| To contact us: Calvary Episcopal Church 667 Mount Road Aston, PA 19014 610-459-2013 OFFICE mail@calvaryepiscopalrockdale.org |
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| SERMON 17 Pentecost - Proper 18 September 7, 2008 The Rev. Kristine Hill |
| 667 Mount Road, Aston, PA 19014 610-459-2013 |
| Small Parish - Big Heart The little church you've been looking for! All are welcome! |
| Our Mission: To worship the Lord To serve the community To grow the church |
No one likes to be in debt. It’s not comfortable to “owe” other people or to
“owe” creditors. Everyone prefers to be free of that. / You and I are blessed.
been paid by Jesus Christ. Our lives are built on the richness of God’s grace
and mercy. Jesus has set us free from guilt, from the endless worry and
struggle to prove that we are worthy human beings, that we deserve to be
loved and appreciated. Everything of that nature has been-taken-care-of for us
by our Savior. By Jesus’ death and resurrection – and by our baptism into
Christ – we have received a new life, a debt-free life. We do not owe
anything; Jesus has paid our debt. We are free to lead joyful lives because
we live, unencumbered, in Christ, and Christ lives in us.
When the apostle Paul says “owe no one anything…” we like the sound of
that. We would prefer to owe no one anything -- not money, not hosting
Thanksgiving dinner at our house next time, not a really big favor that we don’
t know how to repay. We’re uncomfortable “owing” people things. We’d rather
pay our own way and know that we’ve been self-sufficient. So we feel good
when Paul says “owe no one anything.” This is especially so when we know
that Jesus Christ has paid our essential indebtedness, and we are free. The
guilt that rightfully belongs to us has been taken from us and shredded. We
don’t owe anything any more; we are free as newborn children because of the
mercy-of-God in Jesus Christ.
There is one hitch, though… Paul does not stop with saying: “owe no one
anything…” he goes on to say: “except to love one another.” Let’s look at
the whole verse -- Paul says: “Owe no one anything except to love one
another; for the one who loves-another has fulfilled the law.” Well… when he
puts it that way, it sounds altogether different, doesn’t it. “Owe no one
anything except to love one another.” It’s like saying: “owe no one anything --
except the very best you have, and that from your heart.”
“For the one who loves has fulfilled the law…” Talk about the “law” is a
conundrum for us Christians. Are we supposed to obey the law or, since
Christ has set us free from sin and death, do we now live apart from the
law? Paul spends lots of time in his letters writing about the law as opposed
to the Spirit, about living ‘under the law’ in contrast to living ‘in the Spirit.’
Those of us who belong to Christ, Paul says, do not live under the law, but
live “in the Spirit.” What does that mean? And given that we live “in the
Spirit,” what role does the law play in our lives as Christians? // Paul gives a
pretty good answer to such questions in today’s reading from Romans
thirteen. If we love one another, not from a sense of heavy obligation, but
born of the freedom we have in Christ, we fulfill the law. Because we do not
live under a load of guilt, burdened by wondering if we are worthy people --
(God has claimed us as God’s own children!) -- we have peace and room in
our hearts to love one another as Jesus has loved us.
“Owe no one anything except to love one another.” Okay; that’s at least
somewhat simplified. Instead keeping track of the whole law and worry about
each piece of it, now we only need to be mindful of loving one another. But
what is love? Do we understand it well enough know how to “love one
another?” / The love Paul is talking about means doing good for others
without regard for what they can do for you in return. Love is a generous self-
giving for the sake of the well-being of the other person. It is not giving so
that I can feel better about myself; it is not sloppy-giving where what I give
may or may not benefit the other person. Hopefully it is not angst-ridden
giving where I fuss and complain so much that I almost cancel out my
generosity by my grouchiness, although sometimes that’s the best I can do. /
The love Paul speaks of is action taken on behalf of someone else. As the
reading says “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the
fulfilling of the law.”
