How to Handle Differences (Romans 14.1-23)

Image: John Hain from pixabay.com

Introduction

I found a testimony the other day which I first heard a long time ago, but it seems to be doing the rounds again. It’s about a man who sees this guy on a bridge, about to jump off. Here is how he tells the story. 

“I saw he was just about to jump so I ran towards him and shouted, ‘Don’t do it!’” 

He looked at me and said, “But nobody loves me.” 

I said, “God loves you. Do you believe in God?”

He said, “Yes.” 

I said, “Well that’s great. What are you a Christian, a Muslim or a Jew?” 

He said, “Christian.” I said, “Me, too! 

“Protestant or Catholic?” He said, “Protestant.” I said, “Me, too! 

“What denomination are you?” He said, “Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! 

“Northern or Southern Baptist?” He said, “Northern.” I said, “Me, too!” 

“Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?”

He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! 

“Northern Conservative Baptist Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Council of 1912?” He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Council of 1912.” 

I said, “Heretic!” And I pushed him off.

Of course, we know that throughout Church history there have been many splits and divisions. 

The Great Schism between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches in 1054 was over many issues; some were important and weighty, but tragically there were arguments over silly things too. 

Should the bread used at Holy Communion be leavened or unleavened? There was actually a bitter falling out over priestly facial hair; should they be clean shaved, as the Roman Catholics insisted, or have long beards in the Orthodox style? As if anyone even cared...

And it’s not just traditional or institutional churches. During the great 18th Century evangelical revival, the two most prolific evangelists George Whitefield and John Wesley bickered over the question of how sovereign God is in our salvation and to what degree free will operates. They wrote tracts against each other and denounced each other in sermons. 

Down the centuries, churches have split over whether women should be required to wear head coverings or not, over whether amplified musical instruments can ever replace the organ, over whether clergy must wear robes or can dress more informally. 

It’s alarming how quickly we can develop blind spots of legalism. Do you have one? How would you know? 

There’s a story of an ecumenical conference where all the delegates were asked to speak on the question, “What church would Jesus join?” The Baptists, Methodists, Catholics and Pentecostals all said their bit, complete with statistics and PowerPoint presentations. 

Then the Anglican stood up and said, “I don’t see what all the fuss is about.  Why would Jesus want to leave the Church of England anyway?”

During the second great evangelical awakening in the mid-19th Century, the prince of preachers Charles Spurgeon and the anointed evangelist DL Moody met up and were both shocked by each other’s behaviour. 

Moody said to Spurgeon, who liked a good Havana cigar, “How can you, a man of God, smoke tobacco?” And Spurgeon took one look at Moody, who was obese, and said, “How can you, a man of God, be that fat?” 

Moody remained excessively overweight and Spurgeon continued to smoke cigars - and they became best friends.

The strain that Christian communities feel over differences of opinion have been a fact of life since the earliest days. The whole of Romans 14 and the first half of Romans 15, as we’ll see next Sunday, is all about how you handle differences. 

Not all differences though. Last Sunday, Erin talked about works of darkness.

Chapter 13 lists some of them; sexual immorality, adultery, drunkenness, dissention and jealousy, murder. The New Testament is absolutely clear on all that. But there are many other issues that the Bible doesn’t speak about. Verse 1 calls these “disputable matters.” 

We might, in this congregation this morning, have differences of opinion on what films or TV series are appropriate to watch, which parties we might feel comfortable attending, what fashions we might follow, boxing, tattoos, martial arts, tithing, smoking, make up, lottery and raffle tickets, shopping on Sunday… 

We’ll draw the line in different places over these sorts of things. And what we accept as normal and harmless might really shock our grandparents. 

There are also perhaps more weighty ethical issues we might disagree on, over which there is no clear command in the Bible. Which political party should I vote for? Is war ever justified or should we be pacifist? Is the death penalty ever right?  

When you cannot clearly draw a conclusion from an obvious reading of scripture, then conscience comes into it. 

