You may find this hard to believe but there is a long list of things I don’t like to do.  Pains in the posterior, is the polite way to categorize these things.  For instance I receive no joy or satisfaction from changing dirty diapers, especially the dirtiest kind.  I also do not enjoy scrubbing toilets; you might be noticing a theme here.  Most Thursday evenings as I pull in the driveway, especially if it is late, I can feel my countenance fall because I know it is time to set the trash out on the curb.  Oh there is nothing particularly hard about putting the trash out. The can is on wheels for crying out loud.  Set out a couple of recycling tubs and call it good in about five, no more than ten minutes time.  Oh the list goes on but time does not permit me to name everything that is on it.  But of all the things on this list of PITPs very few things are particularly hard, I just don’t like to do them, but they must be done and I am too thrifty to pay someone else to do them.  So there I am left with no other alternative than to suck it up, give myself a little pep talk, and do it because that is what is required of me, as a husband, as a father, and as a member of a community that doesn’t value trash being left to pile up in one’s home and in one’s yard. 

            As I read Paul’s words to the Romans that we read a few minutes ago, I got to thinking about these PITPs, these things I don’t like to do.  I find as a Christian there are things that God calls me to do that I don’t particularly like doing, but I am a child of God, I have been redeemed by Christ, and it is what I have been called to do.  Paul says “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; ¹⁰love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. ¹¹Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.^{* 12}Rejoice in hope,” Ok so far so good.  “Be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer” hey wait a minute who said anything about suffering, or that I was going to have to persevere anything; that sounds too much like work.  ^“Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.”  Ok now Paul has gone too far, I thought this salvation thing was supposed to be free, that Jesus done paid for my sins already, I shouldn’t have to do all this stuff, and the list continues.  With expectations for being a Christian like Paul sets forth it is no wonder it is so hard to get people to join church, who wants to be saddled with all of this?

            I shouldn’t have to do all of this stuff, and I don’t have to do it, to be saved that is.  Jesus has already done the saving and I don’t have to do a thing more in order for God to love me and welcome me home when the time comes.  There is just one problem, what Paul is talking about is love.  There is nothing special about the actions on Paul’s list; he is simply giving concrete examples of what it means to love God and love your neighbor as yourself.  Now you may have heard that love God and love your neighbor as yourself thing before, it is what Jesus says is the greatest commandment.  In other words it is kind of the law of the land in that place to which I am assured God is going to call me home.  It is kind of the expectation of those whose hearts have been changed by God and made fit for heaven.  Trouble is when I don’t do these things, and believe me there are some of these things that don’t come natural like “not repaying anyone evil for evil and leaving room for the wrath of God” but when I don’t do these things like Paul says I start to get a little pain.  It usually starts here (heart) and then it usually moves here (head) and from there, there is no telling where it will move (hands, feet,) and yes even sometimes (posterior).  Unless I do these things I find it hard to have peace.

            Being a Christian, being a follower of the one who went so far as to surrender his own life so that others might live, can often be a pain in the heart.  It is not at all uncommon for our faith to compel us to do things we would rather not do, to go places we would rather not go.  But what else would we expect following the one who said “‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ²⁵For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. ²⁶For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?’”

            A man arrives at the pearly gates, and St. Peter looks up his life record and says, “Well, you didn’t do anything particularly good, but neither did you do anything particularly bad. I’ll tell you what: If you can tell me of one really good deed you’ve done, I’ll let you stay.”  So the man says, “Well, once I saw some bikers harassing a young woman. I stopped my car. I took out my tire iron. I walked up to their leader, a huge, hairy, menacing man, covered with tattoos. He had a nose ring. I ripped it right out of his nose, and I said, ‘You leave this girl alone, you hear?’ I stared at all of them, and I said, ‘Now get out of here, or you’ll have to answer to me.’”  St. Peter was impressed.  “When did this happen?” he asked the man.  “About two minutes ago.” My thanks to Todd Rudy for that story; which is amusing and thankfully not often the case that God calls us to do that kind of thing.  It is however more often the case that instead of taking on a group of bikers God calls us to take on mending the relationships we have damaged with an unkind word or an unintentional but hurtful act.  It is more often the case that God call us to weep with those who are weeping and mourn with those who are mourning, when we don’t particularly feel like weeping or mourning and neither does it fit conveniently into our schedule.              You may think things like this come easy for pastors.  I won’t speak for all pastors but they don’t always come easy for this one.  Some times it takes a lot to pluck up the courage to do the things I know God wants me to.  Sometimes it takes a little pep talk from myself and a lot of help from God’s Holy Spirit to get me moving in the right direction.  I can think of times when I like Jonah was going the opposite direction from where God called me to go, and God got a hold of me; not with a whale but with a pain in the heart of not doing that which I knew I needed to.  The pain came not because I thought God was going to punish me or love me any less if I didn’t do whatever, but because God had already shown me what true, genuine, love entails and asks nothing of me but to do the same.

              PAIN IS WEAKNESS LEAVING THE BODY. The question isn’t how much more you can take, but how much more you can give? Just when you’re ready to quit, your mind says, push harder. You listen, sensing an inner strength that wasn’t there before. And suddenly you discover — you no longer feel the pain. Now you’re one of us.  I think that ought to be an add for the church instead of for the Marines as it is.  The pain in the heart we feel at times is the pain of knowing what it is God requires of us, but failing to do it because we are weak.  Our mission is not taking but giving.  At times we are tempted to quit but always there is an inner strength, God’s Holy Spirit, there to see us through, and by God’s grace we come to a place where we no longer feel the pain when we do what it is God calls us to do.  Now you’re one of us…Christians.

            Again there is nothing magical about Paul’s list of things, they are all good things, and if you can think of no other, this is a good place to start, but all of these things are ways to love God and love our neighbor as our self, and therefore the list is not exhaustive.  There are many, many more practical ways for us to live out our faith and put the pain in the heart to rest as Betty Meadows, general presbyter of Mid-Kentucky Presbytery, illustrates in her description of a summer sabbatical that transformed her life. She left her churchy world behind and went “under cover” for three months, working as a Waffle House hostess. To her surprise, as she put it, “the risen Christ showed up every day.”  A van broke down in the parking lot, on the Fourth of July, carrying a family from Alabama. No garage or mechanic could be found. A waitress heard of their plight and called her boyfriend. He arrived 15 minutes later and fixed their van, for the price of a cup of coffee.  “The risen Christ in the mechanic and the waitress,” writes Betty.  A lawyer set up shop in the Waffle House, offering legal help to the needy of the community, for what they could pay — or for no payment at all, if they couldn’t afford it.  “Day after day,” writes Betty, “this lawyer sat at a table, smoking his cigar, meeting client after client, turning down no one. The risen Christ in the lawyer.”  A woman hobbled into the restaurant, a cast on one leg, but displaying signs of other medical difficulties. The police had just arrested her boyfriend for drunken driving and had impounded his truck. She was turned out on the street, with nowhere to go. The restaurant was so busy, none of the staff could give her a ride to the bus station, but she called her landlord, who lived an hour and a half away. He dropped everything, and drove right over to pick her up. “When the landlord arrived,” writes Betty, “I said to him, ‘How kind of you to drive so far for one of your tenants, for this woman.’  “The man looked puzzled. And then he said, ‘Why wouldn’t I?’  “The risen Christ in the landlord.” 

             Sometimes it may be a pain in the heart but often times being a Christian, following the way of Christ is no more difficult than seeing a need and responding to it, knowing what needs to be done out of love and doing it, even when, especially when we would rather not.  So let it be with me, with you, with all of us together.  Amen.