Trinity 12, Romans 13:1-10

Sept. 4, 2011; 12^th S. of Trinity; Texts: Psalm 32:1-7; Ezek. 33:7-9; Rm. 13:1-10; Mt. 18:1-20; Title: The Authority of Love; Rev. Tim Beck  

            Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ

Have you wondered how the church leavens society? Have you wondered how the church is empowered to serve? Have you wondered why the church took on that trouble?          Have you noticed how each of today’s texts is troubling? The Lord says to Ezekiel, If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.  By divine inspiration, the Apostle Paul says. 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. The Lord Jesus says, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone, and more things that cause trouble. 

          Who likes trouble, except Rose Gaffeny? She was a Bodega Bay rancher who loved it. Once, friends who knew her rule, spread a picnic on her ranch property without asking. When she came home, she drove her truck over their checkered tablecloth, plates, food, and basket.  That’s how she said, “don’t do it again.” Did she do some good? Can telling others what’s bad, do something good? If I’m a policeman, do I really have to tell folks to stop doing bad? If I’m a parent, do I really have to make my kids do as they’re told? If I’m a pastor, do I really have to preach the law?  And don’t forget the flip side: If I’m a policeman, do I really get to protect the defenseless? If I’m a parent, do I really rejoice when my kids make the right decisions? If I’m a pastor, do I really get to preach the grace of God too? There’s this reason for sticking our nose where it belongs - besides the issue of eternal judgment, there’s this universal word - love. Owe no man anything but to love one another: for he that loves another has fulfilled the law.  Love fulfills the law… the law. 

          Where is that word, “love,” to be applied? Love happens in God-given structures - the orders of creation – that’s where the law is to be fulfilled. Ezekiel addresses civil society, including the police; family, including parents; and the church, including pastors; Paul and Jesus teach more of the same.  They speak the law about these fundamental, God created orders for this reason: Cain slew Abel as the first family at war. Pharaoh made slaves of Israel, rejecting God’s civil order. Look what our race did to Jesus when it came to the order of worship. You see it. How well has the government earned your trust you?  How many broken families live on your block?  If folks say they’re spiritual seekers, why aren’t they here? As for you, do you fulfill the law after waiting two hours at the DMV for a piece of paper, and your agent is rude? At home, are you always eager to help, serve, and support your spouse, children and parents; or would you rather watch TV? Do you love God so much that you knock on every door in your block, say “I love Jesus,” and invite neighbors to church? Listen to the law. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  But we fail the task. Most of the time, we don’t even want the task.

          So how does the church find love for those around them?  What empowered second century Christians in Rome to take the abandoned babies and abandoned old folks off the streets and into their homes? Why did sixth century Christians, captured as slaves by Celtic barbarians, when they escaped, return to tell their captors of Christ crucified? Why did 19^th century Christians freely give their lives in far away lands, building orphanages, hospitals, schools, and churches? And all these works go on today. There is a word, but not a law word. It is a gospel word, and not the word “love,” except in one direction, fulfilled in one particular act, and applied in infinite generosity.  This word fulfilled the law for the deficient, for the corrupted, the polluted, for God’s enemies, for the rebellious, for sinners, for us all. This word announced Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, who fulfilled the law of love, bore the torment of our hate and the punishment of our sin. In Him the Father forgives; and that gift not only frees us from an impossible command, it is the means by which the church is freed to love.

          The mystery of godliness, of justification, is this: God’s undeserved love declared sinners righteous. God’s unearned love reconciled, redeemed, and then regenerates the unlovely and the unloving. There’s the magnificent declaration by the divine judge, “justified!”  Then there’s faith in the pardon, and release from the prison house of sin. That declaration frees us for a holy life, by the power of the Holy Spirit.   That declaration enlightens us to God’s good in the orders of creation. That declaration contains our future glory, including the cure of the creations’ futility (see Romans 8). When faith receives this gift, “you are declared righteousness,” something inevitably happens. Like a pear tree bearing pears, faith bears fruit. What is faith’s fruit? Love is faith’s fruit. Love is what the Holy Spirit works in the justified, in those who believe God’s love. Declared righteous, we are joined to the love of God in Christ Jesus. Declared righteous, we are grafted onto the tree of life. That’s where the church finds courage to live as Christ’s own in the created orders, in the order of worship, family and civil society.       

          Our imperfect lives, we who are simultaneously saint and sinner, are regarded by God as fulfilling the law – for Christ’s sake. Since Jesus Christ fulfilled the law on our behalf, since we are credited with His righteous love, the law no longer accuses us before God. The justified know the Father is no parent continually reproving his child for every fault.  Hence, we are free to love. The breakfast tray you brought mom on mother’s day, you left a mess, raw egg and flour on the floor, sticky on the cabinets. But your older brother cleaned it up, and you got the credit.    For Christ fulfilled the law. Therefore, God the Father reckons our insufficient love as perfect, through repentance and faith in Christ. When the law points out every failure to love in the civil realm, in family, and in Christ’s church, justification liberates the faithful to serve. While the law calls us to daily repentance the gospel absolves, and absolution empowers us as Christ’s own, knowing we are accepted by God as our dear Father. On one hand, in the kingdom of the left, the civil kingdom, the kingdom of law, we are obligated. Here there is only labor. You must pay your taxes. By government decree, this Labor Day weekend, we honor hard work. And as Christians, we also labor to mortify our flesh, to resist sin in an ungodly world. On the other hand, in the kingdom of the right, the spiritual kingdom, we are bid to “Come, eat and drink, inherit the kingdom of God.”  Here there is no labor, only gift. And that gift transforms our relationship to the law, so that we might freely love. Having been justified, then being regenerated and daily renewed by the Holy Spirit through the Word, Christians see the orders of creation as good, and the place where we love. Christians, confident that Christ fulfilled the law, voluntarily subordinate ourselves to the authorities which God instituted.