Noted theologian Douglas John Hall teaches that in order for us truly to
understand any given virtue, we need to know its opposite, what that virtue
negates. In teaching this, he refers to Paul’s three great Christian virtues -
faith, hope and love. Scripture makes clear what each of these negates. Faith,
according to Paul’s writings, is the opposite of ‘seeing.’ What we know by
faith we know through trust in God, not on the basis of visual evidence. The
apostle Paul has written: “we walk as yet by faith and not by sight.” Faith,
therefore is “not seeing.” Hope negates consummation. What we hope-for is
something we do not yet possess. We hope for what still lies in the future,
something we expect God to bring for the good of the world. It would not
make sense to say we ‘hope’ for something that we already hold in our hand,
like wealth or riches. Love, Dr. Hall says, negates a number of things. We
find this in the 13th chapter of First Corinthians. But the most important thing
love negates is power. Love is clearly the opposite of power in 1st
Corinthians thirteen, which states: “love does not insist on its own way; love
is not irritable or resentful; love does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in
the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all
things…” In each instance listed, power would do just the opposite -- insist
on its own way, become irritable were it denied, not care if it needed to do
wrong or whether it upheld the truth…
This type of love -- love that is the negation of power -- comes to life in
Jesus. Jesus gave up the power of divinity to become human so that he
could get close to us, walk with us in our life, understand our joys and our
sufferings. Instead of overcoming the world by force, God overcame the world
through the relative weakness of love -- sending his Son to endure humiliation
and death on a cross. God could have conquered humankind with an army of
avenging angels, but God chose to work through humbleness and mercy
instead. Jesus set aside power-over-us and chose to be among us as one
who loves. Having power would have protected Jesus; choosing love left him
vulnerable. What an amazing thing to do for us.
“Owe no one anything” Paul tells us, “except to love one another.” How
could we not love one another, freely-flowing love coming from a well-spring
of gratitude in our hearts, when we know what Jesus has done for us? Who
else would have gladly and completely put aside power in order to love us?
Who else would have swapped the strength of power for the vulnerability of
love -- in a world where people get slaughtered -- so he could be near
enough to tell us about God’s goodness? Who else would willingly face a
horrible death so that he could give us everlasting life? How could we not
respond by loving one another for Jesus’ sake? This is what Paul is talking
about when he says to owe no one anything but to love -- always to love
each other as God has loved us in Jesus.
There have been some new biographies and articles written recently about
Mother Teresa. For years the world has known what an amazing person she
was, how she gave her entire life to God, serving Jesus Christ tirelessly all
her days. The human community has claimed her as a saint for her work
nursing the poorest and most desperate people in Calcutta, India. Mother
Teresa made her home among the “untouchables,” members of the lowest
caste in a culture trying to end it’s strict “class” structure. But for centuries
the untouchables have been shunned by respectable people and old habits are
hard to break. With minimal resources Mother Teresa and her helpers cared for
the untouchables -- sick, injured and abandoned -- tending their wounds,
dispensing medicines, giving them shelter, comforting them, and most
important, letting them know that someone cared, that God loved them. Mother
Teresa herself lived humbly -- sleeping on a mat in a small room in the same
building where she cared for the sick, without air conditioning or heat, without
running water… can you imagine? She was not someone who had to live that
way. No one forced her to undertake this work; she had options, but Mother
Teresa chose to live with the poor and the despised as her way of serving
Jesus Christ. By loving those deemed to be the least loveable – those most in
need – she showed her thanks and praise to Jesus.
But recently it has been revealed that Mother Teresa endured great spiritual
loneliness during the last thirty or forty years of her life. Although she prayed,
read her Bible, worshiped daily, and served Christ with her whole being, she
could not sense Jesus’ presence. Over the course of all those years she did
not feel God’s nearness or hear God speak to her; she did not have the warm
sensation of the Holy Spirit beside her or within her to uphold her. Her hands
did God’s work, her mouth spoke Jesus’ words, but she could neither feel nor
hear the presence of her Lord. This emptiness brought pain and loneliness to
her spirit -- God’s great champion did not receive the comfort of knowing
Jesus’ nearness. Regardless, she continued to love others with her words and
by her deeds, teaching about God’s saving grace and being Jesus to them.
Her personal sorrows did not make her waver in faithfulness. The fact of
Mother Teresa’s spiritual struggles simply makes her witness and her work the
more amazing.
Whatever lives we lead, whatever opportunities of service you and I have, we,
too, are called upon to love one another as Christ has loved us. We do not
owe anyone anything. We do not live under the burden of having to pay the
debt of our guilt -- God has wiped away our sins in Jesus Christ; we don’t
have to toil to show that we really are worthwhile human beings -- God has
claimed us as his beloved children; we don’t have to demonstrate that there is
a purpose for our being here on earth -- God has created us to praise and
serve him. We don’t owe anyone anything in that sense because Jesus Christ
has taken our debts onto himself and made us free. So we rejoice to hear
Paul say “owe no one anything” -- that’s right! But we also remember how
Paul concludes his instruction: “except to love one another.”
