Day 222 - Do Not Think Too Highly Of Yourself - A Vision of Righteousness

A sermon delivered at First Presbyterian Church, Soddy Daisy, TN, July 21, 2013

OT scripture: Habukkuk 2:2-4NT scripture: Romans 12:1-21

In today’s sermon, we will hear what Paul has to say about righteousness at the level of congregation. In the following sermon we will hear what it means on a corporate or political level, and in the third sermon what it means on a social, or interpersonal level.

For these three sermons to make sense, in fact  for Paul to make sense, we must understand Paul's sense of righteousness. Paul has spent the previous 11 chapters talking about a new reality of God’s righteousness, Jesus Christ holding the idea of righteousness and faith described in Habukkuk 2:2-4 ever present in the back of his mind.  Christ is The Righteous One who is a model of goodness; the life of Jesus defines righteousness. God reckoned Abraham righteous by his faith before there was the Law, so too God reckons us righteous through Jesus Christ, regardless of sin. Reckon is judicial language. It means that before a accusation of wrongdoing is even leveled against you, you are reckoned not guilty by the judge. There is no trial or indictment.  This is the the basis of the idea, “saved only by the grace of God," not by works.  Remember, we do not earn righteous it is reckoned - though we may resist it.

Paul says also righteousness is not a call to self-denial in reaction to our sinful nature. Our baptism though the resurrection of Jesus has washed all that guilt away. I think we sometimes over read guilt into salvation as self-denial or self-punishment. There is no room for self-denial because righteousness is a reckoned call to service of the Lord, to self-giving as a consequence of our new life. This is true whether we talk about the person or the congregation. In both cases we are talking about the body of Christ. The body is the place where God’s righteousness is worked out in the world. That can happen only by the total rebirth or transformation into the likeness of Christ. This does not mean just being humble (though it is involved) or perfect (we cannot be so) or that Christians are superior to others. It means we affirm the equality of all God’s children through his grace.

Righteousness has two parts, the model and the practice. I call the model the vertical part. That is grace, our relationship to God’s righteousness, Jesus Christ is the paradigm. I call practice the horizontal part. That part is service or active obedience. It is our relationship to the world in response to grace.

I said that righteousness causes a total change or rebirth symbolized by baptism in which we are transformed into the likeness of Christ. That gives us (and Paul) opportunity to brag but not to think we are superior as Christians because we can only brag about what we cannot control - God’s graciousness that inspires an active faith that might entail suffering. An active faith means we affirm God’s grace and righteousness, not by giving lip service, but living to defend, or demonstrate the equality of all God’s children by our own action. In spite of our common summary presumption that Paul preaches justification only by faith and not works, this whole passage in Romans describes the work of the active faith of a righteous person. Righteousness is active obedience.

Paul’s sense of being reckoned righteous empowered him confidently to affirm his equality with the Apostles. Consider what Paul said in Galatians about his history before he set his first foot in the Mediterranean ministry. Here is a brief excerpt:

 ^1:11“For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; ¹²for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ… ¹⁸Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days;… ^2:1Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem… ⁶And from those who were supposed to be acknowledged leaders (what they actually were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those leaders contributed nothing to me. ⁷On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel for the circumcised…⁹(and) the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. ¹⁰They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do.”

Paul did not claim superiority but equality.  He defended his obligation to carry the Gospel to the gentiles according to the revelation he experienced. Clearly this passage shows he retained and redirected the zeal he exhibited as a Pharisee pursuing Christians to proclaim the Gospel. You can tell Paul was a Christian zealot.

Paul said he was called to this Apostolic zeal by a revelation. Except for this passage, we know absolutely nothing about specific accomplishments of Paul in his first 14 years while he labored in Syria and Arabia. Were there miracles?  Did he bring hundreds into the fold? We only can conclude whatever work he accomplished with God’s help, his righteousness impressed the Apostles enough to affirm his revelation and consent to his ministry to the gentiles.

What does Paul say is righteousness’ claim on us?  Every Christian who (must) affirm the equality and importance of every other Christian and welcomes them reflects that righteousness.  Paul intentionally uses ambiguous language about the body. By “every Christian,” he means both each person and the congregation as a body with many members. “Every Christian” is each one of us in the room and us as a collective whole of all congregations.  Paul says (in 12:2) we (both people and the several congregations) have different gifts but he says first we ALL share a common righteous obligation, “do not be conformed to the world but (be) transformed by our rebirth that we may know what is good and acceptable and perfect in God’s eyes and do it.”

Only when we all bring our own particular strengths to the power of the congregation can it fulfill the obligation to proclaim the Good News. To do this depends clearly on the behavior of each person and the congregation. He really shines the light on righteousness in the next verses: “let your love be genuine, hate what is evil; hold on to what is good; love one another with mutual affection so that you compete with one another to shower this honor on the other.” And then 12:11 really turns up the heat: “Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.”

Paul is thinking, “do I have to repeat myself?” We cannot be of the world and zealously fulfill our obligation if we are transformed by grace.

