follower of one who died for his enemies. And as a follower of him, we are commanded, expected, to be conformed into the image of, follow in the footsteps of Jesus. If we want to know how to respond to evil, we look to Jesus.

So when we’re being mistreated is our workplaces or schools, or a catastrophic event takes place on a national or global scale, we are called to stop and think: Who is my king, my leader, who governs my life? Who’s ultimately in charge? What does he expect out of me? So when someone does evil to us, we should say, “You are not my Lord. I will not have my attitudes and thoughts and actions dictated by your evil. Christ dictates my attitudes and thoughts and actions.

This has immediate relevance for yours and my life for two immediate reasons that may
carry intense emotions in you and me.

This connects first to the fact that September 11, 2001 occurred when our church was in the middle of a week of revival meetings, with Chester Fisher’s son in law Tony Baker preaching (speak of Tony’s comments of his knee-jerk response to the terrorist attacks and how his commitment to Christ put his initial feelings of hatred in a different perspective)

The Saddam Hussein hanging could be another example (How should we feel upon hearing of his death?)

But overcoming evil with good, what does that mean? Does it mean that, if you give your enemy water when he is thirsty and food when he is hungry, he will always repent and become your friend? No. We know Paul doesn’t think that. Jesus’s enemies do not all respond positively to his love for them. One thief on the cross repented and the other cursed. Peter repented. Judas hanged himself. The centurion said, “This was the Son of God.” The Pharisees plotted to kill him. The love of Christ does not produce repentance in everyone. And your love won’t either. But we do it anyway.

But the challenging aspect of this love is that some will not be changed, and in fact will HATE the fact that we love everyone in this way, and their hearts will be hardened, and their lives will be further twisted, and our lives will be a constant and consistent reminder to them of how twisted their lives are, and how far they fall short of what they’ve been created for. They will HATE that, and they will treat you like a pile of dirt, because YOUR LIFE shows them the truth of theirs.

And the tough part of this teaching is that we can be the ones living with an inadequate definition of love, and someone else’s willingness to live with unconditional love can make us bitter and hardened. That’s one of the primary challenges of life; recognizing our imperfection, having the humility to admit the specifics of it, and submitting ourselves constantly to growing into the image of Christ. Sometimes the lives of others will challenge us deeply with our own inadequate approach to life. And we have a choice in those cases to either stay in our imperfection or continue to grow.

You see, if I’m listening to God first, I deal with the reality that I deserve death JUST as much as Osama bin Laden and JUST as much as much as Saddam Hussein.

Dirk Willems: “Dirk was caught, tried and convicted as an Anabaptist in the later years of harsh Spanish rule under the Duke of Alva in The Netherlands. He escaped from his prison by letting himself out of a window with a rope made of knotted rags, dropping onto the ice that covered the castle moat. Seeing him escape, a palace guard pursued him as he fled. Dirk crossed the thin ice of a pond safely. His own weight had been reduced by short prison rations, but the heavier pursuer broke through.

Hearing the guard's cries for help, Dirk turned back and rescued him. The less-than-grateful guard then seized Dirk and led him back to captivity. This time the authorities threw him into a more secure prison, a small, heavily barred room at the top of a very tall church tower, above the bell, where he was probably locked into the wooden leg stocks that remain in place today. Soon he was led out to be burned to death. Some inhabitants of present-day Asperen, none of them Mennonite, regard Dirk as a folk hero. A Christian, so compassionate that he risked recapture in order to save the life of his drowning pursuer, stimulates respect and memory. Recently Asperen named a street in Dirk's honor.

Now how did Dirk’s action heap burning coals on his enemy’s head?

What positive benefit did Dirk reap by turning back to save that man? (what are some possibilities?)

(Nate's idea) Because of his fear of God that drove him to faithfulness (knowing he would have to answer for the life of the man), he realized he had no choice. And because he feared God, he paid the human price at the hands of the authorities there. Dirk made his decision in light of eternity, because he knew the most convicting, most awe-inspiring, most fearful moment he would ever face would be before the judgment seat of God, and he wanted to obey God first and foremost no matter what.

And so it is with you and the enemies you love: the more mercy they reject, the more coals of fire will be heaped on their head. This is NOT our desire or our aim. Our aim is in verse 14: Bless and do not curse. Pray for your enemies. Paul sets the pace in Romans 10:1, “My heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.”

Our responsibility is to love. God’s responsibility is to administer ultimate judgment someday.

Bill Clinton is no pillar of morality for us to look up to in life (though the failures of his life should shed light on the failures we all experience), but he said something beautiful and true at the funeral of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin,

“Your prime minister was a martyr for peace, but he was a victim of hate. Surely we must learn from his martyrdom that if people cannot let go of the hatred of their enemies, they risk sowing the seeds of hatred among themselves. I ask you, the people of Israel, on behalf of my nation that knows its own long litany of loss- from Abraham Lincoln to President Kennedy to Martin Luther King- do not let that happen to you.”