Owe no one anything except to love one another. We don’t owe each other
anything, except all we have, our very best, given graciously, freely, gladly --
as Christ as given himself to us. We are not in debt, but we owe love to one
another because of how greatly we are loved. It is a joyous-giving to love one
another, because our whole lives are nourished and sustained by love, God’s
love poured out upon us and wrapped around us in the constancy of the
Son, Jesus Christ. amen.
“owe” creditors. Everyone prefers to be free of that. / You and I are blessed.
been paid by Jesus Christ. Our lives are built on the richness of God’s grace
and mercy. Jesus has set us free from guilt, from the endless worry and
struggle to prove that we are worthy human beings, that we deserve to be
loved and appreciated. Everything of that nature has been-taken-care-of for us
by our Savior. By Jesus’ death and resurrection – and by our baptism into
Christ – we have received a new life, a debt-free life. We do not owe
anything; Jesus has paid our debt. We are free to lead joyful lives because
we live, unencumbered, in Christ, and Christ lives in us.
When the apostle Paul says “owe no one anything…” we like the sound of
that. We would prefer to owe no one anything -- not money, not hosting
Thanksgiving dinner at our house next time, not a really big favor that we don’
t know how to repay. We’re uncomfortable “owing” people things. We’d rather
pay our own way and know that we’ve been self-sufficient. So we feel good
when Paul says “owe no one anything.” This is especially so when we know
that Jesus Christ has paid our essential indebtedness, and we are free. The
guilt that rightfully belongs to us has been taken from us and shredded. We
don’t owe anything any more; we are free as newborn children because of the
mercy-of-God in Jesus Christ.
There is one hitch, though… Paul does not stop with saying: “owe no one
anything…” he goes on to say: “except to love one another.” Let’s look at
the whole verse -- Paul says: “Owe no one anything except to love one
another; for the one who loves-another has fulfilled the law.” Well… when he
puts it that way, it sounds altogether different, doesn’t it. “Owe no one
anything except to love one another.” It’s like saying: “owe no one anything --
except the very best you have, and that from your heart.”
“For the one who loves has fulfilled the law…” Talk about the “law” is a
conundrum for us Christians. Are we supposed to obey the law or, since
Christ has set us free from sin and death, do we now live apart from the
law? Paul spends lots of time in his letters writing about the law as opposed
to the Spirit, about living ‘under the law’ in contrast to living ‘in the Spirit.’
Those of us who belong to Christ, Paul says, do not live under the law, but
live “in the Spirit.” What does that mean? And given that we live “in the
Spirit,” what role does the law play in our lives as Christians? // Paul gives a
pretty good answer to such questions in today’s reading from Romans
thirteen. If we love one another, not from a sense of heavy obligation, but
born of the freedom we have in Christ, we fulfill the law. Because we do not
live under a load of guilt, burdened by wondering if we are worthy people --
(God has claimed us as God’s own children!) -- we have peace and room in
our hearts to love one another as Jesus has loved us.
“Owe no one anything except to love one another.” Okay; that’s at least
somewhat simplified. Instead keeping track of the whole law and worry about
each piece of it, now we only need to be mindful of loving one another. But
what is love? Do we understand it well enough know how to “love one
another?” / The love Paul is talking about means doing good for others
without regard for what they can do for you in return. Love is a generous self-
giving for the sake of the well-being of the other person. It is not giving so
that I can feel better about myself; it is not sloppy-giving where what I give
may or may not benefit the other person. Hopefully it is not angst-ridden
giving where I fuss and complain so much that I almost cancel out my
generosity by my grouchiness, although sometimes that’s the best I can do. /
The love Paul speaks of is action taken on behalf of someone else. As the
reading says “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the
fulfilling of the law.”
Noted theologian Douglas John Hall teaches that in order for us truly to
understand any given virtue, we need to know its opposite, what that virtue
negates. In teaching this, he refers to Paul’s three great Christian virtues -
faith, hope and love. Scripture makes clear what each of these negates. Faith,
according to Paul’s writings, is the opposite of ‘seeing.’ What we know by
faith we know through trust in God, not on the basis of visual evidence. The
apostle Paul has written: “we walk as yet by faith and not by sight.” Faith,
therefore is “not seeing.” Hope negates consummation. What we hope-for is
something we do not yet possess. We hope for what still lies in the future,
something we expect God to bring for the good of the world. It would not
make sense to say we ‘hope’ for something that we already hold in our hand,
like wealth or riches. Love, Dr. Hall says, negates a number of things. We
find this in the 13th chapter of First Corinthians. But the most important thing
love negates is power. Love is clearly the opposite of power in 1st
Corinthians thirteen, which states: “love does not insist on its own way; love
is not irritable or resentful; love does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in
the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all
things…” In each instance listed, power would do just the opposite -- insist
on its own way, become irritable were it denied, not care if it needed to do
wrong or whether it upheld the truth…
This type of love -- love that is the negation of power -- comes to life in
Jesus. Jesus gave up the power of divinity to become human so that he
could get close to us, walk with us in our life, understand our joys and our
sufferings. Instead of overcoming the world by force, God overcame the world
through the relative weakness of love -- sending his Son to endure humiliation
and death on a cross. God could have conquered humankind with an army of
avenging angels, but God chose to work through humbleness and mercy
instead. Jesus set aside power-over-us and chose to be among us as one
who loves. Having power would have protected Jesus; choosing love left him
vulnerable. What an amazing thing to do for us.
