Wednesday of Pentecost 17 – Psalm 27:1-9

Psalm 27:1-9

¹ The Lord is my light and my salvation;
    whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
    of whom shall I be afraid?

² When evildoers assail me
    to eat up my flesh,
my adversaries and foes,
    it is they who stumble and fall.

³ Though an army encamp against me,
    my heart shall not fear;
though war arise against me,
    yet I will be confident.

⁴ One thing have I asked of the Lord,
    that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
    and to inquire in his temple.

⁵ For he will hide me in his shelter
    in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
    he will lift me high upon a rock.

⁶ And now my head shall be lifted up
    above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
    sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

⁷ Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
    be gracious to me and answer me!
⁸ You have said, “Seek my face.”
My heart says to you,
    “Your face, Lord, do I seek.”
⁹     Hide not your face from me.
Turn not your servant away in anger,
    O you who have been my help.
Cast me not off; forsake me not,
    O God of my salvation!

“I’m gonna beat this,” she told me with fierce determination. In truth, her words were somewhat coarser, and this is a devotion, so I will not tell you exactly what she said. The cancer which had been diagnosed and was growing in her body was the enemy. David speaks of evil doers who assail him and devour his flesh. That is a pretty good description of cancer. Luther spoke of three great enemies of the Christian: Sin, Death, and the Devil.

Today we face many foes: political unrest, perhaps even violence. Threats have been made against public officials on both sides of the political divide. We see economic worries, geopolitical tensions, and far more. I remember a few years ago when an ominous yellow cloud of smoke descended upon the city of Portland. At least one of my colleagues was forced to abandoned his church building and spent several days wondering if it still stood. People I know lost their homes to the inexorable advance of flames. Today as I think of that moment of terror, it seems like a distant event, because so many other terrifying days have intervened. What is the disaster of the day? Hurricane? Earthquake?

David speaks of confidence. The Lord is his light and salvation. Who will make him afraid now? The enemy will stumble and fall. Here the Christian needs to make a careful parsing. David knows he will spend eternity in the house of the Lord. My friend who gritted her teeth and fought courageously against cancer eventually succumbed to it. Did that mean that God had failed? Hardly. Her resurrected body will be cancer free, and free of any other ailments for that matter. She had a touch of arthritis in her hip. You could see it in the way she walked up steps. On that glorious day, David’s confidence in this psalm will perfectly describe her.

Everything, our very lives, hinges upon the grace of God. Look carefully at the final verses of this psalm. David knows it. He can have the best retirement plans, the biggest nest egg, take immaculate care of his health, and all will be for nothing without God’s favor. He has and yearns for the grace of God. Such is the life of the Christian.

Tuesday of Pentecost 17 – Isaiah 55:6-9

Isaiah 55:6-9

⁶ “Seek the Lord while he may be found;
    call upon him while he is near;
⁷ let the wicked forsake his way,
    and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
    and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
⁸ For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

I am a devotee of the dad joke, the terrible pun which causes children to groan. Once, while driving along I-84 in Oregon, I asked my children why the students in Pendleton did not study fractions. They looked at me rather perplexed until I pointed to the large sign advertising the Pendleton Roundup, a major annual rodeo event. My daughter, aiming a look of utter scorn at me, said, “Dad, you are the reason God doesn’t talk to us anymore!”

In terms of dad joke responses, this was golden. It also speaks, however, of an assumption which permeates even our Christian sensibilities. It does sometimes seem like God has rather put an end to the voice from heaven technique which he used in the Old Testament. We are not there with the disciples at Jesus’ feet listening to his parables. God seems so distant. Isaiah urges us to seek the Lord while he may be found and to call upon God while he is near. Did we miss our chance?

It is good to remember that God spoke very little from clouds and mountain tops in the Old Testament. Most of the time he spoke through prophets and writings. Generations of believers were born, lived, and died between those events. John, in chapter 6 of his Gospel account, tells us that after Jesus declared himself to be the Bread of Life many of those following him checked out of the Jesus movement. The twelve disciples remained but many did not. To those who left, Jesus did not appear to be a divine manifestation. The nearness of God is not found in a preternatural voice from heaven. Indeed, the people of Israel at Sinai wanted to distance themselves from the One who spoke. They sent Moses alone up the mountain. The presence and accessibility of God is found in the fact that he welcomes sinners, people like you and me. We may confess to a fellow Christian our sins, our weakness, our fear, our frailty, and know that God hears that. What is more, he promises us that in the words of that baptized Christian who forgives us, comforts us, and loves us despite our condition, God has spoken to us.

