Ubi Caritas

A Sermon preached on August 31 (Pentecost XII) in Wiesbaden-Frauenstein at the St. Augustine’s Summer Open Air Service

Pentecost XII Romans 12:9-21, Matthew 16:21-28

It is often claimed that the various arctic peoples, Inuit etc. have many more words for snow than the English language, the estimates vary from over 100 to 15 in a study I looked at. That study included drifting snow, clinging snow, fallen snow on ground, fresh fallen snow …I think you get the idea. While this claim is sometimes disputed, what is certain is that New Testament Greek has more words for love than English, three or four depending on the definition. The authors needed so many different words because they felt that the idea of love, especially God’s love, could not be described in one single word. There is agape (self sacrificial love), eros (not erotic, but love as the striving for union with the beloved), philia (friendship-love), and some people even add nomos (love’s expression through a fulfillment of law – see Psalm 119). With my love of order, structure, and organization I’m probably quite susceptible to the latter!

In this morning’s Gospel we heard about a conflict between two kinds of love. Out of philia Peter wants to save Jesus and keep him from being killed, but in doing so he would prevent Jesus from his saving, sacrificial act of agape on the cross. That’s what earns Peter that very stinging rebuke: get behind me Satan and transforms him, briefly from being a rock to stumbling stone!

And in today’s passage from the Letter to the Romans, which is perhaps not quite as poetic and as well-known as the description of love in 1 Corinthians (13:4-7) that is so popular at weddings, Paul talks about love and defines acts of love through a series of examples. In the first verse (12:9) the word he uses for love is agape: let agape love be genuine and without hypocrisy, and what is more genuine than the love of the Cross! In the second verse (12:10) he uses philia, in fact in the original, the term mutual affection is the word philadelphia.

Paul’s very practical examples are not his own. Some are taken from that very practical book of the Old Testament, Proverbs (see Proverbs 3:4, 3:7, 25:21-22), while Paul’s command to bless those who persecute you and not to repay evil with evil sound very like Jesus’ commands in the Sermon on the Mount. (Matthew 5:43-45) This is one of the rare occasions when we find Paul quoting Jesus, or at least those sayings of Jesus that we know. Of course Paul couldn’t quote directly from the gospels as they had not yet been written. Paul’s letters are the oldest documents in the NT. And Paul’s focus is less on retelling the story of Jesus’ life and teaching, and more on how to live a life in Christ.

But regardless of how original his examples are, they are not easy.  We can manage contributing to the needs of the saints, i.e. of other Christians and showing hospitality to strangers is also OK. But blessing those who persecute us, living peaceably with all, feeding your enemies and giving them something to drink – those are tough commands, especially in times of conflict and especially when the enemy is as brutal, inhumane and violent as the terrorist organization that calls itself the Islamic State, a title the vast majority of Muslims reject. Yes it is tough, and you might have noticed that Paul qualified the command to live peaceably with all, with the words: (12:18) “If it is possible, so far as it depends on you.” 

Nevertheless we are called to love not the organization, but the individuals, each of whom is made in the image of God and none of whom was born hating. Let’s not forget that one reason for the current situation in Iraq is the past cycle of hate and revenge, of getting your own back, and of repaying evil for evil instead of trying to overcome evil with good. As we, in my opinion rightly, come to the aid of the Kurds, the Yazidis, the Shiites, and our fellow Christians, we also need to be thinking about how we can break the cycle of revenge that is behind so many of the current conflicts. Practical acts of love and generosity will be among them as well as the willingness to give things up and never to seek revenge!

Christian love is a very practical thing, at least initially it is often more about what we do than how we feel. It is directly connected to helping others in their various needs: literally acts of charity from the word caritas, which is the Latin equivalent of agape. But when we behave towards others as if we really love them, genuine love, care, and concern for the others welfare springs up.[1]

As Christians we are called to practice both agape love and philia love. Both have their source in eros love, our love for God, our desire for a closer union and participation in the divine. Loving God with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength includes loving those made in God’s image.  Love is never just a matter of the heart or mind, but always also a practical affair, that’s what the word ‘strength’ stands for.

But in the end we don’t really need multiple words for love, because there is actually one single word for love, the word for the one we worship and follow: God. Or in the words of our communion hymn[2]: Ubi caritas et amor, deus ibi est: Where true charity and love abide, God is dwelling there.

Amen

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[1] Paul for Everyone: Romans Part 2, Tom Wright, 77

[2] Wonder, Love, and Praise, 831

Unlocking the Kingdom

A Sermon preached on August 24 (Pentecost XI) at St. Augustine’s Church, Wiesbaden

Isaiah 51:1-6, Psalm 138, Romans 12:1-8, Matthew 16:13-20

A cab driver reaches the pearly gates. St. Peter looks him up in his Big Book and tells him to pick up a gold staff and a silk robe and proceed into Heaven. Next in line is a preacher. St. Peter looks him up in his Big Book, furrows his brow and says, "Okay, we'll let you in, but take that cloth robe and wooden staff." The preacher is shocked and replies, "But I am a clergyman. You gave that taxi driver a gold staff and a silk robe. Surely I rate higher than a cabbie!" St. Peter responds in a very matter-of-fact way. "This is Heaven and up here, we are interested in results. When you preached, people slept. When the cabbie drove his taxi, people prayed."

That joke is wrong on so many levels…espcially theologically. But the idea of St. Peter guarding the gates to heaven and deciding who gets in and who doesn’t, like a sort of divine bouncer, has its origin in today’s Gospel. “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven,” (Matthew 16:19) Jesus says to Peter. One problem of interpretation is mixing up the idea of the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God as it is also called in the other Gospels, with a place called heaven that we all supposed to go to when we die. 