As we’ll see when we get to chapter 16, there are serious matters of disagreement that require from us robust defiance. 

It says, “watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned.” It’s talking about wolves in sheep's clothing who lead people astray with major doctrinal or ethical error. Here, there’s no compromise or concession; it says, “Avoid them.” 

John Stott was one of the great 20th Century evangelical statesmen. He was a pastor, preacher, scholar, evangelist and prolific author; he was hugely ambassadorial and influential. 

He was asked in an interview with Christianity Today in 1996 if he could think of anything that would lead him to have to leave the Church of England, and he named three things; (and I share this with you because this is pretty well where I call it). 

1) If it formally denied the humanity or divinity of Christ. 

2) If it formally denied justification by grace through faith. 

3) If it approved homosexual partnerships as a legitimate alternative to heterosexual marriage. 

But, he said, where there is no breakdown over these defining doctrinal and ethical matters, he would affirm that the unity of the church must make space for divergence over secondary issues. 

Disputable Matters - Food

Right, let’s get into Romans 14. Verses 1-3 say this: “Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarrelling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them.”

The Greek word for “treat with contempt” is exouthenein which is a really vivid word; it means to sneer at, to belittle someone. This behaviour is inappropriate and unbecoming in a church.

Christians were rubbishing each other over the small matter of food. What is actually all this about? It seems to be an argument over veganism. Was that even a thing back then? 

Maybe a bit of background might help. In 167 BC, an evil man called Antiochus Epiphanes launched a ferocious attack on Jews living in Jerusalem. He erected a statue of himself in the temple and slaughtered live pigs on the altar. 

As well as insulting their religion in the most unpleasant way imaginable, he also tried to compel the Jews to break their own religious law. I cannot describe to you (with children present) what he did to those who refused, but suffice to say it involved dismemberment and frying pans. 

Eating pork was a sin so reprehensible to the Jews, that they would rather be subjected to torture and death than do it. That’s what Antiochus Epiphanes was forcing them to do. 

So, you can perhaps appreciate the depth of feeling Jewish Christians in this church in Rome might have had about this particular aspect of their diet. 

And you can perhaps understand how shocking they found it that the Gentiles were tucking in to pork sausages, black pudding and bacon like it was going out of fashion at the church barbecue. 

The Jews were really struggling being part of a church in which all Old Testament food laws were ignored. The meat they would eat (lamb, chicken or beef) had to be slaughtered properly, the blood had to be drained, and it all had to be supervised by a rabbi to ensure everything was kosher. 

So, in a pagan city like Rome, where most meat was offered to Roman idols at the point of slaughter, most Jews just became vegetarian to avoid having it on their conscience. But the Gentiles just rolled their eyes and ate anything.

To Jewish eyes, the Gentiles in their church were only half-converted. Seeing ham, spare ribs, and pork pies at the bring-and-share lunch was a step too far for them and it was building to a crisis.

But the problem was two-way. The Gentiles had grown up in a culture that looked down on Jews with contempt, and they saw them as only half-converted as well. 

Still sticking to the old rules that Christ died to set us free from – why can’t they see that we’re not wedded to the Old Covenant anymore? Why are they so picky and fussy about something that Jesus declared to be all fulfilled in him? 

This is the back story to Romans 14; bones of contention in the body of Christ... big tensions in the local church over not one issue, in fact, but two; a separate diet and a special day. 

Disputable Matters - Festivals

As well as their fastidious food laws the Jews were also hard-wired to see the sabbath as special. From sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday, it was a holy day of rest. They’d grown up with it. It was part of their cultural and spiritual identity and they could become obsessive about it. 

Even today - did you know this? - strict Jews do not wear false teeth on the Sabbath because, technically, that counts as carrying a burden? And modern Jewish are fitted with automatic timers on light switches, because turning a light on is considered as work. 

