Romans 13:8-14
“The Debt of Love”
September 6, 2020
If you woke up this morning with pep in your step and took a look outside to sunshine with gratitude for a good night’s sleep, hold onto that positive attitude. Whatever you do, do not begin your day by Googling usdebtclock.org as your mind will soon go to dark places as your eyes try to grasp the non-stop numbers that increase faster than you can register in your brain. Currently, we as a nation are $26 plus trillion in debt. That breaks down to a debt per citizen of approximately $81,000.
Shakespeare famously had a father instruct his son, “Neither a borrower nor a lender be,” but we rarely hear the rest of the phrase, “For loan oft loses both itself and friend.” To go through life debt-free has become more and more challenging for most of the world. If we want to go to college or own a home or a car or start a business or even keep one going, incurring some debt is assumed. To build up our credit to qualify for a loan, the most commonly dispensed advice is to get a credit card and then pay it back regularly. The U.S. banned debtors’ prisons back in 1833 and that was affirmed by our Supreme Court in 1983. We may not be locked up in a physical jail cell for being in debt but the massive debt that so many carry can certainly be its own prison.
Paul here is talking to Romans who were well aware of the deep divide between those with great wealth and those living in poverty. There was a wide variety of folks from multiple religious and philosophical beliefs that were all ruled by the law of empire where political patronage and the expectation of owing favors was a known part of life.
Paul is making the case for love rather than patronage. The part of this letter that Jeff read today came right after Paul told them that they should pay taxes to those owed them and “revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.”
The only debt that we are meant to carry is love – love of God and love of neighbor. Imagine being debt-free except to love. Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it – but not so fast. That love – it’s not just for the lovable. It’s not just for those with whom we share values or lifestyles. It’s also love for the neighbor who votes differently than we do. It’s for the neighbor who takes a stand on justice that is the opposite of ours. It’s for the neighbor who supports causes that turn our stomach as well as the neighbor who has a whole different set of priorities on how to spend money.
Also, if we are going to get out of the business of indebtedness and into the loving business we have to shift from a way of thinking where giving is seen as transactional. To move away from being indebted we also have to shift from being a giver who expects gratitude for that, too, is a form of repayment.
The Danish writer Peter Freuchen told the story about how on one day an Inuit man from Greenland had been out on an expedition to hunt walrus and he came home hungry because he hadn’t been successful. Later one of the successful hunters dropped off hundreds of pounds of meat to him. The hungry hunter thanked the successful hunter over and over again but the man sharply stopped him saying, “Up in our country we are human! And since we are human we help each other. We don’t like to hear anybody say thanks for that. What I get today you may get tomorrow.”
Instead of seeing himself as being human because he could calculate indebtedness and remember who gave what to whom, he measured his humanity by his ability to care about his fellow humans without expectation of repayment. (Debt – Updated and Expanded: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber, 79)
Jesus defined neighbor to include any human being that we interact with. The love for them that Paul speaks of goes beyond the emotion that we usually associate with the idea of love. This agape love is demonstrated by our actions toward our families, our friends, those we might think of as enemies, the teller at the bank, the cashier ringing up our groceries, that pollster interrupting our dinner with their phone call, even our boss at work. “Love does no harm to a neighbor. Love is the fulfillment of the law.”
In the spirit of love which Jesus taught us and Paul reinforced, let us offer up this prayer from Steve Garnaas-Holmes:
God,
help me this day to add love to the world.
Not fear, not anxiety
about what I owe or am owed, but love.
Help me know my freedom—
not to do what I please,
but to fulfill my call to love,
my only goal not that I prevail
but that others receive love.
In calm interactions,
or in moments of anxiety or conflict,
let me contribute love.
In silence or in confrontation,
in public endeavor or quiet prayer,
in heroic action or mundane chores,
let me add love to the world.
O God of Love,
let your love overflow:
fulfill your love in me.
Amen.