![Romans [Season 2]: Romans 9vv1-18- Ian Graham: Urgency. Dreaming. Artwork](https://www.buzzsprout.com/rails/active_storage/representations/redirect/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBCSEoyeHdnPSIsImV4cCI6bnVsbCwicHVyIjoiYmxvYl9pZCJ9fQ==--24e9c9a29cbbe764c068c0a1e90734fbf657fa47/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaDdDVG9MWm05eWJXRjBPZ2hxY0djNkUzSmxjMmw2WlY5MGIxOW1hV3hzV3docEFsZ0NhUUpZQW5zR09nbGpjbTl3T2d0alpXNTBjbVU2Q25OaGRtVnlld1k2REhGMVlXeHBkSGxwUVRvUVkyOXNiM1Z5YzNCaFkyVkpJZ2x6Y21kaUJqb0dSVlE9IiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJ2YXJpYXRpb24ifX0=--1924d851274c06c8fa0acdfeffb43489fc4a7fcc/Romansdraft1.jpg)
Ecclesia Princeton
Ecclesia Princeton
Romans [Season 2]: Romans 9vv1-18- Ian Graham: Urgency. Dreaming.
Pastor Ian Graham starts our second round of Romans as we begin our summer book series.
We have not done this before. So what we're going to try to do is kind of transport ourselves back to a sermon series that we started last summer. So in hopes we started with the book of Romans last summer that hypothetically we would pick it up again this summer and, like those people that make lists and write things down they've already done we're going to give ourselves a little credit here. We're now going to pick up in Romans, in the second half of the book, in Romans, chapter 9. So we'll be starting that. That'll carry us through the summer. Often, throughout the summer, we like to cover the course of a book of the Bible, and so our book will be the second half of Romans. Now imagine with me and this is no shade if any of you went to a community college. Okay, that's a good place, all right. But like we live in Princeton and you're walking through the streets of Princeton and everything about Princeton has prestige and education written all over it, right, and you go to your community college and you're like you know who the best educators, community college, and you're like you know who the best educators, the best institution in the world? It's Tulsa Community College, mercer County Community College, and you are just so staunch in that belief. Obviously, people will be looking at you sideways and you're like you know what was my safety school, princeton? You know what was my first choice Mercer County. That's where I'm at Now. Again, nothing wrong with that. But if you were having that kind of discussion with someone, they'd be looking at you like what are you talking about? Are you serious? Like, are you seeing all the buildings? Are you seeing the magnitude and the magnificence of this place? And you with your little, you know linoleum classroom are saying how great. This is right, it'd be very interesting, but there's not all that dissimilar from what the earliest Christians were doing. Remember, we have to always do this the Bible is not divine communications written to random times and places. It is God's word to real people in real time and space.
Speaker 1:And so the first thing we have to account for we're talking about the book of Romans is that these people are presumably in Rome. And if you think about what you know about the Roman Empire, especially at this point in history we're talking somewhere in the 50s AD, especially at this point in history, we're talking somewhere in the 50s AD we're basically at the height of the Roman apex. So these Christians of which we're talking, a city of anywhere between a million, a million and a half, two million people, based upon different estimates so in this city of at least a million people there are maybe, maybe a couple hundred Christians you think about that ratio and they're walking to go to a church. Presumably they're meeting as a church in the house of a wealthy person, because most people lived in these kind of tenement houses in the top floors of these fire hazard buildings with no windows and no ventilation, in the top floors of these fire hazard buildings with no windows and no ventilation, and so presumably there was one member of the church who had some space where they could put several people. But as they walk to this church gathering, everything they see tells them that Rome is the ultimate, the apex of humanity. The statues, the buildings, the inscriptions, everything is just saying this is the true story of the world.
Speaker 1:And yet these Christians are making their way to their little church gathering and they're saying Rome has all of its pretensions and all of its stories about its might, and yet we have the true story of the world. Caesar has his claims to be Lord, and yet we know that Jesus is in fact, lord, this Jesus, who was crucified under the authority of Caesar, is the true Lord of all the earth. Caesar has his Pax Romana, his peace that is given to the world, that is maintained by brutality, by taxation, by ideological colonization, but we have the peace of Christ which, as he will write in another letter, surpasses all understanding and is not won by the blood of shedding one's enemies, but by the blood given freely of Jesus. You can see the juxtaposition of this story right Gathering in a room like this one and saying this is the center point of what it means to be human, and then walking outside and be like, wow, these are big buildings and we have to put ourselves in the shoes of these first Roman Christians, because these are the people that help us to hear these words.
