Blogging Through Romans: Romans 10: 18-21

Romans 10: 18-21

Here Paul jumps back in his hole, getting his fellow Jews mad at him. Paul is saying that all Jews need to do is look at their bibles and they’ll know who Jesus is. They have heard the faith that he talks about in the previous section.

Paul is trying to open the doors to all gentiles while slamming it in the faces of his fellow Jews.

At least that’s the way it looks in the surface. If you read further, you’ll see that Paul is setting his readers up for another expression of grace in chapter 11.

This is why we can’t read scripture simply by pulling out a verse here and there. Especially not in Paul’s writings. Paul has a way of writing that makes you think he’s saying one thing, then pull the rug out from under the reader. It’s a specific rhetorical strategy that he uses to reinforce the power of his argument.

That’s why we shouldn’t doze off while listening to him. And it’s also why he’s been so badly misunderstood by some people.

Blogging Through Romans: Romans 10: 5-17

Romans 10: 5-17

You may have heard about the “Romans Road” method of evangelism, where the would-be evangelist takes the unbeliever through scattered verses in Romans and ends up on 10:9: “...if you believe in your heart and confess with your lips that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved.”

Makes it easy. Salvation just means confessing and believing. All you need are the right tools.

The problem is, this method puts the onus on the non-believer, not with God. This popular verse of scripture ignores the work of the Holy Spirit in the salvation event. And that confessing and believing means that “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved” (v. 13).

After Paul talks about confessing and believing as the mode of salvation in verses 9-13, he then asks:

But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?”

I don’t think this passage is a call to evangelism, even though we use it that way. In fact, this was my ordination text. I read it as a summons to proclaim the good news as my life’s work.

But now I think Paul is speaking rhetorically. He ends this section with another popular verse (especially among Lutherans, since this was one of Luther’s favorite bible passages), “So, faith comes from what it heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.”

So, faith isn’t something we can argue people into. Faith always comes from outside ourselves. Faith comes from hearing and receiving God’s Word, which is Jesus Christ.

Paul is saying that we can't debate people into faith, we can’t prove the validity of faith scientifically, and we can’t use our best sales tactics to bring people to faith. This also means that our programs, gimmicks, tools, and methods, may bring people into church, but they don’t bring people into faith.

“Faith comes by hearing,” Paul says, “and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.”

Our job is to tell people about Jesus. It’s God’s job to do the rest. I don’t know about you but that lifts a HUGE burden off my shoulders!

Blogging Through Romans: Romans 9: 30-10:4

Romans 9: 30-10:4

Paul digs the hole deeper. He calls his fellow Jews “ignorant” and “unenlightened” for not having faith in Jesus. Paul confesses a desire that they be saved, but he seems to suggest that chasing after works of the Law as a means to righteousness is, in fact, a form of faithlessness.

Which, in a sense it is. After all, if they’re pursuing righteousness through obedience to the Law, they are saying that it isn’t faith that makes them righteous, but obeying the Law does.

But also, Paul also seems to be saying that such an act of faithlessness is worse than other forms of faithlessness. Either the Jews have been chosen or they have NOT been chosen. If faith is a gift then the people of Israel can’t be faulted for not having that gift.

Christ may be “the end of the Law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes” (10:4) but does that also mean that obedience to the Law is sinful? I’m not saying that we SHOULD be under the Law, but Paul does seem to suggest that the Jewish Christians are “unrighteous” because of their insistence on obeying the Law’s demands.

Paul seems to be needlessly creating an Us vs Them attitude toward Jewish non-Christians. This is why Jews today see Paul as anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic. They counter Paul by saying that the Law was never meant to make them righteous. They aren’t in obedience to the Law so they can be in a good relationship with God. They obey the Law because it is a gift from God to establish them as a unique people, beloved by God. The Law gives them stability and identity, not righteousness.

They might even agree with Paul when he says that the Law does not justify. That’s not the Law’s job. But they would disagree with Paul when he says that the Law condemns. They say the Law gives them life.

Paul may have been responding to a specific fight in the church between Jewish Christians and their gentile brothers and sisters. But we’ve universalized this fight, and in doing so, misrepresented what Jewish people believe today about the Law.

Blogging Through Romans: Romans 9: 19-29

Romans 9: 19-29

This is where Paul gets into trouble with some of his Jewish friends. A big part of his theology is that Christ is the fulfillment of God’s covenant with Israel. And now Paul is saying that, because many of his fellow Jews haven’t recognized Jesus as Messiah, God is going to cut them loose.

At least that’s what it sounds like he’s saying. And a lot of Christians decided that Jews were fair game for aggressive evangelism because of this passage.

Paul quotes from the prophet Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not my beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”

God is opening the doors to all people. God’s Messiah will be for all people. First for the Jew, then for the gentile.

It doesn’t make sense to say, on one hand, that God chooses an elect, then on the other hand, God rejects them because they don’t have the proper faith. If God chooses then God chooses.

