The Elusive Pursuit of Righteousness, Peace, and Joy
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace
and joy in the Holy Spirit. Romans 14:17
Romans 14:10–19 – Romans: The Righteousness of God
Reformation Day (Observed) – October 29, 2023 (am)
[slide 1 - see link above for slides]
The Elusive Pursuit of Righteousness, Peace, and Joy... Or, Keep Your Eyes Wide Open All The Time.
[slide 2]
I. Each of us will give an account of himself to God. [10-12]
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[b] to God.” So, then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
I am about to pose a question to us this morning. I first heard this question on the radio recently and it hit me like a 2x4 to the throat! So, it seems good to me to pass it on to you! Are you ready?.............
How is your hate life this morning? Alive and vigorous? Cultivated and guarded? Kind of a shocking question I realize! The word “hate” will get our attention every time. It shocks our sensibilities. It grates like fingernails on a chalk board. [does anybody even relate to that anymore?] There is an ASL sign for the word “hate” and it goes like this. [show the motion] Now you might be wondering what improbable lyric line in our hymn book includes the word “hate”? Actually, we taught that sign when we sang A Mighty Fortress is our God… “his craft and power are great and armed with cruel hate. On earth is not his equal.”
Now that I have taught you and all your children the sign for an emotion that I pray you are free from [!] let me explain why! Paul here is cutting right to the chase. He is pulling no punches! He does not ask ‘if’ the Romans are inappropriately judging one another. He asks “why.” Then he equates this attitude with another hard, hard word, “despise.”
So, is this really characteristic of us? Is it who we are? The answer according to scripture is that in the absence of the power of the Holy Spirit working in us, the answer is a clear and unequivocal “Yes”! Is there truth in my brother’s statement that “when something bad or sad happens to me, half of my friends will not really care, and the other half will be secretly glad!” Yet, surely, surely, that must not be the case, not here!
So, where does Paul go with this? Notice that he does not say simply, stop it! Cut that out! No, he cuts the ground out from underneath our righteous indignation so that we may begin to see that we all stand ankle deep in our own carefully cultivated self-righteousness as we wait for the righteous judgement of God. He quotes from Isaiah 45:23 to hammer home the point, that there is only one judge, and to him we will all bow, and we will all confess. Here is the broader passage from which it is taken: [Is.45:22-25]
[slide 3]
Turn to me and be saved,
all the ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.
23 By myself I have sworn;
from my mouth has gone out in righteousness
a word that shall not return:
‘To me every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear allegiance.’[d]
24 “Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me,
are righteousness and strength;
to him shall come and be ashamed
all who were incensed against him.
25 In the Lord all the offspring of Israel
shall be justified and shall glory.”
Okay, but wait a minute! This passage quoted here is bracketed by the phrases “we will stand before the judgement seat of God.” And also, by “each of us will give an account of himself to God.”
Are you looking forward to that day? Kind of scary, yes? Let’s be honest here? Does it seem like a bait and switch? I thought our salvation was full and free, that we can approach the throne of the justice of God pleading the blood of Jesus Christ, that by virtue of that faith, that plea, that gift of grace we will have been made clean, names having been written in the lamb’s book of life! So, how is this part of the good news? Or, is this our heavenly Father’s last chance to rub our noses in it, before he unlocks the handcuffs? Consider these two passages:
[slide 4]
Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. [1 Cor. 3:12-15]
[slide 5]
Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. [2 Cor. 5:8-10]
We will profit I think if we think about this for a bit. Let me offer a little story. In my last semester in college, I took an independent study course and there were no tests, no class members, little communication with the teacher, and nothing to coerce me to put forth my best effort. But by that time, I had kind of figured out how to do pretty well in the academic world. Nevertheless, when I turned in my well-padded term paper reflecting the entirety of my efforts for the course, I never got it back. I never heard a word about it. I did get the “A” because it was on my report card, and though I thought that was all that mattered, I was somehow disappointed! Where was the engagement, the evaluation? I realized that I had really appreciated the margin notes with a red pen that I was used to. Instead, I got nothing, no de-briefing, no challenges on any point. It was as if none of it mattered at all. [note: immediately upon graduating I got married and very, very soon, had bigger fish to fry than to follow up on the matter. After all, sometimes it’s just better to let sleeping dogs lie!
