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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. And let us pray.

 

O Lord, send forth your word into our ears that it may bear fruit in our lives, in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, today is our last reading from Romans, at least for a while.

 

We started our journey through this letter way back in the first Sunday of June, if you remember back that far, over three months ago, before summer. It's a long time. And so as we finish up today, what we're going to do is actually just review the whole thing.

 

Look at what Paul has said to this point, and then look at what he says today, and at the conclusion of this letter. And so we remember that Paul began the epistle by proclaiming the righteousness of God. He made the point that the true law of God is not limited just to the law of Moses, for when the Gentiles, who didn't have the law of Moses, didn't have any of God's written word, when they still did by instinct, or because they thought it out, when they still did the things the law demands, they became a law unto themselves.

 

And so Paul says the holiness of God is written into his design for creation, and therefore all are accountable to it. All who sinned without the law of Moses, well, they perish without the law of Moses. And all who sinned under the law of Moses are judged by that law.

 

The same is true of any law we try to invent for ourselves today. When it comes to our status before the righteous God, there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile. We all have sinned.

 

We all have fallen short of the glory of God. And, as Paul says, we are all justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. He used the story of Abraham to illustrate the point.

 

Abraham's circumcision did not save him, for God declared Abraham righteous years before he instituted circumcision. And neither did the law of Moses make Abraham righteous, because the events of Sinai didn't take place for centuries after Abraham died. No, Abraham was declared righteous by faith.

 

Abraham believed God, and God rewarded that trust. Abraham believed that God was able to do what he promised, and God considered Abraham right because of that faith. The same is true of us, Paul says.

 

It's Jesus. Not any works of any law. It's Jesus who is the source of our peace with God.

 

He is the last Adam through whom all mankind is reconciled to God and to each other. The first Adam's sin brought guilt, brought the desire for sin, brought death to all people. And so our Lord sent a new Adam to bring about a new humanity.

 

And that happens through baptism, when we are united to Christ and raised to walk in newness of life. But this new life we live, Paul says, it's a struggle. We're still bound to our sinful flesh, and so as God's holy law confronts our fallen nature, it still accuses us, even condemns us in our sin, even for Christians, revealing our sinfulness, revealing to us the unattainable standard of God's holiness.

 

But, Paul says, that doesn't drive us to despair. For the gift of faith remembers that in Christ we have died to the accusation of the law. And so Paul tells us to see ourselves differently.

 

See ourselves as dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. And because we are alive in Christ, we no longer present our bodies as instruments of sin. We present them as instruments of God's righteousness.

 

We don't carelessly speak the hurtful word. We don't need to mindlessly indulge the temptation. We don't need to throw in the towel and give up as if sin sits on the throne of our existence.

 

That's not who we are anymore. In baptism we have been made new, and so we see ourselves as new, dead to sin and alive in Christ. And yes, in this new life we continue to struggle with sin, and yet because our Lord's Spirit dwells in us, we fight back.

 

But we fight back knowing that neither our small victories over sin nor our colossal failures, or anything else in between, none of that changes who we are in Christ. The Holy Spirit gives us the eyes of faith to see ourselves as heirs. Privileged to call God Father, not because we earned it through holy living, but because he adopted us.

 

And so the Holy Spirit gives us hope in the midst of our suffering. Help in the midst of our weakness. Assurance that all things work together to fulfill God's eternal good for you.

 

It's the death and the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus that guarantees our victory over anything and everything that would try to separate us from his love. The battle belongs to him. After those words of comfort, Paul turned his attention to the unbelief of the Jews, his fellow Jews, people to whom God had given so much.

 

We remember that after that, Paul is anticipating the question that people might ask. Can we really trust God's promises if so many people who had previously lived under his promises fell away, rejected his Messiah, and didn't listen? Paul insists that it's not the word of God that failed, and God wasn't acting unfairly or unjustly. No, he says, God is like the father and the prodigal son.

 

He's waiting for all of his children to join his banquet. He desires to show mercy on all people. And Paul points to himself.

 

He says the fact that he was chosen by God's grace, he who so zealously persecuted and even murdered the followers of Jesus, he says that he is living proof that God has not written off entirely all who are born descendants of Abraham, but he has a warning for the Gentile believers in Rome. He said don't look down on the Jews who rejected their own Messiah. He warns them that if God was willing to cut off in unbelief even the Israelites who rejected the Messiah, what do you think he will do to the Gentiles if they do the same? There is no distinction.

