Matthew 5:21-24, 43-48; Colossians 4:2-6

"How to Love the Idiots of the World!"
17 August 2025
Covenant Living of Florida Chapel Service

Over the past few weeks, we've been considering Jesus’ command to love our neighbors—even though they might be unlovable, or incarcerated, or foreigners, or enemies, or just different. This morning, I want us to consider how we can love another group of challenging people. 

Originally, I had a sermon title — “How to Love the Idiots of the World.” But there was some concern about using that title on channel 90 and in the chapel publicity — understandably so. 

Idiot is not a kind or respectable term. My parents never allowed me to use the word idiot, and they never did.  My father never called people who voted wrong “idiots.” And my mother never yelled “idiot” at the guy who cut her off in traffic.

However, I hear the term 'idiot' used quite frequently today, as there seems to be less interest in sounding kind or respectable when reacting to self-centered, reckless, and unthinking people who raise our blood pressure by honking as soon as the traffic light changes color. 

At one time in history, “idiot” referred to someone with low cognitive capacity.

Random House Publishing has a series of 120 Idiot's Guide books.

• An idiot’s guide to playing the guitar
• An idiot’s guide to plant-based nutrition
• An idiot's guide to bitcoin
• etc, etc

However, today the word idiot is used more broadly and commonly to describe people who really, really annoy us. 

I hear it applied to people who have different views about history, economics, politics, vaccines, science, education, or sexuality. I hear it used of people who park in someone else's reserved parking spot. Sometimes I hear it used to lambast food service workers. And I've heard the term directed at the one or two people who drive their scooters recklessly through the hallway.

Now, I'm not going to argue over whether these people are actually idiots — or jerks — or morons — or whatever they're called. The terminology itself isn’t really the issue.  The question of what to call them becomes moot when Jesus implores us to love our neighbors irrespective of their social standing or even their behavior. 

Jesus seemed to hang out with a lot of people who would have been labeled “village idiots” in his time—tax collectors such as his disciple Matthew, and Zacchaeus, the wee little man who Jesus invited himself to stay with him. Zach worked the tax racket, too. Then there was the questionable Samaritan woman he met at Jacob's Well. One of his disciples was a zealot — quite possibly a radicalized political subversive. 

The list could go on and on. There were many irresponsible, reckless, and unwise individuals in his circle. And Jesus modeled love toward these people that others labeled as idiots, sinners, or fools. 

I want to suggest that his kind of love is an aspect of the gospel imperative. When we accept Jesus into our lives, we are receiving, along with him, his priorities and values, including the love of neighbors—even if they are different, poor, unlovable, incarcerated, foreigners, criminals, enemies, or idiots. Yes, even the idiots.

If we're truly following Jesus, we'll be loving even the annoying and irresponsible people around us. This is my key idea this morning, and you’re welcome to jot this down in the sermon guide on page three of the bulletin. If we're truly following Jesus, we'll be loving even the annoying and irresponsible people around us.

Of course, this is by its very nature easier said than done. So I want to share 10 ideas to jump-start the love.

1. Allow the love of God to seize your own life as the first priority. 

The only way that we can ever love difficult people is if we first encounter his love for us. 1 John 4:19 summarizes it well, “We love because God first loved us.”

One of my favorite contemporary preachers, Fr Ben deHart, of St John's Episcopal Church in Brooklyn, says, 

“To love God and neighbor, we don’t just need better intentions or stronger will power. We need the Spirit to transform our hearts… Before we can love God, we have to fall in love with him. And that kind of love cannot be forced. It must be given. I used to think I could generate love by mastering the right beliefs or willing it hard enough. Maybe it worked at first—but it never had legs. It left me striving, but unmoved.”

“Then” he goes on, “through no effort of my own—love seized me instead. It happened at an Episcopal church plant in western Pennsylvania. I was a college student, heartbroken after a relationship I had believed would last. Everything felt like ash. One Sunday, I wandered back into church. And somehow—through the sermon, the liturgy, the table—I encountered something deeper than knowledge or willpower. I encountered Christ by the power of the Spirit. I was, in Thomas Chalmers’ words, ‘seized by the power of a new affection.’”

Allow the love of God to take over your life. Allow your life to be seized by the power of a new affection. And BTW, you’re never too old for a new love.

2. Look to the enabling power of God. 

I want to suggest that it's impossible to love difficult people apart from the enabling power of his indwelling Holy Spirit. 

In Galatians 5:22-23, Paul says, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” 

There is no way we're going to be able to love idiots if we're lacking the patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control that the Spirit generates in us. We'll just be spinning our wheels — tractionless and frustrated, not only with them but also with ourselves. It's God at work in our lives that empowers us for this kind of unconventional love. Be intentional about acknowledging the source of this love.

3. Remove idiot and related terms from your active vocabulary. 

I appreciate the pushback received because my sermon title used the word “idiot.” That kind of sensitivity is actually a very positive indicator and a strength of our community.

One thing I've learned when working with dementia patients over the years is that sometimes even the kindest, most reserved, and controlled people can develop a vulgar vocabulary if they get dementia, not all, but some. 

And there has been a lot of speculation on why this is. One theory that makes sense to me is that we tend to store the words that we prohibit ourselves from saying in a completely different part of our brains from the rest of our active vocabulary. And I’m told there is neurological research to back this up. 

Somehow, the disease confuses people in such a way that while they lose their ability to use their normal active vocabulary, they end up inadvertently tapping into the separate prohibited list of words — in an attempt to communicate. 

Yes, this is a gross over-generalization — and I'm not so interested in getting into the issues surrounding dementia research here — but I want us to note that we all keep an active vocabulary list and a prohibited vocabulary list in our brains. 

And my point is that if we're going to love challenging people, we need to shift words like idiot from our active list to our prohibited vocabulary list. When we do this, our default response to outlandish behavior is no longer a brash outburst —but something more along the lines of empathy. 

In the Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew 5, Jesus is talking about the way things operate in his Kingdom of Heaven — that is, when our lives align with the heavenly way of doing things. And he says in Matthew 5:21-22,  “You have heard that it was said to those who lived long ago, Don’t commit murder, and all who commit murder will be in danger of judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with their brother or sister will be in danger of judgment. If they say to their brother or sister, ‘Raca’ — (the Aramaic phrase for ‘You idiot,’) they will be in danger of being condemned by the governing council. And if they say, ‘You fool,’ they will be in danger of fiery hell.”

In other words, if your natural response to the stupidity of others is to shoot off angry insults — IDIOT!, FOOL!, STUPID MORON!, JERK! — You're setting yourself up for the same kind of judgment normally reserved for murderers. So remove these words from your active vocabulary lists. No good can EVER come from responding to anyone with these kinds of words.