Folks, it is a bigger mercy that we can possibly know, that our lives actually matter, that what we do here matters! that the grace of God extended to us in actual real forgiveness is not a forgiveness based on some sort of cultivated ignorance, but with full, deep knowledge of motives, of our darkest most ugly thoughts. O that all of that may be exposed to the fresh light of the justice and goodness and mercy of Christ. To be washed clean and to rejoice along with the courts of heaven in the grace and commendation of our brothers and sisters with whom we once marched! To hear our gracious and powerful heavenly father proclaim “Well done, good and faithful servant” to one of our fellow soldiers and saints, with whom we have walked arm in arm through the greatest joys and murkiest swamps of this world! I want to be there in the bleachers of the courts of heaven to hear those words expressed to my friend Clyde, and my friend Daya, to dear Mike and Leah, and my friend Rueben, and Kevin and Carol and so many of you!
[slide 6]
II. Therefore, let us not pass judgement on one another any longer: [vs. 13-14]
Therefore, let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. 14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.
I know what we may be thinking, “Rats! Judging other people is the only thing I was ever good at!” and “after all, we shall judge the angels, yes? [1 cor. 6:3]. And also, we are told in [1 Cor. 5:12] that we do indeed judge and challenge and exhort and correct our brothers in the body of Christ, in ways that we may never judge unbelievers, yes? Yet clearly here Paul is not talking about the need to exhort one another in matters of life and death and practice, for the protection of the body of Christ. The clear context in this section is to warn against using our cultural idiosyncrasies as weapons to cause hurt and fracture within the body of Christ.
It is interesting to note that as Daryle observed two weeks ago, Paul is laying his cards right on the table here. He is not playing them too close to the vest. He is convinced that none of the disputable cultural matters are in and of themselves “unclean.” And we all would be quick I think to second the motion. In the abstract we would affirm the principle, yes! But there are a couple of problems. First, there is usually some logic or practical driver behind the roadblock we would place in the path of another, perhaps more culturally free brother or sister. Let me offer a couple of examples. I do not consume alcohol, and if pressed on the reason, I will, if I am being honest, acknowledge a keenly felt cultural discomfort with it, but then I will make sure to add that alcoholism has been a lurking specter in the life of my family and that danger lurks there for me in a very real sense.
Do you see what I did there? In a pious way I have imbued this secondary matter with a weight that goes beyond cultural bias. This secondary matter has now become a matter of first importance. Similarly, particular standards of dress though to a degree culturally driven, may be defended on the basis of association with the proper sobriety that should accompany our worship. The second problem is that those of us who seem to be less encumbered by cultural prohibitions, are nonetheless bound in ways that we may not recognize. For example, though we might embrace a freedom when it comes to the consumption of alcohol, my guess is that we might well be less egalitarian when it comes to the smoking of cigarettes! The truth is that we are all on a cultural continuum! [BTW I remember growing up in the Lutheran church, and perhaps my most vivid memory is that before church it seemed like all the men would gather on the front steps and enjoy one more smoke before entering the sanctuary. And Pastor Eifrig, and Pastor Reklau would be among them!] How about it? How free are we really?
[slide 7]
III. High Stakes indeed! [vs 15-16]
15 For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.
Though our sensibilities on many disputable matters may be grounded mainly in a difficult to defend, or define, cultural context, the impact of our cultural rigidity can be hard, cruel, and destructive. Paul does not mince words here. In vs. 15 he suggests that we have the capacity to “destroy” our weaker brother, for whom Christ has died! Wow! He has gone from hate, to despise and now to “destroy.” Surely that is not our intent, is it? There is such a hard reality at play here! What we know is this: If we somehow convince a weaker brother that for example it is okay to eat a certain food, or drink a certain beverage, or wear certain clothing, or participate in certain recreational activities on certain days or times, we might well succeed! By our words and example, we might well unlock the handcuffs so to speak and free them to a more full and liberated pattern of life. What could be wrong with that?
