August 30, 2020
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.
Back in the early 80’s UC Davis hosted Archbishop Desmond Tutu to speak on our quad. It was a bright sunny spring day; students brought their towels and chairs to sit on, entertained themselves playing hacky sack while they waited or ate their lunches while staking their claim. I was a studying Psychology and Economics reveling in the world of academia. On the other side of the world, Apartheid was raging. Archbishop Tutu was spreading the word about what was happening in his country. You recall that Apartheid was a former policy of segregation and political and economic discrimination against non-European groups in the Republic of South Africa. The whites, who comprised a mere 15% of the population, controlled the entire nation. The word Apartheid comes from Afrikaans “separateness”, or literally “apart-hood.” I don’t remember exactly what he said, but it was not revolutionary. Rather he spoke about love; loving each other much like what Jesus taught. Yet, I do remember thinking he was making history.
Paul also made history writing to the church in Rome about love. We all know about the many kinds of love in the Bible, two are used here- agape and philia. Genuine love is this agape love (v. 9). Agape love refers to a pure, unconditional, sacrificial love that intentionally desires another’s highest good. Agape love is of and from God, whose very nature is love itself: “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Everything God does flows from God’s love. Agape is also used to describe our love for God (Luke 10:27), and a servant’s faithful respect to his master (Matthew 6:24). The best example of agape love is Jesus willingly dying on the cross to show us God’s love for us. Jesus placed our needs ahead of his own and God’s love as the highest priority.
Philia love is often called brotherly love. The love we have for one another often through shared interests or concern. Paul uses philia love when he writes, love one another with mutual affection. Good friends share philia love. There is a sense of attraction to philia love while its antonym is phobia. It is the most general form of love in the Bible, encompassing love for fellow humans, care, respect, and compassion for people in need.
It is no wonder that Paul uses both of these words, agape and philia, to express what he is urging the people in the church in Rome to do. Holding these two words for love together can be summed up by “We love because God first loved us (1 John 4:19). You see Paul has just spent 11 chapters assuring the Romans that God’s justifying grace extends to Jews and Gentiles alike. That grace now has implications about how they live their lives. Implications that apply to us as well. Then Paul breaks it down and give 23 imperatives about living, about loving. Hold on to what is good, rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering. Words we need to hear today. So many in our community are suffering, ravaged by the wildfires and all they can do in be patient as they wait to return to the places they once called home. We long to be hopeful as we move into the sixth month of this pandemic with no real end in sight. We desperately cling to what is good in our lives because so much feels out of whack right now. I am touched by all the ways people are extending hospitality to strangers affected by the fire.
As I meditated on this passage, it feels like Paul is helping us to see the fullness of love, of all kinds of love. Love as affection, goodness and honor. Love as service, spirit, and harmony. Love as humility, wisdom, and forgiveness. Love as food, drink, and peace. Living this kind of love is a model for a cross shaped life and also for a cross shaped church. Paul is inviting us to love as Christ loved. But sometimes we find ways of putting up barriers to the kind of love to which Jesus calls us.
Because we are so divided right now as a nation with how to respond to the pandemic, and as we move closer to an election, I want to share with you another kind of love. Ubuntu love. It is a philosophy and a theology with roots in South African culture. Archbishop Tutu shared this historic belief with the world. Ubuntu is the essence of being human, the ethic of interdependence. Ubuntu says, “I am because we are.” Archbishop Tutu wrote, “Bringing people together is what I call ubuntu which means “I am because we are.’ Far too often people think of themselves as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.” “A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, based from a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.” Interconnectedness vs. isolation, generosity instead of scarcity. Archbishop Tutu also grounded this belief in Imago Dei, meaning our value as human beings is found in being created in the image of God. We as Christians take that for granted, yet when we apply that to the racial tensions it helps us to see every human being in the image of God and melts away racism. Love overcomes hate, or as Paul says, “Don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Ubuntu does that.
Nelson Mandela lived by Ubuntu as well. He was held as a political captive for 27 years in South African prison, before being release in 1990. Taking 27 years of one’s life often creates feelings other than love. Yet he was able to negotiate a free South Africa, and become its first President, because he was able to hold Ubuntu, with all of its forgiveness and generosity rather than wanting retaliation. He lived out Paul’s words, “Never avenge yourselves…vengeance is mine says the Lord.” While negotiating for an inclusive government where all have vote, Ubuntu even made its way into the Epilogue of the interim Constitution of South Africa (1993). It states, “there is a need for understanding but not for vengeance, a need for reparation but not for retaliation, a need for ubuntu but not for victimization.” (Christian B. N. Gade (2011). “The Historical Development of the Written Discourses on Ubuntu” (PDF). South African Journal of Philosophy.)
At Nelson Mandela‘s memorial, President Barack Obama spoke about Ubuntu, saying,
“There is a word in South Africa – Ubuntu – a word that captures Mandela’s greatest gift: his recognition that we are all bound together in ways that are invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us….(Mandela) not only embodied Ubuntu, he taught millions to find that truth within themselves.”
I pray for a little more Ubuntu in America right now. Where we see that wearing a mask is about our leaning into Ubuntu, I am because we are. I am well, because we all are well. Our recovery as a nation comes from our mutual care for those around us. The fires have brought out such hospitality, generosity, and love for neighbors as we lean into Ubuntu. It feels a lot like what Paul is asking of us, what Jesus modeled for us, what Mandela lived in the transformation of South Africa and the recognition and value of all humanity. Amen.