 

Neither those who are born Jew nor those who are born Gentile, none of us have any reason to boast before God or before each other. Rather, we all humbly rejoice that our Lord has included us in his people. Finally, Paul urges us to live in the newness of life that we've been given in baptism.

 

To present our bodies as living sacrifices because it's the only logical life that we could live after our Lord has given us the gifts he's given. Paul tells us where the body of Christ, describes what life in that body looks like. That's ultimately what's going on in today's reading.

 

Chapter 14, chapter 15. An exhortation to prioritize, to make important, to value the unity that characterizes the body of Christ. We heard his exhortation a few moments ago.

 

Welcome the one who is weak in the faith, do not quarrel over opinions. Now, the Greek word here is a little stronger than what we tend to mean when we use the word opinion. It's fairly easy not to end a friendship over something that's merely opinion.

 

One person likes pineapple on their pizza, the other one thinks that's a crime against humanity. While they might tease each other for fun, they don't really fight about it. But see, that's not the word that Paul is using here.

 

He's not talking about a simple opinion. The word he uses refers to a conclusion reached after careful consideration. And he's applying it, don't forget, not to a simple difference of opinion, but to disagreements over whether Christians should still observe things like food laws and clothing laws required by Moses.

 

So for us, it might be better to think about it in terms of people's views on political or social issues. Things like immigration or healthcare. These aren't just matters of taste that are easily ignored, like the difference over which flavor of ice cream you like.

 

They're positions that people hold based on what they prioritize, and they're viewpoints that people hold with great passion. And, Paul says, the body of Christ ought not quarrel over them. We ought not end friendships or destroy the unity we have in the body of Christ, even over things like this.

 

In the verses that follow today's reading, Paul will say things like, let us not pass judgment on one another any longer but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or a hindrance in the way of your brother. Paul says to decide not to put a stumbling block before your brother. To make it a priority. And he also says, do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. He even begins chapter 15 with the admonition that those who are strong have the obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please themselves.

 

Let each of us please his neighbor, Paul says, for his neighbor's good, to build up his neighbor. Paul ends Romans with strong admonition that we ought not destroy the work of God by the way that we talk about, or the way that we handle disagreement in our midst. And so he ends the letter with an exhortation that's as timely now as it ever was.

 

And it's a final exhortation based on the reality he's been proclaiming since chapter 1. Don't undo the work God is doing among you. Do not, by appealing to any works of any law, undo the gift of salvation that is yours by faith. And, do not, by appealing to the law of Moses, or by creating a law of your own, do not place a stumbling block before your brother or sister in Christ that would drive a wedge into the body of Christ.

 

Remember that there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile. All are sinners in need of salvation, and all are made new in Christ. That's his message for us too.

 

Who I am in Christ, I am as a gift. Who you are in Christ, you are as a gift. A gift of God's mercy when he adopted you into his family in your baptism.

 

There's no room for either one of us to boast, only to rejoice. And so that's what we do. Within this body of Christ, we rejoice in our brothers and sisters.

 

We don't look for ways to drive wedges, we look for ways to build each other up. And we walk together through this life, trusting our Lord's promises, together. That's the end of Paul's teaching in Romans.

 

If you read on, there's a few more verses about logistical and practical concerns, but that's what Paul ends with. You are new in Christ, united to each other, rejoice in that gift, and live in that gift. And so we'll end our study in Romans with Paul's blessing that he first spoke to the Romans.

 

Today it's our blessing, today it's his blessing to you. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. In Jesus' name.

 

Amen.

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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. And let us pray, O Lord, send forth your word into our ears that it may bear fruit in our lives in Jesus' name.

 

Amen. Today we take up Romans chapter 13. Last week, Paul ended chapter 12 with the exhortation that Christians should not avenge themselves, but leave justice in the hands of God.

 

So in today's reading, he goes into more detail, pointing out that leaving justice in the hands of God doesn't mean just sitting by waiting for lightning bolts from heaven. Sure, there will be a direct, cosmic judgment of all evil on the last day. And on that day, as John describes it in Revelation, the saints of God will be vindicated.

 

Vindicated for all the wrong and for all the injustice that they've suffered at the hands of sinful men. But our Lord's justice isn't relegated to only the last day. It's already at work against those who do evil.

 

That's what the government is for, says Paul. For there is no authority except from God, and any authority that exists has been instituted by God. So it's worth pausing here to make sure we understand what Paul is saying and what he's not.