Paul answers that question with bitter clarity. What’s wrong with that is that the weaker brother may be persuaded to change a pattern of behavior without changing their mind and heart. It is possible that the conscience of a fellow believer is somehow “less nimble” than our own. They will be left in a wrestling match with their accusing conscience long after you the stronger brother has moved on to blissful indulgence! When that happens your freedom has become a stumbling block, a thing that destroys. You will have justified your own freedom at the expense of the destruction of a soul! May that never be!
In MLK’s letter from a Birmingham jail, he refers to a quote from John Bunyon, [slide 8] "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." I discovered this because of a scribbled note in my bible, “the butchery of my conscience I will not tolerate.” Perhaps the statement would be better put in this way, “the butchery of the conscience of my brother or sister, I will not tolerate!” This section in Romans 14 is a cautionary tale for the strong as well as the weak. Folks, we have the capacity to make a butchery of the conscience of our brothers and sisters. In that same letter, in words that unmistakably ring of MLK, he says this, [slide 9] “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” Do we believe this, brothers, and sisters? According to scripture we have indeed been set free, and we are about to see that in the mercy of God we have been freed, together, not by ourselves, to pursue and find the kingdom of God among us, marked specifically and pointedly and amazingly by righteousness, peace, and joy.
[slide 10]
IV. The elusive pursuit of righteousness, peace, and joy. [vs 17-21]
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.20 Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. 21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.
Righteousness, peace, and joy. As we work toward that end [to thus serve Christ in that way, is to be acceptable to God and approved by men!] That’s a pretty good end game, yes? So, how do we do that? Let me illustrate with a story, but before I do it is worth noting that often the disputable matters that divided the early church had to do with food. And more specifically with the social and economic fractures that were present in the early church and persist to this day. I can confidently state that the relevance of this passage for us will never wane … as long as we eat food … or more particularly, as long as we are in the business of eating food together.
[ set the scene, Father Atticus, his two kids Jem and Scout, another child Walter who is from the wrong side of the tracks, and the housekeeper Calpurnia]
While Walter piled food on his plate, he and Atticus talked together like two men, to the wonderment of Jem and me. Atticus was expounding upon farm problems when Walter interrupted to ask if there was any molasses in the house. Atticus summoned Calpurnia, who returned bearing the syrup pitcher. She stood waiting for Walter to help himself. Walter poured syrup on his vegetables and meat with a generous hand. He would probably have poured it into his milk glass had I not asked “what the sam hill he was doing.” The silver saucer clattered when he replaced the pitcher, and he quickly put his hands in his lap. Then he ducked his head. Atticus shook his head at me again. “But he’s gone and drowned his dinner in syrup,” I protested. “He’s poured it all over-” It was then that Calpurnia requested my presence in the kitchen. She was furious … When she squinted down at me the tiny lines around her eyes deepened. “There’s some folks who don’t eat like us,” she whispered fiercely, “but you ain’t called on to contradict ‘em at the table when they don’t. That boy’s yo’ comp’ny and if he wants to eat up the table cloth you let him, you hear?” “He ain’t company, Cal, he’s just a Cunningham-” “Hush your mouth! Don’t matter who they are, anybody sets foot in this house’s yo‘ comp’ny, and don’t you let me catch you remarkin’ on their ways like you was so high and mighty! Yo ‘folks might be better’n the Cunninghams but it don’t count for nothin’ the way you’re disgracin ’em—if you can’t act fit to eat at the table you can just set here and eat in the kitchen!” [from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Ch. 3]
O people, there have been times when I ought to have eaten my meal in the kitchen, instead of at the table where manners and kindness and respect truly mean something! How often have I seen myself as the dispenser of wisdom and discernment, and the brother or sister that I am talking to as only the receiver of that light! How often have I viewed another believer who is bound up in disputable matters as a “project” or even a problem, one that I must correct and from whom no value or correction could possibly come!
And just an interesting side note here. When thinking of examples, I find it pretty easy to think of occasions where a culturally bound brother or sister may look down their nose at their more liberated fellow Christians, but found it more difficult to come up with examples in my own mind when it is the other way around. Two things here: First, in the former case the more culturally bound person does not have to go out of their way to confront or express a challenge. By simply wearing, or eating, or restricting their behavior they can make a statement. Similarly, and in an especially dangerous way, the stronger, freer brother may destroy a weaker brother not by a challenge, or a verbal assault on the state of their bondage, or an attempt to persuade, but simply by the rolling of the eyes or the isolation of relationship or maybe worst of all, by idle and careless gossip.