Speaker 1:Well, now, as we talked about when we first opened this book last year, after the death of the emperor Claudius in about 54 AD, jewish people that had been largely expelled from the city. So there was a revolt in Rome and Claudius, as so often is the case, decided to scapegoat a group of people, and the people that he chose, as is so often the case and throughout our history, was the Jewish people, and so all of the people who were ethnically Jewish had to leave the city. Now the church persists meeting during this time, and so, whereas the church previously was probably made up of a mixture of Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians, the Jewish people are then removed from the city, so then the Gentile Christians step into places of authority and leadership. They get accustomed to just doing things the ways that are comfortable for them. We all have preferences, right? It's one of the hard things about showing up to church. We all have our things we like. We all have our songs, we like the ways of singing those songs that we like, and conversely, we have things we don't like. You know, people start doing that. You're like oh, not that again. And so the Gentiles had probably become a little comfortable, and maybe, maybe have you ever made a theological justification for why something happened. Perhaps in their heart of hearts, in the darkness, they're saying you know what? The Jewish people probably deserve this. They probably had this coming to them, and so they've become comfortable in their settled form of church.
Speaker 1:And now we're reintroducing a whole population back into Rome, and so much of what Romans is about, as in so many other of Paul's letters, is about how do these two groups, jew and Gentile, live together? Ephesians 2,. He has broken down the wall of hostility which divides you and made peace by his blood. He's talking about people, groups, that have been historically at odds with one another, because the vision of the scriptural story has always been about God creating one covenant family, one new humanity, knowledge of God covering the earth like waters cover the sea, in the words of Isaiah. And so we see this in micro happening in Rome these people trying to figure out how to live together. We've just scaled the heights with Paul, and one of the things that we have to do when we're reading Paul's writing which Paul is the author of Romans is to trace what we are focusing on back to what has come before. So what comes before? Romans 9? Romans 8. Wow, I knew, I knew I was in like, really, really good hands here, and if you've ever been to a funeral, I had the honor of reading Romans 8 at my grandfather's funeral and you want to talk about telling the good news in the midst of sadness and grief and death.
Speaker 1:It's worth rehearing again today Romans 8, verse 31. What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us? Who is against us? He who did not withhold his own son but gave him up for all of us. How will he not, with him, also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ who died, or rather who is raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword? Interestingly, paul would be executed by the Roman government by the sword. No, in all these things, we are more than victorious through him who loved us, for I'm convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen and amen. And it's this that brings us to Romans 9. And it seems that Paul's tone shifts rapidly here from rapturous heights to lament.
Speaker 1:Romans 9, verse 1. I'm speaking and remember. It bears repeating that these letters, though we have them in written form for the people that were gathering in church. Many of them were not literary, they could not read, and so they're gathering as a church and they're hearing these letters read, and these letters sound like long sermons. Now, if you want to think about how long it would take us to read Romans 1 through 16, then you'll be thankful for the length of my sermons. Then you'll be thankful for the length of my sermons.
Speaker 1:Alright, romans 9, verse 1. I'm speaking the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. Who will ever be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord, I'm speaking the truth in Christ. I have great sorrow, unceasing anguish, for I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own brothers and sisters, my own flesh and blood. They are Israelites and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Christ who is over all. God blessed forever. Amen.
Speaker 1:We see that Paul, drawing from these heights, is now drawing back to his own personal lineage and story. Paul in Romans 8 has been speaking of the impossibility of any earthly or spiritual force separating us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, but then he turns his attention to a potential challenge to his beautiful and soaring statement. And we have to get around Paul's argument here because it will give shape to everything that comes next. Romans 9 is a historically complex chapter and we'll get into some of the complexity next week and really I'll bring you into my first crisis of faith in reading Romans 9, but that's for next week.
