Working On It

Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.

A young woman who was active in my campus ministry group some years ago, had a delightful way of dealing with adversity. After describing some setback, disappointment, or loss, she would say “In a way, I’m glad it happened.” Then she would proceed to tell me why: some lesson learned. Some surprise benefit found. Some alternative route discovered. Megan would find the silver lining in every cloud that came her way.

I think about Megan a lot when I think about what we do with problems that we don’t know what to do with. There are some big ones out there. We have white supremacists running around with torches and guns and vehicular weapons. We have a loose wingnut in North Korea threatening nuclear war. Is there any silver lining to be found?

No one can find the silver lining for another – it is up to each one of us to determine if there is any upside or purpose to the difficulties we face. Some trials do have hidden joys; others are simply to be endured with perseverance and hope.

I don’t think Paul’s grappling with the question of the Jews is a simple matter of finding the upside. For Paul, there was no upside, really. His agony is written all over the pages of these chapters of Romans. He cannot believe that there is any way to salvation outside of Jesus Christ, but neither can he believe that God would abandon God’s people and the promises made to them.

Yet he has a strong belief that God works through all the stuff of this world and these broken people. While Dr. King said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” Paul said, “All things work together for good for those who love God.” God works through it all and God is good.

So, Paul hypothesizes, perhaps it was necessary for the Jews to reject Jesus so the gospel could be taken to the Gentiles. This is a temporary thing, Paul believes. In time, God will bring all people – all of creation – into the fold.

It is a comforting notion, that God is working through it. No matter how abandoned we might feel, God is working through it. No matter how topsy-turvy things might seem, God is working through it – I don’t know how, but God is working through it.

But let’s not miss one essential piece. God might be working through it by working through us. Paul is not giving his readers license to shrug off a problem because God is in control. On the contrary, this is a command to be a part of what God is doing. Our trust in God is lived in the confidence that we might work alongside God, knowing that God will guide us in the right way.

God’s gifts and calling are irrevocable. God’s promises are true. God will not let us down.

photo: By Eric Kilby from USA - Silver LiningUploaded by Partyzan_XXI, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8311839

The Beauty in Brokenness

Romans 10:5-15    Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that “the person who does these things will live by them.” But the righteousness that comes from faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.”

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” 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? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

The passage we face this week is a hard one. That is the first thing my lectionary commentary tells me when I open the book. Thank you, lectionary commentary, you are correct.

I leaned heavily on the commentary and the footnotes to understand what Paul was doing in these verses. He quotes heavily from the Old Testament law and prophets, and sprinkles in some Christian interpretation along the way. He is engaging with the texts in a creative way, keeping it lively, keeping us on our toes along with him. It is a dance of interpretation. Paul is trying to make the case that, while it is not necessary for the gentile believers to follow the law of Israel, the people of Israel, for whom the law is grace – blessing, along with the glory, the covenant, and the promises.

“For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him.” (10:12)

It is true, then. We are all broken, every one of us. We are all in need of the mercy and grace of God.

My hope, then, is that we can see our brokenness, finding our sameness with our neighbors rather than our differences. My hope is that we understand that denying our brokenness will not magically make us whole. My hope is that we can look right through our pain and understand that it is our common humanity to have flaws, to be hurt as well as cause hurt. My hope is that we can see how malleable we are, that we can be shaped by the evil that is done to us as much as by the goodness we encounter, and that the goodness will evermore crush the evil, shaping us for good.

My hope is that this seeing will sustain our hope.

Photo credit: “Leg Warmers” – Harvey Edwards

Following the Lines

Romans 8:1-11

We are beginning a series in Paul’s letter to the Romans, and it felt like a shock to my system. I quickly realized that we are in difficult territory. Having just finished a series on Genesis, this sort of took me by surprise – no one would say the stories in Genesis are not difficult. The difference is we know how to follow the lines of a story; following the lines of Paul’s logic is more challenging. The unsuspected gift, however, is that we are already seeing some connections between the lines of Genesis and the lines of Romans – and the lines of our lives.

Before we looked at the text, we listened to some thoughtful words written by Hugh Prather, words about peace. The notion that spoke most clearly to me was the way we have of expecting something in return for everything we do. Our expectations set us up to be angry, disappointed, sad.

We continued with some reflection on the scripture of two Sundays ago, the binding of Isaac. Although looking beyond the particulars of the story was hard for us, we did recognize a message for our lives, one that we don’t really want to hear: that we need to hold nothing of ourselves back from God. This was a powerful idea for us. We began, again, to see again our human tendency to withhold, wanting something in return for our efforts.

The truth is we sometimes need to look right into our own sinful nature. While I love to get lost in the stories of Abraham and Sarah and their family, I need to find myself and my own flaws in the story too. And while it is easy to get lost (really lost) in the theological arguments of Paul’s letter to the Romans, I need to identify my own “fleshly” tendencies.

Our selfishness, our efforts to engineer our own lives and those around us, our expectations of some kind of payback for whatever we do, all betray the mind that is set on the flesh. To set the mind on the Spirit, as Paul suggests, is to offer one’s all to God, to live generously, to forgive fully. If I can’t do that, or at least try to do that, I will not have the kind of peace spoken of in the words of our meditation.

Sometimes you really need to follow the lines all the way through, to spend some time with your own brokenness. Then see that God is there too.

Photo credit: By Liz Sullivan - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47141585