 

What he is saying is that governments and rulers didn't just come into existence because people thought it would be useful, or because some power-hungry villain used his strength or his wealth to force other people into oppression. Governments exist, Paul says, because out of love for his creation, God instituted the office to restrain evil and to promote good. And so any authority that the government does have, that the ruler does have, does not belong to the government itself, but it's authority derived from God.

 

So we think of it like any other vocation. Take, for example, the vocation of pastor. When our Lord created his church, he instituted the office of pastor.

 

And he gave to that office authority over certain things, like the public forgiveness of sins. And so when a man like myself steps into that office, the authority of that office is given for me to use. That's why when we get to the point of absolution and the divine service, I only forgive sins in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ.

 

It's God who's ultimately forgiving your sins, but through the institution of the church, he uses imperfect people like me to do it. And it's true, sometimes people who do not meet the biblical qualifications for the office of pastor still step into that office. It's true that sometimes even wicked people or deceitful people step into the office of pastor.

 

It's true that sometimes faithful pastors go astray and abuse the authority of their office. And it's true that sometimes well-meaning pastors, whether through ignorance or misunderstanding, teach things that are contrary to God's word. But the failure or the shortcoming or the deceitfulness of any individual pastor doesn't mean that God contradicted himself concerning that office.

 

It doesn't make the office itself corrupt. It doesn't make the church wicked. The fact that unqualified people step into the office doesn't mean God wants them there.

 

The simple reality is that God has given shape and design to that office, to all vocations. He's called people to live in these offices and these vocations according to their design. And any failure of people in those vocations is not the fault of God himself.

 

It doesn't mean that's his design for the office. That's how government works. The office and the vocation of ruler has been created by God, not as a terror to good conduct, but to bad.

 

And any ruler who steps into that office is God's servant, to carry out God's wrath on the evildoer. And any authority that the ruler possesses is a derived authority based on God himself, not the ruler. And the authority that is given to the office by God is given for specific purposes.

 

That doesn't mean that God's always happy with the way sinful people act as rulers of this or that nation. It certainly doesn't mean that God is pleased with wicked rulers who step into the office and exercise it in a manner contrary to his design. And such rulers will one day have to answer to God himself for the way they've abused his institution.

 

But the institution itself remains good. And so Paul tells us to live in subjection to the institution for the sake of the conscience. That Greek word subjection has the same root as our English word taxonomy.

 

Taxonomy is the study of putting living things in their proper place. And so taxonomy happens when a biologist looks at something and asks, Is this thing a plant or an animal? Is it a mammal or a reptile? Is it a fish or a bird? Because every plant and every animal has its place within the order. So also the estates of the church or the family or the government.

 

Every vocation has its place according to God's design. And so we can ask ourselves, Is this vocation of the church or of the family? What other vocations does this exercise authority over? Whose authority is it under? A teacher is in authority over the student but under the authority of the principal. That's taxonomy.

 

So Paul's exhortation is for Christians to voluntarily and faithfully live under the order of God's design. His design for the church, his design for the family, and his design for the government. Within that ordering, Paul says, You pay to each person what they are owed according to their vocation.

 

Taxes to whom taxes are owed. Revenue to whom revenue is owed. Respect to whom respect is owed.

 

Honor to whom honor is owed. So it's also helpful to remember that submission to the order doesn't always mean obedience. When a sinful ruler violates their office, commands the citizens to disobey God's word, Christians will not obey, but we will still submit to whatever comes as a consequence of that refusal.

 

That's what we see in the stories of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the apostles themselves in the book of Acts. They all refused to obey their rulers. They were all willingly imprisoned for their defiance.

 

Of course, more could be said about Christians living under the authority of the government. We're going to leave it there for today and continue on with what Paul says in Romans 13. Because he turns his attention to the importance of sacrificial love among the people of God.

 

And that's the guiding principle for everything he's going to say over the final chapters of the letter. Owe no one anything, he says, except to love each other. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

 

Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love is the fulfilling of the law. And so immediately after giving examples about paying people what they are owed, taxes, revenue, and honor, Paul turns around and says to owe no one anything, except for love.

 

Now he's not saying that Christians shouldn't borrow each other's tools or get a mortgage. What he's saying is that a Christian never leaves a debt unpaid, with love being the only exception. And why would that be the only exception? Because love is a debt that can never be repaid.

 

It's not measured like dollars and cents. No, love defines and characterizes what it means to be a Christian at all. In Paul's words, love is the fulfilling of the law.