Turning a light off isn’t work, so that’s OK. Again, the Gentiles rolled their eyes at all this, they just saw Saturday as any other day, and saw the Jews as the problem – binding the whole church to an unnecessary tradition.

Keeping the Unity of the Spirit

I want you to feel the tension there must have been in this Roman church. Can you see how awkward and heavy it must have felt? How are these two communities, so different from each other, ever going to get on? Is it a lost cause? Will they have to go their separate ways? Wouldn’t that just be easier and better for everyone?

And how do we handle our differences? Is there a way that God wants for us to stay united, or is it inevitable that we have to split whenever we don’t see eye to eye? 

As I said earlier, this has been a massive problem all through church history. Sometimes, the church as an institution is the problem. There’s the story of a poor vicar who complained after six months of banging heads together in his new parish, “The only thing that’s harmonious in this church is the organ!”

Sometimes, the problem lies less with the church and more with the individual. I have known Christians who repeatedly get upset over a small matter, take umbrage, and leave their church. Every six months or so in some cases... 

I’ve known church leaders’ meetings when one of us would ask, “who’s got so-and-so at the moment?” We all knew a few disgruntled individuals who, instead of working to resolve differences and learning to live with differences, become spiritual nomads, unable to settle anywhere.

The teaching of Romans 14 is this; maintaining unity, despite real differences over disputable matters, is precious to God. Me understanding and loving my Jewish brother or sister in Christ is more important to God than the total freedom I have in Christ to eat bacon. 

If my eating bacon, or drinking wine, or getting a tattoo, or wearing shorts and trainers when I preach, or whatever, causes a brother or sister in Christ to falter in their faith and lose their focus on Jesus – even though I am free in Christ to do all these things, and though I may feel strongly that they just need to get a grip – Romans 14 says I should go to great pains to avoid offence out of love for them.

Look at v13: “Let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling-block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister.”

And v15: “If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died.”

And v21: “It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.”

Does that mean I have to compromise? Yes. Not on essential things, not on things that the Bible commands, but on secondary things, on things that God’s word is silent about.

Come to your own conviction; don’t be guided by custom or convention.

And if you feel perfectly able to get a tattoo or watch a controversial film, fine; but don’t goad those who find it unacceptable or unhelpful. 

In the world, the strong dominate the weak. But through the gospel the Church is where the strong nurture the weak.

There is nothing in the Old or New Testament about Sunday being special; in fact it was a normal working day until about the 4th Century. It may be the easiest day for us to meet to worship God in this country, but that isn’t so everywhere. In many other places it’s still just another working day.

If a Christian has thought it through and come to the conclusion that they honour the Lord best by working or shopping on Sunday then I would say to them, ‘God bless you.’ 

If they have come to the honest conviction that they cannot honour the Lord on Sunday by shopping or working, because that’s the only day they can meet with other believers to worship, then God bless them too. The question is “What honours the Lord?”

It would be much easier to say, “No one in our church must ever work or shop on Sundays. We’ll have a rule in our church and anyone who doesn’t abide by it can’t be a member.”

But this is not the way. Christian love means we bust a gut to respect other people’s convictions on debatable matters. Remember, you will be judged by how you lived, not by how they lived.

Bottom line, what is important in the Christian life; is it the food and drink people consume or don’t consume, or having some days more special than others? Is that it? Or is it the Holy Spirit’s anointing of abundant life?

Verse 17, here’s your answer: “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Ending

I know I’ve shared some pretty unedifying stories today, and we must face it and admit it when we don’t live up to the teaching of Romans 14. 

But I want to finish with two testimonies from the recent past of when the church has got it right despite differences and how that impacts the community and glorifies the Lord.

The first is a survey that was conducted a few years ago that showed that the Church is actually the most socially diverse group in the entire United Kingdom. It was reported in all the national newspapers. 

The survey found that, more than anyone else, we are able-bodied and disabled. We are old and young. We are left-leaning and we are right-leaning. We are male and female. We love opera and we love rap music. We are black and white. We are leave and remain. We are rich and poor. We are single and married. 

