September 7, 2008

Scripture:         Romans 13:8-14

Sermon:           “Time to Start Loving”

            There are a grand total of 613 commandments listed in the first five books of the Bible.  613.  Did you know that?  613.  That’s the sum.  When we hear folks talking about “The Law”, that’s what they’re talking about.  There are 613 of them.  They were handed down to the Israelite people from Moses, according to these first five books.  And Moses received them from God.  All 613.

            And these laws range from the obvious and familiar, “do not commit murder”, to the more peculiar and foreign to us, “you may not eat the pig, for even though it has divided hoofs and is cleft-footed, it does not chew the cud.”  I grew up in the South where barbecue pork is a staple of the diet.  That last one has proven impossible for me.

            There are, according to many rabbis, 365 negative commandments.  These tell you what not to do.  And, yes, there is one for every single day of the year.  A negative.  Don’t do this.

            And there are 248 positive commandments.  These tell you what you should do.  Love the Lord your God.  That’s a good one.  The best, I’d say.

            But, that’s 613 dos and don’ts.  And let’s face it.  We all have enough trouble remembering exactly what’s in the top ten.  Imagine what keeping these laws would be like for folks who were probably much less educated for the most part.

            So, you find throughout the Bible some nifty pointers for staying within the law without having to commit the whole number to heart.  Jesus tried to set the Pharisees in their place by saying that all the law and the prophets hang on two commandments:  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.  He was saying what many before had said.  He was giving a simple rule for understanding what the Law was all about.

            Now, turn with me to Romans, chapter 13, verses 8 through 14.  That’s on page 216 of the New Testament in the pew Bible.  And you’ll find here that Paul is doing that very same thing.  He’s holding up the act of loving as defining what the entire Law requires of us.  Listen to the Word of the Lord…

            Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.  The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

            Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep.  For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near.  Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.  Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

            Julie and I live on a small patch of land over in Louisville.  It’s one of those old houses in an old neighborhood where if you’re not careful the neighbors will see right through your window and know everything that’s going on.  We stand at the kitchen sink, you know, and look right in on dinner next door.

            There’s a wooden fence between our back yard and the next one.  I stand on my deck sometimes and the man over there is grilling out or something.  Not much privacy.

            I noticed that they had hummingbirds in their yard all the time.  They fly right by me on the way over there.  Beautiful little things.  They fascinate me, hummingbirds.  And they go over to my neighbors house all the time.  I began to wonder why.  I mean we’ve got a little nicer lot than they do.  And there’s a big dog in their yard all the time.  Why’d they fly by our house and go over there?

            So, a few days ago, I stood out on my back deck and said, “Hummingbird, why don’t y’all ever come over here?”

            He said, “well, hello, sir.  Didn’t see you there.  I’m so busy, you know, pollinating these flowers.”

            I said, “I see that.  I love watching you.  I just love hummingbirds.  Why don’t you hang out over here?”

            “Man, I’m really busy most of the time.  Guess I haven’t paid much attention.  But, you say you’re a hummingbird lover.  Maybe I will some day.”

            “Oh, that’d be great.  I hear that you flap your wings like 80 times in one second.  And you’re the only bird that can fly backwards.”

            “Yep.”  He said, “God’s really given me quite a job to do.  Good thing I’m built this way.  But, I’ll tell you, sure makes me hungry.  All the time.  I’m just starving all the time.”

            “Well, we’ve got some flowers in need of your services, I’ll tell you.”

            “Sounds great.  Let me ask you something, friend.”

            “Shoot.”

            “Where’s your hummingbird feeder?  Tell me where your hummingbird feeder is so I can get something to eat over there.”

            “Well, I don’t have a hummingbird feeder.”

            “You don’t?  I thought you said you’re a hummingbird lover!  You don’t even have a hummingbird feeder!”

            “I never thought about that.”

            “You people kill me.  You think that love is just an emotion.  Love is an action, man.  Love isn’t just something you feel.  You’re always wanting to feel.  Love is the way you treat others.  And I’m hungry.”

            I went back inside.

            I thought about it, too.  And something that hummingbird said made sense.  Because, I’ll tell you, there’s some folks that I have trouble feeling much love fore.  But, I know I can treat them as if I do.

            I think Paul’s trying to get us to see that.  You take all of those dos and don’ts, you know.  There’s 613 of them.  And a lot of them have to do with what’s right by the folks around us.  And, I’ll tell you, I can’t keep track of them all.  But, Paul says if we just love folks we’d be fulfilling all those laws anyway.

            Problem is that we think love is just an emotion.  But, really, it’s the way we treat folks that matters.  Feel love for them or not, treat them with love and that’s the key.