 

More literally, the one who loves has brought the law to its fulfillment. A few chapters ago, Paul said Jesus was the end of the law, meaning Jesus is the goal towards which the law is pushing people. And here he says love is the fulfilling of the law.

 

It's the way in which that law shows up in the lives of God's people. The way in which it shows up in our lives. We'll hear more about it in chapters 13 and 14.

 

But today we simply rejoice in the comfort that this gives us. Our life in the body of Christ is characterized by love. First, that our Lord loved us and continues to love us.

 

And second, that we in turn love each other. I heard one pastor describe it like breathing. We breathe in, we breathe out.

 

We can't do one without the other, and both are necessary for life to exist. So also the love of our Lord. Our Lord fills our lungs with his word of life, with the forgiveness of sins, with the gift of his spirit.

 

Every time we gather together in this room around his gifts, our Lord is filling our lungs with air, with his breath, with his spirit. But you can't hold your breath forever. You have to exhale.

 

And so we leave this room to breathe the love that filled us here. We exhale into our families, into our jobs, into all of our vocations, by living in the order of God's design that he's built into this creation. We breathe out the words of forgiveness and reconciliation and love that have been spoken to us.

 

We exhale by voluntarily living in the order of God's design for this creation. And just like breathing, after we have exhaled, we need to breathe in again, to take in more of our Lord's air, so we're filled once again with his life. We breathe in, we breathe out.

 

We're forgiven by our Lord, we forgive each other. We're loved by our Lord, we love each other. And such life, such love, that is the fulfilling of the law.

 

It's the shape that God gives to our life as his children. It's how we live in the gift of our Lord's design. And so today we are once again filled with the life-giving breath of our Lord.

 

We've heard his proclamation of forgiveness. We've sung of his love. We will feast from his table.

 

And when we leave this place, we will exhale that love into our homes, into our church, into the world around us. We'll gather again next week to breathe in once more, and then to breathe out. We breathe in, we breathe out, for such is the life we share as the body of Christ in this place.

 

In Jesus' name, Amen.

 

 

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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. And let us pray.

 

O Lord, send forth your word into our ears that it may bear fruit in our lives, in Jesus' name. Amen. So last week, we heard the beautiful and climactic benediction that comes at the end of Romans chapter 11.

 

O the depth and the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments, how inscrutable his ways. For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever.

 

Amen. And with that amen, Paul brings an end not only to chapter 11, but to the first part of Romans altogether. From here on out, Paul's language will shift.

 

It's a pattern you see not only in Romans, but throughout Paul's epistles. After laying the foundation of who God is and what God has done, he turns his attention to what that means for the lives and the relationships of God's people. And so there's a shift from what we call descriptive language to prescriptive language.

 

So while there's almost no commands at all in the first 11 chapters of Romans, there's almost 50 commands in the final five chapters. We heard a string of them already today. But before we consider that list of behaviors and attitudes that Paul put before us, it's important to remember what else we heard last week at the beginning of Romans chapter 12.

 

Paul said this. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

 

And so Paul began the final section of Romans by talking about living sacrifices and spiritual worship. The Greek word there that's translated spiritual is actually the word logikos. That's where we get the word logic or logical.

 

So the King James translates that phrase not as spiritual worship, but reasonable worship. And the NIV calls it true and proper worship. What Paul's saying is that based on everything he just said about the universal nature of sin, the law holding everyone accountable, the Christ who came to die for us while we were still sinners, the regeneration that's ours in baptism, and faith that comes by hearing, based on all of that, the Christian life he's about to describe is the only life that makes sense.

 

It's the logical conclusion, the logical outpouring of who God is and what God has done for us. It's the life that must flow from the gift of salvation he just described. It's a life lived not in conformity with the world, the expectations there, but life that is regularly transformed in harmony with God's revealed will by the power of his Holy Spirit.

 

So what does that life look like, both for the Roman Christians and for all of us? Well, last week Paul mentioned a spirit of humility, saying each one ought think of himself or herself with an honest evaluation, not thinking more highly or more lowly of ourselves than we ought. He points us to the gift of vocation, the metaphor of the body. For as in one body we have many members, and the members don't all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ.

 

We are individually members of one another. That body metaphor is one Paul uses also in Ephesians and in 1 Corinthians, and in each case Paul is rejoicing, both in the diversity of gifts that God has given to the people of his church, while simultaneously reminding us of the unity that we possess in Christ. For the Christians in Rome and Corinth and Ephesus, he continues to break down the distinction between Jew and Gentile, to build up a congregation of all people, all nations, all languages.

