Sermon:  “True Accountability”

Prayer:   “May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts and minds here together be acceptable to you, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.  Amen.”

 “Each of us will be accountable to God,” the Apostle Paul writes here in his Letter to the Romans.  Where is our true accountability to God?  Wow!  Not the easiest place to start off the school year in a church like ours, where we expect love and laughter to spill out of our meetinghouse the way our kids skip down the halls to Church School.  But that’s just it – on this 9/11 anniversary, of all days, we are reminded of just how terrible the world outside our doors can be.  Perhaps now more than ever, our neighbors need churches like ours to be a place of holy sanctuary from the terror of the world.  Not only that, they need churches to provide sanctuary from the sometimes harsh judgment of religious people.  This is why, in the United Church of Christ, we like to say we extend “extravagant welcome” to the stranger.  This is why these words come first on our website, “No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.”

In this chapter and the one before it, which we heard in worship last Sunday, Paul reminds us that Jesus taught that true accountability means that God holds us accountable for how well we love one another, how warmly we welcome the stranger in Christ’s name.  Or to put it another way, God judges us for how well we love, not whom we love, and certainly not for how well we follow various religious rules, traditions, and customs.  We might even be tempted to laugh at these old Roman Christians.  It seems silly to us that they would argue so fiercely over whether or not it was a sin to eat meat that might have been sacrificed to idols – it sounds like the movie Scott Pilgrim, where the “Vegan Police” bust in to punish one guy for using half ‘n’ half in his coffee.  The truth is, not many of us today, neither Christians nor most Reform Jews, are still debating whether or not we should always eat kosher, or over how strictly we should keep the Sabbath.  Vegetarians and meat-eaters don’t generally start fights with each other at most church or synagogue potlucks. 

Paul begins this chapter with a wonderful line, “Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions.” God holds people of faith accountable for showing hospitality, but that doesn’t mean we are to make sure rules of etiquette get strictly enforced.  I doubt Jesus cares whether we serve one another from the right or from the left, just that we do serve one another.  His call was not for us to establish private clubs for the righteous – as the synagogues of the Pharisees in Paul’s day might have been – but rather, Christ’s church is to be a hospital for “sin-sick souls.”  But if we do welcome all, Paul says the church then has to guard itself against getting sucked down into the undertow of sinfulness by those of weak faith who would distract us with trivia. Church should be one place the world can find sanctuary from useless, petty arguments. 

Paul reminds us how easy it can be for otherwise good and faithful people to get lost in trivialities – in fact, it can be a deadly sin for churches, whether in ancient Rome or in Brookfield today.  How many of our church committees have struggled with this?  Should the new carpet be green or blue?  Should the cross go on the table or on the pulpit?  Should we serve bagels to our new members, or muffins?  That’s what this new church in Rome had to deal with – internal fights over things like whether Christians (like Jews) should eat certain meats or not. And Paul wisely refuses to take sides with one faction or the other.  Paul points the Romans away from judging each other over trivial religious details and points them straight to God instead.  He shows them where true accountability belongs – in the hands of a gracious and loving God and not in the eyes of a mean or judgmental church.

Romans 14 gives a powerful warning to us not to waste our time with worry over critical people.  We shouldn’t care what mere humans think of us, because our lives belong to God.  In verses 7 and 8, Paul reminds us, “⁷We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. ⁸If 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.”  I quote this verse often at funerals, because when we stare death in the face – as so many did on September 11^th, 2001 – all the trivia of daily life falls away and our souls rest where they belong, in God’s hands.

So how does your life look in the light of God’s true accountability?  How well have you been able to follow God’s law of love?  What if we were held accountable for how we’ve acted and the ways we have spent our time in the days since 9/11? 

Like those who enjoyed seeing the gladiators in the Coliseum in the ancient Rome of Paul’s generation, the U.S. seems to have developed a big appetite for seeing real people hurt and humiliate one another.  In the 10 years since 9/11 – the most horrifically deadly and real TV footage ever aired – there has been an explosion of these reality TV shows where producers make money on our hunger for watching other people debase themselves in vicious competition.  We seem to enjoy watching these contestants dish out and receive real pain and suffering.  Survivor was at the top of all TV ratings in summer 2001.  But don’t forget American Idol, The Amazing Race, America's Next Top Model, Dancing With The Stars, The Apprentice, Pop Stars, Temptation Island, Boot Camp, Fear Factor and Big Brother.  Now there are even more of these shows, each one meaner than the last – Weakest Link, Greed, American Gladiators, Dog Eat Dog, The Biggest Loser, The Ultimate Fighter, Hell's Kitchen, Iron Chef, Celebrity Apprentice, Extreme Makeover, What Not to Wear, COPS, Dog the Bounty Hunter, Cheaters, and Wife Swap.  The more sordid, the better.

