Thomas J Parlette
“Paul’s Covenant”
Romans 12: 9-21
9/3/23
Once upon a time, a group of sixty teenagers from a variety of churches gathered for a confirmation retreat at a local conference center. After some food and the obligatory ice-breaker games, the leaders assembled to group to create a “covenant” that would govern their weekend together.
“Ok – let’s make some rules,” said the leader as a white board was rolled out in front of the room. “What do you want to happen… What don’t you want to happen, just shout out your suggestions?” And of course the room erupted in laughter as one teen in the back shouted out, “No Drama!”
Other suggestions came out fast and furious. Don’t talk when others are talking. Respect the leaders. Participate fully in all the activities. Soon the board was filled, and at the end, the leaders invited each teen to come forward and sign their name to the covenant. The white board would stay in place all week long.
Over the course of the next few days both leaders and participants had occasion to remind the group of the covenant they had signed to govern their behavior toward each other. (1)
I would venture to guess that everyone here as had an experience similar to this. Maybe at a retreat for work, maybe at a church event, maybe at a camp or conference center. We’ve all got some experience with covenant – making exercises like this.
When I read this passage from Romans, it sounds a lot like one of those kind of exercises. I can almost hear the members of the church in Rome calling out their suggestions for what their community should like as Paul scribbles furiously on his first-century white board.
“Let love be genuine…”
“Hate what is evil…”
“Hold onto the good…”
“Be ardent in spirit…”
“Serve the Lord…”
“Rejoice in hope…”
“Be patient…,”
“Keep praying…”
“Be hospitable…”
Up to this point of Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, he has spent his time exploring God’s reconciling work with humanity. Reconciliation for Jews and Gentiles comes about, not by following laws, but by the radical, self-giving grace of God, demonstrated in the life of Jesus Christ.
As Protestants, we sum that up neatly in our phrase “saved by grace, not by works.”
In Chapter 12, Paul begins to sketch out what this self-giving grace might look like in the Christian community. For Paul, all of life should be anchored in love. That’s where he starts in verse 9 – “Let love be genuine…”
He then goes on to list lots of other hallmarks of a gathering of Christians – hating evil, holding on to what is good, loving and honoring one another. Rejoicing in hope, being patient in suffering and persevering in prayer.
The real challenge in Paul’s covenant comes in the second part of his comments, when he focuses on how to deal with people outside the Christian community, people who could be considered an enemy.
Directives such as bless those who persecute you, do not repay anyone evil for evil, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord” – those are a little harder to hear, and even harder to follow.
In fact, passages like this and many more from the Old Testament, are what turn a lot of people away from Christianity. I’ve heard countless people say, “I just don’t like the idea of a vengeful God, I don’t like a God who is out to get me.”
But Paul doesn’t really paint a portrait of a vengeful God who is out to get us. On the contrary, what Paul is saying is that we should not view revenge as something that is up to us. Payback, no matter how good it might feel or how justified it may be, is not up to us. It’s up to God. We must trust that God will work in God’s own way.
Paul closes this section about how to deal with enemies with the interesting bit of advice- “If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.”
That bit of advice sounds off – Paul just finished saying never avenge yourselves, and a couple of verses later he seems to change his tune, encouraging us to heap coals on our enemy’s head. But what Paul was getting at is that the burning coals will be like a burning sense of remorse and shame that your enemies will feel when you treat them so well after they were so rotten to you. In that light, Paul’s advice makes more sense.
Paul invites us to live by the covenant he sets before us today, both as we live in community with each other, and as we deal with the world around us. Paul encourages us to consider love and good to be the constant partners accompanying the Christian and providing context for both attitudes and actions. (2)
Paul’s core values expressed in this covenant might be summed up in a phrase used by Dr. Paul Farmer as profiled in Tracy Kidder’s book Mountains Beyond Mountains. Paul Farmer travels the world establishing clinics to treat chronic diseases like tuberculosis in areas of severe poverty and inadequate health care. In doing so, he deals with the medical establishment, various bureaucracies, and local traditions. Kidder explains that Farmer approaches all people with a “hermeneutic of generosity.” (3)
What that means is Dr. Farmer evaluates people’s actions from an assumption that their motives are good, even if, at first glance, one might suspect the opposite.
To honor people as Paul suggests, which includes attitudes and actions such as not being haughty, being hospitable to strangers, and taking thought for what is noble, reflects an underlying hermeneutic of generosity toward those to whom one relates – both inside and outside the church.
When that group of teenagers made that covenant at the start of their confirmation weekend, they discovered that treating each other in a self-giving and generous manner actually worked. They all had a great weekend, and learned about the power of a covenantal community.
While living according to Paul’s core values is often hard enough in the context of a church community, to do so throughout daily life presents even more challenges. But Paul makes it clear that Christians are called to live by a different standard in all parts of life. A hermeneutic of generosity is meant to extend to everyone – to the person driving too slowly in front of you on the highway, to the cashier taking their sweet time in ringing up your order ay HyVee, to your co-workers, classmates and your extended family.
John Austin Baker has written “Love begins as love for one, or for a few. But once we have caught it, once it has taken possession of us, and has set up its values in the heart of the self – there are no limits to those it can touch, to the relationships which it can transform.” (4)
As we come to the table this morning as a covenant community of Christians, let us be reminded to make love genuine and live with generosity to all we meet – here in this fellowship and out there in our community.
May God be praised. Amen.
1. Rochelle A. Stackhouse, Feasting on the Word, Year A, Vol. 4, Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p14.
2. Ibid… p14.
3. Ibid… p16
4. Resources for Preaching and Worship, Year A, Ed. By Hannah Ward and Jennifer Wild, Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p232
