Scripture can be found here…
Can you imagine writing a long, long letter to someone you’ve never met?
I know that I don’t take or find the time to write long letters, or even emails—I keep promising myself I’ll get to it when I have more time, and guess what? I never have more time—at least, I never seem to.
But can you imagine? Paul wrote the letter we’re reading this morning—a letter so long, we divide into sixteen chapters—to a community he had never met, because he wanted them to know a little about him, but even more, because he wanted them to know about God, and about Jesus Christ. And even more than that, he wanted them to know what faith in God, trust in Jesus, looks like, boots on the ground. He wanted them to know about salvation, which for Paul, is chiefly about how the gospel transforms us for our lives in this world.
And for the Romans, “boots on the ground” faith takes place in the capital of the Roman Empire, a perilous territory for Christians in the first century. And the seven verses that begin chapter 13 speak to that directly.
Paul begins by asserting that, if someone is in charge, it must be God’s will. And so he encourages obedience to the laws of the land, including the payment of taxes, saying, “Pay to all what is due them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due” (Romans 13:7).
And that brings us to our passage, and it explains why it begins on a note of owing somebody something.
“Owe no one anything,” Paul writes, “except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”
This is it. This is the sentence that grabbed me, that made me say, YES. This is the passage I want to share with the good folks of UPC. This is the heart of it all.
Of course, you know that Paul is basically paraphrasing Jesus here. A scholar of the law asks Jesus, what is the greatest commandment? And Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind. And then he says, and just as important: You shall love your neighbor as yourself (there he’s quoting Leviticus). He sums up saying, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:40).
Love of God and love of neighbor fulfill the law. Jesus wants us to know that. Paul wants us to know that. And… as you heard in my conversation with our younger people, love is not necessarily or only about feelings. Yes, we may feel a deep sense of love for God and neighbor… especially in the abstract. In my morning prayer I can love my hypothetical neighbor with all the generosity of an open, joyful heart. It’s a little different when my neighbor is cranking out 90’s disco hits at top volume at 2:00 in the morning. In that instance, loving your neighbor might consist of figuring out how to talk to him without yelling.
Love can be about how we feel, but only some times. Far more often, love is a verb. Love is about what we do. We can proclaim our love for God and neighbor from here to the ends of the earth, but if we don’t have love, boots on the ground… you know how the rest of that goes. It’s just noise.
Take note: Neither Paul nor Jesus dismisses the importance of law. Law is good and necessary. Law is what enables us to live together peacefully when all parties abide by it, no matter their personal feelings, grudges, or prejudices. Right now, we’re seeing a breakdown in that ability to live together peaceably, because there is a large portion of our population who believes that laws are not being administered justly. When there is no justice, how can there be peace?
Paul even cites a few well-known laws as examples in support of his thesis statement that love fulfills the law, specifically, the sixth, seventh, eighth, and tenth commandments. And suddenly, as I was studyng the text, all I could think of was:
“What is love? Baby, don’t hurt me. Don’t hurt me no more…”
And, you know, that particular 90’s disco hit helped me to understand the crux of Paul’s thesis:
To love is to do no harm.
To do no harm is to build trust.
To build trust is to build relationships… whether in the home, or in the workplace, or in the church, or in the community.
New Testament professor Eleazar S. Fernandez, in discussing these words of Paul’s, writes,
“Love builds communities. It is more than a sentimental feeling. The love that does what is good to the neighbor is love incarnate [in the flesh!] in the form of justice or right relation; it is a love that establishes egalitarian practices…
Fernandez goes on to note that, “fulfillment of the law” doesn’t mean everyone gets a prize—you don’t get a cookie for doing the right thing. Instead, something subversive happens…. something Paul is aiming at all along.
“That which is the fulfillment [of the law] (love) is now the measure of the law. Law must serve love of God and neighbor, not the other way around. Law must bow down to the demands of love; it must carry love’s desire for justice.”
When I look at our community, I see so much “boots on the ground” love. Each time I drop by our Food Pantry, I see all the signs of much hard work on behalf of our neighbors. In the work of our Membership and Fellowship committee I see continuing efforts to reach out to those who may be feeling isolated at home. Our deacons continue the work of reaching out, and seeking to share the love of Christ with those for whom being at home or in nursing care is a norm from before pandemic days. Outside the channels of committee work, I observe quiet actions individuals take—giving that takes place without fanfare, not for any reward or accolade, but because, it is the right thing to do.
What does “boots on the ground” love look like to you? In these days of continuing concern for one another’s health, it probably looks like wearing our masks. In days of continuing concern for our siblings of color, it probably looks like deepening our understanding of systemic racism so that we can awaken to their pain and their realities, and become better friends and allies.
In days of continuing need to keep one another safe and well, it probably means this—worshiping, for the most part, from the comfort of our homes, while waiting for the signs that it will be safe to gather in our sanctuary again. And in every day, it means continuing concern and care for those Jesus calls “the least of these”: the hungry, the thirsty, the sick; those without homes, those without resources, those without freedom.
“Owe no one anything,” Paul writes, “except to love one another.” Love fulfills the law, because God is love.
Thanks be to God. Amen.