Taking Matters to God's Hands ~ Romans 12:9-21 ~ Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
Early this week, a skirmish broke out on a flight traveling
from Newark to Denver[1]…
The female passenger in seat 11A wanted to recline her heat,
but the male passenger in seat 12A installed a device called the “Knee
Defender™” to prevent her seat from reclining.
The female passenger complained to the crew, who asked the man to remove
the device. He refused. The female passenger proceeded to throw a cup
of water at the male passenger.
The incident ended with the plane making an emergency landing
in Chicago, and the feuding passengers being led off the plane in
handcuffs. The remaining passengers were
nearly two hours late arriving in Denver.
Once upon a time, outrageous behavior like this would have
shocked us. But not anymore… More and more adults are acting like
animals; pushing and shoving each other, fighting over everything from a place
in line to a flat-screen TV on Black Friday.
These aren’t exactly matters of life and death—but you’d sure think so
by the way people behave!
And yet, while it’s easy to point fingers and poke fun, the temptation
is always there to do the same things!
When the pressure’s on and you feel threatened, “fight or
flight” instincts kick in. And you hate
coming out on the losing end! So we get vicious
in getting what we want—and when someone steps on our toes, we become even more
vicious. We quickly take matters into
our own hands, to teach ‘em a lesson; make ‘em pay, put ‘em in their place for
being rude and obnoxious.
And there’s nothing like the satisfaction of winning. And if you don’t win, the next best thing is that
sweet revenge.
And yet, while you’re at war against everything and everyone
that’s against you, you’re completely blind to the reality of God who is
gracious, merciful, and loving towards all…
Let’s be frank—who wants to end up in jail over a couple
inches of legroom? Who wants to end up
hurt or even dead over what’s trivial in the whole scheme of things?
Amid pain and anxiety, we are so easily blinded to what is
of ultimate truth and ultimate importance.
Jesus fought and won the battle against sin and death. He literally took the matter of our sin into
his own hands, with a nail hammered through each. Your sins are forgiven. You are a child of God.
If you’re struggling, it matters to God. It matters to God if you’re hungry or thirsty
or homeless. It matters to God if you’re
discouraged or scared; if people have hurt you or you’ve hurt them. So instead of taking matters into your own
hands, put your matters in Jesus’ hands!
God wants you to see Christ working for your eternal good through each
and every one of these matters.
Faith is all about handing over to God everything that
matters to you—including your life itself.
And even if it feels like everything and everyone in the world is
against you, God is for you.
What a great freedom that is, to know that your life is in God’s
hands. What peace and what joy. “Me” is a dead end. It is possible to gain the whole world and
lose your soul. “My way” leads to
death. God’s way is love—and leads to
life.
What is love? It is
looking out for your neighbors and their needs—because God is looking out for
yours. You become your neighbor’s
keeper. You treat him/her as
friend. You welcome him as you would
Christ himself. You make friends in the
low places instead of high. You make
peace the priority over having it your way.
And when love is hard, you love harder.
When you come face-to-face with your enemies, and they
reject you, defame you, and abuse you, do whatever good you can to them. You forgive sins—and sinners.
Everyone always says “love the sinner, hate the sin”—just
make sure your putting your energy into the love part.
No matter how much you want to—and how good it might make
you feel—vengeance is never an option.
Vengeance is best left in God’s hands—because more often than not,
you’ll burn down your own house while trying to burn down your enemy’s.
Trust God to make it right when someone does you wrong. God will deliver you from evil.
One of the biggest mistakes we’ll make in life is thinking
that we can control things, to make everything come out in our favor. That’s why vengeance feels so good—and
winning even better—because you’ve created a positive outcome for
yourself. But no matter how rich or
smart or powerful you are, you can’t make the world turn your own way—and you
can never cheat death.
On the other hand, it will literally feel like dying when
you love your enemies and forgive sins, or you sacrifice winning for
peace. It’ll feel like dying when you
sacrifice yourself to what matters to God.
It is dying. But this
is exactly what Jesus wants for us—to lose our lives for his sake, to be raised
up into new life. Me is a dead
end—but the way of faith, hope, and love is the way of healing, the way of
overcoming, the way to God.
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