Nuts and Bolts

Scripture: Romans 12:9-21

 For a lot of people music is a big motivator when it comes to working out.  The type of music that people favor though depends on the workout.   While all lists are subjective, I found a list of workout songs for running on the website Marathon Handbook while Muscle and Fitness put out a list of the best weightlifting songs.  These lists were very different.  The running list tended to feature high energy songs with a fast beat count while the lifting songs tended to feature hard rock with guitar power riffs.  However, there was one song that appeared on both lists: Eye of the Tiger by Survivor.  Even if you are not familiar with the song by name, you have heard it because this song was made popular by the Rocky movies, and it is the ultimate training montage song.  

 Training montages are a movie trope that was perfected in 80’s sports movies but have shown up in just about every genre of movie since then.   These sequences cut from training scene to training scene, always set to a catchy song of some sort.  At the beginning of the montage the people training are hopeless and unskilled, but by the end of a 2–3-minute song they have gone from zero to hero.  Training montages are effective storytelling in cinema, but they have the detriment of making improvement look easy.   A well-done training montage can make the viewer feel like I too could do this, but the reality is that learning a new skill, especially to an expert level, takes longer than one power ballad.

 The reality is that before we can get to the level that is shown at the end of a training montage, we first have to learn the nuts-and-bolts basics of the skill.  Often learning the fundamentals feels a long way from where we see ourselves being, but learning a new skill is not possible without first learning and struggling through the basics.  This is true of sports, it is true of artistic endeavors like playing musical instruments, and it is true of professional skills.  It is also true of our faith.   This morning’s scripture gives us the nuts and bolts fundamentals of how we live as a disciple of Christ. 

Sometimes what keeps us away from trying new skills is that it is intimidating to learn because there is so much to remember.   It can be intimidating because there are so many steps, so many things to keep straight, and so many individual aspects to the skill that we do not even know where to start.   I know this is how I felt with golf when I attempted that.  I just wanted the ball down the fairway, but there were so many instructions about how to stand, how to hold the club, how to swing, how to follow through, that I would be so focused on trying to remember all of this at once that I would often miss the ball all together.  This morning’s scripture has a bit of the same problem. 

It comes from the end of Romans where Paul has finished his big theological points, and he has moved on to more practical points about how to live daily life as Christians.   Paul gives a rabid fire list of directives in this short scripture, to the point it can be intimidating.  In this scripture he tells us that we should 1) be devoted to one another in love 2) honor one another 3) not lack in zeal but keep spiritual fervor serving the Lord  4) by joyful in hope 5) patient in affliction  6) faithful in prayer  7)  share and practice hospitality  8) Bless those who persecute 9) do not curse 10) Rejoice with those who rejoice 11) Mourn with those who mourn  12) Live in harmony  13) do not be proud  14) do not be conceited  15) do not repay evil for evil  16) live at peace with everyone  17)  do not take revenge and 18) overcome evil with good.  That is eighteen directives in just 11 verses!   There is so much that it can be hard to know where to start, and it can feel overwhelming.  

One of the skills that the best coaches and teachers have is that they are able to break down a more complex subject and then teach it in sections.   A similar approach can be taken to this scripture.  This list of directives can be broken down into three categories: 1) Our daily attitude 2) how we relate to each other  3) how we relate to others.  In each category there are multiple verses.  Again, to try and tackle all of them it can feel overwhelming but we can focus on a couple of points from each. 

               When it comes to how we should approach each day this scripture gives some practical advice.   Verse 11, “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.”  I do not know if you have ever had the opportunity to take part on a mission trip, but they are amazing experiences because they give hands on experience of living this scripture out.  From my experience, by day three of a mission trip most people have some aches and pains, and they are more tired than normal, but zeal is not lacking.  This is because everyone wakes up with purpose and intention to serve the Lord.  Knowing that the work of the day is making a difference, building God’s kingdom, and tangibly making the love of God known goes long way to keeping up one’s spiritual fervor and zeal.   Perhaps, we could keep that same approach to our daily lives.  Because every day is a gift from God and every day is an opportunity to serve the Lord and make a difference in the world.   How we are to do that is not as clear cut in daily lives as it is on a mission trip but everyday provides the opportunity.   Perhaps instead of approaching every day as another one to grind through, we could see the day as a new adventure to discover how we can encounter God in the ordinary. 

