“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.”

With these words, Paul continues his train of thought of last Sunday’s Epistle Reading about the spiritual, or better translated, the ‘reasonable’ worship. A worship that Paul describes in a life, which is founded on God’s irreversible and life-giving promise in Baptism (Rom 6), and that – trusting in this promise – orientates towards God’s standards in Jesus Christ (Rom 7-8) , and tries to put them into practise, even in its daily routine. Paul continues this train of thought by making some concrete suggestions of how such a life, such a reasonable worship could look like. And he does it in two stages: Firstly, he describes, how the Christians in Rome should deal with each other, meaning within the congregational boundaries, within the church. Then, in a second step, Paul describes, how the Chris-tians in Rome should deal with their Non-Christian surroundings, how they should behave towards other people.By doing this, Pauls uses a strategy that we know from a totally different area, namely from team sport like soccer – you have noticed it, haven’t you: We have arrived in 2010. By firstly describing a reasonable worship amongst Christians before getting to a reasonable worship in view of others, Paul pro-ceeds exactly like a coach, who prepares his team for a match with a new tactic.
And there is a good reason, why Paul proceeds like this, even though he probably didn’t have sport in mind, when he wrote these words. The reason is the following: As it is good in sport, if all members of a team know and train one common tactic, and then play ac-cording to it, it is the same with a Christian congregation. Only by becoming, remaining and behaving in one Spirit, by ‘living in harmony with one another’ a Christian congregation can be in a positive way effective inwardly and outwardly. Because: What happens, if not all players of a team play in accor-dance with the team tactic. [Get examples from the congregation]. Realizing this in view of sport, we can also see why many things within a church or a congregation don’t work. The reasons for this inefficiency and disharmony might then be very different in detail. However, the fact that we grow up and live in a society that imparts and lives according to other standards than those of our Lord, is certainly a common cause. I am talking about standards, which make us think selfishly rather than for the common good of others. Influenced in such a way, we might be tempted to treat our faith and Jesus standards rather as something private: an inside matter, hidden from the surrounding world, just recognizable on Sunday mornings between 9h00 and 11h00; but definitely not as some-thing that has to do with others. However, if this happens, we lose as Christians and definitely as a Christian Congregation. We would be like players, who are part of a team just because of the nice looking outfit, but not because of the team and its success, not because of what this team stands and fights for. We would refrain from using and sharing our talents, our knowledge, and our strength, and thus we would not only cause damage in view of the congregation. We would also be overcome personally by our opponent: from evil, as Paul points it out directly after today’s word for the sermon. If we as Christians don’t live and play for Christ and his team, the church and congregation (our team) we play against Christ. There is no passive membership; we are all members of Christ’s team. It is for this reason that Paul encourages the Romans, and also us, to practise a baptismal life, a reasonable worship; firstly within our congregation, and then increasingly also towards other people: In devotion, in joyful and patient hope, faithful prayer (which applies especially to those members, who aren’t able to serve the Congregation in another way), in frankness and hospitality. These are training goals for every one of us as well as goals for our congregation. If we achieve them, together as a single minded team, they will enable us to have an effect also on our surround-ings; God will enable us to become a blessing for each other and for others; even for people, who hate us, and who wish us evil. Because: By living according to these goals, we can head off trouble and frustration in as much as every one of us will be able to find backup and support in our congregation, for we stay to-gether. Like-minded, not as a group of lone fighters, driven by personal ambitions, but always willing and enabled through faith in Christ, to question ourselves by means of God’s standards. Paul exemplarily points this out with the subject of vengeance. If we trust in God’s superiority, if we follow Christ’s example, we will abstain from any form of revenge – be it in our private life or in business. For revenge is something that leads into no good and damages cooperation and coexistence – not only in sports, where pay back fouls hurt the team the most, because one gets a red card.
Therefore: Where we as a Christian Congregation live a baptismal life according to the goals of a reasonable worship inwardly, and then also outwards, God makes us a blessing for others, and thus leads us towards the victory, which Paul describes as the over-coming of evil with good. And which other victory could there be for us as a Christian Con-gregation than people, who join us and our congregation in faith because of the good that they are experiencing here?