God’s Grace and Peace to you!
Since the beginning of June, our Second Reading during Sunday worship has been from the book of Romans. We will continue in Paul’s Letter to the Romans through the month of August and into the first couple of Sundays of September.
For the first eleven chapters, Paul writes about God’s overwhelming grace for creation, for Jewish and non-Jewish people, and for those who try their best to please God but fail in their attempts to do so. In chapter twelve he switches gears and starts to focus on how we are to respond to God’s grace, opening with: “Offer yourselves as living sacrifices to God, holy and acceptable.” Paul then begins to give practical advice on what it means to be a living sacrifice to God.
Paul calls upon his readers to be loving, eager, generous, and humble. They are to meet the needs of others even if the people in need are their enemies. Paul encourages each and every Christian to follow Christ in such a way.
Martin Luther picked up on this thought when he came up with the doctrine of “the priesthood of all believers.” It is ministry of and to all members of the congregation regardless of their gender, age, or spiritual maturity.
But human nature often pulls us in another direction. If someone wrongs us, we want to “even the score”, to get them back. And sometimes we feel so injured that we feel duty-bound to pay them back with even more hurt than what we might have experienced.
So how do we live out our faith in the face of injustice? Paul shares words of wisdom to the Romans and to us today.
Paul encourages Christians to keep God’s will for justice before our eyes. We hold it up, like a banner. We keep our eyes fixed upon it. Our actions and our words bear witness to it. In all we do, in all we say, we stand up to injustice and keep our eyes on God’s will for justice.
Paul also encourages us to stand together. When others around us are surrounded by oppression, we are to walk along side with them. We try to understand their position. As they weep, we weep with them. When they rejoice, we rejoice with them. There is great strength in such unity.
Paul is really echoing the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 25: “I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat…”
When we live our Christian faith, we are not just inviting others to worship with us and to grow in their relationship with God. We are also urging them to become involved in serving others. We are inviting them to live lives that impact others and leave a legacy of faith. We do this because we know how life-changing, spirit-filled service can be, both for us and for those we serve.
In Christ!
Pastor Bakker
9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good; 10 love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 20 Instead, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:9-10, 20-21 (NRSVUE)