          In families, wives subordinate themselves to husbands who love them as Christ loved the church. In civil society, rulers set aside self-interest to seek the good of the people, while citizens support the appointed magistrates.  In the spiritual kingdom, the church receives her Lord in word and sacrament, and that is each pastor’s joy, and each member’s peace, receiving Christ’s love. This is how, by faith, we love in the Orders of Creation, despite our failure to fully love. We see the Lord’s good will is to gather a flock and set pastors over them. We see how parents are indispensable to their children’s welfare. We see that civil government exists to provide stability for the sake of the church.  And the church serves in these created orders through love. And the church picks up the pieces when society rebels against what’s good. That’s why Christians opened their homes to the human refuse of Rome, and sacrificed themselves for the spiritually dead in places like Ireland, and provide for the needy now.     

          Remember last week’s text? We are to take up our cross and follow Jesus. Today’s texts describe where Christians bear a cross of faithfulness in their various vocations in the orders of creation.  For example, remember 9-11? We’re grateful for the civil order, for fire, police and others who serve the nation, including those called to wield a sword for our protection. When disaster strikes, we thank God for his ordained authorities appointed for our physical safety and civil peace. But if our leaders flaunt sin and act irresponsibly, remember Moses and Pharaoh? Although Pharaoh enslaved the Hebrews and murdered their infant boys, he was ordained by God to rule, and to fall.  Moses, called to an impossible task to deliver Israel from Egypt, believed the highest authority is never out of control. He remained faithful by the grace of God. So we, like our coins still say, trust in God, while serving the civil realm through Christ’s love. We trust in God, while sticking with families. We trust in God, not neglecting fellowship in the church. We trust in God, because He forgave all our sin through Jesus Christ.          

          Does justification teach you how to live?   Does this doctrine empower the church in the world? For example, since in costly love, God’s Son died for sinners, we know the extent of his love for sinners like us. Will he not sustain the faithful in the civil realm? If the civil realm rejects love, when you must appeal to Caesar, and when civil remedies fail, do you not remain in the all powerful hands of Him who loves most and best?  For example, since Jesus forgave your sin, do not parents find strength to forgive prodigal children, and those children find hope to return? For example, since you were baptized into Christ, is not your present life and future secure in the banquet that is to come? You have freedom to love because the LORD loves His church. He gave His life for her, justifying her, and only then sent her into the world to proclaim peace. That’s why Jesus did not tell the Roman foreign-fascist occupying centurion to bug off.  Instead he healed the centurion’s servant. Jesus did not strike down the High Priest who in arrogant blasphemy demanded    the death of God’s chosen one, he called for repentance. Jesus did not curse Pontius Pilate when Pilate perverted justice for his own political fears. Instead, Jesus witnessed to the truth. In a love that fulfilled the just demands of the law, Jesus laid down his life for the unjust. That’s God’s love, Jesus fulfilling the law for sinners. Jesus subordinated Himself to the Father’s authority, out of love for the Father, and we received mercy; by faith we receive mercy and become conduits of mercy. 

          Where do you share God’s love? You are appointed to various vocations in work, family, and worship. In these as those justified by Christ, you love; even if on occasion it might mean driving over someone’s picnic. Ezekiel cried out when danger approached, when no one wanted to listen. So too you, citizen, cry out when the State legislates immorality, rejecting God’s created orders. You cry out for family members when they are weak, caring for them. You who are in communion with Christ, we have fellowship one with another.  For the Lamb bore willingly the cost of sin. He cried, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  That’s perfect love, and the love that fulfills us.   For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. (Rm 5)

          Christ died for us, when we hated the good.    Christ died for us, since we failed in love. Christ died for us, and we were absolved. Christ died, and restores us by Word, Spirit, and water. He brings the love of God into our frail lives. Christ reconciled us to God as Father. He justified us. As the justified, He sanctifies us for lives of love in our various vocations. And in our vocations, we who cannot fulfill the law continually return to justification. We don’t trust in our deeds to win God’s approval, or even in His work in us.  We return to that wonderful declaration, that the Father reckoned us righteous for Christ’s sake. There we find liberty to love. Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loves is born of God, and knows God.  He that loves not knows not God; for God is love.  In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.  Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  (I Jn. 4:7-9)

          Declared righteous, you have liberty, and through faith, faith’s fruit of love grows. That’s not troubling, since Jesus Christ took the trouble to love.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.