Covenant Living

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

August 31, 2014

Covenant Living

Romans 12:9-21

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.

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.

Paul does love his lists!

Where Jesus preferred to teach through parables,

lessons taught in a way that leaves it

to the listener, leaves it to each of us,

to figure out what we are supposed to learn,

Paul is direct, blunt, to the point:

“Do this, don’t do that.

Live this way, don’t live that way.”

There is a sermon in every sentence in our lesson:

“Let love be genuine;

Be ardent in Spirit;

Do not claim to be wiser than you are;

associate with the lowly;

if your enemies are hungry, feed them.”

Paul wasn’t preaching a sermon;

he wasn’t standing on the side of a mountain

speaking to a large and diverse group of people.

He was writing to a group of Christians,

followers of Jesus Christ,

speaking to them through a letter,

a letter written to advise them,

steer them, enlighten them,

help them, guide them.

Paul wrote the letter

to help the Christians in Rome learn how

to become more faithful followers of Christ.

After all, Jesus left no instruction manual,

and it would be another 2000 years

before someone would publish,

“Christianity For Dummies.”

Thirty years after the crucifixion of Christ

there was no shortage of so-called prophets,

who claimed to speak for Christ,

who claimed to know the gospel of Christ.

Most were the Elmer Gantrys of their day:

frauds, con-artists,

men and women

concerned only with their own power and riches.

Those who wanted to follow Jesus

didn’t know who to listen to,

what to listen to.

So Paul traveled, spoke,

and wrote letters,

letters to Christian communities

in Rome, Corinth

Galatia, Philippi and other places

throughout the Mediterranean

to help followers understand the gospel of Christ.

In the first eight chapters of his letter to Rome,

Paul speaks of the grace of God

revealed in Jesus Christ.

In chapter 9, where our text comes from,

Paul shifts his focus,

saying in effect,

“now that you understand

the gift of grace you’ve received,

you need to understand

how to respond to that gift.

You need to understand that your response

should be nothing less than

embracing a wholly new life,

a life transformed.”

He wanted those listening to

the words of his letters

to understand that following Christ

wasn’t about abiding by rules,

following canonical laws and regulations;

it was about living in grace,

living in love,

it was about learning to live as Jesus taught,

learning to live as Jesus himself lived.

                                   

“Turn aside from the world you know,”

Paul is saying to the Christians in Rome,

Turn away from it

and embrace the new life in Jesus Christ.”

Paul is saying the same thing to us,

to you and me.

It is a message we’ve struggled with for 2,000 years,

as we’ve struggled with what it really means

to be a follower of Christ.

                 

Surely there is more to it than personal salvation

in response to a profession of faith;

our entrance ticket to heaven punched,

leaving us to continue down the path that we find

most comforting.                     

And surely it isn’t admittance to an elect club

where we on the inside

can then feel free to judge those on the outside.

No: Paul makes it clear—

in following Christ,

we are called to transform our lives,

we are called to a wholly new way of life,

a way of life that often may be at odds

with the world around us,

a life that may lead us from the road we’d been on.

We – all Paul’s listeners –

we want specifics, though.

“Tell us what we need to do.”

And that’s just what Paul does with his list.

His list, for as long as it is,

isn’t meant to be complete or exhaustive.

But the words in this letter help us to focus,

focus on what it means to be a disciple of Christ:

Let love be genuine;

love one another with mutual affection;

outdo one another in showing honor.

We have to remember that in the Greek language

that Paul used when he wrote his letters,

there were different words for “love”

depending upon the context.

Here in this letter he speaks of love

not as a married couple might feel for one another,

but what the Greek language called “agape” love,

love between friends, between neighbors,

even between strangers,

love that Paul explains in his letter to the Corinthians,

is patient, is kind,

doesn’t insist on its own way

bears all things, hopes all things.

(1 Corinthians 13:4ff)

Agape love is love turned outward,

love shared with all,

not just a select few.

                          

The Reverend Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine,

begins his newest book with a searing indictment

of our contemporary society,

a society in which agape love seems to be

in danger of disappearing.

“Ours is a shallow and selfish age,” Wallis writes,

“and we are in need of conversion –

from looking out just for ourselves

to also looking out for one another.”

We need to embrace anew Paul’s call

to outdo one another in showing honor

respect, courtesy,

graciousness,

thoughtfulness.

Wallis goes on, writing,

“Christianity is …a call to a relationship

that changes all our other relationships….

It’s time to hear and heed a call

to a different way of life.”

That’s the essence of Paul’s message

to the people of Rome,

and to us,

sitting here in a church

in Manassas Virginia on Labor Day weekend 2014.

You and I are called to a new way of life

in which we take seriously Paul’s admonishment

that we are to let love be genuine

and outdo one another in showing honor.

We are called to a way of life

in which we extend hospitality to strangers,

understanding that that includes those who may

have entered our country illegally.

We are called to a way of life

in which we are to feed our enemies,

give them something to drink,

“heaping burning coals on their heads,”

a striking image of how our grace and love

can burn away anger and hatred inside another.

Paul is no fool;

he isn’t naïve.

He understands just how difficult

living this way can be.

He even gives us a qualified call:

If it is possible, so far as it depends on you,

live peaceably with all.

What Paul calls us to do,

what our Lord teaches us is, try,

try,

work at growing in discipleship

which means work at growing in love.

We have one another to help,

and we also have God’s help through the Holy Spirit.

As our Brief Statement of Faith reminds us:

“The Spirit…sets us free to accept ourselves

and to love God and neighbor….

In a broken and fearful world,

the Spirit gives us courage…”

So we can take “thought for what is noble

in the sight of all.”

Noble in the sight of all:

what is good, righteous,

honorable, decent,

unselfish, generous –

all synonyms for “noble” –

in the sight of not just a few,

but all.

That’s how we are to live our lives,

This new life will often confront us

and call us to change our ways,

change our thinking,

change how we do things.

The great preacher William Sloane Coffin

gives us wise and helpful words

with his simple observation,

“It is a good time to change your mind

when to do so will widen your heart.”

That’s covenantal living –

living in the covenant

given us by the grace of God in Jesus Christ

Living in covenant with one another

all God’s children,

a covenant of love,

The Reverend Frederick Buechner has written,

“To pray for your enemies,

to worry about the poor

when you have worries enough of your own,

to start becoming yourself fully

by giving of yourself prodigally

to whoever needs you,

to love your neighbors

when an intelligent fourth-grader could tell you

that the way to get ahead in the word

is to beat your neighbors to the draw

every chance you get –

that, Paul is telling us,

is what God asks of us.”

So, “Let love be genuine;

love one another with mutual affections;

outdo one another in showing honor;

Rejoice in hope

persevere in prayer

live in harmony with one another

and take thought

for what is noble in the sight of all.”

This is covenantal living.

This is living by the Word of the Lord.

AMEN