Seek the Lord. He does not think of sin the same way you do. We know that because Jesus died on a cross to save you from it. He has risen from the grave to hear your prayers.

Monday of Pentecost 17 – Prayer of the Week

Prayer of the Week

Lord God, heavenly Father, since we cannot stand before You relying on anything we have done, help us trust in Your abiding grace and live according to Your Word; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Human beings are trusting creatures, and this trait has only been amplified by the complexity of the world in which we lived. I have a neighbor who believes just about everything that shows up on her screen. The latest is that tomatoes cause arthritis, but we have heard from her any number of ideas which, in the moment, are fervently trusted. But it is not just my neighbor. You probably know someone who so believes in dietary supplements that their innards must surely be galvanized from all the zinc pills they have taken. It is unlikely that they arrived at these ideas or behaviors on their own. At some point they trusted someone.

This has only been exacerbated in these days of internet conspiracy theories. One credentialed doctor says masks are bad; another says they are necessary. Should you get the vaccine or is it some means for the government or big pharma to do something wicked to us? A while ago news reporters at fires in Oregon reported that they were themselves attacked because the rumor was spreading among rural Oregonians that the fires had been intentionally set the same liberal media to promote climate change conspiracies. A conspiracy about a conspiracy! Multiple state and local officials vociferously denied this. Even the FBI came out denying this was the case. Who do people trust? Did folks in southern Oregon believe the rumors or the government? Whom would you believe? In times of fear that gets even harder to sort out.

The prayer is not so much a prayer for the ability to trust but that God would call us out of our foolish incompetence so that we trust in His abiding grace and act accordingly. The latest health or diet craze will not save me. God will. The latest conspiracy theory about some plot by the government or big pharma or big tech will not grip me in fear, but assured of God’s grace, I can go about the hard work of discerning the truth in this complex world. God has my life in his hands. No one can snatch me from him. That starts with a baptism in which, vulnerable, incompetent, and utterly helpless, we were washed with life-giving water and God expressed his amazing love to us. There is the news to trust, news upon which, aided by the Holy Spirit, you can build a life of joy and confident service.

Friday of Pentecost 16 – Matthew 18:21-35

Matthew 18:21-35

²¹ Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” ²² Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

²³ “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. ²⁴ When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. ²⁵ And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. ²⁶ So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ ²⁷ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. ²⁸ But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ ²⁹ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ ³⁰ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. ³¹ When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. ³² Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. ³³ And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ ³⁴ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. ³⁵ So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

I knew man once who was driven mad by guilt. That can still happen in some parts of the world unencumbered by reality TV and the mentality of victimhood which seems to excuse any misdeed. This man did not claim to have been abused or otherwise the victim of some injustice. He had committed insurance fraud and he knew it. This truth ate at him. Years later he started doing irrational things, mostly around money. He would see a good deal on socks at Walmart and buy whole cartful. He would concoct wild schemes to buy his neighbors’ farms and radically expand his modest operation.  

Finally, his family and friends intervened, and a counsellor drew out of him a confession of his sin, now decades old. All his erratic behavior had been attempts to raise the cash to make right his theft of insurance money. The counsellor, being a Christian, realized that this was out of her league. She called his pastor. His pastor heard his confession and absolved him of his sins. And his madness cleared. He was still a little odd, but he had always been a little odd. Everyone was relieved to have his eccentricities back, to be honest.

This little story of the man driven mad by guilt hinges on faith. He believed that his actions had consequences, even if he had not been caught in his fraud. He also believed that the absolution spoken by his pastor was a real thing, an action which removed his guilt. The man in this story which Jesus tells does not believe. He acknowledges his debt to be sure, but he does not believe the king when that king forgave his debt. He accosts his fellow servant, demanding money, right now. He is trying to raise funds to repay the forgiven debt. It is a little mad of him. Jesus would have you shake your head in wonder at his foolish behavior. But is not our grudge-bearing, vindictive, score-settling, moral bean-counting behavior any different today? Jesus warns us that such behavior is rooted in a disbelief in God’s grace, and that always starts with the grace He has shown to us. Take a good look at the sins of another person today and remember that Jesus has died for that sin and that person just as surely as he died for you and your sins. Treat that other person today in the light of that reality.

