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Romans:  Whew!  What a Relief!

Romans 11:1-2a; 29-32

August 14, 2005

1. All through this Letter to the Christians in Rome, we have felt tension. It has been Paul’s own tension between the Law and Grace: The Law of Moses, which led only to sin, and the Grace they knew in Christ Jesus, which led to love and life. What we have in Chapters 9 through 11 is a long argument, with his characteristic breaks and pauses, leading up to one reassuring thought! Even though the Law has only pointed out how thoroughly they have sinned, they still have hope! We read about that hope in Chapter 11. [Since all the other translations are so obscure, I’ll read from Eugene Peterson’s The Message again today]

"Does this mean, then, that God is so fed up with Israel that he’ll have nothing more to do with them? Hardly! [1-2a] From your point of view as you hear and embrace the good news of the Message, it looks like the Jews are God’s enemies. But looked at from the long-range perspective of God’s overall purpose, they remain God’s oldest friends. God’s gifts and God’s call are under full warranty–never canceled, never rescinded. There was a time not so long ago when you were on the outs with God, too. But then the Jews slammed the door on him and things opened up for you. Now they are on the outs. But with the door held wide open for you, they have a way back in. In one way or another, God makes sure that we all experience what it means to be on the outside so that he can personally open the door and welcome us back in. Have you ever come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God, this deep, deep wisdom? It’s way over our heads. We’ll never figure it out. [29-32]

Paul continues through what we call the end of Chapter 11:

Is there anyone around who can explain God?

Anyone smart enough to tell him what to do?

Anyone who has done him such a huge favor that God has to ask his advice?

Everything comes from him, everything happens through him; everything ends up in him.

Always glory! Always praise! Yes. Yes. Yes [33-36]

2. The plain truth is this: Because of the Law, we know we have all sinned and fallen short. In other words, if we didn’t have the Law, we wouldn’t know what we were doing wrong. It’s a bit like being on a long driving trip, and coming to a red stoplight in a state we’ve never driven through before. Right turns on red lights are legal in Oklahoma, but not in every state. So we make a clean turn at this red light and a nice police person turns on his red light and says, "You just broke the law." "But, Officer, I didn’t know there was a law against this!" If we don’t have laws, we don’t know what’s against the law! That is the very reason God gave the Law to Moses in the first place – to point out to the Hebrew children what was right and what was wrong. But because of the Law, all the people could do was sin and fall short. They labored under the heavy burden, almost like they labored under oppression while they lived in Egypt. So God sent Jesus carry out the terms of the law the way God intended. Christ Jesus saved them (and us) from the oppression of the Law, and restored new life. That is such good news!

3. It would seem, with such good news, that we would always be joyful! You’d think Paul’s reassuring words would be a relief to us all! But are we relieved? Not much. We earthlings have a hard time living this new life of freedom in Christ. We want to revert back to the old way of having a list with laws. That way we could think we are doing what God wants us to do. Case in point: The story from Matthew that Rodgers read. It actually started a few verses earlier, with the scribes and pharisees confronting Jesus about his disciples’ breaking some of the Laws of Moses.

Pharisees and religion scholars came to Jesus all the way from Jerusalem, criticizing, "Why do your disciples play fast and loose with the rules?" [they weren’t washing their hands before meals] But Jesus put it right back on them. "Why do you use your rules to play fast and loose with God’s commands?

Jesus went on to give them an example, and finished that scene by saying "Listen, and take this to heart. It’s not what you put into your mouth that makes you dirty, it’s what comes out of your mouth."

4. Now, the word Matthew wrote down that translates "comes out of your mouth" literally means the stuff that’s inside a body and periodically comes out. As you can imagine, this did not set well with the pharisees. His disciples pulled him aside: "Do you know what you just said? Do you realize how much you upset those pharisees?" But Jesus intended it to have a double-meaning in mind, for those who could understand. But, since even his disciples could not understand, he told them plainly – "Not only does vomit make you dirty," he said, "but your own words make you dirty, too." In between the two parts Rodgers read, Jesus explained why he said it. "Don’t you understand? What you put in your mouth goes into your stomach and keeps on going through your body. But what comes out of your mouth comes straight from your heart, and that is what makes you dirty. For out of your heart comes evil intentions – murder, infidelity, promiscuity, theft, lying, slander. These are the things that make you dirty. Eating with dirty hands does not make you dirty inside."

5. With those words, any many more like them, Jesus fulfilled the Law of Moses – he taught people how to live that Law. It’s often difficult for us to let Jesus be Jesus. We want to turn him into Moses, with a list of rules straight from God, a check-list of sorts. I was about 30, trying so hard to live the way God wanted me to live, when it occurred to me how much easier it would be if we had such a check-list of things to do and things to not do. It could be divided into life situations, so when we found ourselves not knowing what to do, we’d just turn to that section – and there it would be. I thought it was a great idea! My amazement at my own brilliance didn’t last long, though! It must have been the Holy Spirit who corrected me, for in the very next moment I knew "Oh, yeah, there is a check-list. It’s called the Ten Commandments. And Jesus came to take that rigid check-list off those stone tablets, and turn it into a springboard for compassionate action." Jesus showed us how to live: Do the right thing; don’t worry about doing it right. Do the right thing; the right way will take care of itself.

6. Now, please don’t get misunderstand me. It’s important to know the rules. It’s even more important to follow the rules. But we cannot let the rules become an end in themselves – we cannot follow them just because they’re rules. We follow them because they enable the kind of life God wants us to have. We need to measure every rule against what Jesus taught and how he lived. Our Church and our Nation are embroiled in several big fights right now that are only different in time and place from the fights Jesus and the pharisees had way back them. These fights do not need to happen! There is a more excellent way! We could draw up a treaty right now, and let Paul’s words form the preamble:

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