4. Instead, adopt gracious speech as your default — gracious words that surface even when those around you are acting and speaking irresponsibly. 

In Colossians 4, Paul is addressing believers who were struggling with conflict in their midst. And his instructions are, instead of calling out everyone for their shortcomings, in vs 6 he says, “Your speech should always be gracious and sprinkled with insight so that you may know how to respond to every person.”

If you keep graciousness at the top of your active vocabulary, you're going to be able to respond in a healthy, uplifting way to every situation.

5.  Nurture Empathy! That is, work on understanding what makes people tick. 

I get annoyed by a lot of the political rhetoric. And one thing that keeps me from exploding or writing people off is to focus less on what they are saying and more on understanding why they think and behave the way they do. What causes otherwise likable, intelligent people to vocally embrace political propaganda and talk endlessly about why they're so right? What causes normally careful people to drive recklessly? 

I'm not agreeing with the senseless things anyone is saying, but instead of blasting them out of the water, I want to genuinely understand what makes them tick. So I try to listen for the deeper issues that trigger their irresponsible speech or attitudes.

And I'm not just talking about politics. We need to understand what drives people into racism — if we're going to love the racist, as well as the victims of racism. We need to understand why people drink too much and make fools of themselves, rather than just writing them off as out-of-control drunks. 

And who knows, maybe in the process of acting with empathy toward the irresponsible, we'll learn something about ourselves. We might even come to humbly recognize that there are things about people which are too complex to understand — information that is above our pay grades.

6. Pray for them. Shoot up a quick prayer when the driver cuts you off. “Lord, send your angels around that car to protect everyone on the road and especially this driver. He's clearly not ready to meet Jesus, yet. Amen.” 

Jesus says we should pray for those who persecute us, that is, those who make our lives difficult. Matthew 5:44 — “Love your enemies and pray for those who harass you.” 

And BTW, praying that some jerk will burn in hell doesn't line up with what Jesus is saying here. 

7.  Train yourself to refrain from gloating. 

When people act irresponsibly, they eventually crash and burn. Even if they don't literally crash, they eventually get pulled over and cited. Sometimes we have the pleasure of seeing that happen.

Do you know how many traffic karma videos are currently running on Facebook? — where a cop just happens to be in the right spot to see the guy who cut you off — and then your dashcam captures him getting pulled over. 

When that happens — yes, be thankful that the unmarked cop car was in the right place at the right time, but don't dwell on the driver's demise. It's not healthy for our own souls to gloat over even the righteous misfortune of others.

8. Know your boundaries. 

We love people despite their behavior, but that doesn't mean we're unaware of it or that we accept it. We're just not allowing them to rent space in our heads. Sometimes we get so fixated on the stupidity of others that we can't stop thinking about them. They take over our heads. And that raises our blood pressure, which frustrates us even more. 

If the clowns running the global or national show annoy you, please shut off the 24/7 news stream that endlessly highlights how awful things are. Then, as the Spirit enables you, reach across the boundaries to show kindness. 

There were some pastors in our community clergy groups who grated on me. They were full of themselves and their accomplishments. Reverend Idiots, if you will. 

For my own sanity and sanctification, I avoided working with them on projects. I maintained boundaries. But I intentionally still made a point of asking them about their health and their children whenever I saw them.

9.  Use the observed idiocy of others as a prompt for self-examination and awareness. 

“Instead of trying to remove the splinter from someone else's eye,” Jesus says in Matthew 7:3-5, “take the log out of your own eye.” 

Instead of focusing on the shortcomings of others, the humble and loving thing is to consider if we're blind to our own shortcomings. Is it possible that some of my behaviors and attitudes have slipped into the idiocy zone? 

It's important to continually refresh our self-awareness because no one is all that far from acting like an idiot. We could easily slip over that line and not know it.

10. Pour your energy into preemptive love. 

This shifts the focus in our heads. When we're so busy loving people, we don't have any energy left over to rant about the dumb people who invade our space. 

And this brings us back to the first idea of allowing the love of God to seize our lives as the first priority. When we allow the love of God to seize our lives, once he gets a foothold, he starts to take over, and his love becomes the defining quality in our lives. 

It's no longer a stretch to love the idiots when they show up, because godly loving is already firmly established as a pattern in our lives, and love already has momentum. And that momentum makes all the difference.

Yes, it can still be a challenge to love the unthinking, irresponsible people around us. But Christ, by your invitation, is present in your life, and through your life, he is extending his love to even the least worthy.

And believe it or not, that is the good news.

Let's affirm our faith by reading together from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (MSG) about the love that comes to us through Christ. First, though, I want to read it to you. Then we can read together.

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.

Love doesn’t strut,

Doesn’t have a swelled head,

Doesn’t force itself on others,

Isn’t always “me first,”

Doesn’t fly off the handle,

Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn’t revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies.

Exodus 15:22-26 and Matthew 4:23-25

Covenant Living of Florida Chapel
29 June 2025
“Hi, I’m Rapha”

Since the focus these weeks is on Jehovah Rapha — “God the healer,” I thought it might be valuable to take us back to the point in the Bible where God introduces himself as such, which, of course is Exodus 15:22-26.

I usually share my own paraphrase of the passage to bring some upfront clarity to the text, but I was so impressed by Eugene Peterson's Message rendering of Exodus 15:22-26 that I want to begin by re-reading the passage in his translation.

   Moses led Israel from the Red Sea on to the Wilderness of Shur. They traveled for three days through the wilderness without finding any water. They got to Marah, but they couldn’t drink the water at Marah; it was bitter. That’s why they called the place Marah (Bitter). And the people complained to Moses, “So what are we supposed to drink?” 

   So Moses cried out in prayer to God. God pointed him to a stick of wood. Moses threw it into the water and the water turned sweet. 

   That’s the place where God set up rules and procedures; that’s where he started testing them. 

God said, “If you listen, listen obediently to how God tells you to live in his presence, obeying his commandments and keeping all his laws, then I won’t strike you with all the diseases that I inflicted on the Egyptians; I am GOD your healer.”

I want to draw your attention to this last line “I am God your healer” — which is the basis of this sermon series "I am Jehovah Rapha.”

In the original Hebrew, this phrase includes the proper name for God, which is transliterated as Y-H-W-H. You’ll notice that there are no vowels because at that point in time there were no written vowels in Hebrew. And since Hebrew readers would always substitute the word my Lord when they were reading, because they wanted to show respect to the personal name of God, no one knows how the word Y-H-W-H was actually vocalized.

If it was ever vocalized that vocalization had been forgotten by the 3rd century BC.