Speaker 1:Paul is a Jewish man and when he talks about his own brothers and sisters, the NRSV translates it my own flesh and blood. The NIV says my own race. He's talking about those who are related to him ethnically and he's offering a shorthand of their history and their story with God. To these Israelites belong adoption as a people Deuteronomy talks about. You were not a people once you were not a people, and yet I brought you out of slavery in Egypt and I adopted you as my own, the glory of God. Paul references here descending at places like Sinai and the temple, the covenants given to Abraham and David, the giving of the law to Moses, the worship of tabernacle and temple, the patriarchs Abraham, isaac, jacob, moses. It's from their own very story that Christ, at the beginning of Matthew's gospel, at the very beginning of Luke's gospel, traces his family of origin.
Speaker 1:How, then, paul is beginning to pose the question could all of Paul's race, his ethnically Jewish brethren and sistren, not have received the good news that Jesus is the Messiah? Sure, some have responded to this good news, paul being one of them. But how is it so that God has fulfilled his promises and yet it seems that so many of the people who are the people of the promise are not responding to it? It's a poignant question and, as we see, for Paul, it's not a question that he asks in sort of sterile philosophy. I am anguished. I wish that I could be cut off for the sake of my people.
Speaker 1:Paul's assessment of their current state leads him to despair, and we cannot miss the subtle point that is here. To be far from Christ in the words of the Greek here in Romans 9, is to be anathema, a curse, and Paul is displaying how he feels in saying that he wishes in some way that he could take the curse on behalf of his people. Paul's broken heart and urgency should inspire and motivate us towards those who don't know Jesus and don't know that they are loved by him. These people are not just misguided or missing out, not just living lesser lives, but, as Paul says, they stand under the curse of the fall that Jesus has already redeemed us from. It's not that God is cursing them, but they have not received the blessing that God has given to undo and redeem all that is cursed, and that should make us a bit anxious and anguished for them, as it does for Paul when we walk outside.
Speaker 1:Again. We can't judge people's hearts. We don't know individual strangers' stories, but we do know, when we interact with people, that there are people in our lives that are far from Jesus, and so often I think we're just able to sort of consign them to oh you know, maybe they'll figure it out, and perhaps God has put you in their lives as a beacon, as a light set on a hill, and that we can be a people, gently and winsomely, a people though that are saying it is my heart's ambition and my desire that you would come to know Jesus. And we see what Paul is saying here. The Israelites, paul's fellow Jewish people, have a long, accumulated history with the God revealed in Christ. How is it that all of them have not responded to the good news? How can we say with any confidence that God keeps his promises?
Speaker 1:You see, throughout history people have seen the wider outlay of the scriptural story and determined that God, in Christ Jesus, basically instituted a plan B. He tried plan A with the covenant people and he's like you know what it's not working. Jesus, get down there. People like Markian, one of the first heretics of the church, basically said the Old Testament God is a different God than we see presented in the New Testament. And what Paul is doing is viscerally holding on to the integrity of the story and saying that it's all one integrous, united story. But you could see how you would read this and be like did God just change his mind? God just changed the rules, changed the game, and what Paul is trying to do is trace the story for us in such a way that we see it as one whole fabric.
Speaker 1:Verse 6, it is not as though the word of God has failed. Did God's word fail? Did God's word fail? Paul poses the question very subtly and he's like no, for not all those descended from Israel are Israelites and not all of Abraham's children are his descendants, but it is through Isaac that descendants shall be named for you he's quoting here. This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants. For the word of the promise is this About this time I will return and Sarah shall have a son. Nor is that all. Something similar happened to Rebecca when she had conceived children by one husband, one ancestor, isaac, even before they had been born or done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose of election might continue, not by works, but by his call. She was told the elder shall serve the younger. Okay, so how is it that God's words and promises have been shown through Christ to be trustworthy and stable rather than fickle? Well, paul's first move is to go back to the story. We're talking about Sarah and Rebecca here, so we're talking also about Abraham and Isaac. Right In verse 7, paul says it plainly Not all those who are ethnically Abraham's children are his descendants.
Speaker 1:You see this exact conflict when Jesus is conducting his earthly ministry in John's Gospel, they're saying we have Abraham as our father, and Jesus is saying very, very intently. He's saying unless you listen to me, your father is not Abraham, rather, you have a different father. And he says that that father is the father of lies. And so Jesus is very pointed on his criticism and Paul is saying listen, god has always worked through a remnant. When you read throughout the prophets places like Isaiah, jeremiah, ezekiel God is pronouncing that there is an impending judgment, and again we can get into all the reasons why those events are occurring, why those things are coming. But within that pronouncement that there is something coming, there's also this promise that God will preserve a remnant, a group of people to carry the promise through. And Paul is drawing from that imagery here.