How about us as a body? Do we long for righteousness, peace, and joy in the body of Christ, or are we willing to take a sledgehammer to our brother in Christ and thereby to the body of Christ itself for the sake of cultivating our hate life? It says in vs 19, “pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.” I want to make a few suggestions on how to do that:
V. Takeaways, [application]
[slide 11]
1. Know when to tear down, and when to build up. [ Or We are more than a wrecking crew] It’s not easy all the time. It is a good rule of thumb to when in doubt always lean into the building up of the body of Christ…. Rather than the “cleansing” which may be a euphemism for a darker more ominous intention. [story of the house I built being torn down! If time]
[slide 12]
2. Can we begin to see the saints around us as trophies of grace, whose stories are neither more nor less mundane or dramatic than our own? Or do we find ways to irresistibly put people into categories, into boxes from which there is no possibility of parole, to define them indelibly as weak or strong. One of my favorite stories is Sneetches on Beaches by Dr. Suess, in which the star belly Sneetches know this above all, that Sneetches without stars on their bellies will never be invited to their marshmallow roasts!
[slide 13]
3. With apologies to Johnny Cash, Keep your eyes wide open all the time! There is a member of our staff who looks for one thing when he walks up to a tailgate with a lawn chair in his hand. He searches with his eyes for the one thing that will thankfully always be a raspberry seed in his wisdom tooth! It is the one thing that he cannot abide, to see a brother or sister sitting alone, eating by themselves… His eyes are wide open all the time. In fact, by his own confession the only thing he hates worse is… wait for it!... turkey bacon! [I could not resist working that in somewhere]
[slide 14]
4. Ratchet up your/ our imaginations. Might we learn to lament our joylessness, our unsettled lack of peace and our failure to grow in righteousness and grace. But just as importantly honor it, and name it when you see it. I suspect that you will not see one without the others. And know this, that as these fruits begin to grow in us, they will also grow in the body more broadly, because just as joylessness can infect the broader assembly, so it is that joy and peace and righteousness can multiply and change and shape the body of Christ, fulfilling the charge in John 13:34-35
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
[slide 15]
5. Guard your conscience and the conscience of your brothers and sisters. A conscience is a funny thing. It is strong enough to cause people to choose to be burned at the stake, and it is fragile enough to be broken by a well-meaning but insensitive yet dearly loved brother or sister. The mind and heart coupled together in a healthy way is a beautiful and rare commodity and is the miraculous mark of the Holy Spirt at work in a life and in the body of Christ.
Conclusion:
We are in this together as these scriptures have been rolling around in my head over the past weeks, I am drawn toward the conclusion that when boiled down, the urgency of Paul’s exhortation is not in the end about defining the strong or identifying the weak. It is not even about figuring out what issues are of secondary vs primary significance. The elephant in the room here is that we, each of us individually, are part of something so much bigger than ourselves. The primacy of the body of Christ, as the bride of Christ, empowered by and saturated with the Holy Spirit, and humbled before a great and good Heavenly Father who strangely and inexplicably cares for us… that derives ultimately from the reality and the implications of the Trinity, and the love and fellowship and loyalty found there. It is from that source that all of our relationships are watered! Though we may doubt many things and walk always with uncertain steps, we never have to doubt the care and attentive love of God even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Finally, listen to this from Daniel 12:
[slide 16]
"Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever" (Dan. 12:3).
I would suggest that the phrase “you can’t take it with you” is not exactly a true statement for the Christian!
The scary part of this for an Elder is that the protection and nourishing of our collective mind and heart fall to a high degree upon us, and we will have to give an account for that! I mentioned earlier that today is Reformation Sunday and I quoted from Martin Luther’s best loved hymn. It seems fitting to me to look for and find in his own words a pretty good summary of the scriptures we have been considering today.
[slide 17]
“I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen”.
Amen
Next SUNDAY: Do Not Destroy the Work of God, Romans 14:20–23