Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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Paul's powerful little sentence, in the thirteenth Chapter of Romans, "Owe no one anything, except to love one another…." is a bit of a "sleeper." We hardly notice it. If we're not alert, it goes right by us. But then one day, if we're lucky, we hear it ("Owe no one anything, except to love one another…."), and really hear it, and see that it's a perfect summation of the Christian way of life - a way of life thought to be absolutely mad in Paul's day and still thought mad by many today.

Of course, it doesn't refer only to money, "Owe no one anything…" It's more radical than that. It means "accept no other obligation upon yourself. Recognize no other indebtedness. Rid yourself of all other claims, all other demands on your person (whether demands from within or from without), and accept only this one: to love one another. And if you do that, Paul says, (And this is the key.) -- if you do that, you will automatically satisfy all other legitimate demands.

For Paul, those "other legitimate demands" were the Ten Commandments, and the 613 sub-commandments, which the rabbis had derived from the original ten, and all the other rules and regulations appertaining thereunto. The Ten Commandments, and their derivatives, were lists of "don'ts," of wrongs. It's wrong to steal. It's wrong to commit adultery. It's wrong to murder. It's wrong to covet. But, Paul points out, "Love does no wrong…." So you can choose to live your life, tiptoeing through eggs trying not to break any, or you can accomplish the same thing (and keep every egg whole) by adopting a higher standard, the standard of love, for "love does no wrong," breaks no eggs.
Of course, "the law of love," which Paul calls it elsewhere, is superior to the laws of men, not only because it fulfills the negative Commandments ("the law") but also because it sets a much higher standard of behavior. It is one thing to say I cannot punch my neighbor in the eye, but quite another thing to say I must love him…an infinitely higher standard. It is one thing to say (as Moses said), "Don't commit adultery." It is quite another thing to say (as Jesus said) "Don't desire someone else's wife or husband." The first says, "Do no harm." The second says, "Do what is right." Samuel Johnson said to do no harm is the praise of a stone, not the praise of a man! Law gives protection to our neighbor; love seeks our neighbor's highest good. Law says what is permissible; love says what is possible. Much higher ground.
We believe too much in law. Americans often boast that ours is "a government of laws and not of men," and that's a step in the right direction. (It means we write down what is permitted and what is not, and because it is written down everyone knows what the law is -- and it is the same for everyone -- and therefore we need not fear the whims and tempers of despots. Many nations have not come that far.) But law can only protect the end zone. It cannot direct the offense or score touchdowns. It can stop us from harming others, but it cannot make us good. As our nation becomes more secular, we who are committed to Christ will find ourselves living in a world where there is less and less respect for higher values - a world quite like the one Paul lived in. The government will enact laws establishing minimum standards of behavior, and we Christians will have to say, "Maybe that's good enough for you, but not for us." Abortion may be constitutional, but it is not for us. Smut may be legal, but it is not for us. Deceptive advertising (especially that aimed at the young and the poor and the ignorant) may be legal, but it is not for us. We will have to be willing to be seen as "different," set apart, a royal priesthood to a lost world, and that's how Christians have always gotten in trouble. They've made other people, people who simply do no harm, look bad..

We've spent so much time and energy in this county, trying, by law, to make people love each other - across racial lines, class lines, national-origin lines, generation lines, gender lines. Most of that has been well-intentioned, and is probably o.k., if we simply want to establish bare minimum standards of behavior. But sometimes, in the midst of this great national debate, I want to scream Paul words, "love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of " all these laws. And love is much, much more. Love sets a immeasurably higher standard. Somehow, instead of fighting endlessly in the legislatures and the courts about just what is or is not discrimination (somehow, some where, some time), we will have to find love. It's such a better way to go: love "seeketh not its own, is not puffed up, jealous, boastful, arrogant, rude, does not insist on its own way, rejoices in the right, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." You know the drill. When the church enters the political arena and opines about these things (and I'm not saying it shouldn't), it runs the risk of seeming to suggest that better law is the answer. And it is not. Love is the answer. It fulfills every law.

A year ago we all experienced a terrible thing, each of us in his or her own way. September 11 brought with it a horrible sense of loss, not only of life and property but also of confidence and well-being. And, as time moved on, I think, it also brought a quiet sense of pride in our people. We had in us more than we knew. More that united us. The tragic events of that day grew out of a Gordian knot of intrigue, and resentment, and jealously, a complex knot which, at that time, was beginning to entangle more than just the mid-East, more than just Israel and the Arab world. Try to untangle it. A veritable blood feud. Hatreds and resentments centuries old. Yet we all worship the same God and have Abraham as our father. Both branches of Abraham's faith, of monotheism (Judeo-Christianity on the one hand, and Islam on the other) have within them elements which may be seized by extremists and used as an excuse for murderous deeds. And both branches have blood on their hands. The answer, I think we now know, is not in politicians and peace treaties, at least not at first. The beginning answer is love, a love that starts small, with ones own neighbor, and grows like yeast in a loaf. Not good feelings, you understand (the Bible never talks about love as a feeling) but deeds of love and mercy and forgiveness on both sides. And in the mid-east today it is dangerous to love one's neighbor. It can get you killed. For there are those on both sides who have an interest in the violence continuing, and love for them is a threat.
This week I came across some words, by psychologist James Hillman, which I thought were so appropriate. He writes, "I can watch 34 channels of TV I can get on the fax machine and communicate with people anywhere. I can be everywhere at once. I can fly across the country. I've got call waiting, so I can take two calls at once. I am everywhere and nowhere. But I don't know who lives next door to me. Who's in the next flat? Who's in 14B?

"I don't know who they are, but, boy, I'm on the phone: car phone, toilet phone, plane phone. I have faxes coming in day and night. I can plug into all the world's stock prices, commodity exchanges, I am everywhere, man - but I don't know who's in 14B."
You and I probably will not be asked to apply love on a global scale. I think it's never applied that way. I think it always starts with the person in 14B. Look around. "Owe no one anything, except to love one another." "Love one another," Jesus said, "even as I have loved you." That should be enough of a challenge. Don't worry about world peace, don't worry about the Ten Commandments, nor all of those other rules you have imposed, or others have imposed on you. Accept only one obligation, to love. And you will fulfill every good rule and law, and you will do far more. You will be different. Jesus might even change your name. And who knows where a little deed of love will go?