 

And for Christians of all places and times, including us, he's eliminating any thought of hierarchy when it comes to the gifts our Lord gives, preaching, teaching, hospitality, generosity, compassion. Each member in the body does, to the best of its ability, whatever is appropriate to it, and all members of the body rejoice in each other's contributions, with no jealousy, no pettiness, rejoicing in the unity that we possess as the body of Christ. That sets the stage for the rest of what Paul has to say in Romans 12, which we heard just a few moments ago, a series of exhortations that need no real explanation.

 

But it's also significant that Paul introduces this list with the phrase to let love be genuine. A more literal translation of genuine would be without hypocrisy. But more interesting is the fact that there isn't actually a verb in the Greek phrase.

 

Most translations, like we heard today, say they take it as an exhortation. Let love be without hypocrisy. Others make it more of an imperative.

 

Love must be without hypocrisy. But it's also possible that Paul begins his list with a simple statement of fact, a fact that serves as the foundation for everything that comes next. Love is without hypocrisy.

 

True love, God's love, the love with which God loves his church in Christ Jesus, and the love with which we love each other in Christ is a love without hypocrisy. And what does this genuine, unhypocritical love look like? Well, go through the list that we just heard. We love each other as family, for we are brothers and sisters in Christ.

 

Families don't always agree on what to have for dinner, where to go on vacation, or even what to do with all the stuff in Grandma's house. But they share a common love because they share a common identity. We share a common identity because we are baptized into the name and into the family of our Lord.

 

And so we love each other like family. Rather than seeking accolades for ourselves, we take the initiative in honoring others. We serve the Lord by offering our bodies as living sacrifices, not lazy ones or inactive ones.

 

We're not like stagnant water. Paul says we're like boiling water, water that bubbles. It's bubbling and dancing through the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

The love of God at work in us shapes the way we live together in this congregation as the body of Christ in this place. It empowers us to rejoice in the hope that our Lord is trustworthy. He will fulfill his promises, even if that fulfillment will only happen in the life to come.

 

It empowers us to be patient in tribulation, standing firm not by ourselves, but standing firm side by side with one another. Heals dug into our Lord's promises when the winds of life threaten to sweep us into doubt and despair. It's a life lived in constant prayer with each other and for each other.

 

And because we are united as the body of Christ, we live in fellowship with each other, sharing in the needs of our fellow saints who have been made holy at baptism and showing love to the strangers who visit us here in this congregation. When it comes to life as the body of Christ in the world, Paul says, we don't curse those who oppose us. What he means is that we don't wish them to be cut off from the grace of God that is ours in Christ Jesus.

 

Rather, we bless them with the greatest of blessings, a genuine prayer and a genuine hope that they would be brought to repentance, that they would become united to us in the body of Christ. When a brother or sister in Christ has cause to rejoice, even when our neighbors in the world around us have cause to rejoice, Paul says we rejoice with them. There's no need for jealousy.

 

Also, we weep with those who have cause to weep. We live in harmony with ourselves in the body of Christ. We live in harmony with the world around us, always according to our vocations, recognizing that our true worth comes as a gift from our Lord.

 

So we don't consider ourselves lifted up above others, but we willingly associate even with those whom the world considers lowly. We don't consider ourselves wise in our own sight, Paul says, but we remember that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and from his word comes right understanding. We repay no one evil for evil, for that would only escalate the evil further.

 

Rather, Paul says, because we are transformed by the renewal of our minds, we set our minds on that which is honorable and blameless and excellent in the sight of all. In other words, we live above the pettiness of revenge, the world's tit-for-tat scorekeeping. Instead, Paul says, when it comes to the things we can control, we seek to live at peace with all people, both those inside and outside the body of Christ.

 

And when we are wronged, we don't set out to make it right by ourselves, no, we leave it to the wrath of God. As Paul will emphasize in the next chapter, leaving it to the governing authorities that God has put in place as a terror to bad conduct. Instead of trying to find ways to take revenge on those who oppose us, if our enemy is hungry, we feed him.

 

If he's thirsty, we give him something to drink. For by so doing, we heap burning coals on his head. That image of burning coals might be a little bit strange.

 

It's like that Paul is just referring to the embarrassment that someone feels when they've received mercy from the hand of one they've treated so poorly. Just think of all the movies and television shows, other stories you're familiar with, where someone who's been mistreated extends kindness to their nemesis, and that act of kindness changes their relationship from animosity to friendship. So also the kindness of the Christian towards the hostile world.