These next verses, 12:14-21, convince me that in those first fourteen years he spent in Arabia, Syria, and Antioch he learned much of the oral tradition of Jesus’ life. (We know Paul's letters preceded the Gospels, and perhaps Paul besides on the road to Damascus,  may have seen Jesus only once, on the cross.) In his own letters Paul spoke of “the tradition handed down by others” implying the Apostles and unnamed others. He quotes early hymns that are basic creeds of belief. (In the early church, hymns were a formal liturgy somewhat like creeds, see Philippians 2:5-11, for example.) Here in Romans 12 Paul preaches righteousness by quoting this handed-down tradition:

14  Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 

16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. 

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 

18 If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 

19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 

20 No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, 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. something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals.

Now listen to these verses from elsewhere in the NT:

 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

“Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

These are the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:3-12. Do you hear the similarity?

How can I put this righteousness that is reckoned to us into a real-life situation that illuminates both Paul’s exhortations for active obedience and acknowledgement that we live under the burden of sin?

I usually avoid preaching about most current events because many of the controversies either defy simple solution, all the facts are not in, or proper words are so hard to find that every discussion seems to cause disunity and do an injustice to Christian compassion. But Paul says righteous peace demands we trust our fellow Christians and try to find peace and justice in the world. As I have struggled with Paul in Romans (Paul and I are not always on good speaking terms) Chapter 12 seems to point to the whole tragedy of Trevon Martin and George Zimmerman. Virtually all my pastor-friends have discussed it in a sermon, or are about to do so. Some are liberal, some are conservative. I’ve heard some TV evangelists preach flippantly about it and that really pains and embarrasses me for our church.  This affair is a tragedy in the purest sense of the word. It is the story of a sorrowful, heroic struggle with sin that leaves no winners and the downfall of two men. It is a tragedy that begs for a Christian perspective on righteousness.

We have one young African-American teenager who was unarmed, except for a bag of skittles, walking in a neighborhood at night in the rain with his hood pulled up apparently heading to a relative’s home.  Maybe he is angry, hot-headed and tired of being harassed by white folks and treated with suspicion because of the color of his skin. Maybe he was paranoid he was going to be robbed, or carried a grudge against “white folks.” We will never know except we know his possible history with drugs did not cause it. Perhaps stereotypes, his anger and real experience  (there had been break-ins in the neighborhood) had occurred the transformed him into a threatening presence to Mr. Zimmerman in the night rain. We will never know.

We have an older young Caucasian/Hispanic man who by public account wants to be a policeman, seems to be preoccupied with judging right and wrong, is frustrated some have "gotten away," carries suspicion and aggression in his heart and a gun on his belt rather mercy and peacemaking.  We had two persons with just the “right” mix of complementary weaknesses meet that night to create a tragic disaster.  

And disaster is exactly what happened. The young unarmed man is dead. The older man will likely be haunted by the burden of the young man’s death because the whole affair was avoidable. If both Mr. Martin and Zimmerman had lived peaceably, as Paul says, “as far as it depended on each of them,” if Mr. Zimmerman as Paul said, had “left space for the vengeance of God” were it needed and had lived in harmony with the world; “not being haughty, but associating with the lowly; and not claiming to be wiser than others;” if Mr. Martin had lived by the exhortation of Paul and Jesus, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them, and do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all,” then I am confident Mr. Martin would be alive, and Mr. Zimmerman would not carry the unnecessary death of another person on his conscience.

I can say the latter with some confidence that death will haunt Mr. Zimmerman if he is a compassionate Christian. I’ve met others in that situation. Recently I sat next to a young man who has just gotten out of jail. Homeless and with no job, he has just arranged to move to a church sponsored organization to get his life together. We are driving him to his probation officer Monday to obtain all the paperwork to make it happen. He told me this about killing. He said his whole family was involved in the meth trade and he was addicted by the time he was 12. He said, “I did a very, very bad thing when I was 13 years old.  My stepfather was a bad man and meth made him especially abusive. One day he was beating up my mother so badly that I got a gun and killed him.”  He spent his next years in juvenile detention because of it.

This is what makes his story relevant to Mr. Zimmerman. My young man said he resorted to even heavier drug abuse trying to blind his mind to the fact he had killed a man. He was arrested again for making and dealing drugs and sent to prison. His whole family is now either dead or in prison. He has  been clean for some time and is focussed on positive change. He realized drugs didn’t do anything but make him feel worse for what he had done. He said that no matter what, killing his stepfather will always haunt him. He said he can live with it only by his faith that gives him the hope of forgiveness.

His stepfather’s death was as unnecessary as Trevon Martin’s. Trevon Martin knows now the end of pain, but it is just beginning for Mr. Zimmerman. We can only pray he finds the path to the righteousness that this young man who killed his stepfather found. This is exactly the tragedy of sin that Paul is talking about. There is no winner but Satan in this affair.

We should never forget that the scriptures may speak of particular social and economic conditions and times gone by, but they are relevant today. The reality of Paul’s message is as important today as it ever was. Holding onto the zeal of Christ and never, ever forgetting to avoid thinking too highly of yourself at the expense of your neighbor is not a theoretical nicety but a consequence of righteousness and grace.  Paul, the Pharisee zealot answered Jesus’ question “Who is my neighbor?” The neighbor is the one who helped another due to active righteousness.  AMEN.