Thursday of Pentecost 16 – Romans 14:1-12

Romans 14:1-12

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. ² One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. ³ Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. ⁴ Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

⁵ One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. ⁶ The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. ⁷ For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. ⁸ For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. ⁹ For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

¹⁰ Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; ¹¹ for it is written,

“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
    and every tongue shall confess to God.”

¹² So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

There are six chief parts to our catechisms, and the fifth one, the section on the Office of the Keys, needs a more attention in these days. Luther, who wrote the catechism, had been shaped by his time as an Augustinian friar. As a friar, Luther would have been expected to confess his sins regularly, perhaps daily. He took this seriously. He tells of the time his confessor told him to go out and commit some real sins before he came back to confess again. While Luther thought that the rite of penance or confession and absolution needed to be reformed in his day, he also maintained throughout his life that the rite was valuable and good for people. He was not speaking of the general confession and absolution which we do in Church. He was speaking of a face to face conversation with another human being in which you confessed your own sins to that person.

This rite has largely fallen on hard times in modern Christianity. Not many come on a regular basis to be absolved individually by their pastor. If they have committed some great sin, perhaps some would come. Many would not. There is a rite for this in your hymnal. You should look it up and consider asking your pastor for an appointed time to meet. But if you do, there is something to keep in mind. You might call it the first rule of confession: You may only confess your own sins. You cannot confess the sins of someone else. All your statements really need to start with “I” as the subject of the verb. Your confession cannot speak of what he or she did, only the deeds and failures of you, the one making confession.

I think we should revive this salutary practice, if for no other reason than the final verses of this reading. If more of us remembered that we stand before the judgment seat of God, this world would go a little better. That awareness gives one a measure of empathy for the weak. When you rely upon the forgiveness of Christ, you tend have a little more patience with the neighbor who has fallen or whose faith is weak and deformed. It is hard to stand before that divine judgment seat. How often I have heard myself or another sinner try to confess the sins of others to excuse the sin which really belonged to me or the speaker. God will have none of that, nor should we. I may or may not be able to understand the sins of another person, but understanding sins makes nothing truly better. Only forgiveness makes things better and I can forgive both the reasonable and unreasonable sins because Jesus died for them all.

Wednesday of Pentecost 16 – Psalm 103:1-12

Psalm 103:1-12

¹ Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and all that is within me,
    bless his holy name!
² Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits,
³ who forgives all your iniquity,
    who heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the pit,
    who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
⁵ who satisfies you with good
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

⁶ The Lord works righteousness
    and justice for all who are oppressed.
⁷ He made known his ways to Moses,
    his acts to the people of Israel.
⁸ The Lord is merciful and gracious,
    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
⁹ He will not always chide,
    nor will he keep his anger forever.
¹⁰ He does not deal with us according to our sins,
    nor repay us according to our iniquities.
¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
¹² as far as the east is from the west,
    so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

Unusually for politicians, President Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929) was known for being laconic, a man of few words. One Sunday he was caught by a reporter while leaving church. The reporter asked, “What was the sermon about?” “Sin,” Silent Cal replied. “Well, what did he say?” the reporter followed up. “He’s against it,” said the president while walking away.

Our world sometimes seems fixated upon sin, or at least fixated upon some sins. At other times, it seems cheerfully willing to ignore sin. But that has always been the case; we conveniently fixate upon some sins and not others. Our newsfeeds and televisions bring us stories of the latest scandal or crime. But even more wretched and terrible things are probably going on and we do not hear about them.  

Like Silent Cal’s preacher, I too join those who disapprove of sin. Unfortunately, our culture lacks a proper vocabulary for this moment. As a word, “Sin” has fallen out of use outside the dessert menu where the triple chocolate confection might be “sinfully good.” But it is not only the vocabulary of sin which has been lost, it is also the vocabulary of redemption, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Perhaps they sound to “churchy” or “preachy” to some. But they also speak of a way to deal with the profound sins of this world. They are not soft on sin, far from it.

