Sunday Sermon, 6 September 2026
The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, St Andrew’s Church, Sedbergh
You can read the sermon below, or listen here:
A reading from St Paul’s Letter to the Romans
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a neighbour. Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law.
And do this, understanding the present time: the hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armour of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.
Romans 13.8–14 NRSVA
If there’s something that our culture seems to be able to agree on, it is the need for love. Back in 1967, The Beatles famously sang ‘All you need is Love’, and more recently in 2021 the band Coldplay released the hit song ‘Higher Power’ in which Chris Martin sings of being saved by a ‘Love Song’.
On one hand, Christians will want, naturally, to agree with this sentiment. After all, at first glance, St Paul seems to be saying a similar thing in our passage this morning from Romans: “Owe no one anything, except to love one another”. All you need is love! This chimes with many other passages in the New Testament that extol love, from the new commandment that Jesus gave his disciples to love one another in the Gospel of John, to St Paul’s declaration in 1 Corinthians that the greatest of all the virtues is Love.
But on the other hand, it does raise the question: “what is love?” What does love actually consist of? Does the Christian understanding of love correlate with contemporary understandings of love? A cynic might look at our culture’s obsession with love as a profitable way to sell hit singles, to market a new product, and to dodge asking the difficult questions. It also runs the risk of cheapening and distorting the virtue that is prized so highly in the New Testament.
And as Christians we’re not immune from this. It’s all too easy to speak of love in a superficial way, to pay lip service, but without allowing the love of God to truly challenge and transform our inner being, heart or attitudes.
Thankfully, when we look a little closer at our reading from Romans, the mists clear, and our subject comes sharply into focus.
In the book as a whole, St Paul grounds his message of love not in a general feeling or in emotionalism. Rather, it is seen specifically in the work of Christ on the cross. In an earlier chapter, Paul has said that: “God proves his love for us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5.8). God the Father, Son, and Spirit, working together in love to redeem us through Christ’s death and resurrection. That is the source and the power of Christian love.
And in our present passage, Paul is addressing the particular setting that this powerful demonstration of God’s love is worked out. He’s not talking about some abstract principle that can be evoked in wooly or vague terms. Rather, when Paul speaks of love, he has a specific and concrete idea in mind – the gathering of the local church. This is where the powerful love of God is on display.
As we saw last week, Paul is writing to the numerous Christian house groups in Rome. In this early stage of the Christian faith, there were no church buildings or public worship spaces. Christians would gather in each others homes, and they would eat together and share a communal meal, which has sometimes been referred to as a ‘love feast’, or an agape meal. This meal is in Paul’s mind as he writes these chapters of Romans. The meal would include some elements of the eucharist, or holy communion, but it would also incorporate more general sharing of food, of prayers, and of fellowship. (That’s why in the next chapter, Paul has quite a lot to say on how to behave when eating together).
It is in this context, in the sharing of daily life in fellowship and worship, that we see the specifically Christian understanding of love come into focus. Love is present when we meet together and treat one another as beloved brothers and sisters. Paul draws here on the teaching of Jesus, who is likewise drawing on the ancient Hebrew teaching of the book of Leviticus, that the commandments are summed up in a simple word: “Love your neighbour as yourself”.
It is worth pausing on this point, and asking why it is that the love that is on display as we gather for worship and fellowship should fulfil the law.
St Paul refers to four of the commandments specifically: to commit adultery, to murder, to steal, and to covet. The temptation in all these cases is to use others for personal gain, and in so doing to reduce their humanity. When we sin against someone, they become diminished in our eyes. They are no longer a person in their own right. They are simply a means to an end. They serve our purposes, and we overlook their personhood and dignity.
In contrast to this, when we meet with others in worship, we begin to view one another not as a means to an end, but as a good in themselves. As we come before God the Father, in union with Christ, and in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, we know ourselves to be part of the family of God. We learn to recognise and respect one another as fellow children of God. In the next chapter, Paul builds on this point as he tells the Roman believers: “Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died” (Romans 14:15). The law is fulfilled when we recognise and embrace one another’s true humanity in Christ. When we love our neighbour as ourselves.
As we have considered, much of our cultural language around love can often seem vacuous.
This is in part because of the modern globalised world that we now live in. Vast societal structures obscure the humanity of the other. We hear voices online and in the media, but these are too often disembodied and depersonalised. The loudest, angriest voices rise to the top, and create what has been called an ‘echo chamber’. In this context, talk of love can become a cliché or a remote idea.
According to St Paul, the antidote to this is to be found within the local community, and the local church. In this context, real, lived relationships are nurtured. It is here that we discover true love, as hear of God’s gracious love for us, and are inspired to love one another as neighbours, as friends, as brothers and sisters in Christ. This is the community we seek to welcome others into, as we share the good news of the Gospel in this place.
As we participate in the ordinary moments of life, a conversation over coffee, listening to one another’s experiences, offering a helping hand – let us be thankful for these real, tangible experiences of God’s love in the body of Christ.
Amen.