Put On the Lord
Sunday, September 7th, 2008
Proper 18A/ Ordinary 23 A/ Pentecost +17
Romans 13:8-14
Theme: Living the Life of Jesus
“8Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9The 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.” 10Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
11Besides 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; 12the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; 13let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
I could say that Paul is a master wordsmith, and it would be true. His touch is such that it translates even from 1st century Greek to 20th century English. There is a resonance in what he says – a profound simplicity that both sums up the truths of the Gospel and evokes its deepest repercussions at the same time.
To hear him take the ten commandments, spell out four of them, and then in a broad, sweeping stroke gather up the other six, along with the six-hundred three other laws spelled out in the Hebrew Scriptures and roll them into the one: “love your neighbor as yourself” … it is a master’s stroke. But we’ve heard that before, haven’t we?
When the lawyer in Luke 10:25 asked Jesus what he needed to do to obtain salvation, what did Jesus do? He turned the question back to the man – “what is written in the law?” The man answered as was to be expected: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind;” but the answer didn’t end there: the man went on: “and your neighbor as yourself”.
The words are put in the Lawyer’s mouth to begin with, but in the very next exchange we are made to realize that, though he knew the “correct” answer, the “Sunday school” answer, the ‘expected and memorized’ answers, he had no understanding of the spirit of the law underlying the letter of the law.
Hear this: it is a right and noble thing to memorize scripture, to commit the words of the Bible to heart, to be able to recall them on a moments’ notice. There will be times when that knowledge will serve to engage someone in a conversation that could otherwise be derailed by the absence of it.
But know this as well: if all that is there is head knowledge, in other words, having the ability to point to a particular passage because it deals with a particular subject, and there is no involvement of the heart, that knowledge will do us as much good as it did that first century lawyer who was looking for an easy way to say he had met the requirements for being justified and therefore saved: that is to say: it did him no good at all.
As Baptists we pride ourselves on our knowledge of scripture. It is, in fact, one of the principles we stand on: what we call a “high view” of scripture. But we sometimes need to be reminded that having a “high view” of scripture doesn’t mean “study it until it oozes out of your pores, read it until you can recite it in your sleep”, that high esteem in which we hold scripture has to do with our understanding of it as providing us with not only wonderful images and history and stories – all those things I mentioned last week, but that it is one of the central methods through which God communicates with us, alongside the prompting of the Holy Spirit and through being in communion – in fellowship – with the rest of the members of our congregations. But those other ways that God talks to us, through the Holy Spirit, through being in communion with others in our congregation – those can be so much .. messier, so much LESS cut and dried than being able to point to a word printed in black or red ink on a white page and say “that’s it, that’s the bottom line, that’s the end of the discussion.”
I would suggest to you that it is, in fact, easier to memorize six hundred and thirteen laws and spend your day going over them and checking yourself every few minutes or seconds against that list, and saying to yourself “got it, got it, got it, done.” Than it is to go about your daily living with God whispering “Love me, and love your neighbor as yourself” and letting US figure it out – again, NOT on our own, but IN the study of scripture, IN communion with the Holy Spirit AND in communion with the rest of our church family. God sent Jesus to all of us – the whole of humanity – and he did not back away from that broad charge – neither should we.
A couple of years ago I came across a t-shirt with a message printed on it. You may have seen me or Leslie wearing it – I liked it so much I bought two of them. The message is just three words, and they are run together – it says: relationshipnotreligion. Just like that – so you have to stop and think about where the word breaks are in order to make it out. Even at that, there have been several opportunities where people have figured out what the message is, but from the look on their face, they didn’t get what it was talking about – it’s given me opportunities to explain what the message is about. I guess there is something to be said for bumper stickers on clothes – it’s the same impact as the ones we may put on our cars, but when you are walking past someone or talking to them, you at least have the chance to strike up the conversation when you have time to read the expression on their face. Loving your neighbor as yourself takes as many forms as WE want it to, as many ways as we can think of, as many ways as we are responsive to God’s prompting us to create.
What about the time we have to do this “loving” in? Some of us can expect to be around to seize opportunities for a few more years, some of us a few more decades, some of us more, some less. The truth of the matter is, any one of us could not live to see the sun rise tomorrow. It’s not that we necessarily waste opportunities we come across, it is that, for the most part, we are hesitant to step into the opportunities that present themselves. I don’t think we INTENTIONALLY recognize a chance to show God’s love and then consciously turn away from it … I think it is more the case that we fail to recognize a chance when we are faced with it, and only recognize it later, after we’ve left the situation, and tell ourselves “I’ll see that person again”, or “we’ll certainly be able to share with them the next time we see them.” And that may well be the case. It may BE a few hours or days later that we again see the same person, engage in a similar conversation, and ARE able to become an expression of God’s love … but what if that ISN’T the case? What if that person leaves?
Earlier this week, I was checking out at Food Lion in town, and asked about one of the cashiers that I realized I hadn’t seen in a while – what I thought to be a few weeks. The woman I asked told me that the person I was asking about had transferred to another store a pretty good distance away from here in December of last year. I was flabbergasted. I couldn’t believe it had been nearly nine months – if not longer – since I had seen the woman I had asked after.
What does this mean for
Can we understand how fleeting our interactions with others can sometimes be? Do we realize that in a very real sense, we may only have one brief opportunity to be Christ’s presence to someone we meet or interact with on any given day?
Paul says, “Let us live honorably as in the day”. That speaks to how we should live our lives: not doing things that … add to the brokenness of the world, but doing what is good, and noble, and righteous, and just … he doesn’t spell that out, but he does sum it up: “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ”
Here’s the thing: putting on the Lord Jesus Christ doesn’t mean putting on a t-shirt that says something catchy like ‘relationshipnotreligion’, or even something profound, like “"A Woman's heart Should Be So Lost in God That A Man Needs to Seek Him In Order to Find Her." While both of those sayings are pointing in the right direction, they are only a starting point. They will never be a substitute for the actual living of the life of Christ. For the total submission that is involved in turning ones self over to the Lordship of Jesus on a daily basis, hourly, even minute-by-minute basis. Because living the life of Christ is not ONLY an internal life, it is a life lived outside one’s self – outside one’s circle of interest, outside one’s familiar surroundings – whether physical or emotional. God’s call on our lives is to one of obedience and service – through – and ONLY through – the presence of Christ in our daily living.
Let’s pray.
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