That is not what is meant by the kingdom of heaven. It is the reign of God that Christ has already instituted; a new life of justice, joy and peace for all that may well still be as small as a mustard seed, but will still grow into a huge tree. The kingdom is the transformation of this world and it has already begun. When Peter is given the keys to the kingdom and granted the power to loose or bind, a power which in chapter 18 is extended to all of the disciples, they are being given both the authority and the responsibility to unlock the mystery, the meaning of the kingdom of heaven and to explain the meaning of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. They are being commissioned to teach people what it means to live as members of the kingdom and to live lives worthy of Jesus’ name. And the instrument for doing all this is to be the church, that is the whole assembly or community of faith, and not one or just a few carefully selected persons. 

A moment earlier Jesus had told the disciple then still just known as Simon: “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.” (16:18) I sometimes wonder if Jesus is not being a little ironic when he gives Simon the new name of “rock,” in Greek Petra, in Latin Petrus, and in Aramaic Cephas. One thing Peter never was, was rock solid, he wobbled a lot. Right after this passage in Matthew 16:23 Peter gets it wrong and earns a stern rebuke from Jesus: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” A couple of weeks ago we heard how after accepting Jesus’ invitation to join him outside the boat on the water, Peter soon lost faith and sank – like a rock I suppose. (14:28-30) And of course we already know that Peter will deny Jesus three times just before the crucifixion. If that is the person designated to lead the church then we can be really sure that church is not just a community of the always faithful, but also a community of both forgiven and I hope also forgiving sinners. But I don’t think that Jesus intended to build his church solely on the person of Peter or of Peter’s successors. The rock on which the church is built is what Peter said, his confession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the living God. The church is built on Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God. And Jesus, quoting the prophet Isaiah, refers to himself later in Matthew (21:42) as being the stone that the builders rejected that has become the cornerstone. 

So if we, the assembly, the church, are the instrument intended to explain the meaning of God’s revelation in Christ and to teach people how to live as members of God’s kingdom, how do we live out and enact this divine commission? What standards apply? This is where Paul and the Letter to the Romans come in. As is so often the case, Paul has a little list. But before he gives us the list, he has some basic points to make. 

Living a Christian life is a 24/7 calling. Paul appeals to the Christians in Rome to offer their whole selves, mind and body to God as a living sacrifice. An animal destined to be killed on the altar was supposed to be the best possible animal, without blemish or fault. If anything is to be killed or destroyed in the sacrifice Paul calls us to make, it is not what is best or faultless, but the worse parts of us such as our selfishness, an excessive focus on the ways and demands of the world. That is one part of our ongoing transformation. The other part of our renewal is to discern what is good in us, to identify the gifts we have been given, and to use them for the common good.

Let’s have a look at that list of gifts: inspired preaching, service, teaching, offering encouragement, giving generously, leadership, and compassion. This is not my job description by the way, this is our job description. This is what we do collectively as church, this is how we complement each other as one body in Christ, just as the members of a real body complement each other. We are not all supposed to do the same thing and certainly not supposed to do everything! When I first started serving here at St. Augustine’s 6 months ago I was impressed by the level of volunteering, by your willingness to act, and by how you had kept things going through a very difficult patch. And I still am. But I have noticed the same names and faces popping up again and again. That’s not good for you and that’s not what Paul is telling us.

This is not a call to drop everything you are doing immediately, especially not with the church picnic and the Night of the Churches coming up over the next couple of weeks. I am not suicidal. But take a close look at the ministries you are involved in, and how many. Do you feel they fit the gifts you have been given? Are you joyful when you do them or just tired every time? Is there someone you know who would be even better you could ask to help and perhaps train as your replacement? And if you are not yet involved in any ministries here at St. Augustine’s: what would fit your gifts, where do you think you could best serve this and the wider community? And if you have no ideas at all … come and ask me: that was me trying exhortation or encouragement by the way.

There is no hierarchy of functions or gifts. As Paul says, “do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think.” (Romans 12:3) It is not a coincidence that the gift of leadership is quite far down the list: after serving, after teaching, and after giving. Paul was not saying that leaders are less important, just not more important. 

All the gifts have some kind of qualifier, some way in which they are to be used, which is often as important as the gift itself. Prophecy or preaching is not just supposed to be good in the sense of interesting, well-structured, or perhaps even amusing at times, though that helps. It is also to be well grounded in the body of Christian belief. Similarly the teacher should have good didactic skills, but the subject matter, teaching people how to live as members of God’s kingdom, is equally important. The giver is supposed to be generous, not giving out of a sense of duty but with joy. The leader is supposed to be attentive and diligent, among other things being attentive to what gifts other people have and those who perform acts of compassion or mercy are to be cheerful and happy in doing so. That will encourage both the person being helped and others who might consider being helpers.

Behind it all is what Paul refers to as not being conformed to this world. (12:2) Our attitude is not one of self-reliance, but of cooperation. These gifts of grace are not something to compete with, who has the best gift or who does it best. Their purpose is to serve the whole community and to strengthen our unity. And while we must try and do things well, success is not so important, that’s one big mistake in the joke I told you at the beginning of this sermon: “This is Heaven and up here, we are interested in results.” The only results that heaven is interested in is in our and the world’s transformation, and more often than not that happens when we make a mistake or do something wrong. Because that is when we can experience what we are commissioned to explain, the meaning of God’s revelation in Christ, which is love, reconciliation, and forgiveness. That’s also when we can show to the world what our faith means, in our willingness to seek reconciliation and in our love for one another. After all the best way of teaching others to live lives worthy of Jesus’ name is to show them what these lives look like.

Amen