Proper 17 A
Genuine Love and Good for Evil
Romans 12:9-21
31 August 2014 – Redeemer
When did you want me to stop reading?
Was it the words directed at your faith – to abhor evil, love good, to rejoice in hope and be patient in tribulation, constant in prayer?
Or was it the words directed at your works – bless those who persecute you, associate with the lowly, repay no one with evil, never avenge yourself?
That’s quite a list of work Saint Paul presents to us. While the United States is celebrating Labor day it seems like the Epistle reading for today also is about work, the good works of Christians, the work God expects of us.
When did you want me to stop reading? When did these works become too hard for you? There is too much to do in the first four words of the text, “Let love be genuine.” Don’t bring your wife flowers to apologize or in the hopes of getting out fishing. Bring flowers because you love her. Spend time with your children not because it is what a father should do, but because you would rather spend time with them then time by yourself. Love that is genuine is the love that loves unlovely people – your neighbor the jerk, your husband the absent, your enemy the gossip, your child the ungrateful, your friend the alcoholic, your cousin the bipolar. Genuine love loves the unlovely. Genuine love gives to those who cannot give back.
God asks us to give what is hard to give – genuine love. And then He asks us to hold what is so easy to give – vengeance, anger, wrath. Repay no one evil for evil. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. Invite your enemy over for a Labor day picnic – feed him the best steak you can afford, give him a drink and not the cheap stuff. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Those are the first and last words of the text. This is the Word of the Lord about your work. The Holy Spirit has sliced open your heart with the sharp scalpel of God’s Law so that you see what’s there. Your hand has been hammered by the Law and the pain your feel is your conscience convicting and accusing you for repaying evil with evil.
So how many of these works could you check off the list? Is your love genuine? Do you hold to what is good? Outdo each other in showing honor? Do you rejoice in hope? Are you patient in tribulation? Constant in prayer? If there are 10 things on the list what percentage do you do? 20%, 10%. Would you earn a passing mark in God’s grade book if this was the test?
Your works play absolutely no part in your salvation. If Romans 12 was God’s labor contract with you to enter into the heavenly union with Him you would be locked out for violating the agreement. In Romans 3:20 Saint Paul writes “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”
Christians are not good people. We are not good in God’s eyes and when the Law gets through with us we are not good in our own eyes. That’s task number one for the Law. We are sinners by our own nature and deeds, but as Dr. Luther was fond of saying, “We are at the same time, simultaneously saints” because of the work of Christ.
While the Law condemns us for our own works the Law also points to Jesus for Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law. Whose love was genuine? Who loved Zacchaeus the embezzling tax collector? And Mary Magdalene the demon possessed street walker? And Judas the betrayer? And Simon the sinker? Who touched the leper? Heard the prayers of that Gentile woman? Sat down with the adulterous woman? Who went to Panerra with those deemed to be the last people God would ever adopt as children? Prayed for his murderers to be forgiven? Who died for us while we were yet sinners? Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law.
Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Where was God’s vengeance upon sin and evil repaid? It was repaid on Jesus, repaid in Jesus. God did not take your sin out on you (even though that would have been fair and legal and right). He didn’t repay Adam and Eve for their rebel diet or Noah for his drunken nakedness or Sarah for laughing at her pregnancy. He doesn’t’ repay you for what you’ve done. He overcame evil with good. His love was so genuine He took the world’s punishment and placed it on His own son. God the Father overcame the evil of the world by the good of His Son – born without sin of the Virgin Mary, the good boy of Nazareth who never sinned, the good teacher who told the truth, the good soldier who fought Satan with God’s Word, the good and perfect sacrifice who was offered at the cross for our salvation. God overcame your sin by the good birth, good life, good body and blood, good death of His Son Jesus Christ.
In your baptism, by the preaching of Christ, the genuine love of God and the good of Jesus Christ has been given to you. So what’s your record of love? In view of Christ your Father sees your love as genuine. What’s your record of good? In view of Christ your Father sees that good has overcome evil in you. By Christ alone, in Him alone, by virtue of the Father’s love and by the goodness of Jesus Christ you are a saint, holy and righteous in God’s eyes.
So where does that leave you when it comes to these legal check lists of Scripture? Eager and willing to show genuine love – not because you have to, but because you are in Christ and are completely free to love. You are forgiven completely. You are genuinely loved by God. You’re His baptized child, loving your Father’s Word and desiring to live as He lives and act like He acts. What do you do with these lengthy labor contracts? You strive to do them – overcoming evil with good. Did your Father in His anger throw you out of the house because of your rebellion? No, He threw His only begotten Son out so you could be in. He didn’t repay you for your evil. He paid the price Himself with His own flesh and blood. Anger never overcomes anything. Evil never wins the heart of another.
When you give your enemy some food or drink, Saint Paul says, you heap burning coals on his head. You see, that’s not what they expect. Your enemy expects a battle, a fight, some harsh words traded, and you loved them and did good by them. Their anger has nowhere to go, except to burn within them. That can happen anywhere you go – between students and teachers, children and parents, bosses and workers, neighbors and neighbors. When you live as your heavenly Father’s child your works give people pause – why didn’t she fight back? Why does he care about me? And when they ask, you have opportunity to speak of your Father who loved you and repaid your evil with good n the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
30 August 2014 anno Domini