In the Christian Middle Ages, some creative scholars came up with their own vocalization for the Holy Name of God by taking the vowels from the Hebrew word for “Lord,” which, as I mentioned is what Jews were saying as they read the text. So these scholars took the vowels from the word “Lord” (adonai) and inserted those vowels into Y-H-W-H to create the hybrid name Jehovah.

William Tyndale, who produced an English translation of the Bible in the 16th century, was the first to use this new hybrid name, Jehovah, and it became popular for a short time.

However, most modern scholars, with all their linguistic analysis, believe that the name Y-H-W-H is better vocalized as Yahweh. And there are a few Bible translations, such as the Jerusalem Bible, a wonderful Roman Catholic translation from the 1960s, that actually adopted the Yahweh rendering. But most mainstream Bible translations, in keeping with Jewish tradition, still render Yahweh as the LORD using all cap letters.

I know that this bunny trail is probably way more information than you want, but it’s a helpful nugget to tuck in the back of your mind as you start to realize how seriously people were taking the name of God.

Notice, though, that God doesn’t leave it at that. He doesn't just reveal his name, “I AM YAHWEH…” but he also reveals his last name — so to speak. (I’m being slightly tongue-in-cheek when I say "last name" — but there are numerous times in the Old Testament when God adds a descriptive adjective that kind of sounds like a last name.) For example: “Yahweh MKaddsh/Sanctifier” in Leviticus 20:7-8 or "Yahweh Shalom/Peace” in Judges 6:23-24.

Here in Exodus 15, he says “I am YHWH rapha — Jehovah Rapha — God the healer or God the one who restores and makes whole.”

You see, healing or rapha in the Bible is always a very holistic term. Yes, there are physical dimensions. Yes, there are spiritual dimensions. Yes, there are emotional dimensions. Yes, there are relational dimensions. And all of these dimensions are interrelated in the word rapha — healing, restoration.

My personal paraphrase for Exodus 15:26 is “I am GOD, the one who restores.”

In the Saturday morning Bible study, we've discussed how we tend to approach justice as punitive, but God's justice in the Bible is restorative in nature. This is because God is rapha — restorative — even in how he dishes out justice.

His primary objective is restoration or healing in the lives of individuals and all creation. Even when we're not seeing it, all the rapha signs are there.

Recently, I've gotten sucked into a genre of YouTube and Facebook videos that I simply label “restorationists.”

I enjoy one particular channel called QUEST. It features Steve Fletcher and his British crew, who take on restoration projects for people who have emotional attachments to certain old but deteriorated objects.

The other evening I watched the crew restore an early-20th-century push lawnmower—unlike anything I've ever seen. And I grew up with push mowers.

To restore this antique mower, they removed every nut, screw, bolt, blade, and gear and carefully cleaned or remanufactured each part.

At the end, you're looking at this beautiful piece of restored machinery and you're wondering how come you're getting teary-eyed over such a mundane thing as an old lawn mower. But it meant a lot to a family in which a departed grandfather had used the machine. This is rapha.

I watched the team restore a damaged painting. And at the end of the cleanup process, they dramatically unveiled it to the owner, who blurted out, “Wow, not only is the scratch gone, but the colors are now more vibrant than ever before.” This is rapha.

I remember my first car, a 1964 Rambler American. My father found it somewhere for a couple of hundred bucks. I paid for it with money from delivering newspapers. It was pretty ugly—as Ramblers tended to be. And the paint was in terrible shape.

However, we took it to my grandfather, who worked as an auto painter. You can imagine the attention he gave to that cheap old car, stripping it down, knocking out dings, and then painting it with better paint than the original.

Then my seamstress mother made corduroy seat covers. In the end, it was as beautiful as a Rambler could ever be. That's rapha. Healed, made whole.

In Exodus 15, a lake of bitter and dangerous water is restored to be drinkable, and considering the restorationist, you can be sure it was sweet and thirst-quenching. This is how God operates. He is our restoration agent—our doctor—healing what is impossibly run down into something better than ever. Rapha.

Of course, restoration can be quite a process, as I've learned watching the YouTube videos. And sometimes it takes a lot of radical elimination to restore a car. Occasionally, they actually cut the frame apart to repair the body. It seems extreme — but the restored result is way better than the original. Rapha.

In Exodus 15 God is claiming to the traumatized Israelites who had just escaped from slavery in Egypt, pursued by Pharaoh’s army crossing the Red Sea, only to find themselves out in the extreme desert without any drinkable water — God is claiming to be their restorationist, the doctor who will take care of them—as evidenced in the way he transformed the undrinkable water at Marah into Perrier.

This is an incredibly helpful self-revelation. “I am God the healer. Jehovah rapha.”

And all of the Gospel accounts of healing and those in Acts and all the talk about healing in the New Testament letters are based on this foundational self-revelation from Exodus 15:26.

So when Jesus is healing people in the gospels, he’s not just showing off his power to get people's attention, so he can go on and preach to them. Rather, he is pointing to himself as God the rapha-healer. This is why the religious authorities were troubled by all the healing going on everywhere Jesus went.

It wasn't so much because they believed that sick people were no longer getting what they deserved, although there was perhaps some of that kind of thinking. Mostly, though, they were pushing back against Jesus because he carried himself as the rapha, clearly echoing Exodus 15:26.

So, how is this helpful to us—broken people living in a broken world—where disease drags us down and power mongers walk all over the least powerful because they believe it somehow adds to their power?

Perhaps you're feeling a bit broken. Physically? Emotionally? Even spiritually? Maybe all the brokenness in our world is wearing you down, and things feel beyond repair. You championed a certain set of values all your life, only to have them yanked away from you in your old age when you don't have the energy to fight. You feel sick — not just with arthritis and diabetes and heart disease—but your soul feels sick.

What does the Bible say that could help us get back on track?

I want to make four observations rooted in our Exodus 15:22-26 passage and God's self-declaration that it contains. Let's start with #1 (you can fill in blanks on the sermon guide, which is page 3 of the bulletin.

#1. God is by name the healer

The Israelites were out in the wilderness without water and they started to panic. It was in that traumatic moment that God revealed his secret identity—Jehovah Rapha.

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the brokenness—whatever it is, remember that God has revealed his identity to people like you. Latch on to his name. Ponder it. Meditate on it. God the Rapha—the healer.

#2 Sometimes God uses infirmity or dysfunction to get our attention.

I'm not suggesting that this is normally what's going on when we get sick. Several times in the gospels, people are trying to figure out whose sins are the source of someone's infirmity. Jesus ends up telling the snopes that they're reading the situation wrong.

This infirmity, says Jesus, is just an opportunity to glorify God as healing occurs.

That being said, in our Exodus passage, God tells his people that he is going to test them—to give them the opportunity to come clean and develop strong faith. As the passage describes the whole episode—

That’s the place where God set up rules and procedures; that’s where he started testing them.