               Paul summarizes the viewpoint of how we should relate to each other as fellow followers of Christ in verse 10: “Be devoted to one another in love.  Honor one another above yourselves.”    Throughout this morning’s scripture he then gives three directives about how we do this.  The first is we share with those in need.  That sounds easy enough, but often we inadvertently trip each other up on actually doing this.  I have full confidence that all of you would be willing to put this scripture into practice.   If another member of this congregation came to you with a need, and you could meet it, then you absolutely would.   I am also fairly confident that most of us would much prefer to keep our needs to ourselves.   Often, we do not give our siblings in Christ the opportunity to practice this scripture, because we do not want to admit that we need help, we want to handle it ourselves.   This is why in this scripture Paul also tells us do not be proud and do not be conceited.  If our desire to be self sufficient and not rely on anyone else is born out of pride and conceit, then it is not a virtue. 

               By God’s design, it is in the Christian community of the church that we grow in God’s love because we practice loving one another with the very love of God.   We cannot practice if we do not give each other the opportunity.  Again, I truly believe that you all would be quick to help a brother or sister in Christ out in love, but this only happens if all of are willing to accept the help of each other.  

               Sometimes doing this can be easier than we think.  The second two directives related to how we do this are to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.   To do this, often all we have to do is show up.  I am reminded of a story that Mark Hall, the lead singer of Casting Crowns, tells about Steven.   Steven was a big, football player, in the small Alabama town where Mark Hall was working as a youth minister.   Steven’s father was killed in a tragic work accident.  Several of the teens in Mark’s youth group were friends with Steven and they wanted to help him, but they did not know what to do, they did not know what to say, they did not know what scriptures to quote.  Mark encouraged them just to be there with them.   In the book Lifestories he writes about what happened next, “As I pulled in [the funeral home parking lot], I noticed a truck parked to my right.  It was Steven’s. . . He sat slumped on his tailgate, looking down.  And there, all around him, were my guys.  They weren’t flipping through their Bibles.  They weren’t trying to explain away everything.  The more I watched them and the closer I got to them, I saw that they were simply sitting there with him.  Nobody was talking.  They were just there for him.”     
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               The way that we rejoice with another, mourn with another, and honor one another above ourselves is just to be present.   We do not have to have the answers, we do not have to fix anything.  Often the most powerful act of love that we can do is to be present for one another.   Much like developing a skill requires practice, being present requires taking the time to show up for one another.  We do not love by accident; it requires intentionality and an investment of time on our part.  It is only through that intentionally and investment that we can be devoted to one another in love. 
               The final category is how we relate to others.  Paul states how to do this in verse 18:  If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”  Even in this verse Paul acknowledges that living at peace with everyone is easier said than done. This is in part because peace is only possible if all people are willing to pursue it, which is why Paul put the disclaimer as far as it depends on you.  But even with that caveat, it is still easier said than done.   This is because there are times when other people are just plain mean to us.  They are unkind, and they do us wrong.  There are times, if we are being honest with ourselves, we do not want to live at peace with everyone because we would rather start something and pick a fight.   It is for those times that Paul wrote this morning’s scripture where we are encouraged to bless those who persecute us, not repay evil for evil, and to overcome evil with good. 

 In the face of other people being terrible, the most powerful thing we can do is be good.  When others go low, we go high.   The way that we can witness to the goodness of God in the world is through how we respond to the evil of others.   The way we overcome evil is not by getting even, it is by loving care.  I remember seeing this illustrated from a non-Christian source years ago.   In 2017 Ohio Chapel United Methodist Church outside of Columbus, IN was severely vandalized.  On Sunday they could not use the building because it was taped off and still a crime scene under investigation, so they had their worship service outside.  Right as the service was getting ready to start a floral delivery truck drove up and dropped off flowers expressing sympathy.  This token of love was not from the church down the street or even another United Methodist church.  The flowers were sent by the Columbus Islamic Association.  In this particular case it was Muslims who actually took the most Christ like act.  They responded to an evil in their community with an act of goodness and loving care.  This token of love helped with the healing of a hurt and grieving congregation. 

This morning’s scripture gives us a lot of nuts and bolts fundamentals on how to live as a Christian.  The reality is even when we try to live it out, we will not always get it right.  There will still be times when our zeal wavers, when we fail to practice hospitality, or we prefer to hang on to the idea of getting even.   We will not get it right all the time, and there will be times when our honest attempts do not quite pan out.   But we should do it anyway.  English author and Christian apologist GK Chesterton once wrote, “If it is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.”   We will not get it perfect out of the gate, but if it is worth doing then we should still do it even if our best is not that great.  Because this is the only way we get better.  Practice makes progress, and living out our faith, living like Jesus is always worth doing.   So may we put our faith into practice, and may we practice our faith, as we strive to live a life of sincere love that overcomes all with good.