Speaker 1:Paul now pulls from the theme in Genesis, where God will subvert both the physical order and the social order. First he subverts the physical order when God comes to Abraham in Genesis, chapter 12, and says to him go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you. And then this is the promise that really forms the bedrock and foundation of all that will transpire. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament God says to Abraham I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. And so God's promise to Abraham is I will make you into a great nation.
Speaker 1:And if you know the story, what is the problem with this promise? What is the problem for Abraham and Sarah? As we come to see, as we scroll throughout Genesis, 12 through 18, we see that Abraham and Sarah cannot, for whatever reason, have children. In a culture that is primarily oriented around the blessing of children and, frankly, all the labor that they can provide, abraham and Sarah, for whatever reason, are not able to conceive a child. And so here we have the promise I will make you into a great nation.
Speaker 1:But we have the reality as well. We see that Abraham and Sarah have their moments of doubt. They have their moments of trying to wrest control of the situation. Sarah gives Hagar to Abraham and a son is born to Hagar, ishmael. In my estimation, god is saying to the people I will not fulfill my promises any other way than the way that I have drawn out. And we see that, though Sarah cannot have a child, that God is intent, that he is undaunted by the promise that he has made. And Paul is talking about this in terms of election, we see this even further.
Speaker 1:So we draw this different scenario. In Genesis we have Abraham. One son is born to Hagar. Ishmael is the oldest son, but he's not the son of the promise. Then we have Isaac come along In the next generation. We have a very similar scenario, but instead of two sons being born to two different women at two different times, in the next generation we have two different sons born to the same woman who are conceived at the same time Jacob and Esau. Esau, we are told, emerges from the womb first and again. In the cultural assumptions of the ancient Near East, this would make Esau the heir and the younger son, jacob would be secondary to his very slightly elder brother. Can you imagine just missing it by that much Like Jacob's literally grasping onto his heel? That's where he gets his name. Now we're not told why Jacob is chosen to be the one who will carry the promise. We are just simply told that he is Paul.
Speaker 1:Using this line of thinking is saying that we cannot assume, based upon our proximity to the promise, that we have attained the promise. But here, as we kind of summarize this little section because it is complex, but we have. Isaac is the bearer of the promise. God subverts the physical order. Abraham and Sarah could not have children, but God is a one who makes a way Jacob, the second born, the youngest born, carrier of the promise. And it's basically God saying I know your cultural assumptions, I know the cultural norms, but my purposes will stand. What this isn't saying and I think where we get into a lot of trouble in Romans is that God likes Jacob better than Esau.
Speaker 1:Romans 9, verse 13, as it is written, I have loved Jacob, but I hated Esau. Whoops. Harsh words indeed, but only if this is about arbitrary choice. Again, if we read these verses in isolation, you can do all kinds of damage with them. You can do whatever you want. You can justify just about anything with the Bible. If you just take little pieces of it and if you read the Esau story in Genesis, what you see is something quite different. The last action we see of Esau is that he is giving Jacob profound mercy and is the agent of God's reconciliation. Jacob says to Esau to see your face is like seeing the face of God. So does God hate Esau, as Paul seems to be suggesting here? No, is Paul wrong? No, paul is quoting a passage of scripture from the book of Malachi.
Speaker 1:If we turn over to Malachi, when God says Jacob I loved and Esau I hated, he then immediately references the Edomites. The Edomites are the historical lineage of Esau and they are the source of a lot of conflict with the people of Israel, people of Israel. When God starts talking about the Edomites, he then starts talking about the priests of Israel, and if you read the book of Malachi, it's not about some foreign people who are doing a bunch of things wrong. He's saying your priesthood is robbing the temple of God. They are not the kind of people they should be, and so what Malachi is doing, what the word of the Lord is doing there in Malachi, is saying you know who? Your priests are acting like the Edomites. They're not acting like the covenant people. They're not acting like those who uphold righteousness and faithfulness. They are being a people that acts like they don't know God.
Speaker 1:We could get into all sorts of trouble if we take these verses in isolation. When I think about this term that Paul will use here, where we gather our term election, we often think of it in terms of did God pick me for the eternal kickball team before the history of the world, or did he not? And we'll get into that a little bit next week. But I want to read to you a very long quote from my good friend, leslie Newbigin, who I will meet in heaven, because I think he captures what election is really all about, and so I'm going to read this to you. It's a long quote, so I've now prepared you.