            He sets it up like a debt.  Don’t get behind in your bills.  Owe nothing to anybody.  And we all have a good sense of what owing somebody something means.  Those folks in Rome probably knew as well.  Paul was writing to people whose whole lives centered around owing something to somebody.  Favors, mostly.  Their whole way of life was an account sheet of favors.  The more favors that people owed you the better, and the higher your status would be.  If someone owed you, then you’d be their “lord”, which kind of gives a slant to Paul’s calling Jesus “Lord” doesn’t it?

            But, Paul’s trying to build a new way of life among folks, one where your status was already taken care of.  You’re inheriting God’s kingdom, you know.  What could anybody else possibly give you?  And what could you possibly give somebody else that’s better?  So, the church is about a bunch of folks who are there quite despite what anybody else might think of them.  God’s already purchased them.  The debt’s already paid.

            So, in this church community, you see, we’re all on equal ground.  Nobody’s over you.  Nobody’s beneath you.  Owe nothing to anybody.  Owe nothing to anybody, except to love one another.  That’s what you owe.  You owe folks love—and I mean that kind of love that does something real.  Put a feeder in the yard if you love hummingbirds so much.  Know what I mean?

            It’s a debt, love.  It’s a debt we owe.  Last thing you need is another debt, right?  But, that’s what Paul’s saying.  You pay off a mortgage in 30 years.  This debt’s going to last a little longer.  This debt is your own life.  So, we have to pay on it all the time.

            Now, I’d suggest that we’ve got some loving to do.  Here.  Concretely.  Because we’re smack dab in the middle of a town where 14% of the families live below the poverty line.  Did you know that?  How are we going to love them?  One out of every three kids is eligible for the free or reduced-price lunch program.  One out of three.  How are we going to love them?

            Church, we’ve got some loving to do.  It’s a debt that we’re never going to retire, but we have to make payments anyway.  Love.  Real, action-oriented kind of love.

            Do you recall the day when Jesus was with Peter by the Sea of Tiberias?  Remember that day?  Not longer after Jesus rose from the grave.  Do you remember that day?  He said to Peter, “Do you love me more than these others?”  And Peter said, “you know I do, Lord.”  Do you remember that?  “Then feed my lambs.”  That’s what Jesus said.

            “I’ll ask you again, Simon, son of John.”  That was another way of saying Peter’s name.  “Do you love me?”  Peter’s a little antsy at this point.  “You know that I love you.”  “Then tend my sheep.”

            Third time.  “Peter, do you love me?”  And now Peter’s hurt.  How many times does he have to say it.  “Lord, you know everything.  You know that I love you.”  “Feed my sheep.”

            What’s love but a feeling?  No.  It’s a doing.

            You can sum up all of what God expects of us.  “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

            Love your neighbor as you love yourself.  613 commandments?  Not so easy.  Love your neighbor as you love yourself.  That you can handle.

            You do love yourself, don’t you?

            Now, wait a minute.  You do love yourself, don’t you?

            I mean, God loves you.  Loves you quite a bit.  What is it that Jesus once told that Pharisee, Nicodemus?  He said, you know, that “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.”

            Yeah, God loves you.  Paul put it this way, in this very letter to the Romans:  God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.  (5:8)

            So, you know that, right?  God loves you.  Do you love yourself, then?  Is it true what they say?  They say you can’t love anybody else until you can love yourself.  So, God expects us to love our neighbors as ourselves.  Probably we should look and see if we love ourselves.

            My guess is that’s why Paul immediately started writing about all of this behavior that folks were still getting involved with.  He said, “let’s live honorably, folks.  Let’s live like it’s daylight already.  All that nighttime stuff isn’t cutting it.  The revelry.  The drunkenness.  The debauchery.  The licentiousness.  The quarreling and jealousy.”  That’s his short list.

            Does it sound familiar?  I think he’s saying that when we’re turning to all of that stuff outside of ourselves, what we’re really demonstrating is that we don’t truly love ourselves.  Isn’t that what causes us to seek comfort in substances and sex?  And isn’t that what causes us to break our relationships?  We don’t truly feel comfortable in our own skin?  We don’t love ourselves the way God loves us?

            Now, that’s some pretty deep stuff.  Dangerous stuff.  And if you’re going through it, my friend, let’s talk.  My door is open.  We can get some help.

            The sun has started breaking over the morning horizon.  Goodness, gracious, Jesus has risen from the dead.  It’s time to start loving.  It’s time to get that God has claimed us and named us as worthy.  And if you haven’t begun to believe in yourself, started loving yourself, it’s time.  More than that, it’s time to start loving others.  Real love.  Do something love.  Love that reflects, what?  God’s own giving love.  God’s own love expressed in the cross itself.  It’s time to start loving.

Rev. David James Brown

Park Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)