Romans 13:8-14                                                    Ordinary Time

 People do not always remember what you say to them. They only remember how you make them feel. Turn a take a look at the people near you this morning. How have you made them feel? Look at the children back there. How did we make them feel? How about your next door neighbor? Your close family members? How you do make them feel – valuable or not. Loved or not? What if this is the last time you see them? Will they say, “She loved me. He loved me.” None of us have any guarantee about length of life, so we should love like there’s no tomorrow. That’s the message of our text today.

 At a wonderful small group meeting on Thursday night, Dick Murphy asked the eight of us there to consider the people (living or dead) with whom we would most like to have dinner. I said “Jesus and my dad.” My dad was no perfect man. I could tell you some stories that would shame any family, but one thing my dad cultivated, as he matured in Christian faith, was the art of listening with love. Paul Tillich said, “The first duty of love is to listen.” My dad gave people his full attention, demonstrating his care for them, making them feel special. What a gift that is! It is such a profound gift that it has lasted beyond his life on earth. People came to his memorial service and told me what a good listener and caring man he was. Such is the power of love, when it is love generated by a heart filled to overflowing with the love of Jesus Christ. As I reflected on this love Friday morning, I began to weep, and I don’t cry very easily. Love. It is the essence of who God is and the essence of what we are called to be and do, as God’s people. It’s something we feel when we are treasured, something we should all feel in our church community, which means we need to be in groups small enough to build those kind of close relationships.

 Richard and I spent time with this week with a couple from Peace who moved away. They joined another church, began to get involved, had a family crisis and stopped going to church. Why? Because they did not have the kind of relationships at church which allowed them to share this crisis. Peace, we have to be the kind of church, where we have a culture of caring, and people involved in small enough groups that they cannot help but feel cared for, loved, no matter what is happening in their lives.

 Today’s passage is about love. Reminds me of a Beatles’ Song. All you need is love. All you need is love. All you need is God’s love. Love is all you need.

 Hear now the word of the Lord from Romans 13:8-14.

 Paul had just finished talking about paying taxes and revenue and respect and honor to everyone to whom it is due. Then he says. Don’t owe anyone anything, except to love one another. That is something we always owe, as Christian people. We never finish paying it. Love. We are in debt, when it comes to love. We are in debt to the love of Jesus Christ which calls for our love in response. It’s never a finished job. It is a load to carry, but it is the most meaningful privilege on earth – loving people because we are blessed to know the love of God in Christ Jesus. Will you share the love of Christ with someone this week – invite them to Peace. Take the business card on the table in front of you, and find someone with whom to share it.

 Paul has a lot to say about love in another chapter 13 – 1 Corinthians, the chapter read at most weddings. “Though I may speak with bravest fire and have the gift to all inspire and have not love, my words are vain, as sounding brass and hopeless gain.” If you’ve watched the Democratic and Republican Conventions these last two weeks, you have heard people on both sides speak with bravest fire, having the gift to all inspire. The question is this: was there any love or are those words as vain, as sounding brass and hopeless gain. I’m afraid it’s only going to get worse as the election season moves forward. Both sides will get more brassy, less loving. Victory will be more important than integrity. Can’t we disagree respectfully. We should be more concerned with being loving, than being right or victorious. My friends, by the power given to you in Jesus Christ, don’t get trapped in the people-bashing that goes on in political campaigns and in school cafeterias and at work cubicles. There is a better way, a more respectful way. It’s called love, and we owe it to all people.

 Bill McKibben in his critique of American Christianity in “How a faithful nation gets Jesus wrong” He argues that we just don’t understand what loving neighbor really means. “When Americans hunger for selfless love and are fed only love of self, they will remain hungry, and too often hungry people just come back for more of the same.”

 We justify our neglect of the neighbor with a line from Ben Franklin and say it’s from the Bible. “God helps those who help themselves.” 75% of Americans believe this is a Biblical truth, but it is far from Biblical truth. God helps those who cannot help themselves, including us. And Jesus calls us to do the same – to love our neighbor. And Paul says, loving the neighbor means doing no wrong to the neighbor, the person close to me. In our modern world of technology, we are closer and closer to everyone in the globe, and yet in our hearts maybe we are far away. My choices affect their choices. We are called to love. Love covers the ten commandments. Loving God covers the first four. Loving neighbor covers the last six.

 Why such urgency? Paul believed Christ would return in his lifetime. There have been others who have believed strongly that it would happen in their lifetime. We don’t know when Christ will return, but this we know: Our lives will end, and we will come face-to-face with Christ in the timeless hereafter. My Uncle Rowland, Baptist minister and Professor, died this very morning. When you die, will you feel good about what you have done with your life?

 Jonathan Edwards once said, "I resolve never to do anything I wouldn't do if it were the last hour of my life." Morgan Roberts sent me that quote, and Morgan said, “Even though those words may sound, at first, like heavy words, my own experience has taught me that they make my life lighter. By that I mean that they teach me to lighten my luggage for every day's journey.... If I live in the "Eternal Now" (George MacDonald), I don't waste time carrying the needless baggage of anger, resentment, selfishness, greed, envy, and an unforgiving spirit. If this is my final hour, then I'll fill it with the really good stuff of life so that I'll be remembered as someone who, right to the last hour of his life, was loving some neighbor as himself.

 So as individuals and as a congregation our job is in a word – to love, to love as if there’s no tomorrow. How do we do that? By putting on Christ. There is no other way than to be completely and utterly filled up with the love of Christ than it overflows to others. Put on Christ. Put on the fruits of Christ’ Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Make no provision to satisfy our own selfish needs. Put on Christ by prayer, by Bible study, by regular worship, by faithful service, by sharing good news. Put on Christ, abide in Christ, stay close to Christ in every way because Christ is the full measure of God’s love which never ends. Meditate on Christ’s love until it multiplies in your heart. Then with a heart full of gratitude, you will be thinking, How can I love my significant others? My spouse. My children? My parents? My friends? How can I love my church family? My irritating next door neighbor? How can I show love and kindness to the waitress, to the angry driver blowing a car horn at me, to the computer tech on the phone, to the very slow person at the cash register, to the hungry child in Haiti or the homeless family in Bradenton? Love. “The opposite of love is not hate but indifference.” (Elie Wiesel) So I ask, “Do you know your neighbors? Do they know you love them? that God loves them?

 Zora Neale Hurston said, “Love, I find, is like singing. Everybody can do enough to satisfy themselves, though it may not impress the neighbors as being very much at all.”