Being church is living with, and loving, people who are not like you at all. The church is not niche community. It is all-encompassing, it’s made up of all sorts and because we all honour Jesus. One day, every tribe and every tongue will come together and confess that he is Lord. This is just a small foretaste.

The second is proof of that from the Christian academic Amy Orr-Ewing. And she tells about her local MP, who is an atheist, and who was invited as a guest to one of her church’s services. What would he, an avowed atheist, make of this large, so-called ‘happy-clappy’ evangelical church? Answer: He totally loved it - and he tweeted these amazing words: 

“Wow, this church is the only place I know in my constituency where such diverse people get together. You just don’t see anything like this anywhere else.” 

Unfortunately, he didn’t get the Jesus bit. But the Jesus bit is precisely why it all works. It’s Jesus who brings people together, it’s Jesus who breaks down barriers, it’s Jesus who teaches us to handle our differences, and it’s Jesus who shows the world what real community can look like.

Let’s pray…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 18 August 2019

Spiritual Disciplines: Prayer (Matthew 6.5-15)

Introduction

I heard a story a few weeks ago about a best man who was late for the wedding and couldn’t find anywhere to park. In desperation he prayed, “God, if there is a God, I’ll go to church every week for the rest of my life if you’ll just find me a parking space.” Suddenly, amazingly, miraculously, there was a space right in front of him. “Never mind, God,” he said, “I just found one!”

Over this summer we are thinking about what some call ‘Christian disciplines’ but I prefer the term ‘spiritual fitness’. What makes up a healthy spiritual work-out?

Prayer Is Work

One of the things is prayer. Have you ever prayed for a preacher to shut up and sit down? Somebody did some research a while back and found that the average length for a sermon in the UK has now fallen to under 10 minutes. Asked to comment on the research, one joker said, “It is a testimony to the remarkable power of intercessory prayer!”

But in reality, many of us find prayer hard work. The Bishop who ordained me, Geoffrey Rowell, once said, “In the contest between prayer and work, work always wins because it’s easier.”

I was reading the other week about the Mission that Mother Teresa founded in Calcutta. Apparently, there was a time when the sisters were becoming overrun by the demands placed on them. There were more people at their door than they could keep pace with. They had to turn some away.

So one day one of the novices approached Mother Teresa and said, “What are we going to do? We are overwhelmed. The sisters are discouraged and exhausted.” Do you know how Mother Teresa replied? She said, “Then we shall have to get up in the morning one hour earlier. And we shall spend that extra hour in prayer.”

I would have said, “Then we shall have to open the doors one hour earlier to fit more people in.” But it’s a good job they had Mother Theresa running that place and not me. Because Bishop Geoffrey was right, in the contest between prayer and work, work wins, because it’s easier. But prayer is more effective than we know. God provided an international wave of interns and volunteers, and the mission was able to cope again.

How to…

When Jesus talks about praying, he gives some straight talk about how to go about it. “Don’t show off,” he says in v5, “it’s not a performance.”

“Don’t crowd it out,” he says in v6. “You really need to find a private space where you can be alone with God.”

“And it doesn’t have to be long. Don’t waffle on and on,” he says in v7, “God knows what you want to say.”

The prayer Jesus taught, we call it the Lord’s Prayer, but actually it’s our prayer. “This then is how you should pray”, he said (v9). And Jesus’ approach is simple.

The Lord’s Prayer begins with the three things that God is looking for from us: reverence – ‘hallowed be your name’; allegiance – ‘your kingdom come’; and obedience – ‘your will be done’.

And it goes on to ask for the three things we need from God: food – ‘Give us today our daily bread’; forgiveness – ‘forgive us our sins’; and freedom – ‘deliver us from the evil one’.

