Please Click Here for Sermon Download
I’m sure you have heard the phrase, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” It’s been around since the 300’s AD and is attributed to St. Ambrose who was Bishop of Milan which is about 500-600 km from Rome. The church in Rome had different fast days than the church in Milan. St. Ambrose was advising Christians traveling to Rome to do what they do in Rome so as not to offend.
Today, the phrase is often used to advise international travellers to be aware of the customs and practices of the cultures they are visiting so as not to be offensive. Being an American who lives abroad and who has also travelled a bit and observed other Americans travelling, the phrase does not seem to mean that. It rather seems to mean something akin to “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” When in Rome do as the Romans seems to mean party hard like it’s a Bacchanalian feast. Bacchus was the Roman God of feasting. The feasts they celebrated in his honour made Ivy League frat parties look like a four-year-old having tea with her favourite teddy bears.
Ambrose’s advice was good advice for Christians travelling to Rome to visit other Christians. God help you if you offended the Romans. But I think otherwise, when it came to visiting unChristian Rome, your stereotypical American tourist would have fit right in. Romans travelling abroad could be just as insular. They thought that the way the Romans did things was the way everybody else should do it and they had a military to back it up. As things were in ancient Rome, so also they are still today. Things were run by a number of very wealthy families particularly the men heading the families. Most people were poor. Government was about as corrupt as governments can be. Everything was “scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”. You had to be careful not to offend the reputation of another, or rather the inflated ego of another, or vengeance would be sought against you. It was a very vengeful culture.
If I had to sum up Roman culture, I would say look at what Paul says here. If my suspicion is correct, he has done a pretty good job here of encouraging Roman Christians to do the exact opposite of the Roman way. Let me see if I can do the great reversal here. The Roman way would have been more like:
“Feign love to get what you want from others. Show a semblance of love only to your own family. Trust no one’s motives for no one is good. Only show honour to those of a higher social status. Be zealous in making a name for yourself. Always seek to climb that social ladder even at the cost of others. Don’t rely on hope, patience, or prayer. Only help the needy and show hospitality if there’s some gain in it for you. If someone wrongs you, put a curse on them. Only show sympathy to those from whom you have something to gain. Always try to get others to do things your way. Be overconfident and boastful. Always try to get a foot in the door with those higher up the ladder than you and have as little to do as possible with people who are lesser than you. Betray others. It’s expected. When your honour is offended you must seek vengeance by any means. You cannot let an offense go unanswered. Never show kindness to your enemy. Rather, burn their house down. Conquering is the Roman way and who cares if you have to do evil to come out on top.”
If my suspicion is correct, the way Paul is encouraging the Roman Christians to live sounds more like, “When in Rome, don’t do as the Romans do.” Let love be genuine. Love everybody the way you would love your family. Do good. Be zealous for what is right. Be humble. Bring honour to others, not just yourself. Be a servant of the Lord. Share what you have. Show hospitality as a way of life. Bless those who offend and persecute you. Don’t curse or begrudge them. Have empathy and show sympathy. Return no one evil for evil. Live honourably before everyone. Be at peace with everyone. Do not seek vengeance. Let God vindicate you. Seek the well-being even of your enemies, it will prick their consciences. Conquer evil by doing good.”
The way Paul encourages the Roman Christians was as uncharacteristically Roman back then as it is uncharacteristic of life in today’s world of reality show drama. Imagine if the world we live in was founded on things like humility, selfless love, peace, harmony, and putting the real needs of others first so that everybody has enough instead of this seek your own gain, win, build a privacy fence around your house world that we live in.
Here's a story to help your imagination: A Western aid worker went to a village in southern Africa and one day decided to have one of those Western-style esteem building games for the children. He put candy at the foot of a tree and told the children, “I want you to race. Whoever gets to the tree first will be the winner and gets to have all the candy. On your marks. Get set. Go." And off they went. Unexpectedly, they all held hands and skipped off to the tree together. When they got to the tree, they all sat down and shared the candy and laughed and had a good time. The aid worker was shocked and asked them why nobody tried to win so that they could have all the candy. The children said one word, “Ubuntu.” “What is ubuntu?” the aid worker asked. They answered, “How can one of us be happy if all of us are sad?” There is no such thing as joy unless everyone shares it.
Ubuntu is a word from the Bantu people living in southern Africa. It is one little word, but it takes several words in English to define it. It means “I am because we are.” No one is an island unto themselves. Humanity exists as people in a web of relationship. In that web the good we do builds everybody up. So also, the harm we do harms everyone. Thus, at the heart of what makes us human is interdependence, compassion, community mindedness, and forgiveness. One person seeking their own gain harms us all.
Paul was unknowingly encouraging the Roman Christians to seek ubuntu in a place that had lost its humanity. Though Rome called itself the greatest civilization ever, it was sorely lacking in anything resembling the image of God we are created in. Little has changed for us today. We think we are thus far living in the apex of human civilization, but... it should greatly concern us that more and more of those billionaires today are building doomsday bunkers. The people who have all the candy are bunkering down in fear of some great cataclysm. These are some crazy times. But I am of the persuasion that the more we who claim Jesus as Lord, the more we live ubuntu in his name the more humanity will change for the better.
In the first three centuries of the church, before Christianity was co-opted by the Roman Empire as its official religion, the followers of Jesus grew from a handful of disciples to a handful of households in Jerusalem to several millions of people spread all over the world. St. Athanasius of Alexandria wrote in the mid-300’s that we know Jesus was raised from the dead because the worship of the pagan gods has all but ceased. For two of those centuries Christians were outright persecuted. But the Church grew nevertheless. How? Ubuntu. While in the Roman Empire they did not do as the Romans did. They picked up their crosses and followed Jesus letting their love be genuine, honouring everyone, and not seeking vengeance for the wrongs done to them. Let us in these days of dwindling churches go and do the same. Amen.
