Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 10, 2023
Romans 13:8-14

The audio of this sermon can be found at trinitygalv.org/sermons

Today is September 10. Of course, I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing on September 11, 2001. I remember the fear, the worry, what I did. But I haven’t the foggiest recollection of September 10. Looking back through the smoke and dust and terror of the 11th, September 10th feels like this unreal time before time. A time before we became fixated on cable news, a time before the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, a time when our biggest worry was Y2K. Things were good. And of course, looking back on it, we should’ve known it was coming. The World Trade Center had been attacked before. The USS Cole had just been bombed. But on September 10, the world seemed to be something different than what it is now.

Our minds in Galveston, too, think back to a time before time. As we commemorate the anniversary of the Great Storm, Imagine the day before the Great Storm. This was the Wall Street of the Southwest. Things were good. And then came the Storm. Of course, the people should have been expecting it. Hurricanes had destroyed other cities on the Texas coast. There was no reason to think Galveston would be different. But think of the day before the storm, September 8th, and how that was a time before time, too.

September 10, 2001, or the day before the Great Storm, think of those days when you read Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans. Paul writes his letter to the church in Rome around 57 A.D. That’s why it’s called Romans, right, because he wrote the letter to Christians living in Rome. Anyway, all things considered, things are actually pretty good for the Christians in the city of Rome at that time. The rise of the Roman Empire has made life in Rome better. People were richer, better fed, safer then they had ever been before. At that point, Christians were not being persecuted. At least for those Christians living in Rome at that time, it was that magical time before time, before the bubble burst.

But Saint Paul, he can feel the wind shifting. Paul writes to the Christians in Rome, he says, “Besides 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; the night is far gone, the day is near” (Romans 13:11-12). It’s like Paul can see the storm gathering strength in the gulf and he’s telling those early Christians to get ready.

Now I know that lots of people think that Paul is talking about the end of the world here. That Jesus is about to come back real soon and the world will be over. I actually don’t think that’s what he’s talking about it. Paul is talking about the shifting cultural winds. Even though things might be okay for the Christians at that moment, in 57 A.D., Paul can sense that things are going to get worse. And they do. Wars are about to break out across the Roman Empire. Christians and Jews in the city of Rome will be blamed for all sorts of things. They’ll be exiled, harassed, executed. The Jewish Temple in Jerusalem will be destroyed. Christians will face persecution. When Paul writes this letter, things might be okay for the moment, but Paul wants them to wake up to the reality that things won’t always be so good. “Now is the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we become believers; the night is far gone, the day is near.”

We use this kind of language all the time. Remember how on September 12 we said, “well, everything is different now. It’s a whole new world.” That was a way of emphasizing the huge feelings we had at the moment, which were and are valid. It was a way of talking about the massive cultural change we had gone through in just a few hours time. There was pre-storm Galveston and there was post-storm Galveston. Galveston had not ended, but it was massively different. We would imagine it felt like a whole new island for them. Paul’s language is not so different. “Wake up,” Paul says, “wake up and get ready for what is about to come, and what is about to come is going to feel like a whole new world.” It’s not the end of the world, but the end of the world as they knew it.

But Paul has something even more important to say. Even though it’s going to be like a whole new world, the same rules apply. “Owe no one anything,” Paul writes, “except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The 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.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:8-10).

This is the heart of Paul’s message. Yes, things are going to get ugly. Yes, followers of Jesus will be mocked, and tortured, and executed. Yes, you are going to get kicked out of town and bullied and starve to death. Yes, it will feel like a whole new world. But for Christians, for followers of Jesus, the same rules apply. Love your neighbor as yourself. When they’re throwing you to the lions, love your neighbor. When they take your family, your possessions, everything you’ve known, love your neighbor. Even if it feels like the whole world has changed, the same rules apply. Love your neighbor as yourself. 

Whether it’s September 10th or September 12th, whether it’s the day before the storm or the day after the storm, the same rules apply. Love your neighbor as yourself. I know, I know. We could come up with all the reasons why loving your neighbor is a bad idea. We could say that loving your neighbor made sense in the first century, but not the twenty-first. And I’m not saying that you should be a doormat, that you should stay with your abusive spouse, that you should just roll over every time someone tries to hurt you. I’m not saying that love is spineless. Certainly not. Doers of evil deeds need to be held accountable. 

But join me for a second in dreaming of the world that Paul and Jesus are dreaming of. A world in which people actually love their neighbors as themselves. Imagine that world with me. Imagine how lovely it would be. Imagine a world without hatred and hunger and retribution. Imagine getting up to go to work and every one you meet being kind to you. Imagine giving and receiving love freely. That’s what Paul is talking about, that’s what Jesus has in mind. This is the Kingdom of God. And it seems fanciful, I know, so we don’t even try it because we come up with all the reasons not to try it. And so we get caught in this vicious cycle. We know we’re supposed to love our neighbors, but they don’t love us, and so no one loves each other. We’re stuck.

All I can say, is that even on those worst days, when the whole world changes, there are people who love their neighbors as themselves. On September 11th, there were people who ran into burning buildings. During the storm, there were people who saved others from being swept away. That is our example. Again, Saint Paul knows what is coming. He knows that things are about to get a lot worse for those Christians living in the city of Rome. He knows that the temptation will be to turn inward, to turn away, to run away. But rather than being an excuse to not love your neighbor, this will be an opportunity to show what it really means to love your neighbor.

And that’s how Paul wraps it up. He says, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:14). This is a reference to baptism. To put on the clothes of Christ. To live in Jesus’ skin, to see the world as Jesus sees it. To love as he loves. Even when it feels like the end of the world. Because, that is the Christian hope. That even when we reach the end of this world, the love we have given will be given back to us.

Now, I don’t pretend to read the future. I don’t want to make gloomy predictions about tomorrow or pretend to know what’s coming next. But it doesn’t really matter because the Christian duty never changes. “Owe no one anything, except to love one another.”

1. For background information on Paul’s letter to the Romans and this historical period see Wright, N. T. Christian Origins and the Question of God. Vol. 4, Book 2 = Vol. 4, Pt. 3/4: Paul and the Faithfulness of God / N. T. Wright. Vol. 4. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2013.