I think Paul is having an argument with his earlier self about how Jesus fits into Jewish thinking and believing. But even more than that, Paul is arguing with some Jewish Christians who don’t want gentiles in their fellowship.

Is Social Media a Fad?

What does this mean for faith communities?

The Diversity Culture? As opposed to what? The Conformity Culture?

Clearly, I'm not the target audience for this book. I don't find the idea of diversity controversial. In fact, I find it astonishing that the notion of “diversity” is even under discussion. Especially to the point where Matthew Raley needs to guide an anxious reader through it.

I'll save you the twenty bucks. The book can be summed up thusly: people are more than the boxes we put them in or categories we create. So, throw away your stereotypes and prejudices and love people like Jesus did (does).

Stop the presses.

While Raley tries his darndest to assure the reader that the “diversity culture” isn't really as bad or scary as they might think, I couldn't help but think as I was reading, “The problem isn't 'diversity'! The problem is the culture of compliance that is your primary audience! The problem isn't this 'emerging' culture. The problem is that some Christians confuse cultural and political power with God's power!”

According to the book jacket, “A new culture has emerged. It preaches spiritual openness, moral flexibility, and social diversity – and its making evangelicals feel uncomfortable. Threatened. Excluded.”

What “new culture” is he talking about? The “diversity culture” may be “new” to some evangelicals who've secluded themselves in the suburbs for the last half century. But for anyone who's been paying attention since the 1960's will note that diversity is not “new.” Nor is it an ideology to resist or to be guided through. It's a present reality due to the fact that self-expression is the cornerstone of what it means to live in the 21st century western world.

Raley means well. But I wonder if this book should have been written 40 years ago. The fact that this book apparently needed to be written tells me that there's a problem within some evangelical/conservative/red state thinking.

If they're feeling “threatened” they need to ask themselves WHAT is being threatened. Is it loss of privilege? Trouble finding their place in a changing world they had no hand in creating? The loss of safety in the majority? The disappearance of a past that never really existed?

I don't know if I'm encouraged or saddened by the fact that they're just figuring out now that we don't live in a binary universe, that traditional rural values do not equal historic faith, that Christ's mission is not to create a “Christian culture” but a New Creation, that our job as Christians is to love people without an agenda.

If any of the above is news to you, then you might find Raley's book helpful. Even challenging. But those who've had their eyes open for the past four decades might want to take a pass on this one.


NB: This review is part of my Viral Blogging obligation.

Blogging Through Romans: Romans 9: 6-17

Romans 9: 6-17

“I have loved Jacob. But I have hated Esau.”

I like to make fun of my Presbyterian friends because of what church reformer John Calvin made of this and similar passages. Calvin (who’s writings influenced the Presbyterian Church) talked about “Double Predestination” which means that God decided before the world began who was destined for eternal bliss in heaven, and who better load up on cosmic aloe vera. He, like Paul, called folks headed for heaven, the “elect.” The people destined for Hell, Calvin called “reprobate,” Nice, eh?

But I think Calvin made too much out of this passage. I think Paul was merely reiterating what he said earlier that we are not in control of our being righteous before God, that it’s because of faith that God declares us righteous.

“I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,” God says, “I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”

In other words, God decides who God will choose to be righteous.

But does this just send us back to God deciding who sleeps under the divine palm tree and who ends up roasting in the eternal bonfire?

Not necessarily. Canadian theologian Douglas John Hall says that God doesn’t choose people for salvation, but for vocation. Just as God chose the people of Israel to be a “Light to the Nations” God chooses us as Christians to be the “Light of the World.”

You have been baptized, named, claimed, and chosen by God to shine with God’s holy light. As Jesus says, “Light your light so shine before others, so they may see your good works and glorify your God, who is in heaven” (Matthew 5: 16).

And when God’s New Creation finally comes in it’s fullness, the dead shall rise, and everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

Sermon: Pentecost 18B Romans Series

Pentecost 18B - Romans Series from Good Shepherd on Vimeo.

Text:

"We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”

We know that, do we? That's something we can ALL agree on, is it?

We know that all things work together for good or those who love God, who are called according to God's purpose.”

There are days when I don't like this verse. Not because I don't think it's true. But the days I don't like this verse are the days when, it's misused, when I hear it as a cop-out, a way of protecting our beliefs against the mystery of suffering. When its used to push aside or even dismiss other peoples' pain from someone who's uncomfortable with strong feelings. When it's used as an easy answer to life's hardest question.

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to God's purpose.”

If only it were that easy. If only we could always trust that it were true. If only those words worked like a magic formula when pain arrives at our front door.

But there are days when it's hard to make sense of what Paul is saying.

When staring at the...(whole text here)

Blogging Through Romans: Romans 9:1-5

Romans 9: 1-5

Clearly, Paul’s new Christian vocation is rubbing hard against his Jewishness. He knows something has changed. Either he has changed or his fellow Jews have. Paul evidently still feels deep kinship towards his fellow Jews, even to the point that he wishes “that I myself have been accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh.”

