Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." No, "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." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.- Romans 12:9-21
You know, there's a certain way of thinking about Christian faith that I've come across over the years, and whenever it's expressed it kind of bothers me. It's a way of thinking that a lot of people use to put down both Christianity and the teachings of Jesus, and they do it mainly so that they can act however they want and justify it logically. This way of thinking is expressed whenever people say, “Nobody can really live the way the Bible teaches us to live—it's too idealistic. It's not realistic.” They'll say, “We're all sinners, not saints, and nobody can be perfect enough to live the way the Bible teaches.”
When people make these kinds of statements, I'm not always sure what their point is, other than that they want to give themselves an excuse for not striving to live an excellent life. There's an irony in this because most of us demand excellence in the world around us. When we buy products, we expect them to be perfect and excellent right out of the box. We expect excellence from our politicians, which is why we are always disappointed when they fail us. We demand excellence from waiters and cooks in a restaurant. And we especially demand excellence from our sports team. For instance, any year that the Steelers don't win the Super Bowl is considered to be a mediocre year. And with the Penguins we were willing to declare that losing in the Stanley Cup finals for one year was excellence, but we expect nothing less than a Stanley Cup this year. Why? Because we demand excellence.
We demand excellence of everything and everyone but ourselves. We demand that others live excellent lives, but how excellent do we demand that our lives be? I'm not referring to excellence in dress, hygiene, or ordering our lives. I'm referring to internal, spiritual excellence. To what extent do we expect our lives to be spiritually excellent?
Our passage for this morning acts like a summary of the Bible's teachings on how to live an excellent life. Unfortunately, people read this summary and think that it's too idealistic. It's not realistic. But take a look at what the passage says. All it's doing is calling us to live a life of love, compassion, devotion, commitment, self-discipline, and openness to God. Look at a list of what it says:
• Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection
• Serve the Lord
• Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer
• Contribute to the needs of others; extend hospitality to strangers
• Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them
• Live in harmony with one another
• Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are
• 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. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
What would our world look like if people really made a commitment to this kind of life? What would our politics look like if they tried to live in harmony with one another, blessed those who persecute them, and let their love be genuine? What would our economy look like if people not only cared about money, but about contributing to the needs of others? What would our workplaces be like if people had an attitude of rejoicing in hope, living in harmony with each other, and loving each other with mutual affection?
There are reasons people say that this stuff is idealistic. They recognize that living this kind of life means making God and others at least as important in our minds as we make ourselves. They would rather be selfish and self-focused, and so they say that living this kind of life is idealistic, not realistic. What they fail to realize is the reality that not only is living the way Paul teaches realistic, but it's a prescription for being successful in life. Don't believe me? Think about Niall Fitzgerald and what he discovered in his life.
Until 2004, Niall was the co-chairman of Unilever Corporation, a giant in the soap and detergent industry. Today he is CEO of Reuters. In the 1990s discovered how living the ideals Paul has given us can translate directly into success in life.
From the early 1970s, when he joined Unilever, Fitzgerald was on the fast track. He rose at a meteoric pace up the company ranks, eventually rising to the top of an important division during the 1990s. He became responsible for the research, development, and marketing of a new, revolutionary laundry detergent. He was on top of the world. He had power. He had influence. He had money. He had a wonderful house and a nice family. He had everything that we want for our lives. Unfortunately, not all was good on the inside. In the midst of all this, Fitzgerald began to feel as though something just wasn't right. He couldn't figure out what it was, but he had a nagging feeling that his life wasn't right, despite the fact that he was doing what he wanted.
The fact was that his life wasn't right. His marriage was falling apart. He was working ten-, twelve-, fourteen-hour days. He and his wife talked about what to do, and Fitzgerald came up with a solution. He decided to get an apartment in town so that he could focus completely on work during the week, and then move home on the weekends. The problem was that by the weekend he was so immersed in work that he couldn't shut if off at home. He kept working. Also, since he was gone all week his relationship with his wife and kids worsened.
Then disaster struck. The laundry soap they had been working on was put on the market, and initial reviews were tremendous. It was a hit until complaints trickled in about damage that the detergent was doing to clothes. A competitor ran ads, showing a shirt that had been washed in the product. It was ripped and torn. Fitzgerald's reaction to the problems was not helpful. He blamed the media for being unfair. He complained about his competitors, saying that their ads were unethical. When people sent in their torn shirts, asking for compensation, he blamed them, saying that they hadn't used the product properly. Pressure built from inside the company for Fitzgerald to do something. He needed support. He needed friends. The problem is that his team members were too busy running for the hills to give him support. They worked for him and produced for him, but they didn't like him. Fitzgerald, as a boss, wasn't all that caring. He didn't take time to get to know his co-workers and their lives. For him it was all about the product and the work. He was alone, burned-out, and had nowhere to turn.
To make matters worse, his best friend, Peter, one of the few unconditional supporters in his life, got terminal cancer. Fitzgerald was lost. Yet God has a strange way of helping us find ourselves. It was in helping to care for Peter that he found himself again. He took time to visit Peter in London , and there they talked about everything. One night he and Peter were talking, and Fitzgerald asked him, “Peter, are you afraid of death? Are you afraid of what is to come?” Peter's answer turned Niall's life around.
Peter said that he wasn't afraid to die because he had taken the time to make peace with himself. But then he turned to Niall, and said with conviction, “I have finally come to realize that what they say is true ; life is not a rehearsal. This is all we have, this is it. There is no second chance. I have realized this too late, and I have had to find peace with this. But it is not too late for you. You are not living the life you want—not in your personal life, not in your work. If this is not the life you want to live, then you must change it. You must promise me, you owe it to me to take this realization of mine and act on it.”
In that moment, Niall Fitzgerald decided that he would find himself again. He would change his life. He decided that he would live a life of personal integrity, of authentic and intimate relationships with others, and that he would put these above personal success. He would stop living in fear of failure. He would focus more on cultivating a spiritual life, bringing prayer and spiritual excellence into his life. Changing his life in this way made all the difference. It was too late to save his marriage, but he did repair his relationship with his children. Also, this change in attitude changed his workplace. The people around him changed they way they worked. Because Fitzgerald was now caring about his co-workers, they began to care about him, and they worked in a way that was mutually supportive of him and others.
It was this change in his way of living that catapulted him to the co-chairmanship of Unilever. Before this change, he had always been seen as a talented leader with relational faults. This change caused his superiors to recognize that he had the talent to run the company because he could create an environment in which people wanted to work, support each other, and produce. And in essence, all he did was to start living the life Paul wrote about in our passage (story adapted from Resonant Leadership, by Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee, 2005).
Niall Fitzgerald showed how realistic Paul's teachings are. They aren't focused on making us successful in business, but they make us successful all the same because they teach us how to live. You can look at these passages and say, “Man, they're just too idealistic!” But the reality is that when you find ways to bring this stuff into your life, it's amazing how happy your life can be. It's amazing how integrated your life can be. It's amazing how wonderful your life can be.
Amen.