God said, “If you listen, listen obediently to how God tells you to live in his presence, obeying his commandments and keeping all his laws, then I won’t strike you with all the diseases that I inflicted on the Egyptians; I am GOD your healer.”

IOW, when we're stuck with dysfunction in any form, it is always an opportunity to consider if God might be trying to get our attention about something. And it's always appropriate to turn to him for a complete make-over.

In 2 Chronicles 7, God is speaking to King Solomon, and God promises to rapha the land if his people will turn to him.

God says:

“If I ever shut off the supply of rain from the skies or order the locusts to eat the crops or send a plague on my people, and my people, my God-defined people, respond by humbling themselves, praying, seeking my presence, and turning their backs on their wicked lives, I’ll be there ready for you: I’ll listen from heaven, forgive their sins, and restore RAPHA their land to health.”

At least consider if God is trying to get your attention.

#3 All wonders and healing events in the Bible are signs pointing to God as rapha.

Arlene did a good job two weeks ago of emphasizing that ultimately, all this healing stuff in the Bible is about directing honor to God.

God's love for us does not fluctuate with our faith, commitment, devotion, or behavior. God’s love is constant. If someone is healed or not healed in a particular moment, it is not a litmus test of God's love for that person or even their level of faith. God may choose to not heal someone in a given moment because, in his love, he knows that waiting is best.

Sometimes a surgeon will refuse to do a necessary surgery until you are infection-free because she knows that you'll heal better under those conditions.

Of course, you just want to get the new hip in place and the pain to be gone. But delaying until that UTI is under control will, in the long-term, lead to more complete healing—maybe even more quickly.

So don't read God's postponement as a lack of concern. He sees the bigger picture.

Rather, when we do see healing, it's there to point us to God's great restorative nature. It's a sign in that moment, pointing us to God's even grander, glorious plan.

Moments of healing, whether in the Bible or our lives, need to be understood as trailers for the coming future event when God's restorative nature and plan are universally evident. The healing we experience now is merely a signpost pointing to something more complete that is coming.

If you think about it, all those healing events in the Bible are temporary. How many of those people raised from the dead by Jesus are still with us? When was the last time you had coffee with Lazarus?

Don't be silly, despite Jesus raising him from the dead in John 11, Lazarus is once again dead and gone from this world.

Yes, the healings were real, but what they experienced and what we experience are simply trailers or signposts pointing to the future when God totally restores creation—Jesus’ new heaven, new earth, new temple, new lives, new creation.

Yes, the healing we experience now is truly an expression of God's love and compassion. But understood in context, it is to whet the appetite for the whole and complete rapha to come.

Some of you know that I was hospitalized for a stroke on May 15, 2019. (You probably don't remember the date, but I do. Some of you here now were in the room when it became clear that things were not right with me during that Wednesday morning Bible study.)

Well, I thank God for the healing I have received. Even though my body isn't yet totally restored. I'm a lot better than I was. But the thermostat that regulates portions of the left side of my body doesn't quite function right, so the left side is cold and the right side is normal. It's a bit comical… a tug of war. I sometimes feel like I'm in a cartoon with competitors from each side of my body trying to take control—each sending conflicting messages about how much clothing I should wear.

The aftermath of that stroke reminds me daily of how my life was spared and mostly restored. And yet it keeps me thinking of the total restoration to come—when I can go back to wearing short sleeves.

Another thing about the stroke is that when the neurologist was looking at the MRI and CAT scan images of my brain, a few days after I got out of the hospital, she asked me to tell her about my first stroke. My jaw dropped. What?

Apparently, she saw a hidden sign of scar tissue and healing tucked quietly in my brain. The stroke I had in 2019 was really my second stroke, she said. The scarring from the first stroke, of which I had been totally unaware, points to the healing of a problem I hadn't noticed.

We don't currently know about all the healing that God the Rapha has been performing. But we know that he gets a lot done behind the scenes.

#4 Expect God's healing to show up in surprising ways.

None of the healing episodes in the Bible follows a set formula or pattern.

• Sometimes people seek out Jesus for healing.
• Sometimes he seeks them out.
• Sometimes they reach out to Jesus with faith.
• Sometimes faith follows the healing.
• Sometimes it involves someone touching Jesus.
• Sometimes it involves Jesus touching someone.
• Sometimes he heals remotely. “Go on home, your daughter is well…”
• Sometimes he's very hands-on, making mud from his saliva and applying it over blind eyes.
• Sometimes he simply says, “Be healed.”
• Sometimes the healing is instantaneous.
• Sometimes it takes a second application of spit, such as in Mark 8.
• In the Exodus passage, the polluted lake is healed when God has Moses throw a stick into it… a stick? Go figure.

The point is that we need to let go of our preconceived ideas or formulas of how God does things and expect to see God reveal his rapha in surprising ways. Maybe you won't even realize you're sick until after you're healed.

Relax and go along for the ride knowing that God is Rapha — the healer, the restorer.

I know that this can be a bit of a challenge in a world where wars and new rumors of wars slap you in the face with each news cycle. The world is pretty broken. And there are no political solutions to the spiritual epidemic plaguing the world. People are hungry and displaced because the power-hungry don't care about them.

And while we stand in solidarity with the abused and broken, what is even more significant is that God the Rapha is standing in solidarity with the desperate.

Healing and restoration are a part of God's DNA, something revealed to the traumatized Israelites in Exodus 15. And ultimately revealed in the healing established by Jesus through his presence, sacrificial death, and resurrection. And when we trust him, his healing flows into and through our lives. We become his paramedics in a sick world.

So, in summary, I'd challenge you to look for healing, BUT expect to be surprised by the miraculous signposts pointing to the restoration and healing that is a part of God’s DNA. That's my summary statement. Expect to be surprised by the miraculous signposts pointing to the restoration and healing that is a part of God’s DNA.

And that, believe it or not, is the good news.

Genesis 1:24-31

“Environmental Wellness” Covenant Living of Florida Chapel
23 July 2023 Genesis 1:24-31 Colossians 1:18-20 Luke 5:15-16

PRAYER

Lord, you have given the Bible to be the revelation of your great love for us, and of your power and will to save us.  Grant that our study of it might not be made in vain by the callousness or carelessness of our hearts, but that we might wisely hear your words, note, learn, and inwardly digest them, so that we might become mature, convinced and convincing followers of Christ Jesus.  Amen.

SERMON

As you've perhaps noticed, the chaplains are doing a series of sermons on the eight dimensions of wellness that constitute LifeConnect in our Covenant Living communities. They are highlighting one of the dimensions each week.

Now, LifeConnect is the structure that defines the lifestyle values that we want to nurture in each of our 18 communities across the country. They were developed by Terri Cunliffe in collaboration with one of our residents and rolled out in the year 2002 — well before she had ascended the corporate ladder and become our much-loved CEO. Indeed, her whole-person wellness model contributed to her rise. 