The evangelist J. John and his wife Killy heard about a woman who was in a coma, completely unresponsive. They went to the hospital and asked the staff if they could pray, and their request was granted. They stood either side of the patient, each held one of her hands, and said, “What shall we pray?” They were pretty low on ideas.

So Killy said, “Maybe the Lord’s Prayer.” J. John said, “Sounds good.” So they started to pray, saying each line slowly and deliberately. Our Father in heaven…. Hallowed by your name… And as they said, “Your kingdom come” the patient suddenly sat up, bolt upright. She was discharged a day later.

The Christian author John Ortberg once talked about his Uncle Otis who regularly prayed for the sick. One Sunday in church, he was asked to pray for a poor soul who was suffering from quite severe constipation.

Uncle Otis started praying, “Lord, heal this man immediately!” Sometimes an immediate answer to prayer is not quite what you need and mercifully this particular prayer was not answered instantly!

In Luke’s gospel, Jesus’ teaching this prayer comes as a reply to a question from one of the twelve. They saw Jesus praying and asked him to teach them to pray.

It’s a good question to ask. If somebody came up to you and said, “You’re a Christian aren’t you? Oh good. I was wondering, tell me, I have wanted to learn to pray for ages; where should I start?” What would you say in reply? Would you offer a technique? Do you think you’d mention this prayer?

Some people like to take time out in quiet monasteries or chapels. Others pray best in the car after listening to the Bible on CD. (A word of advice: if this is you, learn to pray with your eyes open)!

Some, like me, prefer to spend the first moments of each day in prayer, before or just after getting up. For others, the best moment is at the end of the day on the sofa with a cup of cocoa. Do whatever works best for you.

Once, because I was slipping into the habit of saying the Lord’s Prayer mechanically, I tried to put it in my own words, using as few words from the original as I could, but without changing the meaning. Here’s what I came up with:

Father God, high above us and far beyond us,

may everyone on earth give you honour,

accept your authority and obey your word

as the angels do in your presence.

Give us just what we need for the day ahead.

Forgive us when we go against you

just as we make peace with those who hurt us.

Don’t test us beyond what we can bear

but drive the devil away from us.

The just rule, the invincible power, and the unfading glory

belong to you alone and always will. 

That's right!

In today’s Gospel reading it is clear that prayer is something we rightly do alone in private and together with others. As I said, Jesus teaches us to find a space where we won’t be disturbed, where we can be alone with God.

But he doesn’t mean we should only pray privately. If he did expect us to only pray alone, the prayer he taught us would begin with the words ‘My Father’ not ‘Our Father.’

Jesus expects Christians to pray together in groups as well. When he said to go in a room and shut the door, he meant that our praying should not be a display for onlookers.

Public prayer is not a show. “Do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing… on the street corners…” Why? “To be seen.”

Corrie Ten Boom was a Dutch watchmaker’s daughter who survived Ravensbruck concentration camp after being sent there for hiding Jews in her house. She knew quite a bit about trouble and perils.

And she knew that some people only pray when the chips are down. As soon as life gets better prayer gets forgotten. So she once asked this question, “Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tyre?”

In other words, does prayer direct your life, is it at the heart of your decision making, or does it only really happen in dire emergency when all else fails?

But some people will worry and lose hours of sleep before they pray and leave things with the Lord.

Can I encourage you, if you are carrying heavy burdens today, and you haven’t really prayed, to come to God and lay your anxieties down at his feet? Maybe pray with someone else if that helps. But don’t suffer alone. The Lord is near.

There’s a lovely verse in Philippians 4 about worry and prayer. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

In other words, peace comes when we leave our burdens with God in prayer.

Ending

To finish, let’s thank God for answered prayer. If each of us shared, one by one, all the prayers God had answered in our lives I’m sure it would take days to hear the end of it.

And, at the same time, let’s trust his wisdom and timing for those prayers that are yet unanswered.

Some of the things I asked God for years ago, I know now would have taken my life in a completely different direction, and not for the better. As someone wisely noted, “We shall need eternity to thank God for all the prayers he didn’t answer.”

