Living like we're already there

 

Romans 12: 9-21 (The Message)
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
August 30, 2026

Black and white photo of a protest march walking away from the camera. One protester is holding a sign that reads "If you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, your job is to empower somebody else."

Recently I lamented on social media that there are times I wish I could give human lessons. It’s kinda what I do for a living, but no one wants or really likes unsolicited advice. Sometimes we run roughshod over one another without meaning to, present company included, which is one thing, a human thing we all do. But then we often are running headlong to the next thing without backing up to see where we took the wrong turn and repair any harm done.



Ego is often at the root of it all, because each of us is in the starring role of our lives or at least the central character. All of us are on a hero journey of our own, but if there’s one thing that can corrupt and tear down a hero, it’s their own unacknowledged grief and pain. And American culture is loath to deal with grief and pain.



If we’re not feeling grief and pain at the state of the world, at the erosion of our democracy, this republic if we can keep it, at the arrest and disappearance of almost 50,000 people this month alone (an all-time high), who may or may not be here illegally, we’re either numbing ourselves to it or willfully ignoring what is happening. In the same week we lost Dolly Parton and Tim Curry. Then there’s the grief and pain of saying goodbye to those in our church who have passed away since last summer: Risa, Clay, Cynthia A., Jim, Ida, Kit, Jane, and we’ll say goodbye to Tony in October. We’re also inviting some grief and pain into our life together as we embark on our affordable housing project.



I say all this not to bring us down, but to acknowledge it and honor it. Sometimes we have to look away for the sake of our sanity, but it’s also a sign of our privilege to be able to do so. We can’t allow human suffering to become background noise. As I heard recently, the world is heartbreaking every day and the world is beautiful every day and we have to pay attention to both. Because if we don’t deal with our pain and our grief, if we avoid all those feelings or if we hold on to them refusing to let go, they will come out sideways and wreak havoc, push away the very people we need. As the saying goes, hurt people hurt people.



In many of his letters to the early Jesus groups and communities, the apostle Paul was giving human lessons, much like Jesus did with his disciples and the crowds that came to hear him speak. In his letter to the Romans, Paul is writing to people who are living in the lion’s mouth, in the very heart of the empire that is persecuting them just for being followers of Jesus. Not only that, these are mostly non-Jewish followers, people who signed up for a cause that could end their life.



It’s as if he’s writing to immigrants who come to this country, knowing that they could be arrested just because of who they are. He’s writing to trans youth who want to be able to live freely and authentically in a nation that is increasingly hostile toward them. He’s writing to Palestinians and Israelis, to Muslims and Jews, to Ukrainians, Sudanese, Congolese, Iranians, to Black, brown, and Indigenous people in this country. He’s writing to anyone who is dehumanized and oppressed, who live in close contact with those who demoralize them. Two thousand years later and we’re still learning how to human better than we did then.



The thing of it is, everyone, everyone, EVERYONE is dealing with pain, loss, and grief of some kind. No one is immune from it. No one’s pain or loss or grief is more precious or worse or greater than anyone else’s. It’s theirs, that’s all. If we were born and grew up with other people, we have pain. If we love another person, we have pain. If we live in this world, we have pain. More often than not, we take out our pain on one another.



What baffles me is why anyone would do something to add to another person's pain. Because when we do that, unintentionally or not, we add to our own pain. When we dehumanize another person, we dehumanize ourselves. And so Paul is appealing to these Roman Jesus followers to hold onto their humanity. And not just their humanity but their better humanity. He’s asking them to imagine God’s limitless love residing within them.



God’s love means nonviolence and nonviolence requires us to resist not only hate but indifference. UCC conference minister Rev. Lillian Daniel wrote, “The church at its best rubs like sandpaper against the accepted norms of the world.” There are days when it seems the world would like nothing more than to not have to care. The world wants to play bathroom police with people’s gender; we have all-gender bathrooms. The world wants to make it illegal to be homeless and to feed people who are food insecure; we welcome those without homes into our space and we feed anyone who wants a free meal at Hope Dining Room. The world continues to solve its conflicts with violence; we strive to listen to every voice and make decisions by consensus. To be a Christian, to be faithful to Jesus, is to be non-conforming to the ways of the world that we might conform to the ways of justice and compassion.



Hebrew scripture scholar Walter Bruggemann wrote, “The prophetic tasks of the church are to tell the truth in a society that lives in illusion, grieve in a society that practices denial, and express hope in a society that lives in despair.” We are called to live like we’re already there, already living in the kindom of God, already living in what Martin Luther King called a “world house” of dignity, liberty, and community for all humanity.



But it takes practice. Every day life comes for us whether we’re ready for it or not. Which is why Paul gives his readers and listeners this passage of spiritual practices, ones that call upon our better humanity. Love from the center. Help those who are needy. Bless your enemies. Discover beauty in everyone. Rejoice when others rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Get the best of evil by doing good. Imagine God’s limitless love living within you. Be joyful, hopeful though you have considered all the facts. And remember you’re not alone. We have each other. We can do this, Church. We can build the future by how we live now. Amen.

Benediction


Go forth into the world in peace.
Be of good courage.
Hold fast to that which is good
and render to no one evil for evil.
Strengthen the faint-hearted;
support the weary; help the suffering.
Honor all people.
Honor all creation.
Love and serve God,
rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The grace of our Savior Jesus Christ be with us all. Amen.