Pastor Darren: We're starting a series on Romans.
Pastor Darren: I'm beginning to regret trying to fit in Romans when we have confirmation and graduation.
Pastor Darren: We'll see how that goes.
Pastor Darren: We trying to fit in one of the more complex theological letters of our Bible in the little cracks that we're left with after confirmation.
Pastor Darren: But uh like I written uh wrote in the introduction, it is probably the most comprehensive letter.
Pastor Darren: Uh a lot of the uh uh originating thoughts you can see in other letters, and then you can see the maturing and the culmination that happens in Romans, which is uh why uh um a lot of people see it as kind of that comprehensive, uh probably coming a little later in his uh uh um uh in his, we'll call it a career, his calling, his ministry.
Pastor Darren: Uh and in general, because of the nature of Christianity and the reality of the presence in this at this time of Jews and Christians, and Jews and Gentiles, and all of there's there's some diversity there.
Pastor Darren: And he's speaking to these churches that are filled with people who have come from the Jewish faith to now be in the Christian community and walking that journey, but also people who have come not from that journey with all its its laws and and it's explicitness.
Pastor Darren: And so there's a lot of arguments that are happening in these early churches.
Pastor Darren: This is nothing new.
Pastor Darren: I've probably preached that many, many, many times.
Pastor Darren: Uh and uh Paul's message, rather than being some kind of dry theological, uh, I'm trying to explain the world, what he's doing is trying to preach to a divided community of Jews and Gentiles.
Pastor Darren: And he's trying to show how the gospel is for everyone.
Pastor Darren: The gospel's leveling the playing field, it's breaking down the walls of distinction and disagreement that we often make for ourselves.
Pastor Darren: So that's the book itself.
Pastor Darren: Now, digging into Romans 2, he's coming in pretty hot, isn't he?
Pastor Darren: No, I don't know.
Pastor Darren: It seems there's a lot of the wrath and uh, you know, God coming with judgment, and then nobody felt uncomfortable in here.
Pastor Darren: I know some of you, y'all should have been a little uncomfortable.
Pastor Darren: I know what's going on out here.
Pastor Darren: He's hot.
Pastor Darren: Yeah, there right.
Pastor Darren: Me and Michael, yeah, we were properly uh like straightened up.
Pastor Darren: Yeah, that's us right here.
Pastor Darren: No, it kind of hot.
Pastor Darren: I like to think that he kind of walked into this.
Pastor Darren: He'd had a chance to really build up some frustration with what these churches were doing, and obviously he's focused largely on judging each other, right?
Pastor Darren: A big part of the argument he's making here this early is about how judging in and of itself is sinful.
Pastor Darren: Right?
Pastor Darren: He writes how the Jew and the Greek will find anguish from this judging.
Pastor Darren: Can we attest to some of that anguish in our own lives, our anger, our frustration, our anxiety about different things that are going on in the world because of how we have imposed our feelings about how it's supposed to work?
Pastor Darren: I think the key phrase for Paul here is Jew and the Greek.
Pastor Darren: Paul, including both, and dare I say, speaking to all of us, he adds, God shows no partiality.
Pastor Darren: I think there's a big lesson for us here in 2026, living in the United States.
Pastor Darren: We've polarized ourselves really, really good.
Pastor Darren: And the root of that polarization is the permission we've given ourselves to judge each other.
Pastor Darren: We've put ourselves in God's place by saying, My way is the godly and right way.
Pastor Darren: Closing the door to God's influence.
Pastor Darren: Paul comes to us here and he says, You think this judgment, this judgment that you have is not a problem for your faith?
Pastor Darren: The anger you feel towards particular groups, the turmoil in your soul for the world and its future.
Pastor Darren: This is kind of the thing that landed us on that gift for the confirmans.
Pastor Darren: The old turtle book.
Pastor Darren: I don't know if you heard you know some of what Carissa was telling about the story, right?
Pastor Darren: We had uh uh in this mythical time when animals and elements of nature could all speak and communicate, they start to argue over who or what God really is.
Pastor Darren: And here, this is what's kind of interesting about the book.
Pastor Darren: The breeze says that God is a wind.
Pastor Darren: Not surprising.
Pastor Darren: The mountain calls God a snowy peak.
Pastor Darren: The Robin says God is gentle, and the bear says God is powerful.
Pastor Darren: Is that surprising?
Pastor Darren: You see what's underlying happening here?
Pastor Darren: Everybody's projecting their own identity on who God really is, and the argument grows louder and louder, more discordant, and then the old turtle shows up.
Pastor Darren: The wise turtle rarely speaks and tells them to stop.
Pastor Darren: She tells them that all of their individual unique perspectives are true.
Pastor Darren: God is all things and more.
Pastor Darren: Here's a famous line from the book.
Pastor Darren: I'm spoiling it for you, but you know what?
Pastor Darren: You've had twenty-something years to read it.
Pastor Darren: You should have been on it.
Pastor Darren: God is indeed deep and much higher than high, but gentle and powerful above all things and within all things.
SPEAKER_00: God is Echoes of Moses at the burning bush, right?
Pastor Darren: God is all of that.
Pastor Darren: The turtle, the old turtle, also predicts that people were going to arrive, and they were going to be this strange new creature that that brings the world together.
Pastor Darren: They'll be distinct and different colors, shapes, and powers.
Pastor Darren: Uh, and then the people appear, and then they quickly forget to connect with the nature around them and with each other.
Pastor Darren: Guess what?
Pastor Darren: They start arguing about who God is.
Pastor Darren: Eventually, the people stop fighting, they listen to the messages from God that are coming through the mountains, that are coming through the winds, the stones, the stars, and they remember to hear and see God in one another and in the beauty of the earth, which allows the planet and the people to heal.
Pastor Darren: Silly, silly children's books with so little to say.
Pastor Darren: I'm resisting the urge to tell the Confirmans you're the ones to fix this polarized world.
Pastor Darren: It's your turn.
Pastor Darren: I'm resistant because I remember hearing the same thing when I was young.
Pastor Darren: It's your turn.
Pastor Darren: I feel like our challenge is to figure out how to live what we believe with a humility that allows us to stay open to God and God's message for us.
Pastor Darren: Our turn to the judgment of others, it clouds that capacity to hear God.
Pastor Darren: We start listening to our own vision of God instead of the real thing.
Pastor Darren: Maybe the best wisdom we can offer comes from, I apologize, here he is again, Richard Rohr.
Pastor Darren: It's a big Richard Rohr year.
Pastor Darren: I don't know how many of you are on the devotion, but I just had to go there because it just was echoing in my brain.
Pastor Darren: It is part of his whole uh um group called the Center for Action and Contemplation.
Pastor Darren: They have some basic uh rules for living in this world, and this one is particularly useful today.
SPEAKER_00: The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better.
Pastor Darren: Maybe we should stop trying to convince each other of all we understand and just live out what we know to be true about the love of God and the world.
Pastor Darren: Amen.