Sermon preached at Saint Mary's Long Newton, 11 August 2019

Living Constantly in Debt (Romans 13.8-10)

Introduction

I wonder what you think of when someone mentions bills and debts. Has there ever been a time in your life when you have dreaded the postman coming to the door because there might be more bills you can’t pay? For some people this is a major cause of anxiety and stress.

This year, KnowYourMoney.co.uk commissioned an independent, nationally-representative survey among more than 2,000 UK adults. It found that 62% of people across the country have some form of debt. It doesn’t include mortgages, but it does include getting into arrears on repayments.

Nearly three in ten people with debt (29%) said they do not feel in control of it and have no plan as to how they will pay it off.

A third (33%) said they buy items on their credit card without first thinking about how they will pay it off later.

Two thirds of those in debt (67%) have no financial safety net, money in savings, to pay off debt if required.

And 24% of people in debt said they lose sleep because of it, while 41% do not feel comfortable speaking to friends or family about the subject.

Owing Money

Chances are those figures include some of us here today and there is help available. We had CAP here back in April and they can help get you back on top if you’re feeling overwhelmed.

During one of the severe potato famines in Ireland, a number of families wrote a letter to their landlord saying they had absolutely no money at all to pay their rent and begged to be let off all their debts.

The landlord was a clergyman; Andrew Fausset, born near Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, in 1821. For fifty-one years, he was rector of St Cuthbert’s, York.

Canon Fausset wrote a letter back to his tenants. He said it was quite impossible to let them off their debts. It would set a bad precedent. They had to pay every single penny.

‘But,’ he wrote, ‘I enclose something that might help you.’ It was a cheque for a very large sum of money – which more than covered all their debts. That’s the gospel; good news for the poor.

But the way we handle our money, once we belong to Christ, is a discipleship issue. In other words, Jesus wants to train us and teach us to manage money wisely. It is part of his programme for us because it is a spiritual matter.

It says in Luke 16.11, “If you haven't been faithful with worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?”

A well-known Christian leader once said, “By getting into debt I am basically telling God that his current level of provision for my life is simply not good enough.” Or do we believe what we say when we called God “Yahweh Yireh, the Lord is my provider”?

I say all this about debt because our reading today from Romans 13 begins in v8 by saying, “Let no debt remain outstanding...”

This raises a practical question. As a Christian, wanting to live faithfully according to God’s word, should I take on a loan - or in fact borrow anything, even a cup of sugar from next door? God’s word says, “Let no debt remain outstanding.”

Today’s passage links with last week’s which ended in v7 with these words: “Give to everyone what you owe them: if you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honour, then honour.”

The Romans were voracious collectors of revenue and the tax burden was heavy.

There was a ground tax by which you had to pay, either in cash or in kind, one-tenth of all the grain, and one fifth of the wine and fruit produced on your land.

There was income tax. There was a poll tax, which had to be paid, no ifs, no buts, by everyone between the ages of 14 and 65.

Then there were customs duties, import and export taxes, tolls for the use of roads and bridges, levies for entering markets and harbours, and statutory fees for a license to possess an animal, or to drive a cart or wagon.

Everywhere you went, everything you did, had some kind of tax and the Bible says, “don’t argue about it, don’t grumble about it, just give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.”

You and I also owe taxes; income tax, road tax, council tax, VAT. We also owe revenue; national insurance, duty on fuel, water rates, TV license.

So, when it says in verse 8, “Let no debt remain outstanding,” it doesn’t mean “don’t ever borrow”, it means, when you do incur a debt, pay it back. Pay all of it. And settle up promptly.

Don’t, for the illusory promise of a happier life now, create a Credit Card monster which gets bigger and bigger each month and starts to make you miserable and ends by controlling you.

Live within your means and be content. There is a wonderful, happy freedom in being debt-free and this is how God wants us to be.

This is ever so practical. What does it mean to owe no debt to anyone?

