Paul's Advice for Successful Community

13 Pentecost, ap17, September 3, 2017

Exodus 3:1-15  Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c
Romans 12:9-21  Matthew 16:21-28

Lectionary Link

In the letter of Paul to the Roman church or churches, Paul sets forth a standard for community living which is enlightened and profound and difficult.    Remember Rome was a rather large city, perhaps a million people in the time of St. Paul and it covered quite a few square miles of area.  So most inhabitants of Rome probably did not even travel to all of the places in Rome in their lifetime.  We naively may think that there was just one church in Rome, but in fact there would have been many churches in Rome.  When traveling from church to church, even a days journey within Rome, there was a good chance that members from one house church would have been strangers to another church.  There would have been diversity in the churches in Rome depending upon the composition of the membership.  Some would have had a Jewish heritage and much of St. Paul's letter to the Romans deals with how Gentile Christianity was grafted into the heritage of Judaism. 

The standard which St. Paul wrote for the Christians in Rome represents enlightened psychological social, spiritual and emotional maturity.  It involved the expected outcomes of what happens when people learn to live in the power of the Holy Spirit.  I would like to go through the list and adds some comments.

1-Let love be genuine; disingenuous love is when we expect to get something from others through pretending behaviors.  Genuine love means we love with no ulterior motive.

2-Hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; Is there room for hatred in Christianity?  Yes, use hatred energy toward evil deeds, not toward people.  It is an important distinction because we can become so disillusioned with people we can become misanthropic.

3-Love one another with mutual affection.... The best experience of love is reciprocal love.  A community which practices mutual love means that there are enough strokes to go around for everyone.

4-Outdo one another in showing honor.   People who are mature in their emotional intelligence have no problem honoring other people.  Knowing an inward affirmation of one's own gifts and value means that we don't have to be in competition and so we honor the different gifts of others.

5-Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. A sports fan, one who is a fanatic, does not seem to lag in zeal for one's team.  They are ardent; they serve their team.  Just imagine the transformation  of our capacity for zeal and devotion directed in our service to Christ.  If we are not ashamed of sports' zeal, why should we be ashamed of a profound zeal in the service of Christ.

6-Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.   Christian optimism is called hope.  Hope is the continuous vision of a better future.  Hope represent what is not yet actual but what we desire for the benefit of ourselves and community.  Suffering is deprivation of what we hope for.  When we haven't attained what we hope for, we may have to suffer lack.  The response of faith is to persevere in prayer.  Suffering is what can bring us to despair or in faith it can intensify our prayers.  Prayer is the best way to orient ourselves toward what we hope for.

7-Contribute to the needs of the saints; Anyone with a cursory observation knows that needs of people are uneven across the geography of the church.  We know that the Houston area and the Gulf region has saints and sinners who need help.  We know that we could be in dire need someday and so part of the reason for abundance is to have the choice of generous sharing.  We invite all to share toward those in need.

8-Extend hospitality to strangers.  I suspect that the churches in Rome were in the context of significant urbanization.  Where did Christians in the hinterlands of Rome find a place of introduction into the big city of Rome?  They arrived as strangers at the churches and it was hospitality which would allow them to get a start in their new location.   St. Paul was a stranger to Rome and he was welcomed into the churches there.  The Eucharist is an event of hospitality and it should result in being a welcoming and hospitable community.

9-Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.   Blessing and cursing were a part of actual synagogue liturgies.  There was a practice of cursing or putting something like a "liturgical hex" on one's enemies and opponents.  The role of cursing is like the negative repulsion of hating.  One should hate and curse that which is evil but not the people, even if they are the ones doing the evil.  This same spirit is expressed in the beatitudes of the Gospel.

10-Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.  One of the highest attainment in human communication is what we call empathy.  Can I be happy when others are happy, or do I secretly pout in jealousy that it isn't happening to me?   Can I feel the sadness of others?  Do I regard my life to be the life of intercession?  Anything that happens to me can happen to others and so everything is an opportunity for prayers of empathy.

11-Live in harmony with one another;  Harmony means having different parts but doing things together with different but not competitive roles.  Melody and unison are fine but harmony is the appreciation of how different parts make better music.  We are better with differences in harmony, than being simply melody or unison.

12-Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; the church is to be classless society.  We all partake of the one bread.  There is no gourmet Eucharist for the people who can afford to pay more.   In our baptismal vows we promise to respect the dignity of all persons.  We should seek out people who are different from us as a way of avoiding haughty separatism.

13-Do not claim to be wiser than you are.  Wisdom is based upon realizing what one does not yet know instead of being overly proud of what one thinks one knows.  We simply know what we know when we know it and we don't need to compare that with what other know when they know what they know.  No one has a corner on wisdom and we should seek collaborative or group wisdom.

14-Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God;  situations of revenge perpetuate the seemingly endless cycle of violence.  We seem to be caught in so many cycles of violence in our world today.  Revenge is wasted energy and wasted life.  It is counter-productive to cooperation and creative advance.

15-So far as it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.   Peace creates the stasis and the equilibrium for people to accomplish the most together.  Christ told his disciples, "Peace be with you," and we repeat this in our liturgy to celebrate the reality of being reconciled to each other.

So there we have it; Paul's description of how the church can be expressive of the evidence of God's love, peace, reconciliation, redemption and Holy Spirit.

And how do we live this way?  The early church had the "catch phrase" of the oracle of Jesus Christ, "take up your cross and follow me."  In the identity with the death of Jesus on the cross, we find the power to check our egos at the door and live the truly peaceful life of knowing the presence of the Risen Christ in our midst.

Let us continually look for the power of the cross of Jesus to check our egos and make room for each other to live in the harmony of God's perfect orchestration of us.  Amen.