It Not About Us – Paul 5

Gate Pa – Year A 20^th Sunday of Ordinary Time,

Readings:

Psalm                          Psalm: 133                          

First Reading:            Genesis 45:1-15                             

Second Reading:        Romans 11:1-2, 29-32                    

Gospel:                      Matthew 15:21-28                             

What I want to say:

To explore the gift of Pauls thinking to us in Romans 11 – to keep us humble; to help us know that it is not about us and the rewards we get; and to help keep us open, generous and compassionate to all people, all people – even those on our “least favourite” list, just as God the mysterious is open and generous and compassionate to all people – because does not have a least favourite list. Trumps America (as opposed to the USA) warns us of what happens when we don’t take this gift seriously.

What I want to happen:

People to reflect on what they need to let go of to really be in God’s welcoming embrace.

The Sermon

       1.   Introduction:

So week five in our series looking at Paul and his letter to the churches in Rome.

what I have been using to explore Paul’s writings is not the only way to read Paul – is the way that makes most sense to me and a lot people I have read over last couple of years.

-         Paul is a Jew ––

o   not a “lets keep every word of torah” kind of Jew

o   but a “lets renegotiate how we read scripture and torah in particular” kind of Jew -> radical Jew

o   sees the world through Jewish eyes

He like most fellow Christians understood gospel within Jewish way seeing world and understanding history.

o   so getting into heaven was not the goal for him

è fulfilment of the covenants with Israel through the messiah

o   all about restoration of humanity to pre-fall state in Garden of Eden

o   and renewal of creation –

-         that is theological framework that Paul is working out of.

Romans makes a lot more sense when read with these glasses on.

-         Paul is writing to divided church

o   divided between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians

-         offering way understand what Jesus has done that allows them to live and work together despite their huge differences.

-         see in structure of letter

o   chapters 1-4 are all about the problem – story of Adam and how all humanity came to be under sin

o   chapters 5-8 – hear God’s solution to this problem through the faithfulness of God to covenant

§  God has fulfilled covenant through faithfulness of Jesus

§  talks about how through this faithfulness God invites all humanity to be part of God’s work to restore humanity and renew creation.

-         raises really important question - what about Israel –> chapters 9-11 address

-         aside – if read Paul being about appeasing God’s wrath and getting into heaven – this section has no real purpose

o   but if it is about God’s faithfulness – it is a really really important section

o   validity of Pauls argument rests on this issue

§  who or what is God faithful to?

§  can we trust this faithfulness if Israel seem to have been rejected?

o   issue heard clearly stated this morning

       2.     The Question

^“1I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means!

-         Greek – mē genoito – means hell no – emphatic

I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. ²God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.”

Short answer is that God’s faithfulness is absolute and trustworthy

o   But he also acknowledges that most of Israel seems to be unfaithful to God

-         argument is little convoluted at this point – so we will stick with the main point

è through Israel’s unfaithfulness the door has been opened for the Gentiles to be grafted into Israel

offers this beautiful image

-         by grace alone (not by works) contrary to nature, God has grafted this wild olive branch (gentiles) into a cultivated olive tree to share the rich root^* of the olive tree

-         wow

o   gentiles were not superior to Israel

o   not there because of their goodness – but God’s mercy

        3.     Things To Note

-         everything is in God’s hands

o   not hands Israel

o   not hands Jewish church

o   not hands gentile church

o   not our hands

o   God’s hands

o   so be humble, this is not about you!

o   this is about God and God’s faithfulness and mercy

-         and this image carries warning –

“They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe.”

        4.     Warning (Will Robinson)

this is why I think these chapters are so important

they carry this warning

-         you stand only in faith

o   which can easily as be translated as God’s faithfulness as our faith

-         do not become proud

-         stand in awe of God and God’s mercy

Over the centuries - we the inheritors of this gentile church

have not taken that warning very seriously .

we have forgotten we were grafted into the Israel

we started to think that we were really important

more important than the root

we thought we were special – better than everyone else

we thought it was all about our faith

            we forgot it was about God’s faithfulness

we have been so proud

we have not stand in awe of God and God’s mercy

too often this sense of specialness became attached to our tribe

we have used our faith to say that our Christian tribe was very special

used this justify horrific things

            vaunting our specialness

punishing those who were not special like us

we became the centre of the story – not God’s faithfulness

o   Christian Europe’s invasion of the Holy Land -  the crusades

o   the pogroms against Jews for so many centuries across Christian Europe

o   Christian Europe’s empires – led genocides in South Amercia, Australia

o   Christian Europe’s enslavement millions Africans

o   Church of England fighting Wilberforce in his efforts to end slavery – because Europeans were better than every one else and God had ordained that blacks should be slaves

o   Church southern USA justifying slavery and then racial segregation – up till, well now in some cases

o   Official Lutheran Church in Germany supporting the Nazis and their programmes against Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, and those with physical and mental disabilities.

o   This week we saw what happens when we forget this warning with the President of the United States failing to condemn the rise of fascism and white supremacists in USA, and his evangelical advisors remaining mostly silent.

-         lure of being special is too strong

-         Paul knew that

-         He knew the history of his people

-         tries really hard to turn their focus from their specialness

-         to God’s faithfulness

-         God’s mercy

-         God’s compassion and goodness

-         ends this part of his letter with great hymn

-         no creed

-         invite us to sit and quietly slowly and prayerfully read this

-         to hear the invitation to us

-         to let go of all that lures us away from God’s faithfulness 

O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements and how inscrutable his ways!
³⁴ ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord?
   Or who has been his counsellor?’
³⁵ ‘Or who has given a gift to him,
   to receive a gift in return?’
³⁶For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever. Amen.

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