Romans 13:8-14

Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; you shall not murder; you shall not steal; you shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is already the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone; the day is near. Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us walk decently as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in illicit sex and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Sermon Text

We all have favorite character types. Some people like an uncomplicated hero and other people love a compelling villain. Those of us who love Lifetime Christmas movies pick from one of three archetypes – the up-and-coming business woman, her rural love, and her sassy friend. In all media though, there is one character I love above all others. That is the character who is absolutely selfish, wants nothing to do with anyone, and by the end of the story becomes a part of good guys solving their problems. I never get tired of those characters in whatever form they present themselves.

The reason I go back to these kinds of characters is, I think, because they speak to the infinite capacity of people to do the right thing, regardless of their background. A hero is fine and dandy, villains are easier to write than most characters, but someone who is a slimeball and learns how to be decent, that takes some work. Whether it is Han Solo from Star Wars or Sylens from the Horizon series, quality is quality.

In our own lives, we are not as over the top as most characters in media. Despite this, we all have our own character traits that define how we act. Some people are more giving, trusting, selfish, kind, or cruel than others. A variety of circumstances make us that way but the end result is simple – we all are the sum of our many and varied parts, and some of those aspects are so essential to who we are, we barely even notice it. If you think about yourself I am sure you will come up with several things you would call “essential,” to how you, as a person, interact with the world. Some of them you probably love, some you probably dislike, and some you probably are pretty neutral to.

I am a believer in the idea that humanity contains intrinsic goodness. Some argue that the fallen nature of humanity means that we are incapable of goodness on our own, but I do not think that is consistent with scripture or our broader life experience. We are all made in the Image of God and that Image cannot be destroyed. If God is good, and we affirm that often in the Church, then it stands to reason that we who are also good, albeit imperfectly. The call of the Christian, once we accept the life of faith, is to move beyond the imperfection of our goodness and step into God’s perfect goodness.

We often get nervous when “perfection,” is brought up as a goal. All Wesleyan denominations, be they historic denominations like the Evangelic United Brethren or extant groups like our very own United Methodist Church, believe that it is possible for people to become perfect in this life. Why do we believe this? Because Jesus asks us to be. “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Jesus does not ask us to do anything that we are not capable of with God’s help. Therefore, we are able to be perfect in this life. Do most people achieve such a goal? No, but we still have to chase after it at all times.

For some people that journey is much shorter than others, but for most of us with have a fair number of vices we have to chase away before we can get anywhere near virtue. That transformation can be difficult, especially if we are dealing with habits that we have trained ourselves to be excellent at. I think that this is the reason why scripture asks us to look outward rather than inward to motivate our change. Looking in the mirror and focusing on ourselves we can excuse so much of what we do and how we think and act. Once we take other people into consideration that justification becomes much harder.

In our scripture today, Paul asks the Roman congregation to put others ahead of themselves. Paul goes even further than just saying they should focus on love and care of others, but says that all the Commandments derive from this. The examples he gives are all from the Ten Commandments given at Sinai, but he ends his list with an all encompassing generalization, “any other commandment,” is summed up with the words, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If we believe that the most important thing in life is caring for other people, we will naturally find ourselves changing to meet that expectation.

Imagine the parts of yourself that you know you need to work on – I’m guessing that most of them are important to you because they impact other people. While there are certainly things that hurt us personally, most of our introspection and desire for improvement are outward facing. We want to be kinder, to listen to people with more empathy, to not give in to our worst qualities just because they are easier than our better angels. We root our desire to improve in others, because by focusing on the good of other people we necessarily develop our virtues. The simple act of looking at another person, considering them worthy of good things, will make it much easier to actually do what we should.

The challenge we have to embrace is simple on paper – “Love one another.” We have to acknowledge that that is an active mission for our entire life. It begins with our own perspective – looking out at the world and being unwilling to do anything but love. Is that hard? Of course! People do not always give us very many reasons to love them. However, it is essential that we overcome that initial opposition. If we wish to pursue perfection, to follow the instructions offered to us by Christ, then we have to embrace the most essential parts of our Divine Image. We are made in the Image of God, and scripture tell us “God is love.” We must also live a life so that when people think of us, the first and most pressing image in their mind is the love we show to all we meet. – Amen.