But, of course, he can’t. Paul spends a good amount of time in the chapters leading up to this demonstrating how he is bound to Christ. Christ’s Church is now his family, whether he likes it or not. Jesus put him where he is. And even if Paul wanted to go back to his earlier life, he couldn’t. Saul is dead. Paul is alive.

I can relate to Paul. I know what Paul is feeling. Often, when I spend time with non-Christian friends from home, I feel a sense of loss. Sometimes I think that the “old” Kevin has been lost, and the “new” Kevin is a diminished version of the old. I remember the excitement of questioning, or exploring new ideas about who God is, the challenge of being confronted with the God of the bible.

But I can’t go back. God has changed me and is changing me. I came to realize that “new” doesn’t mean “diminished.”

The same is for you. God is busy transforming you into a new person. That means that the old has passed away. It often means saying good-bye to an old life, an old, comfortable way of looking at the world and relating to others.

But God didn’t say that being a new creation would be easy. The best description Paul could come up with was child birth. And anyone who’s been in a delivery room while a baby is being born will tell you that bear new life is not pretty or pain-free. But out of that suffering, a new life emerges.

How is God changing you? Do you see evidence of transformation? What do you miss about your “old” life? What would you like God to change in your life?

Blogging through Romans: Romans 8: 1-17

Romans 8: 1-17

Here Paul’s Greek education is rearing its ugly head. Not that his Greek education was bad, but that it moved him away from his Hebrew roots.

The Hebrews believed that God was present on earth, in people, plants, animals, things. The Greek believed that the earth was evil and that heaven was good. They made a distinction between the “spirit” which was good. And the “flesh” which was bad.

Sound familiar? It sounds like Paul was reading Plato rather than Moses when he wrote this chapter. He talks about the spirit as “life” and the Flesh as “death.”

This is called dualism. And it’s VERY common in popular spiritualities. Cruise the spirituality sections of the bookstore and there’s a plethora of books dedicated to helping us transcend our bodies and commune with God in the spiritual realm.

But God was more interested in how reaching us on earth then in getting us to heaven. We pray “Thy Kingdom come ON EARTH as it is in heaven” rather than praying for US to go UP to God. God comes down. The fullness of God and heaven was/is present in Jesus - the Word made Flesh.

But if you notice, when Paul says “You are not in the flesh; you are in the spirit” he’s not talking literally. He’s saying that God has renewed you because the same Spirit that brought Jesus back from the dead is inside you as well. So go and live your resurrection life!

Blogging Through Romans: Romans 7: 14-25

Romans 7: 14-25

In the book (and movie) Lord of the Rings, the character Gollum struggles with both the good and evil living inside him. The good side of him wants to obey his master, Frodo, but that evil part wants to murder his master and his friend. There’s a scene where Gollum struggles with both sides of his nature, fighting until one side vanishes.

I think we too, struggle with the good in us - the part made new and which loves God. And the evil, selfish part that that just won't go away.

Paul is under no illusion that we human beings become perfect and pure after coming to faith in Jesus. He knows the evil we’re capable of. He sees within himself (and us) a war between those two natures, fighting for dominance.

Luther called this simul iustis et peccator. Badly translated, simultaneously saint and sinner. Both Paul and Luther knew that the Christian life was NOT one upward climb until we reached perfect holiness.

They knew that we will always fight with our sinful selves, until that day when God will make the whole world new, and finish what God started when Jesus burst from the tomb, the firstborn of the new creation.

Blogging Through Romans: Romans 7: 7-13

Romans 7: 7-13

On the surface, he’s talking about the Law of Moses, Jewish Law. But underneath all that he’s talking about all those unnecessary demands that we heap on people.

Lutheran theology talks about three uses of the Law. Actually two, the third being rejected by the ELCIC and for good reason.

The 1st use is – and I LOVE this term: Civic Righteousness. Even the heathen can do this, Luther says. This is good governance, making sure the street lights work, garbage is collected, and your neighbour can't steal your car. This is civil law. It's what we need to make sure we're not overrun by chaos.

The 2nd use is called the Theological Use: This is what Paul is talking about in today's passage when he says that “No human being will be justified in God’s sight” by deeds of the Law for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” That’s his way of saying that the only thing the Law can do is condemn us. That’s the Law’s job. The Law is to rub our noses in our sin, to drive us to the cross for mercy and forgiveness. Paul is saying that the more we try to obey the law, the more we fall into sin.

So, stop trying. He says. And stop making others live by the law. You have been set free from the Law. Now, live by the grace and forgiveness that God has given you as a gift. God is transforming you from the inside out. No longer do you have to worry that you fail, or if there’s sin in your life. Jesus took you sin, your failure, even your death with him to the grave and rose again in victory.