SERMON FOR SEPTEMBER 6, 2020     TEXT: ROMANS 13:8-14
     I don’t remember how my daughter started listening to Dolly Parton, but she adored her. Lucy was in 3rd grade when I surprised her with tickets to hear our Lady of Tennessee in concert. We drove down to the big arena in San Jose. It was packed with fans spanning four generations. Lu was enchanted from the moment Dolly took the stage, but I knew she was waiting for the best part, waiting to hear her favorite song. The moment came. To a simple guitar accompaniment Dolly began, “Back through the years/I go wandering’ once again/Back to the seasons of my youth/And I recall a box of rags that someone gave us/And how my mama put the rags to use.” When she looked out at the audience and sang “Mama sewed the rags together/Sewin’ every piece with love/She made my coat of many colors/That I was so proud of,” I looked at my little girl. She had stopped bouncing in her seat and sat transfixed, mouthing the words to herself and leaking tears. “So with patches on my britches/Holes in both my shoes/In my coat of any colors/I hurried off to school/Just to find the others laughing/And making fun of me/ And my coat of many colors/That Mama made for me/Oh I couldn’t understand that/‘Cause I thought I was rich/And then I told ‘em of the love/My mama sewed in every stitch/And then I told ‘em all the story/Mama told me while she sewed/And why my coat of many colors/Was worth more than all their clothes.”
     Reading today’s lesson from Romans sparked my memory of that night many years ago. It was short work to google my way back to a video of Dolly Parton singing Coat of Many Colors and refresh my memory of her lyrics. Paul talks about a different kind of protective covering. He joins his certain hope of salvation to stern exhortation:  “Besides this you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light . . . .” The best defense against debauchery, licentiousness, quarreling, jealousy and a host of tempting evils is a divine coat of mail: “[P]ut on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
     The structure of Romans chapter 13 is curious. Verses 1-7 contain Paul’s famous (or infamous) instructions regarding Christian obedience to rulers and the civil order. The Apostle writes, “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. Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment” (vv. 1-2). Structures of governance and their exercise of power are part of God’s created order, both necessary and good. They are God’s means of curbing wrongdoing, punishing malefactors, protecting the vulnerable and promoting lawful behavior. The appropriate Christian response is straightforward for Paul: “Pay to all what is due them — taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due” (v. 7). Stay on the right side of good conduct, i.e., obedience, fulfill your obligations as subject or citizen, and you have no need to fear. 
     This apparently untroubled view of power relationships has repeatedly proved very troubling for the church. Christian abolitionists in 19th-century America would not obey the Fugitive Slave Act simply because it was the law of the land, enforced by a duly elected government. In the 1930’s the German Christians found cover in this passage from Romans for their sinful complicity with the Nazi regime. In our own day the murder of unarmed citizens by authorities pledged to uphold justice and protect the peace has shown us that, contra Paul, rulers can be a terror irrespective of one’s conduct. 
     Immediately following the exhortation to “pay to all what is due them,” in reference to the governing authorities, Paul continues his letter with this striking verse, “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (v. 8). The third and final section of chapter 13 begins with verse 11: “Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep.” Paul has moved beyond the arena of worldly life, where God acts through government and the law and the sword to curb sin and limit the harm it causes, where obedience is required and extorted if not freely given. He reminds his readers that they are entering the kingdom of God. It is nearer now than when they first believed, nearer and nearer with each day they stand in faith, live in the light of Christ and love their neighbors. Do what you must to pay your dues to the old order, even as it is passing away, he tells them, and then get on with the business at hand. Live here and now as children of God’s reign, for it is emerging on the horizon and already transforming the dark, crooked ways of the world through its governing authority of love. “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law,” writes Paul. There is no place for fear or resistance, no need for coercion or punishment among those who live under Christ’s rule.
     From this vantage point the Apostle’s sense of timing seems off. The day he proclaimed to be near hundreds of years ago has still not arrived. With an election less than two months away, our responsibility to our particular system of governance is subjecting us to quarreling, jealousy, licentiousness and sundry other works of darkness that Paul would have his readers leave behind. And yet his words are still true. We have not regressed. It is time for us to wake from sleep, to realize how far God’s love has come into our lives so that we may carry it into the world of power and authority, of fear and force, obligation and obedience. Paul sees us donning the armor of light to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. I see you wrapped in a coat of many colors, serviceable, sturdy, stitched piece by piece with God’s love. May it keep you protected and confident and mindful of who you truly are.

Now this coat it suits me
And keeps me so warm
It’s good in the winter
It’s good in the storm.

My savior has dressed me
In a garment so rare
He bought me this new coat
You now see me wear.

I’ll tell you the best thing
I ever did do
I took off the old coat
And put on the new.

I’ll tell you the best thing
I ever did do
I put on the new coat
It carries me through.

Amen.