-  It means I show my love for God by returning borrowed books when I’ve finished reading them.

-  It might mean delaying the purchase of that large screen TV until I can actually afford it.

-  It means being careful to keep promises.

-  It means not falling behind on my rent when I know I have enough for a nice holiday.

-  We owe our employers a full day’s work. So, it means arriving at work on time, not extending tea and lunch breaks, and not sneaking off early.

Owing Love

But there is debt that is allowed, in fact commanded. “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another…”

It’s a strange expression. What does it mean? You might say, “Why do I have a debt of love? I can think of loads of people who have never given me anything. I don’t even know these people. In what way am I indebted to them?”

The answer is this: the debt of love that we owe is nothing to do with other people giving us something first. The truth is that we are permanently in debt to Christ for the lavish grace he has poured upon us.

There’s a story about a CEO of a Fortune 500 company who pulled into a petrol station to fill up. He went in to pay and noticed that his wife was deep in conversation with the service station attendant.

It turned out that she knew him; in fact, they were High School sweethearts before she even met the man who would become her husband.

After they drove off, the CEO said, “I bet you’re thinking, wow, I’m glad I married a CEO of a Fortune 500 company and not that service station attendant.”

She said, “No, actually. I was thinking, if I’d married him, he’d be a Fortune 500 CEO and you’d be a service station attendant!”

That is a good picture of God’s grace in our lives. Everything we have we owe to him. He doesn’t love us because we are amazing; he loves us because he is amazing.

The only way we could even start to repay him all that he has given us is to love others in turn with the love we have received from the Lord.

It’s a debt that can never be repaid. You can’t say, “Well, I showed a bit of love that person yesterday, I’m done for the week now; I don’t have to love them today as well.” You can’t ever be rid of the debt of love.

No, if you love someone on Tuesday you still owe it to God to love them on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday... They may not deserve it, but you still owe it. After all, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, absolutely undeserving, Christ died for us.”

Commanded to Love

Sometimes, deserve the exact opposite, maybe there’s someone you can’t stand, someone irritating or annoying or unfair or worse, but the command of the Lord is to love. “Love one another.” “Love one another as I have loved you.” “Love your neighbour as yourself.”

A vicar was preaching on this command to love your neighbour and one old man in the pews whispered to the bloke next to him, “I’d like to see the vicar love my neighbour.”

But that’s the point! Jesus even says, “love your enemy.” G.K. Chesterton once said, “The Bible tells us to love our neighbours, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.” 

That quote from Chesterton might be apt for the notice board outside our church! If you know the history, our neighbours around All Saints’ haven’t always been enchanted about having a busy and thriving church in their street.

Sometimes complaints we receive, mostly about parking, are fair enough and we must hold our hands up, apologise for thoughtlessness and do better.

Sometimes criticisms are duplicated and circulated against us. At times they are unfair, exaggerated and even malicious. The Lord says, “you owe it to show your neighbours love.”

If someone hits you and you don't hit them back, that is mercy. If someone hits and you don't hit them back but instead say, “Look, forget it, I’m not going to hold this against you,” that is forgiveness.

If someone hits you and you don't hit them back but instead say, “I forgive you” and then you treat them to a free coffee, that is grace. This is what God's love for us is like, and this is what he calls us to emulate.

“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt [to God] to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.”

I bet most of us are not particularly excited about law. If I said, “Oh, HMRC have just come out with a new tax code. This is very important, so every Sunday for a couple of months, we’re going to study it in detail, including the footnotes and small print!” How many of you would miss church?

Or what if your boss said to you, “Head Office have just produced 100 new policies and procedures, and we’re going to go over them line by line”? It’s not what you want to hear is it?

We are not excited about rules and laws. But in a nutshell, basically everything God wants from us until the end of our days, can be captured in two simple guidelines; love God with all you’ve got and love others. If you just do that, you haven’t really got to sweat about the rest.

Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself. All the [rest] hangs on these two commandments.”

And v9 just unpacks that a bit, picking 4 of the 10 Commandments.

How do you respect the purity of your neighbour’s marriage and sex?

How do you respect the sanctity of your neighbour’s life?

How do you respect the boundaries of your neighbour’s property and possessions?

The simple, one-word, but complete answer is love. One commandment covers it all.

I was at a wedding yesterday. It was Paul’s first wedding and it was a beautiful occasion.

I often say when I conduct a wedding that some couples find that, over time, the happiness fades because they get married believing a myth. And the myth is that marriage is like a beautiful box full of all the things they have longed for; love, companionship, intimacy, romance, friendship etc.

But the truth is, that marriage, at the start, is an empty box. It’s empty so you have to put something in before you can take anything out.

There is no romance in marriage; romance is in people, and people put romance into marriage.

There is no love in marriage either; love is in people, and people put love into marriage. This is what love is about. It’s not Love Island.

Couples have to choose and commit to a lifestyle of giving, loving and praising, to keep the box full. If a couple takes out more than they put in, before long the box will be empty and they wake up one morning wondering where the magic went.

This truth about marriage is true for all relationships. The more we put into them the more enriching they will be.

As we saw a couple of weeks ago in Romans 12.14, how should I respond to people who pick on me? “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.” Love your neighbour as yourself.

And in 12.20, what should I do if I hear that someone, who has been attacking me, is in material need? “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.” Love your neighbour as yourself.

As Christian parents, Kathie and I tried to train our children to put into practice what Jesus said to love your enemies as well as your friends. Once, our then 8 year-old son came home saying he was being bullied at school. I was heartbroken for him - and seething inside – I could have really lost it.

But I told our son what Jesus said about loving people who aren’t very nice and then I took him to the sweet shop to cheer him up a bit.  

On the way there, I had an idea. I bought two packets of nice sweets, gave my son one pack, and then I said to give the other one the next day to the kid who was picking on him at school. So, he did. The kid was totally amazed, it melted his heart, and he later became our son’s friend.

Ending

As I close, and as we go into prayer ministry, I want to share with you four brief stories from Burundi that I was sent in an email yesterday. Today, 702 young people from all over the world are going out to 35 different places in that country and it’s the love of Christ that compels them to go. Here are some testimonies from the last few trips.

In Gisoro, a madman terrorised a whole village, wandering around for years with a machete. A team came and prayed for him, he was healed, and for the rest of the two weeks’ outreach he went around with them testifying to the power of God at work in their lives.

One team found a girl who hadn’t been able to walk or be upright for six months. The mother wouldn’t let them preach, saying she’d only listen if God healed her daughter. They prayed and told her to get up. She stood. They prayed further and her trembling legs became strong, and she walked to church the next day to praise God for her miracle, along with all those who were converted watching the miracle take place.

A famous witch doctor called Makari from Isale received what he thought were prospective ‘clients’ into his den. When our evangelists revealed their identity, the power of God came on him and he fell to the ground. When he came to, he sat and listened to their preaching. He believed in Jesus and asked them to come back two days later when he would burn all his charms publicly. When they returned, they found Makari had invited all his relatives and other witch doctor friends. He declared before all of them that he had turned to Christ, and proceeded to burn his charms. At that point our team preached and a further fifty people decided to follow Christ! Makari is now a member of Emmanuel church, along with his family.

17-year-old Aristide from Cibitoke was pronounced dead by the doctor, who withdrew the drip and covered his body with a sheet. The mother started weeping hysterically, and her cries drew the attention of our team nearby. One of them came rushing in, and felt led to claim his life back from the dead. After praying over the corpse, Aristide started breathing again, and he and his mother promptly gave their lives to the Lord, along with another forty-one people who witnessed or heard about what happened.

This is our God who so loved the world, this is what he does… this is why we owe it to the world to show them what this love is like.

Let's pray...

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 4 August 2019