Debt-Free Love
Debt-Free Love
The Roman historian Suetonius records that in the 40s the Emperor Claudius got so ticked off at the Jews in Rome that he kicked them all out. All Suetonius could figure out was that it had something to do with arguments over some guy called “Chrestus,” which sounds like a Latinized version of the Greek Christos. It seems that within a decade of his ascension, there was a movement of Jews in Rome acclaiming Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ, the Messiah, God’s Chosen King. After his mother Agrippina poisoned her husband Claudius, Nero permitted the Jews to return to Rome. So by the late 50s, there was once again an active Church in Rome, that is the belly of the beast, to whom Paul was writing this Letter.
For subjects of the Roman Empire, politics was not about deciding who to vote for; politics was about not getting noticed by the Empire, lest that notice turn into a stare. So Paul’s advice at the beginning of today’s reading — Owe no one anything except to love your neighbor as yourself — is actually the conclusion to his advice on how the Christians in Rome could escape the Empire’s notice. That longer advice began — Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. These words have often been misinterpreted as a call for blind obedience. They were actually Paul's code for how the Christian in Rome might escape the Empire's stare, but also know when to stare back.
Authority in Rome did not come from “We the People,” but from an Emperor with semi-divine status, at that point. But Paul was not just a subject of Rome, he was a citizen of Rome, and that did confer on him some rights. More than once, invoking his Roman citizenship got him out of danger from Jewish leaders who opposed his message that at least some parts of the Law of Moses should be set aside for Gentiles.
In the rest of this story: After writing this Letter, Paul went back to Jerusalem, and was almost killed by the local authorities before he exercised his right as a Roman citizen and appealed to Caesar. That appeal brought him to Rome, ostensibly as a prisoner. But at the end of Acts, we are told that Paul lived under a comfortable house arrest in Rome for two years. But we also know from tradition that at some point, being a Roman citizen was not enough for Paul to escape the Empire’s stare. He would be beheaded, not crucified (another privilege of Roman citizenship). Eventually the competing claims of the semi-divine Emperor and the claims of Jesus the Christ, God’s Chosen King, could not be avoided or papered over.
Paul’s reference to the night far gone and the near day likely reflects his belief that Jesus was on the verge of returning in glory and doing away with all empires and kingdoms but his own. Perhaps that part of Paul’s teaching hasn’t worn well; but his chief advice to the Romans does remain — Discharge your obligations to everyone; pay tax and levy, reverence and respect, to those to whom they are due. Leave no debt outstanding, but never forget the debt to love your neighbor as yourself — Whatever other claims are made of you, none outranks the debt to love your neighbor, the person next to you, as yourself.
And who specifically can make that claim on you and me? To update our previous Presiding Bishop: Love your liberal neighbor, love your conservative neighbor. Love your Democratic neighbor, love your Republican neighbor. Love your white neighbor, love your person of color neighbor. Love your Christian neighbor, love your Muslim neighbor. Love your Jewish neighbor, love your Arab neighbor. Love your straight neighbor, love your LGBTQ neighbor. Love your immigrant neighbor, love your National Guard neighbor. Love your neighbor – the person next to you – as yourself.
And if one of those neighbors sins against you? Note what Jesus says today about a member of the church – more accurately a sibling – who sins against you and refuses to listen to you, a few of your fellow siblings, and finally the whole family — let such a one be to you as a Gentile or tax collector — like the Canaanite Woman who won the argument with Jesus and accepted a dog’s scrap of healing — or Matthew the former tax collector and author of this Gospel. However some churches have interpreted Jesus’s advice on church conflict as cover for kicking people out, that’s clearly not what Matthew thought Jesus was saying.
Loving the person next to you as yourself starts in the church. Meantime in the world, Emperors come and emperors eventually do go, along with the debts we owe them. But members of the church, fellow siblings, remain always. And the only debt that remains, the one that has been paid by Christ crucified and risen, is love.
September 6th, 2026
The 14th Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 18, Year A
The Rev. David Kendrick