And now that I'm retired and she is no longer my boss I can safely say without sounding like a kiss-up, that her whole-person approach was truly cutting edge for the industry when she first floated it 20 years ago. Although I'd argue that it wasn't totally original — that the LifeConnect values are simply a solid contemporary expression of the biblical concept of shalom — completeness and peace as God envisions it for everyone. 

The Hebrew word shalom is often translated as "peace" but in many contexts, it might be better rendered as "comprehensive wellness." Shalom means that even in the midst of chaos and pain we can proclaim “It is well with my soul.”

So, the first-week Chaplain Corrie focused on spiritual wellness, and then last week Chaplain Eric talked about physical wellness in his aerobic sermon. (I don't know how long it will be before we tap into him to lead exercise classes!)

Well, for some reason they asked me to talk about environmental wellness. Perhaps it's because I have a lot of plants. Or maybe they asked me because I've been a bit outspoken about creation care over the years. It's one of my passions as a theology teacher and pastor.

So, I'm quite grateful for the opportunity to once again highlight this very biblical idea. Let's talk about environmental wellness and how it relates to our overall wellness! Our shalom.

We start at the beginning. On the sixth day of creation in Genesis 1:24-31, we discover that from the get-go God intended that we the people would partner with him in the management of creation. He put us in a beautiful and fruitful garden with instructions to act as rangers or wardens.

Listen again as I read the account in the Authorized Boydston Paraphrase of Genesis 1:24-31.

Then God said, “Let the earth produce all the diverse kinds of animals: the domesticated critters, the reptiles, and the wildlife.”

And it happened according to his spoken command. 

25 God made all sorts of animals -- wildlife, domesticated, and the creatures that crawl on the ground. God made them all! And God concluded that the animals were good and life-giving.

26 Once again God spoke, “Let’s make humanity -- the people -- in our image. That way they can be like us and thus be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the domesticated animals, all the crawling things on earth -- and even the earth itself.”

27 God created humanity in his own image, in the divine image he created them -- both male and female.

28 At his word, God then blessed them with the ability to reproduce and multiply with such virility that they’d master all the earth. He told them to “take charge of the fish, the birds, and all the other animals crawling around on the ground.”

29 Then God blessed them further saying, “I am giving you all the seed-yielding plants and the fruiting trees for food. 30 To all living animals -- the wildlife, the birds, and to critters crawling on the ground -- I am giving all the green leafy plants for food.”

And once again, it happened according to his spoken command.

31 God surveyed the entire creation -- including the people and animals -- and declared that they were extremely good and life-giving.

That is what happened on the sixth day.

So, in the beginning, God created a harmonious environment out of chaos — the first five days. And that harmonious environment is where the biblical story begins — and ends (but I'm getting ahead of myself). 

The creation account in Genesis tells a story of chaos as it was shaped into an orderly and beautiful paradise. In the context of that garden, the man and the woman were collectively "the image of God." 

That is, they were made in God's image to serve together as wardens or forest rangers of the garden. But when Adam and Eve got sucked into believing that they'd be better off living free and autonomous lives — apart from God the creator — everything began to unravel. 

• Gardening became an ordeal and weeds started popping up. 

• Childbirth became a pain. 

• Relating to God was strained. 

• Chaos surfaced again. 

• The creation was so splintered that it needed to be re-established — restored and renewed.

But the good news is that God didn’t give up on us and he is reclaiming his broken creation through Jesus.

Colossians 1:18-20 (MSG)  —

Christ was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so expansive, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.

2 Peter 3:13 (CEV) — God has promised us a new heaven and a new earth, where justice will rule. We are really looking forward to this!

Then in Revelation 21-22, looking forward, paradise is restored as heaven comes to earth. And the city becomes garden-like. 

For us, this means that God isn’t done with creation and as Christians, we live in anticipation of its complete renewal. Our lives — actions and words — function as witnesses to what God is doing. So it is no surprise that when we form communities shaped by Christian values — we see living in a harmonious environment as a LifeConnect priority.

Here is my key idea this morning: 
From the beginning it's been evident that God designed us to thrive through healthy interaction with the created environment as caregivers and receivers.

That is, when we take responsibility for the environment, the environment becomes a channel of God's renewing grace in our own lives as individuals and collectively as a society. So, with that in mind, I want to share with you my top five environmental suggestions for 2023.

Now, I know that many of you are already leading the way in environmental wellness.

• Over the years you've overcome numerous obstacles to keep our recycling programs going. 

• You've advocated for removing styrofoam from our food service. So now we have the reusable green containers. And most of you have been returning them to food service on a regular basis… right? 

• I am aware of a few of you who regularly collect trash from the ground in the park when you go on your daily walks over there. It does make a difference. You are quiet heroes!

• And some of you have even given up your smog-generating cars altogether. I know… I know… It's complicated. But I'm giving you the eco points anyway.

One of the reasons I wanted to move here after working here was because I saw that you cared about the environment and were doing what you could.
Well, to build on what you're already doing, I want to add five more ideas for living into environmental wellness. These are not words from on high but ideas to get your creative juices flowing. Perhaps even stimulate some debate. Constructive debate and discussion are good. It doesn't even bother me when you're wrong and disagree with me. :-)

So, here are my five environmental suggestions and then as a bonus — ONE ENVIRONMENTAL MANDATE.

SUGGESTION #1 — Take recycling to the next level by buying products made of easily recyclable material. 

Recycling has become the gateway for environmental awareness in our era. It's not the main thing but it does shape our awareness. And we can continue to notch up that awareness by focusing our buying power on easily reusable or recyclable products.

For example, plastic has become a big complex issue in our fragile world. 

• There are about 500 million tons of plastic produced each year. 

• And there are now thousands of different plastic compounds in common use, 

• but only seven of those compounds are easily recyclable. 

Are you seeing the problem?

Production companies will not be motivated to produce recyclable plastic until we insist that anything they produce has to be easily recyclable. 

For what isn't recyclable ends up in landfills, lakes, and the ocean — where it is further altering the environment and not in a healthy way — but in a way that insults the creator and makes life more difficult for people and animals.  

Reduce, reuse, recycle, and… REFUSE. Don't buy what can not be reused or recycled.

SUGGESTION #2 — Make an effort to reduce packaging.

For example, you can use laundry sheets in packets rather than the plastic containers which are a recycling challenge. And the cost is comparable. I'm not advocating a particular brand, but we use these Ecowise sheets that we buy through Amazon. They work as well as liquid or powdered detergents. They are easier to handle than bulky containers. And they require very little storage space — which is a big deal if you happen to live in a Covenant Living of Florida apartment.