Speaker 1:It is the universality of God's saving love which is the ground of his choosing and calling a community to be the messengers of his truth and bearers of his love for all peoples. There is election in the scriptures, right? God doesn't say to every single person who ever lived go from your country and I will make you into a great nation. He says it to one person who ever lived go from your country and I will make you into a great nation. He says it to one person. He says it to Abraham Jesus doesn't trace his family line throughout all the people who have ever lived. No, he can draw lines throughout the course of history. And so we see that God, because he is a relational God, because he's not a generalist, he's a particular God who wants a face-to-face relationship with us does choose, but what is the purpose of that choosing is not a question that we often ask or answer, and this is what Newbigin's getting at.
Speaker 1:God's electing grace calls into being a people charged with the responsibility responsibility of being the bearers of his universal salvation. Christ died one for all. They are chosen not for themselves, not to be the exclusive beneficiaries of God's saving work, but to be the bearers of the secret of his saving work for the sake of all. They are chosen to go and bear fruit. To be chosen to be elect, therefore, does not mean that the elect are the saved and the rest are the lost. To be elect in Christ Jesus and there is no other election means to be incorporated into his mission to the world, to be the bearer of God's saving purpose for his whole world, to be the sign and the agent and the first fruit of his blessed kingdom, which is for all. It means, therefore, as the New Testament makes abundantly clear, to take our share in his suffering, to bear the scars of the passion. It means, as Paul says elsewhere, to bear in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of the risen Jesus may be manifest and made available for others. It means that this particular body of people who bear the name of Jesus, through history, this strange and often absurd company of people, so feeble, so foolish, present company included, so often fatally compromised with the world, this body, with all its contingency and particularity, is the body which has the responsibility of bearing the secret of God's reign through world history.
Speaker 1:The logic of election is all of one piece with the logic of the gospel. It is an absurd statement to make that right here in this room, the most important meeting in Princeton is happening, and there are a couple other rooms like it right now. And yet that is exactly what's going on right now, verse 14. What, then, are we to say? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means, for he says to Moses I will have mercy, on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who shows mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh I have raised you up for this very purpose that I may show my power in you. Okay, paul's like all right, let's draw another example from Israel's history. Pharaoh, like. All right. Let's draw another example from Israel's history, pharaoh Again.
Speaker 1:If we take this verse in isolation or we see Pharaoh as merely an individual that God is simply toying with, then that certainly tells a story about God's absolute sovereignty, while at the same time telling a story about human freedom and possibility. But if, in the imagination of the ancient Near East, if Pharaoh is representative of his nation and slavery, if he is seen as his role rather than as an individual, something quite different is being said. In Egypt, pharaoh was regarded as divine, a son of the gods, and the assumption in the ancient Near East is that conflicts between nations were contests between gods. So there was a war that was taking place in the physical reality that you could see. But as those two nations or people groups were at war, there was also a contest taking place in the heavens, because in the ancient Near Eastern imagination there were many gods.
Speaker 1:And the Israelites come along and as their imagination is formed by the revelation of God, they come to this conclusion Hear, o Israel, the Lord, your God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, your soul, your mind and your strength. It is a wholly unique expression of religion and faith that the Israelites come to because of the revelation of Yahweh Adonai, that they see that God is not a multitude of gods, that God is not localized to certain places, that God is not localized to certain functions, but that God is God, the creator, god over all, that. He is one and undivided. And Yahweh in Exodus demonstrates his sovereignty and his purposes over the gods of Egypt. And we see this contest playing out Like have you seen the prince of Egypt? The magicians have their ways. I don't know how they do it, but first, when Moses is throwing his staff on the ground, they're like yeah, we got that trick too. Fine. Now, as things escalate, god shows himself to be far superior to the gods of Egypt. But there are spiritual forces at work in the book of Exodus.
Speaker 1:This is a part of an extended argument where we've been dropped into in the middle of Romans 9. And we're going to try to extrapolate that extended argument Romans 9 through 11. But today, what I simply want to do if you're drinking our coffee today, you're drinking some nice African blends, actually single origins, I should say. You've got the Yergeshef region, which often has like a fruity note. If you get a little bit of that, you've got Kenya, which can have like a very earthy note. Okay, so what we're doing is we're just drawing out a couple of the tasting notes today. We'll get into more of this here in Romans 9, extended to Romans 10.
