THE FREEDOM TO LOVE
Psalm 30
Romans 12:1-2, 9-21
Stephen Hamilton Wright
First Presbyterian Church, Wausau, Wisconsin July 4 2010
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“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.” These are some of the most powerful words in Scripture. The issue is that the audience lives in a culture that thinks that the best worship is really spiritual—it carries you beyond the world of car repair and Medicare and Middle East peace talks, up into the realm of spirits and angels and the harmony of all things. Paul writes against that thinking, and this is what it means in our terms: “Listen, people, by GOD! Put your bodies where your visions are. Get out there and do what God wants. THAT is your so-called spiritual worship. Do not get sucked in by compromise, entertainment, or feel-good new-agey spirituality. Clear your minds, so that you can remember that the will of God is that you do some real good in the world.”
Put your body on the line. Put your body where your mouth is. It’s a charge as old as anything organized—war, sports, exercise, business. “Leave it all on the field.” “The greatest sacrifice.” We adore the ideal. The Apostle Paul pins it on religion: “present your bodies as a living sacrifice . . . which is your spiritual worship.” Life is not a head trip, and faith is not about mysteries with no physical connection. Present your bodies to show what really matters. Paul describes this in more detail: “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.” There is more: “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.” So while he says to hate what is evil, that hatred is not to poison our relationships. Instead, “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. . . . if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink . . . . Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” The kind of division we are accustomed to in our culture and even in our churches these days is not on Paul’s menu. Remember, too, that he wrote in the context of Roman imperial rule, where government was absolute and justice was often swift rather than fair. His Christian readers were the minority, a young religious sect that was persecuted for resisting many cultural and legal requirements, including military service and worshipping the emperor. How many of us can say that we are persecuted for our beliefs? Legal barriers against posting the Ten Commandments and official prayer in schools are not the same as being denied employment or thrown into prison because we honor the name of Jesus. So, if you believe the good news from Jesus, do something about it! Help build a Habitat house. Work for alternatives to prison. Help with the food pantry or Sunday community suppers. In your school or workplace or home, try to set the example of caring for the people least able to care for themselves. If you believe that Jesus matters, do something about it. Put your body on the line.
We are called to transformation. We are called to be transformed in our thinking, so that we can discover what God really wants. Right now, right here, in this life, we are summoned to look beyond our personal needs and desires. We are NOT called to push resurrection. We are not advertisers for unbelievable doctrine. We are welcome to believe that there is some kind of existence continuing beyond this life, but that is not our call. Our call is to let our thinking be transformed, so that we will give real help to all the people around us. Not help in teaching true and approved doctrine about Jesus and God and heaven and hell, but help to live, help to survive a world that does its best to tear itself apart. The shift is not easy, and generation after generation, we have to learn it again. We want to step out to safe places, spaces where faith can be an intellectual exercise removed from the hazards and risks of confronting the dominant culture. There is danger in speaking up against the status quo. Every honest preacher knows this. Every worker who has dared to question established procedure knows it. We Christians are called to take those risks. We are called to clear our brains, to shake loose from the cobwebs of routine, and risk believing that the world can be changed for the better. Let your mind be as new as the first days of creation, when all living beings existed in harmony with each other and the environment where they lived. The loving spirit of Jesus opens space for us to risk such thoughts; what if we really did love our neighbors as ourselves, and what if we learned to love our enemies, and to pray for those who oppose us? Our prayers would not focus on changing them, either, but on changing the whole situation, them and us together, so that the conditions of conflict would disappear. Feel the change. We are called to be transformed.
Jesus sets us free to do it. Jesus makes us free to love. Let’s be clear: a person does not have to worship Jesus, or even recognize Him, in order to be loving, peaceful, generous, kind and just. Hundreds of millions of people on the planet live excellent moral and ethical lives without any explicit connection to Jesus or any other religious source. But the historical figure of Jesus, along with the Jesus who is interpreted in Scripture, prove that it is possible to live beyond ourselves, here and now, in human flesh. It is not an abstract principle lived out only in monasteries and other closed communities. The truth of Jesus proves that we are free to shape all our actions for the benefit of the world around us. Not only that, Jesus is the model who shows that such a life is valuable for its own sake, regardless of any reward beyond this life. The fellowship that forms around Him is permanent, and its effects are wide spread and long lasting. Love learned in groups like this is what allows you to go out into the wider world and work for fairness and peace instead of hiding inside the safest jobs you can find. This fellowship with other followers gives us space to change our minds about important issues like race, sexual orientation, and the environment, and the courage to risk reaching beyond our circle to work for important changes. Again, many people take such steps without explicit reference to faith, but it is the story of faith, and especially the Christian faith, that provides the pattern for such movement. The instruction that Jesus offered, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” is the dominant principle in the ethical calculations of most people in this country, whether they are religious or secular. The broader outline of the Biblical story from alienation and journey through redeeming love and the hope of happy endings is one of the predominant plots of popular culture, including movies like Avatar and the whole Harry Potter series. Could we do all this without Jesus? People did so before His story was told, and many do the same now. Would we keep doing it if He had not shared His love with our race? That’s hard to know. What we do know is that because of Jesus, we know we are free to live as helpful and generous people. Jesus shows us true freedom.
We are called to transformation. Jesus and His messengers in Scripture call us to a different way to think. Because of Jesus, we see that true freedom is serving the world around us. So, give it all you’ve got. [You folks are here on July 4, after all, so you must be committed to this idea—the love of Christ is what really sets us free!] Put your bodies on the line, to show how much you love God.