What can you do to reduce your negative footprint by reducing packaging?

SUGGESTION #3 — Continue noticing the nature around you.

If we're going to partner with God in the management of his creation we need to have first-hand awareness of what's happening out there. Besides, if God created us for garden life it follows that nature is somehow renewing for human beings.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, some academics noticed that many people were asking Google why the birds had suddenly gotten louder. Of course, the birds hadn't gotten any louder but as life slowed down people were starting to notice them more. Tuning into the nature around us was an act of self-preservation and a spot of emotional healthiness surfaced by a health crisis.

 

But we don't need a pandemic to take a daily nature bath, inside or out. 

When it’s too hot outside then visit with a houseplant. Stop and notice. If no one is around, carry on a conversation with that Christmas cactus. And if you're trying to figure out what plants might work in your apartment, talk with me.

Then when you can (and the beautiful weather will return) walk under the trees in the park or one of our great Covenant Living courtyards. Notice the fish and turtles in the ponds and the birds and squirrels and raccoons and lizards — big and small.

Has anyone else noticed that the possum population on campus has been expanding? Possums are the only native marsupials in North America. I've seen them on campus several times in the last few months.

And these are really helpful animals to have around. They keep the bug population in check by eating slugs, snails, and beetles. A single possum can eat 5,000 ticks a year. They also hunt and kill mice, rats, and snakes. And they don't carry rabies. They won't eat fruit off a tree but if the mango has fallen and started to rot they'll clean it up for you.

Get out there and look for the possums wandering around campus — and the blue jays, and the squirrels, and the frogs, and the Florida chicken turtles, and the list is amazingly long — just on campus.

Your walkabouts are acts of environmental wellness in so many ways. One study published in the International Journal of Environmental Health Research found that spending time in an urban park can have a positive impact on a person’s sense of well-being. In-depth immersion into nature can actually lower blood pressure, heart rates, and levels of harmful stress hormones. 10-15 minutes a day spent in nature has been shown to reduce life-shortening stress.

The point is that when God partnered with us to care for his creation he knew that our interaction with nature would renew us and keep us healthy. So look for ways to take a daily nature bath.

SUGGESTION #4 — Consider reducing the amount of meat you consume. 

Let me summarize the case for this with a paragraph from a 2022 Scientific American article.

Cutting meat consumption is a powerful and personal thing most Americans can do to tackle the climate crisis, and they can do it immediately. About 40 percent of greenhouse gases come from agriculture, deforestation and other land-use changes. Meat—particularly beef—drives climate change in two ways: first, through cows’ emission of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and second, by destroying forests as they are converted to grazing land... By eating less beef, we can start to decrease that demand.

 

A small painless step toward environmental wellness might then be to adopt a meatless Monday menu for yourself.

Chew on that for a while, perhaps over some grilled tofu smothered in smokey BBQ sauce at dinner in a few minutes. Seriously, it’s on the menu. And now you know what I'm ordering.

SUGGESTION #5 for ways to lean into Environmental Wellness — Work to leave a positive environmental legacy for your great-grandkids.

Our environmental wellness LifeConnect value isn't just for our benefit, but we live in such a way that we can pass environmental wellness on to the coming generations.

Your influence as seniors is still significant. It’s a little bit different but you're not done. And I’d even suggest that our ability to impact the world for future generations is greater now than ever before because we as seniors have grown in wisdom and we're not under the same pressures as younger folks. We can still model the way forward in a very confused world.

As seniors, we can with few words show them what needs to be done. We can actually model a healthy environmental future.

For example, what if we produced all our own power through solar panels from our CLOF roofs? As important as the current project of updating the campus facade is — that is also part of environmental wellness — but taking on the challenges of renewable energy could be life-changing — not just for us but the generations to come.  I'm envisioning where panels could go up on top of buildings 1, 2, 3, Palm Villa, here in the Village Center, and on the parking lot covers. We have a lot of unused real estate up there.

Then if we embrace transportation that uses little or no fossil fuel we can model mobility that has a lower negative impact on the environment.

Have you noticed that many of the public buses going up and down Broward Blvd are now electric? Will the next Covenant Living bus and van be combustion-free, too? Only if we communicate to management that we’re taking LifeConnect seriously and that this is an important aspect of our environmental wellness. 

Yes, sometimes sustainable technology costs a little more — at least until it catches on. But our divine calling isn't to pinch every possible penny but to lead the coming generations into a healthy and peaceful future.

Finally, THE MANDATE. The first five are suggestions to stimulate discussion and then action. But #6 is a mandate — something which I believe God is telling us to do. And that is — Be intentional about using the biblical lens to look at environmental issues.

Many Christians have shied away from thinking about the environment because they've become weary of some of the politics involved. And that is understandable. And no, you are not going to escape the politics — no matter what. But don't allow politics to become the primary lens through which you process these things.

The fact is that from the beginning God has been looking to partner with people for the care of creation. He has entrusted us with his precious handy work. He wired us for that task and we need to be creation caretakers to live into our divine calling.

Of course, we managed to mess things up in so many ways but God is gracious and merciful. He sent his Son Christ Jesus into the world to intervene, breaking the grip of sin on the world, initiating a renewed creation, and thus inviting us anew to partner with him in creation care.

You see, our personal renewal is related to the renewal of all creation. It's all a part of the same sweeping action of Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (CEB) — So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!

And when we take steps toward environmental wellness we are acting as witnesses of our confident hope that God will complete his environmental renewal plan with a new heaven and a new earth, with a fruitful urban garden as described in Revelation 21-22, a wonderful garden that overshadows all that was lost in the fall of the first Eden. 

Revelation 21:5 says— "Through Christ God is making all things new." I'm a literalist with this promise. And when we trust Christ as Lord and Savior we become a part of his new creation even before it is fully established. We're living according to the future. And whether you are young or old that's wellness — because from the beginning it's been evident that God designed us to thrive through healthy interaction with the created environment as caregivers and receivers.

And believe it or not, that is the good news.

Romans 12:9-21

“Love Changes Everything.”

Chapel at Covenant Living of Florida

30 August 2020

I’ve got a video clip I'd like you to see.

Love Changes Everything

That was Michael Ball singing "Love Changes Everything," which is the first song from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Aspects of Love. I chose it because the title so wonderfully summarizes what the Apostle Paul is saying in Romans 12:9-21.

Romans 12 is the lesser known of the love chapters in the Bible. But it does a great job of spelling out a kind of love that changes everything -- love that moves beyond sentimentalism -- a kind of love that is rooted in our common relationship with Jesus. For this is the kind of love that Jesus lives and that he draws us into as his followers. It’s not our love that changes everything. It is his love living in us that turns the world upside down. 

