"Going Out of Our Way"--October 2, 2019
"And so we came to Rome. The believers from there, when they heard of us, came as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns to meet us. On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage. When we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself, with the soldier who was guarding him." [Acts 28:14b-16]
More often than not, we see real evidence of genuine love in simple acts of self-sacrifice, not grand heroic gestures. We know that, as Jesus says, there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends, but we also know that on most days, no such demands are made of us. We are still called to lay down our lives, but it often happens in ordinary ways, rather than in a heroic blaze of glory all at once. Self-sacrifice is not an all-or-nothing matter--the person who gives a kidney has given herself for the sake of another, but still lives at the end of the surgery. The friend who gives an hour of time to listen when you are overwhelmed doesn't die in the end of the conversation, but truthfully, he has given an hour of himself that he will never get back. We are rarely called to die for each other, but we have all sorts of opportunities to live for each other. And in particular, we can take a quick scan over our lives to see that love has a lot to do with going out of your way for someone else.
It sounds so small, so simple, so forgettably mundane that it couldn't really matter, but your willingness to go out of your way--to be inconvenienced or put to trouble--just might be the clearest test for how well you love your neighbor.
After all, if I do for you something I was going to do anyway, you're hardly more than hitchhiking in my life. That leaves the relationship between you and me rather ambiguous. But we see genuine love in those moments when others have gone out of their way for us, whether literally or figuratively. Those are moments when others may not lay down their lives for us in the sense of dying for us, but in which they offer some piece of themselves that they will not get back, and they do it for us. This is Paul's story in these first verses from his time in Rome. Word gets out that Paul has arrived, at long last, in the capital of the empire, and fellow followers of Jesus come out to see him. And indeed, they are going out of their way for him--one good study Bible I have notes that the "Forum of Appius" and "Three Taverns" were towns (call them second-ring ancient suburbs, perhaps?) outside of Rome, one more than thirty miles away, and other more than forty miles away. For us today, that's just over a half hour on the road (if we were on flat, uninterrupted divided highways), or on the less-traveled back roads of hilly western Pennsylvania, it could easily be pushing an hour. And yet, even with the luxury of cars and paved roads, we find it difficult to go an hour out of our way, to find the forty minutes in our schedules to go visit someone who is in need.
"And so we came to Rome. The believers from there, when they heard of us, came as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns to meet us. On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage. When we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself, with the soldier who was guarding him." [Acts 28:14b-16]
More often than not, we see real evidence of genuine love in simple acts of self-sacrifice, not grand heroic gestures. We know that, as Jesus says, there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends, but we also know that on most days, no such demands are made of us. We are still called to lay down our lives, but it often happens in ordinary ways, rather than in a heroic blaze of glory all at once. Self-sacrifice is not an all-or-nothing matter--the person who gives a kidney has given herself for the sake of another, but still lives at the end of the surgery. The friend who gives an hour of time to listen when you are overwhelmed doesn't die in the end of the conversation, but truthfully, he has given an hour of himself that he will never get back. We are rarely called to die for each other, but we have all sorts of opportunities to live for each other. And in particular, we can take a quick scan over our lives to see that love has a lot to do with going out of your way for someone else.
It sounds so small, so simple, so forgettably mundane that it couldn't really matter, but your willingness to go out of your way--to be inconvenienced or put to trouble--just might be the clearest test for how well you love your neighbor.
After all, if I do for you something I was going to do anyway, you're hardly more than hitchhiking in my life. That leaves the relationship between you and me rather ambiguous. But we see genuine love in those moments when others have gone out of their way for us, whether literally or figuratively. Those are moments when others may not lay down their lives for us in the sense of dying for us, but in which they offer some piece of themselves that they will not get back, and they do it for us. This is Paul's story in these first verses from his time in Rome. Word gets out that Paul has arrived, at long last, in the capital of the empire, and fellow followers of Jesus come out to see him. And indeed, they are going out of their way for him--one good study Bible I have notes that the "Forum of Appius" and "Three Taverns" were towns (call them second-ring ancient suburbs, perhaps?) outside of Rome, one more than thirty miles away, and other more than forty miles away. For us today, that's just over a half hour on the road (if we were on flat, uninterrupted divided highways), or on the less-traveled back roads of hilly western Pennsylvania, it could easily be pushing an hour. And yet, even with the luxury of cars and paved roads, we find it difficult to go an hour out of our way, to find the forty minutes in our schedules to go visit someone who is in need.
We are busy people--with so much to do before the end of the day, and we are used to the impulse to make sure we fill our down-time with as much as possible. And we are also fearful people--who don't like to venture into strange new places for people we barely know. But in the ancient world, even with the relatively good roads of the Roman Empire, a forty mile journey is something you rearrange your life around. Plans get cancelled, businesses get closed for a week or so, money has to be saved for travel expenses and for lost income while you are away. And you are looking at giving up several days of your life to make the round trip. Not the end of the world, no, but certainly going out of your way for someone else. That is what these fellow disciples do when they get word that Paul has made it to Rome. They go out of their way for him. They go out of their way to be with him, perhaps even to meet him for the first time. No one is asked to die for Paul in these few verses, but indeed, they do willingly surrender some part of how they live, and for Paul's sake.
