Romans 13:8–14
“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another.”
There is something rather uncomfortable about today’s reading from Romans.
Paul says,
“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another.”
Now, I suspect most of us are quite happy to hear about debts being paid off. Mortgage paid off – wonderful. Credit card paid off – even better. Perhaps even the church electricity bill paid – that would be something to celebrate!
But Paul says there is one debt we are never going to clear.
The debt of love.
And perhaps that is because Christian love isn’t something we do once and then tick off the list. It is something we keep choosing, day after day, person after person, situation after situation.
And that becomes rather challenging when we look at the world around us.
We live in a world where politics can feel increasingly angry and divided. We see wars continuing, people displaced from their homes, communities frightened about the future, and politicians and commentators arguing about who is to blame.
We can feel overwhelmed by it.
We might think, “What difference can I possibly make?”
What can one person in a small rural community do about wars thousands of miles away? What difference does one conversation, one prayer, one meal, one act of kindness actually make?
And that is where I think Paul has something important to say to us.
Because he doesn’t tell us that we have to solve the world’s problems.
He tells us to love our neighbour.
And our neighbour is not an abstract concept.
Our neighbour is the person sitting beside us this morning.
Our neighbour is the person down the road.
The elderly person whose curtains haven’t been opened.
The farmer struggling with the pressures of farming and the uncertainty of the future.
The family worrying about money.
The person who voted differently from us.
The person whose political opinions irritate us.
The person we don’t particularly like.
And, rather awkwardly, the person who doesn’t agree with us about anything!
Christian love becomes real when it gets beyond the people we naturally like.
It is relatively easy to love people who love us back.
Jesus calls us to something much more demanding.
Paul says, “Love does no harm to a neighbour.”
Think about how relevant that is to our political and social life today.
We live in an age when words can do enormous damage.
A cruel comment online. A rumour repeated in the pub. A photograph shared without thinking. A political argument where winning becomes more important than listening.
We can become very good at turning people into labels:
Left-wing. Right-wing. Liberal. Conservative. Rural. Urban. Rich. Poor. Them. Us.
But the Christian faith keeps reminding us that behind every label is a human being made in the image of God.
That doesn’t mean we have to agree with everybody.
It doesn’t mean Christians shouldn’t have political opinions.
It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t challenge injustice.
Quite the opposite.
Love sometimes means speaking up.
Love means defending someone who is being bullied.
Love means challenging prejudice.
Love means asking difficult questions of those who have power.
Love means caring about people whose lives are very different from our own.
But we do those things because we love our neighbour, not because we hate our opponent.
And that distinction matters.
Because it is very easy to become so angry about injustice that we forget to behave justly ourselves.
Paul says that the commandments are summed up in this:
“Love your neighbour as yourself.”
And notice that Paul doesn’t say, “Love your neighbour when you have time.”
He doesn’t say, “Love your neighbour when the government gets things right.”
He doesn’t say, “Love your neighbour when the other person deserves it.”
He simply says: love your neighbour.
And that brings us to something else in today’s passage.
Paul says, “The hour has already come for you to wake up from your sleep.”
Wake up.
There is an urgency about those words.
Christianity isn’t simply about believing the right things while waiting for heaven.
It is about how we live now.
Sometimes we can feel powerless in the face of everything happening in the world.
We watch the news and see suffering in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and so many other places. We hear arguments about migration, poverty, climate change, the NHS, housing and the cost of living.
And perhaps our instinct is to switch off.
“It’s all too complicated.”
“There’s nothing I can do.”
“What difference would it make anyway?”
But Paul says: wake up.
Doing nothing isn’t really an option for the Christian.
Not because we are expected to save the world.
We can’t.
But because Christ has already entered the world and calls us to participate in his work of love.
And perhaps that participation begins much closer to home than we imagine.
It might be checking on a neighbour.
It might be giving somebody a lift.
It might be making the effort to listen rather than judge.
It might be supporting the village shop or the local foodbank.
It might be visiting somebody who is lonely.
It might be praying for a politician we strongly disagree with.
It might be choosing not to pass on the piece of gossip we’ve just heard.
It might be noticing the person who always seems to be left out.
These things can seem tiny.
But the kingdom of God is often built through tiny things.
A smile.
A cup of tea.
A phone call.
A prayer.
A meal.
A word of encouragement.
A decision to forgive.
A decision to speak up.
A decision to listen.
None of these will make tomorrow’s newspaper headlines.
But they can change someone’s day.
And sometimes they can change someone’s life.
And perhaps that is particularly important in a rural community.
Because we know something about community.
We know that when a neighbour has a problem, people often turn up.
Someone brings a casserole.
Someone brings a tractor.
Someone cuts the hedge.
Someone makes a phone call.
Someone simply sits and listens.
We sometimes underestimate those ordinary acts of kindness.
But I wonder whether they are actually some of the clearest expressions of the Gospel.
Because Christian faith isn’t only demonstrated from this pulpit.
It is demonstrated on the doorstep.
In the kitchen.
At the school gate.
In the village hall.
In the farmyard.
At the bus stop.
And sometimes even over a cup of tea when somebody says, “I’m fine,” and we know perfectly well they aren’t!
Paul finishes today’s passage by telling us to “clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.”
What a wonderful image.
Every morning we get dressed.
We put on whatever we think we need for the day.
Paul says: put on Christ.
Put on his compassion.
Put on his patience.
Put on his courage.
Put on his willingness to forgive.
Put on his determination to seek justice.
Put on his love.
And then take those things out into the world.
We cannot stop every war.
We cannot fix every political disagreement.
We cannot solve poverty or climate change by ourselves.
But we can refuse to believe that we are powerless.
Because every act of love is a refusal to surrender to cynicism.
Every act of kindness says that cruelty doesn’t have the final word.
Every act of forgiveness says that hatred doesn’t have the final word.
Every act of generosity says that selfishness doesn’t have the final word.
And every prayer says that ultimately God has the final word.
So perhaps the challenge for us this week is very simple.
Don’t ask, “What can I possibly do to change the world?”
Ask instead:
“Who is my neighbour today?”
And then do something.
Make the phone call.
Offer the lift.
Give the time.
Speak the kind word.
Challenge the injustice.
Pray for the person you disagree with.
Notice the person who is lonely.
And if we all do just one small thing, perhaps we will discover that small things aren’t actually small when they are done in the name of Christ.
Because we are not called to change the whole world.
We are called to love the person God puts in front of us.
And if enough of us do that, faithfully and persistently, then perhaps the world begins to change after all.
“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another.”
It is a debt we will never finish paying.
And thank God for that.
Amen.
With best wishes and blessings,
Revd Tracy