And this is what it looks like. Here is the Authorized Boydston Paraphrase. And I invite you to follow along on page 3 in the bulletin.

Make sure that the love you show is not in any way fake or hypocritical. Abhor what is evil as you cling to what is good. 10 Practice deep sacrificial love among yourselves -- the genuine kind of love you might expect to see in a healthy family. Instead of competing with one another over who is more important, excel at respecting one another. 

11 And when it comes to serving the Lord don’t throttle your spiritual enthusiasm! Pour yourself into the service of Christ. 12 As you anticipate what he is bringing about, be glad. And when you encounter trouble, hold steady and stay the course. Keep on praying. 13 Give yourself to caring for God’s needy people. Welcome strangers into your home -- and your life. 14 As Jesus said in his famous sermon in Matthew 5, pour blessings on the very people who harass you. You heard right -- instead of bad-mouthing the bad guys, overpower them with words of blessing. 15 Be empathetic --   rejoicing with those who are doing well, and crying with those who are overwhelmed by their circumstances. 16 Treat everyone as an equal. Don’t even harbor secret thoughts of superiority. Instead, freely associate with people who have no status. And don’t over-estimate the value of your understanding -- as though you’re smarter than the rest. 17 Skip pay-back time. Even if people are totally evil don’t respond by giving them a taste of their own medicine. Rather, become the poster children for honor by showing respect even for those who are unworthy of it.

18 If you’ve got peace in you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Again, dear friends, don’t insist on getting even. Let God handle whatever revenge he deems appropriate. As the Lord says in Deuteronomy 32:35, “Revenge is mine and only mine. I’ll give people what they’re due.” 20 Instead of pursuing revenge yourself, do the radical thing outlined in Proverbs 25:21-22, “If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. Your generosity will eventually disturb him so much that he’ll either become a friend, or turn and run as a dog with his tail between his legs.” 21 In other words, don’t allow evil to clobber you but use good to clobber evil.

A lot in here to unpack -- all very radical and all quite contrary to the patterns of the world system mentioned in 12:1-2. This is not your sentimental feel-good approach that is so often confused with love by the rest of the world.

The passage itself is a bit shotgun in style. As Chaplain Corrie mentioned in her sermon last week, the Apostle Paul was dealing with divisions in the church -- divisions which he recognized as evil. 

So here in vss 9-21 Paul is blasting out a shotgun spray of small love pellets which will ultimately take down the evils of division -- racism, prejudice -- that we're tearing apart the church. And that shotgun spray seems pretty wide. But I’ve attempted to summarize it all in this way.

GENUINE CHRIST-ROOTED LOVE CHANGES EVERYTHING BECAUSE IT TREATS PEOPLE WAY BETTER THAN THEY DESERVE. EVERYTHING BECAUSE IT TREATS PEOPLE WAY BETTER THAN THEY DESERVE.

That is, it changes things by lifting people up instead of tearing or dragging them down -- which is what division does.

And basically this involves five actions -- and these are listed on the Sermon Guide:

#1 SERVING CHRIST FULL-THROTTLE

Vs 11 -- And when it comes to serving the Lord don’t throttle your spiritual enthusiasm! Pour yourself into the service of Christ.

And the love we give to others is an expression of whole-hearted service to Christ. Loving God and loving others is totally integrated.  You can’t really do one without the other.

Jesus says in Mark 12:29-31 --

"The most important command is this:

'Listen, people of Israel!

The Lord our God is the only Lord.

Love the Lord your God with

all your heart,

all your soul,

all your mind,

and all your strength.'

The second command is this:

'Love your neighbor as you love yourself.'

There are no commands more important than these." ~ Mark 12:29-31 (NCV)

And it really helps if you’re looking at others -- even the most broken others -- and seeing Christ at work there.

He loves the hardest criminal.

He loves the most lost drug addict.

He  loves the most confused neighbor.

He even loves the presidential candidate that you loathe.

His love is cutting away at the spiritual cancer in their lives and our task as followers of Christ is to join him in extending unreserved full-throttle love. 

Colossians 3:17 -- And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. (NLT)

And as his representative you have his power -- so don’t hold back. Pour yourself into loving others -- even those you consider least deserving. That’s who we are and what we do -- full-throttle.

#2. The second act of love Paul mentions is STAYING STEADY DURING TROUBLING TIMES  

This may sound unrelated but hear me out. In Eastern thinking there is a concept called karma. Basically it is seen as a law of the universe which says that if you do bad, bad will come back at you -- but if you do good, good will return to you.

However, the world does not always operate according to the rules of karma. There are way too many exceptions. Even when you are doing the right and loving thing you may still have to deal with trouble.

And I’d suggest that perhaps the love of Christ shines the brightest when we’re facing down trouble.

Vs 12 As you anticipate what he is bringing about, be glad. And when you encounter trouble, hold steady and stay the course. Keep on praying. 

Make up your mind even before you encounter trouble that you’re not going to let the problems throw you off -- or turn you into a snarky, nasty, unloving person.

Just keep on talking through it with God. That’s prayer. 

Venting, asking, listening, and relaxing in the awareness that he listens and is at work -- usually in the background outside the line of your sight. So hold steady. Maintain communication.

And really I’m preaching to myself right now. There is so much uncertainty in my life -- in the world right now. I’m constantly in danger of withdrawing into the comfort of my own mind -- and becoming  jaded and calloused toward the outside-- the people around me.

I don’t know, maybe you’re experiencing some of that right now -- and you’re perhaps putting off loving others in the name of Christ until things settle down -- get back to normal. But here is the secret -- Loving others in the name of Christ is the way to settle things down. It’s the way through the dark times. THIS IS YOUR TIME TO SHINE!

Don’t let the pandemic issues swallow you. There are people around you who need to experience the steady love of Christ through you. And while circumstances may be less than ideal -- turbulent -- those circumstances are the context into which you’ve been called. Don’t gripe about or fixate on what you can’t do, but look for the simple and loving things you can do -- and fix on them. 

The phone call you make to someone now means a whole lot more than the phone calls you made last year.  The warm greeting to the person in the hallway is received with more joy than ever before -- even though you can’t see it because of those masks we’ve all grown so fond of.

Love changes everything.

You may not have power over the pandemic or the response of others to it but you have the power to rock the world of those near you by staying steady and calmly loving the people within your reach. Love does that. It will get us through dark times. 

So hold steady, keep loving, and keep praying. This is what God is saying to you this morning. 

Then the third action that the apostle Paul lists is:  #3 CARING FOR THE NEEDY

Vs 13 -- Give yourself to caring for God’s needy people. Welcome strangers into your home -- and your life.

Christ-driven love always involves caring for those who are in need. ALWAYS! You see, when you express care to the needy, you have no expectation of return on your investment. The needy are not in a position to pay you back. 