It is ordinary, perhaps, this willingness to show up for their friend Paul--but there in the ordinariness Christ is present for sure.
That is a sign of genuine love--love that is revealed in the ordinary inconveniences and hassles and detours we take into ourselves and our plans and our schedules for the sake of another. And here is perhaps the most amazing part--these Christians who come to visit Paul, who go out of their way for him, seem to do it joyfully, and like it is the most natural thing in the world for them. Luke gives us no indication that these visitors begrudge Paul for having come to Rome, obliging them to come to visit. There is no sense that they have come to get Paul to do something for them. And yet, you also get the sense that they came to be with Paul because it was the right place, the natural place, for them to be. Christians gather to Christians like the water drops that run and merge with each other on your windshield on a rainy day. There is a sense here in these verses that Paul was blessed by these visitors, who have reordered at least their immediate futures around him, and that they were blessed by spending time with Paul, too. That is the other curious evidence of the kind of love that comes from God: it has this way of filling us precisely in the act of giving ourselves away. For whatever losses these visitors have taken by coming to visit Paul from so far away, the sense of the text seems to be that they just couldn't help but come to be with this newly-arrived brother in Christ. And Paul himself, the great apostle and the author of half the New Testament, is blessed, enriched, and encouraged by these nameless ordinary Christians who have not died for him, but have certainly gone out of their way for him.
Maybe none of them knew how their actions would impact someone else--maybe even Paul couldn't get any more specific than "they encouraged me when I needed it" if he tried. But maybe something like this moment, or this kind of action, is what Paul had in mind when he wrote to the Corinthians that "your labor is not in vain," even though that labor might be small or unnoticed (1 Cor. 15:58). The love that binds the Christian community together is not lost, is not wasted, is not forgotten, even when it takes the form of time lost, efforts seemingly wasted, and plans dropped for the sake of going out of our way for someone else. Somehow, in the brilliant design of God, those seemingly forgettable moments when our acts of love do not look heroic, but ordinary, become channels of blessing in both directions. I am blessed by your going out of your way for me, and somehow, so are you. It's not something we can calculate or quite predict, but it is the way things are in the kingdom of God. We go out of our way for one another, knowing we have seen such love in Jesus--who went out of his way, not only to death, but to wash feet, heal the sick, preach good news, and welcome sinners--all moments that took him "out of his way" on the journey to the cross, and yet were just what was needed at the moment.
Good Lord, break our obsessions with efficiency, so that we can make the space for love to take us out of our way sometimes--and find ourselves more fully in Your way.
It is ordinary, perhaps, this willingness to show up for their friend Paul--but there in the ordinariness Christ is present for sure.
That is a sign of genuine love--love that is revealed in the ordinary inconveniences and hassles and detours we take into ourselves and our plans and our schedules for the sake of another. And here is perhaps the most amazing part--these Christians who come to visit Paul, who go out of their way for him, seem to do it joyfully, and like it is the most natural thing in the world for them. Luke gives us no indication that these visitors begrudge Paul for having come to Rome, obliging them to come to visit. There is no sense that they have come to get Paul to do something for them. And yet, you also get the sense that they came to be with Paul because it was the right place, the natural place, for them to be. Christians gather to Christians like the water drops that run and merge with each other on your windshield on a rainy day. There is a sense here in these verses that Paul was blessed by these visitors, who have reordered at least their immediate futures around him, and that they were blessed by spending time with Paul, too. That is the other curious evidence of the kind of love that comes from God: it has this way of filling us precisely in the act of giving ourselves away. For whatever losses these visitors have taken by coming to visit Paul from so far away, the sense of the text seems to be that they just couldn't help but come to be with this newly-arrived brother in Christ. And Paul himself, the great apostle and the author of half the New Testament, is blessed, enriched, and encouraged by these nameless ordinary Christians who have not died for him, but have certainly gone out of their way for him.
Maybe none of them knew how their actions would impact someone else--maybe even Paul couldn't get any more specific than "they encouraged me when I needed it" if he tried. But maybe something like this moment, or this kind of action, is what Paul had in mind when he wrote to the Corinthians that "your labor is not in vain," even though that labor might be small or unnoticed (1 Cor. 15:58). The love that binds the Christian community together is not lost, is not wasted, is not forgotten, even when it takes the form of time lost, efforts seemingly wasted, and plans dropped for the sake of going out of our way for someone else. Somehow, in the brilliant design of God, those seemingly forgettable moments when our acts of love do not look heroic, but ordinary, become channels of blessing in both directions. I am blessed by your going out of your way for me, and somehow, so are you. It's not something we can calculate or quite predict, but it is the way things are in the kingdom of God. We go out of our way for one another, knowing we have seen such love in Jesus--who went out of his way, not only to death, but to wash feet, heal the sick, preach good news, and welcome sinners--all moments that took him "out of his way" on the journey to the cross, and yet were just what was needed at the moment.
Good Lord, break our obsessions with efficiency, so that we can make the space for love to take us out of our way sometimes--and find ourselves more fully in Your way.
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