Members of one another

 

Romans 12: 9-21
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
September 10, 2023

Photo of a tree, looking up at its limbs and green leaves, many hands of different flesh tones reverently touching the bark on the tree trunk

A friend of mine was volunteering at an event for a non-profit when a middle-aged husband and wife came up and asked, “Don’t you know who we are?” This couple informed my friend that they had donated to the non-profit a large sum of money in memory of a loved one, as part of a fund that would continue the mission of the non-profit, especially with youth. Through this generous donation they were seeking not only to give meaning to the life of their loved one but also community, that place, that people “where everyone knows your name”. But it’s not just our names we want people to know. We want people to know us. We want, we need people who are willing to disrupt their lives for us.



Eugene Peterson, in his paraphrase The Message, puts it this way: “Love from the center of who you are…run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help the holy ones who are needy; be inventive in hospitality.”



But Paul doesn’t stop at loving one another and loving the stranger, which Jesus said is central to fulfilling the law. Even as he writes to a community living in the very large shadow of empire, the very one that crucified Jesus and anyone else who got in its way, in the same tone used for love, Paul reminds this congregation that they are to bless those who persecute them and not curse them. If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. This is something more than disrupting our lives for someone. It’s about disrupting our egos and the falsity of “us” and “them”. It’s about repairing and liberating all of humanity.



The other day one of you posted this story on Facebook, probably fictional but true nonetheless.



Legal Studies class. First lecture.

A professor enters the lecture hall for their class. They look around.

"You there in the 8th row. Can you tell me your name?" they ask a student.

"My name is Sandra" says a voice.

The professor asks her, "Please leave my lecture hall. I don't want to see you in my lecture."

Everyone is quiet. The student is irritated, slowly packs her things and stands up.

"Faster please" she is asked.

She doesn't dare to say anything and leaves the lecture hall.

The professor keeps looking around.

The participants are scared.



"Why are there laws?" the professor asks the group.

All quiet. Everyone looks at the others.

"What are laws for?" they ask again.

"Social order" is heard from a row.

A student says, "To protect a person's personal rights."

Another says, "So that you can rely on the state."

The professor is not satisfied.

"Justice", calls out a student.

The professor smiles. The student has their attention.

"Thank you very much. Did I behave unfairly towards your classmate earlier?"

Everyone nods.

"Indeed I did. Why didn't anyone protest?

Why didn't any of you try to stop me?

Why didn't you want to prevent this injustice?" the professor asks.

Nobody answers.



"What you just learned you wouldn't have understood in 1,000 hours of lectures if you hadn't lived it. You didn't say anything just because you weren't affected yourself. This attitude speaks against you and against life. You think as long as it doesn't concern you, it's none of your business. I'm telling you, if you don't say anything today and don't bring about justice, then one day you too will experience injustice and no one will stand before you. Justice lives through us all. We have to fight for it.”



“In life and at work, we often live next to each other instead of with each other. We console ourselves that the problems of others are none of our business. We go home and are glad that we were spared. But it's also about standing up for others. Every day an injustice happens in business, in sports or on the train. Relying on someone to sort it out is not enough. It is our duty to be there for others. Speaking for others when they cannot.”



But as one person who commented on the post said, often it is not only that we aren’t affected by the injustice that keeps us from speaking up but that we are fearful that if we do speak up, we will suffer injustice as well. When Laura Anne Carleton was murdered for flying a Pride flag in front of her shop, I can imagine that many other allies thought about what might happen to them if they continued to raise their voices. In Atlanta, GA, 61 people who have been protesting the construction of Cop City or what police call a public safety training center have been arrested on RICO charges, their acts of mutual aid and solidarity criminalized, and yet five people including a few clergy members still chained themselves to a bulldozer, then were arrested on trespassing and obstruction charges.



It is hard work speaking against injustice and loving the world these days. Yet when Paul wrote about blessing those who persecute you, he didn’t know that the Church would abuse children; that the Church would take his words rather than his actions literally when it came to women’s leadership role; that the Church would persecute its LGBTQ members; that the Church would be a source of pain to many; that the Church would break covenant with its own people and with the humanity of others.



I think that it is covenant that Paul is getting at in his letter to the Romans, covenant that makes us members of one another. When Walter Brueggemann addressed the 12th General Synod in 1979, he defined covenant this way: “…a way of being committed to each other as God is committed to us” and it is covenant, this way of being that helps us speak against injustice and love the world despite our fears. It is how the oppressed are able to reclaim their power. It is how the privileged are able to give up the power that benefits them. It is the unshakeable, unbreakable covenant of being human together that enables justice to live through us.



Today is Rally Sunday, the traditional day when we begin the church year anew. What if it could also be the annual occasion when we renew our covenant to one another, our commitment to one another and to God’s way of justice for all people? What if every year we re-membered ourselves to one another, remembered that we are members of one another? What if every year we restored our relationship with community with a day of celebration, extravagant welcome, and homecoming, just for the sake of being together? As the poet T.S. Eliot wrote, “What life have you if you have not life together? There is no life not lived in community. And no community not lived in the praise of God.” Amen.

Benediction – stanzas from “Continue” by Maya Angelou


My wish for you
Is that you continue

Continue

To be who and how you are
To astonish a mean world
With your acts of kindness

Continue

To allow humor to lighten the burden
Of your tender heart

Continue

To remind the people that
Each is as good as the other
And that no one is beneath
Nor above you

Continue

To remember your own young years
And look with favor upon the lost
And the least and the lonely

Continue

To put the mantle of your protection
Around the bodies of
The young and defenseless

Continue

To take the hand of the despised
And diseased and walk proudly with them
In the high street
Some might see you and
Be encouraged to do likewise

Continue

To plant a public kiss of concern
On the cheek of the sick
And the aged and unwell
And count that as a
Natural action to be expected

Continue

To let gratitude be the pillow
Upon which you kneel to
Say your nightly prayer
And let faith be the bridge
You build to overcome evil
And welcome good

Continue

To dare to love deeply
And risk everything
For the good thing