Read this psalm again. In fact, pick up your Bible and read the whole psalm, it goes on for another 10 verses. As you do, notice what God does in all of this. God deals with the sins of people. He forgives, heals, redeems, crowns us with love and mercy, satisfies, and renews. That is just vss. 3-5. The real kicker for me comes in verse 12. Notice what he does with your sins and mine. He removes them from us, as far as the east is from the west. That happened in a cross when Jesus gathered up the sins of the world and paid their brutal price. He did that to my sins. He did that to everyone’s sins. The world needs our words for this. The psalm ends with heavenly beings taking up the praise of God for his great work, his ministers in all his dominions. Lastly the soul of the Psalmist joins them anew. Our words for this world start with our own status as sinners forgiven, people whose sins have been removed. That status as sinner forgiven gives us a word to say to this moment. I encourage you to speak it.

Tuesday of Pentecost 15 – Genesis 50:15-21

Genesis 50:15-21

¹⁵ When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” ¹⁶ So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: ¹⁷ ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. ¹⁸ His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” ¹⁹ But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? ²⁰ As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. ²¹ So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

When I was entering the fifth grade, my father accepted a Call to a small community located next to one of the interstate highways. For the next decade or so, I fell asleep to the sound of the semi-trucks laboring up and down the hills of Missouri. The church, a relatively new and impressive building, was within sight of the freeway. This meant a regular feature of the pastor’s life was people who pulled off the highway looking for some help. Not too many years after we arrived a dilapidated station wagon pulled into the church parking lot. We all saw it; the parsonage was across the lot from the church. Within the car was a rough looking man and his family which included several children. This was the late 1970’s or early 1980’s and high inflation had seriously eroded the purchasing power of my father’s modest salary. The members of the parish were feeling the same pinch. My father had no money to give to this family. But we did have a garden. He asked the man to wait. He came home and we all were marshalled into action. My mother made sandwiches. I was deputed to pick an excellent melon from the garden. We could not give them money, but we could feed them.

I still remember the look on my parents’ faces when we walked onto the parking lot after the car drove off and we discovered all that food thrown out the window of their car. They had wanted money. They were not truly hungry as they had claimed. My mother wept.

In this reading today Joseph weeps. The Joseph story should be part of every Christian’s bible story collection. He had been humbled, sold as a slave by his brothers, thought dead, raised to power, and had rescued the very brothers who had thought to kill him. This scene takes place at the very end of the Joseph story. His father has died, and the brothers assume the worst. Now that Jacob is dead, Joseph will exact his revenge. But Joseph had forgiven them years earlier. You can read about it in Genesis 45. In this scene the brothers come begging for forgiveness and mercy. They had been living in senseless fear this whole time. They had not believed him when he said he forgave them. That is why Joseph wept. It hurts when a gift given is rejected.

Swallow your pride and humbly confess your sin. God, in Jesus, has forgiven you all your sins and continues to love you. It is hard to believe, to accept that. But it true. God delights not in your punishment and death but in your joyful acknowledgment of what he has done for you. He forgives you of your sins. Like a loan forgiven, your sins are gone, removed from the books. No more interest, no more payments. You owe nothing. The IRS has no record of it, so you do not even have to claim it on your taxes. It is yours. Believe it.

Monday of Pentecost 16 – Prayer of the Week

Prayer of the Week

O God, our refuge and strength, the author of all godliness, hear the devout prayers of Your Church, especially in times of persecution, and grant that what we ask in faith we may obtain; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

My friend Jon served a congregation which had welcomed a group of Sudanese Christians into their midst. He was taking some leaders through a confirmation class so they could become teachers within their community. English was not their first language. When one encountered a long word, it was wise to stop and ask if they knew what it meant. “Crucifixion” was the word of the moment.

“Do you know what ‘crucifixion’ means?’

“Yes, my cousin,” said Tap, the tall, serious, thin man with scars etched across his forehead.  

“What do you mean, ‘your cousin?’”

“The Islamic militia crucified my cousin. Nailed him to a wall. It took three days for him to die and all we could do was watch because the militia would shoot us if we came too close.”

My friend sat in stunned silence for a moment. “Tap, I think you need to teach me,” he said.

I got to know this Sudanese community and others around the country. If you ever get a chance, go to church with them. They know how to sing. It is not Bach chorales, but it is another music of great joy, often accompanied by nothing but a drum. This prayer says that God is the author of all godliness. I find it interesting that God writes godliness, authors it. Is it like DNA in our cells or a plotline in our lives? He wrote deep joy in the Sudanese people which even persecution could not quash. What good has God written in your heart?

