Romans 10: All are Welcome

As we’ve seen in the last nine chapters, Paul has a problem. He is a Jew and as such believes in the covenant (read unique, special, one of a kind) relationship that God established with Israel. However, Jesus has come, died, and was resurrected, fulfilling long standing messianic prophecies and bringing salvation to the Jews. Thing is Jesus didn’t fulfill the expectations of the Jews. The Romans still had the upper hand. Israel, the nation, was just a pipe dream. The Kingdom of God had come, but the oppressor still lord it over the Temple. To further complicate matters, through the movement of the Holy Spirit, the early church soon understands that Jesus didn’t come just for the Jews, but also for the Gentiles. To a dedicated Jew all this makes no sense. How can God have a covenant relationship with Jews, yet say that all can belong in His Kingdom? And if Gentiles are part of the family do they need to follow the law? And if they don’t need to follow the law, then are these Christians saying the law (and therefore God’s word) is worthless?

These are difficult questions that to the modern ear seem irrelevant. Yet the answers to these questions are central in understanding our relationship to God. Paul wants us to understand two things:

1. Everyone and anyone can now be part of God’s story. Even if you are a Greek from Attica, your story and identity includes what God did with Abraham and Moses and David. Gentiles are grafted to the tree. 
2. The central character in that story is Jesus, who has come for the Jew and the Gentile. 

Paul continues to address these questions in following chapters, but he makes clear in chapter ten that it is Jesus who brings us hope and that with Jesus comes our salvation. As Paul says in verse twelve, “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.”

Amen.

A Reflection on Luke 23

In many stories of the Bible I’m drawn to periphery characters. I wonder what it was like for them to witness the event—to stand still and watch. Here in the chapter on the crucifixion I wonder about Simon of Cyrene. Here was a Jew from a land hundreds of miles away. He had come for the Passover or perhaps on business. He may have heard of Jesus as one hears the town gossip. But he did not follow Jesus. He did not give up all he knew for this man. Jesus limps along to Golgotha, trying to carry a cross. The crowd gathers in for a crucifixion, which is always good spectacle. So Simon watches like everyone else. Taller than most he has a good view as Jesus moves from the fortress to the hill. I wonder what he thought at that moment. Did he feel pity? Did he know that Jesus was an innocent man? Did he care? It was a rough world, with rough justice, and he was keeping his nose clean. Then Jesus passes by. He collapses under the weight of the cross and the world. No Roman would carry a cross and this Jesus guy is too weak, so the soldiers scan the crowd and see a large, tall man. “You!” they yell, “come here!” And Simon knows it is not worth protesting soldiers with whips. So he comes and lifts the wooden beam and is surprised at how light it is. And as the soldiers whip Jesus, Simon follows, carrying the cross.

Cold and the Biblical Story

The temperature reads 54 degrees. The moisture has frozen to the inside of the windows. The thermometer between the window and the storm window read -2. NOAA.gov goes for -11. It's "freeze your boogers as you walk to the car" cold. 

Which brings me something I've always wondered about: what would the Biblical story and its metaphorical language look like if it had taken place somewhere cold? In the Bible the only mention of anything really cold is the snows of Mt. Harmon. And almost all the references to snow are similes--"as white as snow," or "scattered like snow on a hill." I think we would have references to Christ or God as the everlasting fire that does not go out and keeps you forever warm. And instead of a cloud of locusts, we'd get a mean Alberta Clipper followed by extreme negative temperatures.

The Problem with Bible...

...is that we've heard the story before. If we've grown up in the church or even lived in a culturally Christian area, we've gotten a taste, of sorts, of what this whole bible/christian thing is about. Everything seems repeated and a little boring. Dot dot dot, Jesus was a cute baby, dot dot dot, did some nice things, dot dot dot, something about dying and then not dying, dot dot dot, boy those christians sure are annoying. Over 2000 years the story of Jesus Messiah becoming the Messiah for the whole world has become routine. Since we know the ending and have heard it all before, we don't really care how the story unfolds.

But as an unrepentant English Lit major, I think that the story matters. How Jesus (and for that matter all of Israel) gets to the resurrection affects what the resurrection means. And then how Peter, Paul, et al share the story shapes the meaning of the story. To understand the Bible and to shake it out of its routine I need to live in the story. I need to feel the free and terror of the Marys at the tomb. I need to accept (and not sanitize) Paul's anger that other disciples believe you need to get circumcised to become a follower of the way.