If Possible, Live Peaceably

Romans 12: 9-21

 

 

 

        If possible, live peaceably. That’s what Paul wrote to the Roman church, probably from Corinth while on his third missionary journey. If possible, live peaceably, said Paul back in the first century. Is it possible to live peaceably? I took a look the other day at the New York Times website at the week in review. No special week.  Just this week.  What happened this week around the world we live in?

        Well, let’s see. In Geneva, the UN reported that 36 people a day are being killed in the fighting between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian rebels.  The death and injury count since mid-July is 4,450. In Syria, over half the country’s population has been displaced and more than 3 million people are refugees in other countries. The UN calls it the biggest humanitarian emergency of our era. In Iraq, the cradle of civilization, ISIS has driven more than a million people from their homes. Over two thousand have died in Gaza as Palestinian militants trade rocket fire with the nation of Israel. In Libya, the U.S. has withdrawn its diplomats as fighting and civil war accelerate, threatening the whole region of North Africa with unrest, while down south in Nigeria, the capital city of Monrovia is on curfew as it tries to exist in the vise of the Ebola virus. Ebola deaths now have topped 1200 in West Africa with no real sign of containment. Meanwhile, the rest of the world suffers from poverty and violence in record numbers, from Juarez, Mexico to Honduras to the African Sudan to Ferguson, Missouri.

        And Paul says to the Roman church: “Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection.” How? we ask. Are we to love those who would behead us in the name of religion? Are we to care for those who call us the infidel, who plant roadside bombs to murder us? How can we bless those who persecute us? And is the fight ours or theirs? Why do we Americans have to be involved around the world in all this international war and killing and poverty and starvation? Why us? We have our own problems.

        Surely a look at this week in religion will yield more positive results. A retired New York Cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church told a group in Bridgeport, Connecticut that he regretted having apologized for the priest abuse scandal there in 2002.  He said he had no obligation to report sexual abuse to the authorities. The Air Force removed the word God from a Latin phrase used on the logo of an Air Force acquisitions office in response to complaints from an atheist group. A new poll shows that 21% of Americans say that religion does not play an important role in their lives, up from 14% in 1997.  Of course, there is the ongoing violence worldwide in the name of religion, highlighted this last week by the beheading of American journalist James Foley in Iraq by members of ISIS, the extremist militant group.

        There is good news, of course. There are humanitarian efforts going on all the time. We are not hopeless, but the world in which we live is chaotic. What can we do? We’re just a little church in a little community. We don’t have connections. What can we do to help? “Rejoice in hope,” says Paul. “be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints…”

        Paul goes on, and his words and thoughts, though magnificent, are almost impossible to live by. He says to live in harmony with one another. He says to be humble, to put away pride. Paul says to bless those who persecute us, to never avenge ourselves.  Oh, how I wish Paul were talking about my friends here at church or my friends in the neighborhood where I live, or even those crazy people that yell and scream at the refs at every ball game. I might could handle that.

        But Paul isn’t talking about our friends or even our neighbors. Paul is talking about our enemies. Paul wants us to invoke God’s blessing on those whom we can’t stand. He wants us to pray for people who would hurt us, even kill us. He calls on us to associate with those on the other side of the tracks and even those who think our way of life and our religion is hogwash and dangerous. These are the people-- these are the groups, for whom we are to pray, for whom if at all possible, we are to live in harmony.

        Frankly, we are probably living in a culture in which what I just said is not just difficult; it is counter-cultural. In the United States, fifteen million civil lawsuits are filed each year. Though we have only about 4 ½ percent of the world population, we have eighty percent of the lawyers! We live in a society that has become accustomed to suing each other. Living in harmony? That’s un-American! We have taken the rights of the individual to the illogical extreme, and we have forgotten how to solve problems. If something goes wrong, sue somebody!

        All over the Middle East and in other parts of the world, people groups are resorting to violence to carve out a piece of real estate for themselves or to find ways to preserve their way of life. American democracy and Western culture threaten that life in the religious nation states of the Middle East. Religious extremists use the Bible or the Koran to justify their slaughter of innocents in the name of God or Allah or some other creed of the day. And then others fight back, defending their turf or their culture. But in fighting back, whether in civil wars or wars between nations, or wars between nations and terrorist groups, or wars of ideologies, everyone looks to win the high ground and champion that way of life. We must win. We must prevail. We must be right. Dead right.

        Paul reminds us. That is not the way of God. Only God wins. If we take the fight to our enemy, we may only do so when led by God. And that is unlikely, because, as Paul reminds us, vengeance is not for us, but for God. Oh, it does happen. Once in a great while, the world is faced with so much evil that it must act. It certainly happened in World War II. It may happen again. But generally, God will execute his own judgment in his own time.

        Paul’s teaching becomes more profound when we begin to realize that to do otherwise, to take matters into our own hands,  is to usurp God, to pre-empt him from carrying out his judgment. Who are we to assume such responsibility! Thomas Schreiner puts it this way: “Believers are liberated from taking justice into their own hands and are free to do good because they know that God will right all wrongs in the end.”

        Is there a message in this sermon? I hope so. Part of it for me is that God is sovereign. The words just rip off my tongue like directions to the gas station, but that is not my intent. GOD IS SOVEREIGN! That means God is over it all. He is over the bullies and the terrorists groups just as much as he is over this church and the people in these pews. He is over people and churches and governments and even nations. God is sovereign! And he asks us to do this: Trust me. Obey me. Pray, wait and love.

        Paul does give us one more caveat. Sometimes, it really is impossible to be still. Sometimes, you have to move. Sometimes, the world around us, the culture we live in, gets so “out there” that if you are a Christian, if you have been redeemed, then you have to stand up. Paul says in v. 18, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” So you and I have a responsibility.  As far as this or that situation depends on us, we must live peaceably.  We are to have humble concern for one another, wherever and however situated. But…peace is not always possible.

        When we have exhausted every remedy, when we have prayed for guidance, when we are moved by the Holy Spirit, when we are called upon to stand for the truth of the gospel or have that truth compromised, when we have no other choice but to stand for Jesus Christ or be identified as not standing for him, then peace is unattainable. Then….we stand for the truth, and the truth is Jesus Christ and our uncompromising belief in him and the salvation that lies only through him.

        Is it hard to know where the line is? Not really. The Holy Spirit will take care of that for us. We will know. So today, let us pray for our enemies, for our country, for our leaders. They need it. So far as it is in our power to do so, let us live peaceably. 

        And when the time comes to stand, we will do just that, because the sovereignty of God and the truth of the gospel are the trump card of every Christian. Sometimes, peace is unattainable, but Christian witness is never out of reach.