Friday of Pentecost 15 – Matthew 18:1-20

Matthew 18:1-20

¹ At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” ² And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them ³ and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

⁵ “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, ⁶ but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

⁷ “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! ⁸ And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. ⁹ And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

¹⁰ “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. ¹² What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? ¹³ And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. ¹⁴ So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

¹⁵ “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. ¹⁶ But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. ¹⁷ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. ¹⁸ Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. ¹⁹ Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

The two women who sat across from me wore worried expressions on their faces. They had been members of my parish for decades. The congregation had spent about ten years in an ongoing conflict which pitted pastors against people and factions within the congregation against each other. No one had won. Brief pastorates had not helped either. Finally, after many had left, a semblance of peace had returned. That was about the time that I showed up. So far, things had gone reasonably well.

Now these two old hands were sitting there, worried. One of the chief protagonists in the conflict had indicated a desire to come back, having spent time in another congregation. The household was unhappy there and wanted to try it back here. For the last several years the congregation had known a respite from the conflict, but now they felt that peace threatened. They asked me what I would do. The individuals involved were much older than I was, retired, and I was a young pastor, fresh out of the seminary.

A meeting was scheduled between the two men who had been involved in the conflict, both of whom had left for a time and now were returning. I have never appreciated a Bible passage as much as I appreciated this chapter on that day when I sat down in church with these two men, decades older than me. Jesus was among us that day. We spoke frankly but without rancor. Forgiveness was tearfully sought, and forgiveness was tearfully and lovingly given.

If you have ever wondered why Jesus rose from the dead, it was to be living and present in moments like these. Old enemies can reconcile when Jesus is in the room. Do you have a difficult discussion looming on the horizon of your life? Many do. Our world has rather forgotten how to have productive and difficult discussions with people with whom we disagree. We shout and scream but little changes and few are moved to see or think differently. We might believe that things will never change. But remember, Jesus has risen from the dead so he can keep this promise to you. Where two or three gather in his name – he is there.

Thursday of Pentecost 15 – Romans 13:1-10

Romans 13:1-10

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. ² Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. ³ For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, ⁴ for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. ⁵ Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. ⁶ For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. ⁷ Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

⁸ Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. ⁹ For 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.” ¹⁰ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

I live in Portland, Oregon. If you are reading this from another part of the country, let me tell you that contrary to what news reports have led people to think over the past few years, we are not all homeless anarchists here. The riots have died down, but the homeless encampments remain. In truth, the majority of my fellow citizens believe that government and other structures are a good idea. There are many things we could do better and much that is wrong in our world, but we will only make things worse if we get rid of all the institutions and structures which govern our lives. I am a student of history, and such experiments have never, to my knowledge, ended well.

While we need government to guard and protect the space in which we live, it is also true that government cannot do some things. It cannot make my life good. I still need to work at constructing a wise and well-lived life. Rules will never make me righteous. The highway patrolman beside the road gets me to slow down, but at heart, I may still be a speeder who will accelerate as soon as I am out of his sight. More enforcement does mean better people. It takes something which power cannot provide to make better people.

Paul speaks of obeying the government in this passage. He was writing to folks who lived in the capital of the empire. The role of government was important for them. Paul asserts that one could be a good citizen and a good Christian. But at the end of this reading notice that Paul starts to speak of something else, something more important. There is no law which can command love, but love keeps all the laws. Why we keep the law is important.

In Matthew 18, Jesus lays down the guidelines for how Christians handle disputes. They sound like laws and they are rules, but they are much more.

¹⁵ “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. ¹⁶ But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. ¹⁷ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. (Mt. 18:15-17)

If we treat these simply as rules to be obeyed, then we have not heard what Jesus says. Love keeps the rules for other reasons than those which rules and rulers comprehend. Jesus is after a brother lost, a sheep who has strayed from the fold. He would carry that one home rejoicing. That is the end or goal of these “rules.” In any society we will rub shoulders with those whom it is hard to love. You might find such people in your own home, down the street, or rioting downtown every night. How shall I love that person and thereby keep the law? Jesus speaks of the healing between two people Paul speaks of the society at large. In all of this, we love one another.