Speaker 1:I started working on the broader scope of Romans 9. I was like this is a five-hour sermon. So, god is merciful, we won't do that today, but we will keep going Now. So, god is merciful, we won't do that today, but we will keep going Now. Remember, this is an extended argument which is important, so we're going to look at some highlights today. First of all, we see Paul's broken heart and it is so informative of what our posture should be.
Speaker 1:Verse 2, I wish that I myself could be cut off for the sake of my people. And again, this isn't about drumming up some sort of false like God, I really really want you. It's seeing the world the way that God sees it and I don't know about you, I had these moments. It's one of the ways that sort of God speaks to me where I am aware and I am present and I am seeing people's faces, and it's almost like the wonder of the myriad, the mosaic of the way God has made the world. I don't always see it this way. Trust me, I drive around on Route 1 like you do, and sometimes I wish I was a little bit slower to anger. But there are times, if I'm on the corner in Princeton here and I see the people walking by, there is this sense of like wow, god, what a wonder that you have made.
Speaker 1:And then I start thinking about what are these people's stories that I don't know, and how God desires that all of them would come to know him, that they would know that he has saved them, that he would know that he loves them. And then you think about how people live in the world, so often feeling alone, feeling like they've been abandoned, feeling like they've been done wrong, embittered, hardened. And here is the love of Christ that breaks all of this down and it brings out of me a sense of longing and prayer. And I think this is what we're seeing here in Romans 9, is that, as we assess our world with all of its brokenness, as we see so often that our world with its pretensions, the culture that we live in in America has its things to say about what it means to be human, about what it means to flourish, we have a better story. We have the true story of the world and for me I always want that to draw me and drive me to a sense of urgency and prayer. Say Lord, please draw them to yourself.
Speaker 1:And so often what that works out for me on the relational end people that I know is I'm just trying to gently point them to Jesus, trying to be faithful when there's time to say something about Jesus, to say it, and when it's time just to be a normal person in their midst and be a friend. Not always have this object that I'm trying to draw them towards, but in general I also find this practice to be very helpful. Again, when I'm sort of seeing things broadly and I'm seeing people, I'm seeing them as I think God sees them. Friends, if you just walk around saying bless you I know that may sound very cliche and trite, but just like God, as he shows us in his promise to Abraham, through you all the nations on the earth will be blessed. And you think about how often our default posture is sort of criticizing or judging or being annoyed. It's mine too sometimes, but when I shift that default posture I'm like Lord, just let my presence here, even if I don't talk to a single person be a blessing. May I be a small strand in the tapestry that brings them to you. Just pray, lord, be here in this place. Would you do something beyond what I can see here? But so often that starts with a broken heart. I encourage you walk around your neighborhood, pray for those people that you know live in those houses. Pray for the people that you see walking their dogs. All the time we can be a profound outpost of blessing. We have so much more agency than we've ever imagined and so often we just don't tap into it.
Speaker 1:Romans 10, verse 14. How are they to call on one whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in one whom they've never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim to them? And how are they to proclaim to them unless they are sent as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. You know, every week when I tie my boots on before I come here, I think of that Beautiful feet. Man, they're really kind of gnarly. I run a lot, but Our broken hearts call us to be bearers of God's truth to our neighbors and our neighborhoods. That's a gift.
Speaker 1:The second thing I just want you to see from this beautiful passage God's word will not fail. The tracing of the story through Abraham, sarah, isaac and Rebecca reminds us of the stunning miracle of our faith. God makes a way through the impossible in the land of the living. It's a constant tension for those of us who believe. I would suppose confidently in this room that you have dreams for your life, no matter your age. Dreams that involve your relationships, career building something, dreams to serve God. In short, you have desires.
Speaker 1:Now, in some Christian circles, we're taught to cull and curate those desires, almost to the point of stamping them out completely. How can we know that my desires are in line with God's desires? Doesn't Jeremiah tell us that the heart is deceitful? Above all else, who can trust it? In other Christian circles, you're taught to give free reign to every desire, that everything is inherently good, or to use the word of God as a means of achieving the life that you think you want. But when we say the word of God will not fail, we gather up all of this into the mosaic of Christ's love and his fullness of life.