“Owe no one anything” Paul tells us, “except to love one another.” How
could we not love one another, freely-flowing love coming from a well-spring
of gratitude in our hearts, when we know what Jesus has done for us? Who
else would have gladly and completely put aside power in order to love us?
Who else would have swapped the strength of power for the vulnerability of
love -- in a world where people get slaughtered -- so he could be near
enough to tell us about God’s goodness? Who else would willingly face a
horrible death so that he could give us everlasting life? How could we not
respond by loving one another for Jesus’ sake? This is what Paul is talking
about when he says to owe no one anything but to love -- always to love
each other as God has loved us in Jesus.
There have been some new biographies and articles written recently about
Mother Teresa. For years the world has known what an amazing person she
was, how she gave her entire life to God, serving Jesus Christ tirelessly all
her days. The human community has claimed her as a saint for her work
nursing the poorest and most desperate people in Calcutta, India. Mother
Teresa made her home among the “untouchables,” members of the lowest
caste in a culture trying to end it’s strict “class” structure. But for centuries
the untouchables have been shunned by respectable people and old habits are
hard to break. With minimal resources Mother Teresa and her helpers cared for
the untouchables -- sick, injured and abandoned -- tending their wounds,
dispensing medicines, giving them shelter, comforting them, and most
important, letting them know that someone cared, that God loved them. Mother
Teresa herself lived humbly -- sleeping on a mat in a small room in the same
building where she cared for the sick, without air conditioning or heat, without
running water… can you imagine? She was not someone who had to live that
way. No one forced her to undertake this work; she had options, but Mother
Teresa chose to live with the poor and the despised as her way of serving
Jesus Christ. By loving those deemed to be the least loveable – those most in
need – she showed her thanks and praise to Jesus.
But recently it has been revealed that Mother Teresa endured great spiritual
loneliness during the last thirty or forty years of her life. Although she prayed,
read her Bible, worshiped daily, and served Christ with her whole being, she
could not sense Jesus’ presence. Over the course of all those years she did
not feel God’s nearness or hear God speak to her; she did not have the warm
sensation of the Holy Spirit beside her or within her to uphold her. Her hands
did God’s work, her mouth spoke Jesus’ words, but she could neither feel nor
hear the presence of her Lord. This emptiness brought pain and loneliness to
her spirit -- God’s great champion did not receive the comfort of knowing
Jesus’ nearness. Regardless, she continued to love others with her words and
by her deeds, teaching about God’s saving grace and being Jesus to them.
Her personal sorrows did not make her waver in faithfulness. The fact of
Mother Teresa’s spiritual struggles simply makes her witness and her work the
more amazing.
Whatever lives we lead, whatever opportunities of service you and I have, we,
too, are called upon to love one another as Christ has loved us. We do not
owe anyone anything. We do not live under the burden of having to pay the
debt of our guilt -- God has wiped away our sins in Jesus Christ; we don’t
have to toil to show that we really are worthwhile human beings -- God has
claimed us as his beloved children; we don’t have to demonstrate that there is
a purpose for our being here on earth -- God has created us to praise and
serve him. We don’t owe anyone anything in that sense because Jesus Christ
has taken our debts onto himself and made us free. So we rejoice to hear
Paul say “owe no one anything” -- that’s right! But we also remember how
Paul concludes his instruction: “except to love one another.”
Owe no one anything except to love one another. We don’t owe each other
anything, except all we have, our very best, given graciously, freely, gladly --
as Christ as given himself to us. We are not in debt, but we owe love to one
another because of how greatly we are loved. It is a joyous-giving to love one
another, because our whole lives are nourished and sustained by love, God’s
love poured out upon us and wrapped around us in the constancy of the
Son, Jesus Christ. amen.
| Exodus 12:1-14 Romans 13:8-14 Matthew 18:15-20 |