They are in need. And as such they drive home how God deals with us. For we are all needy people who cannot help themselves and cannot pay God back. The gift of salvation is just too great. And we are too broken. So it is all about grace. It’s all about God’s unearned and undeserved generosity.

We continually return to this point in our relationship with God and in how we relate to others.

Before he died, I worked with a homeless guy named Don for several years.  Don had schizophrenia and dementia, too. Over the years because of his mental illnesses he had burned all his bridges.

He was gruff and unresponsive to the gospel on most days. I could see why his family and everyone else had given up on him. But for some still-unknown reason God dropped Don into my lap. Maybe because I don't get too rattled by guys like him. God wired me to be laidback.

Don made life miserable for everyone and there was really no hope of a return of investment with him -- although he did once give me a check for 2 million dollars -- which I still have in a file in my office. Did I mention that Don had delusions of grandeur and believed himself to be a billionaire philanthropist?

Most people were unaware of what I was doing with him. But our church figured it out and some jumped in to help at times. We took him shopping. Intervened with the police -- when they showed up. Sometimes they brought him to our house in the middle of the night. 

It took awhile. But eventually we got him off the street and helped him manage his finances. 

And some people began to get it. Caring for people like Don is an act of Christ-like love -- worship. 

Our small church didn’t have big programs or a big budget. But I'm sure that Jesus considered it to be a very successful church because we cared for the needy -- for people like Don -- and that is Christian love -- part of the definition of Christian success.

The fact is that the need is great. Don’t get swallowed by the magnitude of it all. Again, instead of focusing on what you can’t do, start by doing what you can do. Then see how the Lord provides. 

Dare I mention the Benevolent Care Fund we have here at Covenant Living of Florida? The chapel fund offerings benefit the Benevolent Care Fund and nine other ministries. 

The gala, which we’re doing virtually this year because of the pandemic... By supporting the gala campaign you are providing for people in need -- your neighbors -- through the Benevolent Care Fund. That’s a very practical way to care. 

Yes, caring gets a little crazy at times. But it’s more energizing than any of the flashy and sexy stuff that gets all the attention.

#4 The fourth love action involves EMBRACING A HUMBLE AND REALISTIC UNDERSTANDING OF SELF. 

People who have an inflated self-understanding really don’t get the love thing because they have to make every event or incident about themselves. But Christ Jesus, the most important man to ever live, gave it all up in order to serve the world by sacrificing his life so he could restore order to the creation.

Vs 10 -- Practice deep sacrificial love among yourselves -- the genuine kind of love you might expect to see in a healthy family. Instead of competing with one another over who is more important, excel at respecting one another. 

And vs 16 -- Treat everyone as an equal. Don’t even harbor secret thoughts of superiority. Instead, freely associate with people who have no status. And don’t over-estimate the value of your understanding -- as though you’re smarter than the rest.

I probably don’t need to add anything else on this point -- other than to say that we need to read this over and over again within our current context where systemic and individual acts of racism tend to capture the headlines on more days than not.

The fifth action is COMMITMENT TO ALTERNATIVE PAY-BACK.

Vs 14 -- As Jesus said in his famous sermon in Matthew 5, pour blessings on the very people who harass you. You heard right -- instead of bad-mouthing the bad guys, overpower them with words of blessing.

Vss 17-21 -- Skip pay-back time. Even if people are totally evil don’t respond by giving them a taste of their own medicine. Rather, become the poster children for honor by showing respect even for those who are unworthy of it.

If you’ve got peace in you, live at peace with everyone. Again, dear friends, don’t insist on getting even. Let God handle whatever revenge he deems appropriate. As the Lord says in Deuteronomy 32:35, “Revenge is mine and only mine. I’ll give people what they’re due.”  Instead of pursuing revenge yourself, do the radical thing outlined in Proverbs 25:21-22, “If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. Your generosity will eventually disturb him so much that he’ll either become a friend, or turn and run as a dog with his tail between his legs.” In other words, don’t allow evil to clobber you but use good to clobber evil.

This alternative approach works best if it becomes a pattern rather than a one shot response to a particular evil. In other words, in order to take on the big EVILS we have to train for it through ongoing small daily acts of non-retaliation -- in our words, our driving habits, our approach to shopping. Even eliminating our passive-agressiveness from our lives.

There are actually two parts to this approach --  which Jesus models for us his followers. First of all we refuse to respond to attacks with an attack. That is, we don’t get sucked into retaliation. Then to take it a step further, we actually overwhelm our enemies with kindness. And it’s this kindness that shows that our response is one of strength rather than weakness. 

We lived in Texas for six years so I have some first hand knowledge of Texas politics. Over the years Texas politicians have railed endlessly about their Mexican neighbors to the south. They demonize them and blame them for everything that ever goes wrong in Texas.

On August 25th of 2017 -- three years ago -- Hurricane Harvey hit Houston as a devastating Cat 4 storm. Well, within hours after Houston was clobbered there were grand caravans of relief supplies from Mexico enroute to the flooded areas of Houston. 

And to all those Houstonians the Mexican kindness was a game changer.

Is there someone who has been a burr under your saddle? How might you clobber their evil with good? Maybe through lots of small consistent acts. Think on that one awhile -- but not so long as to let the opportunity slip away.

And keep the key thought alive and running in the background of your life -- GENUINE CHRIST-ROOTED LOVE CHANGES EVERYTHING BECAUSE IT TREATS PEOPLE WAY BETTER THAN THEY DESERVE.

Yes, it’s about grace.

 Dave Ramsey is an international talk show host who specializes in financial planning and helping people get out of debt. He runs Financial Peace University. He’s fun to listen to and I love how Dave responds when people ask him how he is doing. He always says -- “better than I deserve…”

That is sound gospel. God treats us better than we deserve. The reason that we can treat others in this radically loving way is that even though we are undeserving, we have encountered the love of Christ ourselves. 

His love changes everything in us. And his grace is changing us. We can’t muster this kind of stuff on our own. This is all Christ’s doing as he has taken up residency in our midst -- in our lives. We just get to go along for the ride -- or not -- if we fail to embrace him, his way of doing things, and his agenda. 

And as you think about it you realize he has already started doing all of these things. When we trust him we simply join in with what he is doing. He is the one going full-throttle during difficult times. He is the one caring for the needy. He is the one who had an exceptionally realistic view of himself and yet still took the humble approach. He is the one who refuses to pay-back evil with evil.

In the book of Romans Paul is talking about the embedded presence of Christ in our lives -- that which comes about when we trust in him -- what he has done -- what he is doing -- what he is going to do -- his agenda.

The reason that we can treat people way better than they deserve is that Christ is treating us way better than we deserve.

And believe it or not, that is the good news!