Speaker 1:It's no secret that we live in a consumeristic society that tells us a vision of success, of beauty of flourishing that is glossy but impoverished. God's word will not fail us. It will not fail to confront these lies with the beauty of the truth of God in Christ Jesus. But we can also think of how the salvation of the world is brought about not only through the death of Christ, but the incarnation of Christ, not some otherworldly cosmic miracle. Do you ever just stop to think of the story itself? To all the hopes and dreams of all the years, god sends a child and that child lives in obscurity for 30-something years, doing what Don't know, being a son, being an apprentice to a carpenter, walking along the water, and so much of that is saying Ecclesia. That so much that we consign to the realm of the mundane, the boring, the unimportant, is actually the place where God is working. It's an altar of the mundane, the boring, the unimportant is actually the place where God is working. It's an altar of his presence. There's something about the decidedly this worldly nature of Christ that reminds us that it's okay to pray for things to materialize into this world. And here's the beautiful thing.
Speaker 1:I don't often do this well, and I've been thinking about this a lot. We brought my son to a minor league baseball game last night and I knew this was coming, because this is what happens when you have young kids the guys walking around with the foam fingers that are like 15 bucks for a foam finger. Dad, can I have that? No, no, no, you cannot have that. You know, there's like 15 other things. The team had changed their name for the night. They were no longer the Somerset Patriots, they were the Zoros, which entails a bunch of other gear. I was like Dad, can we get some Zoros gear? Like no, no, no. And you know, like, initially I'm like dude, it's fine, it's funny. But as he keeps asking, I start getting annoyed. Right, and my son is not thinking about the morality of asking for all these things. He's not thinking about the reality of our bank account, he's not thinking about any of these things. He's saying Dad, I want that.
Speaker 1:I love the Tim Keller quote. He says the only person bold enough to wake a king at night for a drink of water at 3 am is a child. My son's just being a child there. It's my job and my responsibility to cultivate his desires, but also, too, it's my job and my responsibility as his father to understand that he's going to have those and I don't have to beat that out of him. I can shape him, I can mold him, and this is what God does with our desires.
Speaker 1:Ecclesia, yes, you may be wanting things that aren't going to be good for you, but God is good for you. Things that aren't going to be good for you, but God is good for you. He can be trusted with that which you want and he will direct you and he will do it patiently and kindly, much more than I often do. And so his word will not fail is not saying you can have all the life that you've ever wanted because you can use his word as some sort of magic trick. It's saying that he will never fail you. You can use his word as some sort of magic trick. It's saying that he will never fail you.
Speaker 1:Look at how Paul traces the story through generations. God is glacial, drawing towards him, and we see that he has done this in his son Fully. And finally, he has spoken and lived out his good news in the reality of the blood of Christ Jesus given for us. And so let us be people who are urgent in our broken hearts. Let us be people that are trusting that God will not fail us. Come Holy Spirit, jesus, we thank you for this really beautiful and rich text from Romans.
Speaker 1:God, this really beautiful and rich text from Romans, god, god, we know that you are drawing near to us in the midst of these words, because that's what you do, lord. Your word doesn't fail and when we try to adhere to it, god, we try to build our life on it, as Jesus suggested that we do, god, we find life in flourishing. So, god, here in this place, lord, lord, would you give us permission to dream again, god, to dream in the midst of broken relationships, to dream in the midst of broken dreams, or dreams deferred or altogether lost, lord, lord, to dream what the last phases of our life may look like, the last 10 years, the last 20 years, god, that we could become saints, lord, that look like you, loving, patient, kind God, you loving, patient, kind God. As our bodies fail us, lord, we testify to the fact that we will receive a tent that is indestructible, god, that, as our perishable natures pass away, god, we are receiving your imperishable nature. And, god, help us out of the settled sense of safety that your word provides to us.
Speaker 1:Be urgent ambassadors to our neighborhood, lord. Be people who love well, god, who see well, who speak courageously. Jesus, may we see that, just as those earliest Christians in Rome could have never foreseen what the Christian movement would become in the course of 100, 200, 300 years, god, god that you are always bringing about fruitfulness and abundance through your faithfulness, god, and as we try to copy you and be like you, jesus, you are doing it in us. We love you, jesus. We pray you bring us to a full awareness of what you've done for us. God, your blood, god, your body shed for us. We ask these things in your name and the beauty of the name of Jesus. We pray Amen.