Fifteenth Pentecost
Romans 12:9-21
In Shakespeare's Hamlet there is the scene where old Polonius, an aging, sentimental blowhard, gives advice to his son, Laertes. Laertes is preparing to leave for France and old Polonius, knowing what sometimes happens to eighteen year olds in Paris, does what fathers do--he offers advice. Most of his advice is rather innocuous and Laertes like most modern children attends to it half heartedly.
Despite its stupidity, Polonius speech to his son is a great favorite of Shakespeare lovers. My high school English teacher read it to us the last day of class our senior year. I'm told it's even printed in six foot letters on the walls of a dining hall at the University of Indiana for all the students to meditate on as they chew their toast at breakfast. Polonius' advice, like a lot of advice parents give their children, is mostly hot air and doesn't bear much analysis:
"Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar...Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice...neither a borrower or a lender be; to thine own self be true, And it must follow as the night the day, Thou canst not be false to any man." (Act 1, Scene 3)
There's seems to be an almost natural aversion to receiving advice. Bill Cosby used to have a show where he interviewed little children, after the manner of an even older Art Linkletter. He's ask them questions about their pets and their friends but every once in while, just to spark things up he'd ask them Was there any advice your mommy gave you before coming on this show? Of course the little boy would answer, "She told me not to pick my nose"--as he sits there picking his nose. Or they might say "She told me not to say any of the bad words she says.
We seem to have a natural aversion to hearing advice and to taking it. So my advice to you is not to take any advice.
Not such good advice?, well perhaps you will take the advice of St. Paul. "Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints, extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly, do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay evil for evil...
It all sounds like something your mother might tell you. Here is St. Paul giving a list of do's and don'ts. And I suppose that most people think that this sort of thing is what religion is all about. Don't do this. Don't do that. Polonius giving advice to Laertes. Paul giving advice to the church at Rome.
Sure for the first eleven chapters of Paul's letter to the Romans he speaks of the unmerited, utterly free, gracious love of God. He says, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ" (8:1) He says, "God proves his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us" (5:8) He says, God's love is for the righteous and the unrighteous, Jew and Gentile because "God shows no partiality" But at last, you say, Paul reveals his true colors. He's preached grace and love and acceptance long enough. Now's the time to get down to what he really wanted to tell us: advice. A long list of do's and don'ts. Enough of this grace business.
But in preparing my advice for you today, based upon Paul's advice to the Romans, I discovered something. My Bible has Paul tell them, "Let love be genuine, hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good, love one another." But that isn't exactly what Paul said. Pardon me for a minute while I give a little grammar lesson. In the Greek the verb is indicative rather than imperative. It's not, "Let love be genuine; hate this, hold to that." It's "Love is genuine. It hates evil, clings to what is good." The verb is indicative, not imperative.
Despite the tone, Paul isn't saying, Do this, don't do that. He is saying, Be this. For eleven chapters of this epistle Paul has used every means at his disposal--argument, narrative, hymn, poem, reason, humor--to tell the Romans that in Jesus Christ they are royalty. They are the first witnesses to a new age, the first citizens of a new kingdom. Then at the beginning of Chapter 12 comes the little Greek word oun, "Therefore." Therefore be not conformed to this world (because you are of a new world) Therefore, serve the Lord (because you have been served by the Lord.) Therefore, practice hospitality (because God has been hospitable to you a stranger). Therefore bless those who persecute you (because Jesus blessed you even when you crucified him.)
See what Paul is doing here? It's ethics. But not ethics like we usually do ethics. Here is an ethic based not on a moralizing list of do's and don'ts, the shrill carping advice of the ethically presumptuous. Here is an ethic based upon who we really are and are meant to be.
There are two ways to go at this matter of advice, you see.
One way is for the mother to sit her daughter down and say, "Now you're going off to college. College is big scary place so you be careful. Don't let me hear you're not doing you best. Study hard. Be careful of the company you keep. Hit the books. Do this, do that.
Another way is for the mother to sit the child down and tell them how proud she is of all that you are as a person of gifts, of sensitivity and goodness. Be who you are. Remember to act like somebody.
I think that, as a bumbling parent, that's the advice we really wanted to give. "You are somebody, act like it."
At least that's what Paul wanted to say to you. "Don't be conformed." You don't need to be. You are somebody. So many times we think of ethics as a matter of answering
"What ought I to do?" Give me the right answer. In the matter of truthfulness, .....But how does one answer that question without the prior question Who am I and whom do I want to be? In Christian ethics the indicative precedes the imperative. Who am I? Comes before What ought I to do?
Love is genuine. It hates what is evil, holds fast to what is good, blesses those who persecute, repays no one evil for evil. You are God's beloved, therefore.....
When I went to college, I lived my first year in a dorm. A whole group of girls all trying to be very sophisticated, all trying to be very independent. It was a sign of freedom to ignore all the advice and fetters of the home culture. But one girl I remember because before all our meals she would take a moment to quietly, unobtrusively say grace. Now her parents might have told her to do that but I suspect it was a lot more a matter of who she was and what felt right to her. At first there were comments, looks across the table, eyes rolled but after a few meals it was okay and after a few more there were others joining in. I don't know what difference piety like that makes in the world, but I do know she was being true to herself.
Be Who you are, says Paul; namely those who are in Christ--a new creation.
Amen
William H. Willimon Pulpit Resource 1999