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Romans:  Pride in the Gospel!

Romans 1:16-17; 3:22b-28

May 29, 2005

1. The lectionary turns our attention to Paul’s Letter to the Romans during the summer months. And so will we. I’ll start with some basic information about Paul, about Rome in the middle of the first century, and Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Then we’ll turn to the text for today.

2. The most important thing to remember about Paul is that he is not Jesus! I know it sounds strange, but I cannot assume people know the difference, because for years I didn’t know the difference! I was probably 35 years old when it dawned on me that Paul and Jesus were two very different people. I had spent every Sunday of the first 18 years of my life in Church, and heard "Paul and Jesus," "Jesus and Paul" that whole time – almost like they were identical twins. But I’d never really studied what Jesus said and what Paul said. People quote Paul as if his writings reflect everything Jesus taught, and that is not true. Paul did not travel with Jesus; as far as we know, he never heard Jesus teach. Paul and Jesus were both Jews, that much is true, but Paul admits to being a Type-A Pharisee. He was the most rigid of all the pharisees. Jesus and the pharisees regularly went toe to toe on issues of the Law, but we don’t really know if Paul was ever with the other pharisees when Jesus confronted them. The first mention of Paul is after Jesus’ death and resurrection, when the growing movement called "The Way" got so big it was causing problems for the Jews. Paul and the other pharisees did everything they could to stamp out that movement – until the day the risen Christ appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus. Paul was a changed man after that experience, but he still had a little pharisee in him. So everything we read from Paul’s writings must be balanced with reports of what Jesus said. Don’t misunderstand me – Paul wrote letters that have advanced Christianity more than anyone else. However, we are called to be disciples of Jesus, not disciples of Paul. Remember that.

3. In spite of Paul’s world-wide fame today, he was an obscure Roman citizen when he wrote this letter. We have no concrete knowledge of him other than what he later wrote about himself. Many people have tried to fill that void, which has led to lots of legendary material. Anything not in the Bible makes for interesting reading, but it may not be true. For most of his life, he was a nobody! Yet he did not let his lack of status stop him from doing what he so passionately believed: "I must tell the world the good new!" What is this good news? God did not give up! God could have given up on all of humanity, as sinful as they were, but God remained faithful to the promise. And, when the time was right, God sent Jesus to show all of humanity how to live. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God gave humanity something they didn’t deserve – another chance. Paul knew that so very well, because God gave him another chance by sending Jesus directly to him. Paul changed directions. He turned around. Instead of persecuting Christians, he recruited them! The first few years of his ministry were difficult – those who had been Jesus’ disciples from the beginning were afraid of him because he had a history of persecuting them. He had a lot to overcome!

4. Enough about Paul, the person. What about Rome and the Church there? Tradition says Peter began that Church, but there is no evidence to support that theory. In fact, Paul himself wrote that he would never visit a church started by someone else (Romans 15:20). For years, Romans had been moving Jews from Jerusalem throughout the entire Roman Empire, which made a huge ring around the Mediterranean Sea. The story we read on Pentecost Sunday lists Romans among those who were in Jerusalem for that festival. It is quite likely that the Roman Church sprang up when they returned. Some Jews became believers, but even more important than that, the wideness in God’s mercy included Gentiles, too – Romans who had never been Jews became Christians.

5. The Church in Rome had probably celebrated its 25^th anniversary th the time Paul wrote this letter. And that raises the question, "Why would Paul write a letter to people he had never even met and did not know?" Good question for us to ask, and Paul anticipates they would ask the same question. So he jumps right in: "I am longing to see you so I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you – or, rather, so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith . . . hence my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith." (Romans 1:11-16). Let’s pause here and unpack that word "salvation." We hear it so often the way it has come to mean on TV – saved from death. That’s not how Paul meant it – or anybody else back then, either. Nobody, not even Jesus, can escape death. What they had sought was a savior to rescue them from their enemies. They had expected a military takeover, but God had other ideas. God sent someone to save them from their sin, because God wanted relationship with the people more than anything else. That is Good News! Paul is not ashamed of this good news; in fact, he’s so excited about it that he must share it! We are safe in Jesus’ death!

6. Then Paul moved right into the next verse. NRSV reads "For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith, for faith; as it is written, "The one who is righteous will live by faith." Now, if your translation of the Bible doesn’t read exactly like that, don’t worry! The exact meaning of Paul’s words is hard to pin down! Literally, this verse reads: "Righteousness because God in it revealed from faith to faith, even as written, ‘The but those who are as they ought to be [sometimes translated righteous] from faith will live." See why there are so many different ways to translate this sentence? My own paraphrase of this section sounds like this: "I can hardly wait to see you, because I am not ashamed of the gospel, because God’s righteousness is revealed, because there is power in that righteousness, power for all those who believe it and grow in faith."

6. That’s just the beginning. Reading this first part of Romans is a bit like standing at the base of Mt. Everest, getting ready to climb to the top. Whoa! That’s an impressive piece of real estate! I can hardly wait to start climbing! THIS is one impressive piece of writing! Most of Paul’s letters were hastily written answers to questions asked by members of congregations he had organized. Not this letter! This one has a flow to it, a logic that is totally missing from his other letters. The rest of Chapter One, continuing through to the last part of Chapter Three, Paul lays out the reason Jews have no ‘lord it over the Gentiles.’ It would take us a year if we went verse by verse! The lectionary makers decided to jump over it and land in the middle of 3:23, which continues "All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God – have not succeeded in being what God intended for us to be." Eugene Peterson paraphrases it this way: "Out of shear generosity God made everything right. A pure gift! He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it with Jesus Christ."

7. What a gift! How do we pay God back for such a gift? We can’t, no matter how hard we try (which is what Paul contends the Law is all about – paying God back – and it just doesn’t work!) The only thing we can do is pay it forward!

It takes ONE PERSON to make a difference in this CONGREGATION.

It takes ONE CONGREGATION to make a difference in this CITY.

It takes ONE CITY to make a difference in this COUNTRY.

It takes ONE COUNTRY to make a difference in this WORLD.

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