THE ELEVENTH SUNDAY after PENTECOST

August 28, 2011

Texts: Matthew 16:24; Romans 12:9-21

Pastor Dale G. Bauer

One day, Jesus was with his disciples and he said something startling to their ears:

If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their crosses, and follow me.

Peter didn’t get it. The rest of the disciples didn’t get it. Members of the first churches didn’t get it. Most of the time, we don’t get it.

Now I don’t believe I will get crucified, literally, partially because I live in a country that protects my right to religious expression and partly because what I believe and do matters little to most. But denying myself from getting what I want and removing myself from the center of my world is a real challenge. Day after day, week after week, year after year. But thinking and acting beyond myself is exactly the call to the cross.

The very best outline of what it means to take up the cross of Christ then and now comes from the greatest understander of Jesus of Nazareth, the great missionary
Paul. His vision is a letter—email or blog these days—to a real church in a very real place. So let’s turn to Romans 12:9-21.

Background. Paul, the great spreader of the Gospel, is writing a letter to a group of Christians in the city of Rome. Rome is the capital of the Roman Empire and the most important city of its time, still called the eternal city. Paul did not plant this church but writes to it as an apostle. The word apostle has at its core the sense of a messenger. Often it is limited to the twelve disciples of Jesus. Does Paul have a message for these folks in Rome. He has some things to say abouthow the church should act.

(9) Let love be genuine; hate what is evil,
hold fast to what is good. This is the man who said that three things endure forever: faith, hope, and love—and love was the greatest of these. The word love is used so freely and often that it doesn’t mean much. We love our family and friends, country, and the flavor of our favorite cream. Christians use it in a very specific way. Love as we use it is not a feeling or liking. It is the outlandish love shown to us by God in Christ Jesus; it is an ethical love that seeks the good of others even at cost to ourselves; it is forgiving; it seeks to explain others’ actions in the kindest way. Paul begins with love because it is how we understand the cross and it is the foundation of the church. It is false, not genuine, when we fake “niceness.”

We are confused these days about good and evil. There are many Christians who don’t believe in the idea of evil, that there is an independent, powerful force opposing good. I was reading a book and it suggests there is real evil in the church and we ally ourselves with evil by repetitious sinning and by harboring sympathies and collusions with evil spiritual forces.

(10) Love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Actually, the words Paul uses conveys the sense that in the Christian community we are devoted to each other and show special regard for each other. And it is followed by the suggestion that we are not only unusually devoted to each other, but we build up our brothers and sisters. When we put aside our concerns and listen to our brothers and sisters in the church, we are demonstrating philia, brotherly and sisterly concern for each other.

(11) Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. You know the phrase, first applied to our Episcopalian brothers and sisters, The Frozen Chosen. The Good News is ours and ours to share. But the frozen aren’t chosen much these days. The mainline church is in serious decline; the most recent research suggests that the people who leave mainline churches don’t go to other churches. They just don’t go. It is part of a trend across the United States, where people pursue spirituality—whatever that is—rather than disciplined faith and service. (Now, when I speak of the frozen chosen, I am not talking about formal worship, liturgical practice; in this worship I experience zeal, passion, and service.) Paul smiles on this congregation, Cross of Hope. This church is designed by intention to be a place of zeal, passion, and service. Our New Member Manual is designed to let those who want to join our fellowship know that the Gospel requires our time, our money, and our commitment. Every weekday morning I watch from my office window as little folks are dropped off for school. They jump out of their cars, get a warm greeting by our principal and teachers, and with faces charged with excitement and joy head off to a new day at school.

(12) Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Communities of faith, we are reminded, are not immune to suffering. It was Paul who said the creation groans. But he provides marks of the community when it suffers or when it prospers. We live by hope given in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and we pray. And we pray. And we pray.

(13) Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Some believe Paul was thinking of the church in Jerusalem which had been devastated by persecution. But it extends later in the letter to those in need in a much wider sense. We are providing now in the Horn of Africa. When you greet someone on Sunday morning, you are extending hospitality to the stranger.

(14) Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. These words come out of the mouth of Jesus and they require us to take up a cross and trust Jesus Christ. When someone hurts me, I want to hurt them back, naturally. Christ Jesus and Paul call us to a higher, but more difficult, way.

(15) Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Christian communities celebrate with those who have reason to rejoice. When something good happens to a member of the community, whether that is a new member of their genetic family or a promotion, we celebrate that. We practice empathy, we
listen, understanding that grief and transition are part of the human experience.

(16) Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. If the foundation of the Christian community is love and grace, we are all equal. That stands in contrast with the sociological tendency for churches to form around likeness and socioeconomic status. Rich churches, suburban churches, and poor churches. Living in harmony is accomplished by recognizing that we all sin and fall short of the glory of God. In this sense there is no room for conceit.

(17) Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. These echo the words of Jesus suggesting in the Christian community, lex talonis, an eye for an eye, has no place.

(18) If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Some people are so filled with sin and take sides with evil, they cannot forgive or reconcile. Do your best, remembering this is a broken world.

(19) 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. Paul reaches back into his understanding of the Law. He affirms Leviticus 19:18, prohibiting vengeance and Deuteronomy 32:35, letting God do the avenging. Take up your cross, friends, and put aside getting even, no matter how just it seems. And when you have time, read Melville’s Moby Dick to learn the consequences of getting even.

(20) No, if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads. How do you overcome evil? Paul picks up a suggestion from Proverbs (25:22a) that evil is not overcome by evil. My mother would quote this verse to me when I was a little guy and she got the intention of it right. As any little person growing up, I had to deal with verbal and physical assaults. My mother cautioned self-protection but added that if I did not return the abuse, I was scorching them. What happens when you return road rage with road rage?

(21) Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. The names of Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King will live forever because each, in his own way, overcame the evil they experienced with good.

Take up your cross. It can mean many things, but Paul reminds us what it means in our own community of faith, Cross of Hope.

Amen.