But get this: all of these so-called reality shows dropped hugely in the ratings right after 9/11, and some were cancelled.  Why was that, I wonder?  What was going on for us as a nation, and how did we lose that almost mystical sense of brother- and sisterhood that we shared for that all-too-brief window of time?  Do you still remember how we behaved in the days right after 9/11?  No one was getting sucked down into the usual trivial quarrels of life or getting bent out of shape by the usual minor inconveniences.  We were so genuinely kind to one another in the days that followed September 11^th, gentle in ways we were not on Monday, September 10^th.  It might have been a great time to stand in line at the DMV.  I didn’t do that, but I did spend some time that Tuesday in a crowded, understaffed downtown store – and I felt as if I were inside a church, people were so quiet and polite. 

As some of you know, 9/11/01 was my son’s 8^th birthday, and I had taken the day off from church work to prepare.  I still needed to shop for a few little surprises at the drug store – you know, party hats, birthday candles, noise-makers.  I loved my son enough to want to do my best to salvage that birthday for him, but it was hard to do something as trivial as this errand on September 11^th.  Like most moms, I think, I normally would have loved this kind of party shopping – you know, getting decide between the green Batman tablecloth, or the red one with Spiderman on it.  I’d have enjoyed trying to match the birthday hats with the napkins.  And to tell the truth, I might have let the pressure of having a perfect party get to me.  You know what I mean?  I might have become a bit testy with the sales clerk who couldn’t be bothered to check in the back to see if there were more of the napkins to match my other items– or I might have hurried a bit to get in line just ahead of the woman with the full cart and the out-of-town checkbook.

But no.  My heart was too heavy for that.  It felt so weighted down and so full of compassion for all of those grieving people whose terrible losses had struck them with this awful ferocity, literally out of the blue. And yet, I felt a strange peace – the kind that passes all understanding, the kind Jesus talks about in John 14, on the last night of his life.  It was a peace that made me want to treat everyone I met with amazing tenderness, and deep kindness.  But I wasn’t the only one who seemed to be in love with my fellow human beings.  Everyone in that store, and across our nation that day, was so caring – offering people help with little things, being so careful not to cause even the smallest offense.

In our Berkeley drugstore the morning of 9/11, the news was running on every TV screen – images of exploding planes, smoke-filled skies, and collapsing and smoldering buildings ran on an endless loop like previews for a disaster movie.  And we customers were transfixed.  Never before in human history have so many people witnessed the live suffering of so many of our neighbors at one time.  We stood gazing up at these high-mounted TVs as if at the stations of the cross – and that is where we were, when you stop to think.  We were following the steps of the crucified Christ, full of holy compassion.

Why did that have to change?  Jesus says it never has to.  The power of his Holy Spirit can transform us – it can create a climate of grace where ordinary human beings like us actually get filled up with love for one another – much as we were during those terrible first days right after 9/11.  If we place our lives back in God’s hands where they belong, we can be renewed in God’s love, which draws us together.  We will not be dragged down by trivial differences that drive us apart. Thanks be to God for this Good News.  Amen.

 

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Romans 13:8-14

⁸Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. ⁹The 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, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁰Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

¹¹Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; ¹²the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; ¹³let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. ¹⁴Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

 

Romans 14:1-12

14Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. ²Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. ³Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. ⁴Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand. ⁵Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. ⁶Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God. ⁷We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. ⁸If 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. ⁹For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. ¹⁰Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. ¹¹For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.” ¹²So then, each of us will be accountable to God.

 

Romans 14:1-12

Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. ²Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. ³Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. ⁴Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand. ⁵Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. ⁶Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God. ⁷We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. ⁸If 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. ⁹For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. ¹⁰Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. ¹¹For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.” ¹²So then, each of us will be accountable to God.