 

And that's why Paul concludes this section with a reminder that we cannot overcome evil with more evil, and that we ourselves should not be overcome by the world's evil spirit of victimhood and revenge. Rather, we overcome the evil of the world with God's good gifts of patience, compassion, forgiveness, because these are the things that characterize the new life we have been given in Christ. Which brings us back to the beginning of Romans chapter 12.

 

The foundation for the description of the Christian life that Paul just gave. It's a life built on the identity we have been given in Christ. It's the reality that we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

 

We all have been declared righteous through the sacrifice of Jesus as a gift. It's a life of the renewed mind that is ours through the mercy we have been shown in baptism. And such a life is the only reasonable and logical result of seeing ourselves as dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

 

It's what it looks like to present our members to God as instruments of righteousness. Paul's going to have a lot more to say about what this looks like in practice, and we'll hear a lot of it over the next few weeks, our last few weeks of Romans readings. But today we simply recognize and rejoice in the reality that upholds it all.

 

While we were yet sinners, without any merit or worthiness in us, Christ died for the ungodly. We have been united to him in baptism to walk in newness of life, and that new life is one of unity in the body of Christ, humility in our vocations, sacrificial love for all people. That's who our Lord is, and that's who we are in him.

 

So may our Lord grant us his spirit that we would live in such faith toward him and fervent love toward one another until the day of Christ's return. In Jesus' name. Amen.

 

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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Let us pray.

 

O Lord, send forth your word into our ears, that it may bear fruit in our lives. In Jesus' name, Amen. Before I was out of town last week, we had spent the previous two weeks in Romans chapters nine and ten.

 

The section of the epistle where Paul directly addresses the question about what's going on with first century Jews who had rejected their own Messiah. His point in chapter nine was that we should not conclude that the unbelief of so many Jews means that somehow God's word and promises have failed. Being a true Israelite, he said, was always a matter of faith, not genetics.

 

God never promised that every genetic descendant of Abraham would be saved. We need look no farther than Ishmael or Esau to see that. In chapter ten, Paul said that the purpose of the law of Moses was not to make the Jews right with God on the basis of their works, but to foreshadow Jesus, who he would be and what he would do when he came.

 

Jesus is the end of the law, Paul says. It's goal, it's fulfillment. Faith comes by hearing the word of Christ, not by submitting to the law of Moses.

 

Today, we turn our attention to chapter eleven. Paul began chapter eleven with a very important question. He says if God sent Jesus to bring about the end of the law of Moses, does that mean that God has rejected those who live under that law? Paul's answer, as you might expect, is of course not.

 

If God can work faith in the heart of a Pharisee like Paul, one who at one time zealously persecuted the church, when certainly you can't say God's written off all the descendants of Abraham. In fact, the Lord doesn't want any of the Jews to remain fallen in unbelief. Paul's evidence of that, too.

 

God did not desire any of his people to reject his Messiah. He would have preferred that all of his people in the first century received their Messiah in faith, that they joyfully took the good news of salvation out to the Gentiles. Obviously, Paul says, that's not what happened, but this is the God who works all things for his good.

 

And so even though many of the first century Jews rejected the Messiah, through their rejection salvation still went out to the Gentiles. Of course, Paul says, that doesn't mean there's no room for Jewish converts in the church. The hope is that those who forfeited their place as the people of God will see the Gentiles who took their place and be jealous for what they once had.

 

And that jealousy would in turn lead them to faith in Jesus as the Messiah. Just imagine, Paul says, if God can use something as tragic as Israel's unbelief to accomplish something as great as bringing Gentiles into his kingdom, how much more could he do if all Israel believed? Then Paul continues with two important messages for the Gentile Christians in Rome. First, he says his ministry among the Gentiles should not be seen as if it's a rejection of the Jews.

 

No, it's an effort to make those first century Jews desire to return to their place as the people of God. It's true that the Christian church in Rome was not a Jewish church to the exclusion of the Gentiles. The law of Moses had been fulfilled.

 

Therefore, Gentile converts were not expected to live under that law. But Paul cautions, neither was the church a Gentile church to the exclusion of the Jews. Paul will address that more directly in chapters 13 and 14, but he's already laying the foundation here.

 

There was a long-standing rivalry, a hostility between Jews and Gentiles, not only in Rome, but everywhere where the two groups coexisted. And in every place, each group looked at the other one with contempt. The Jews looked down on the Gentiles for being unclean, Gentiles looked down on the Jews for being standoffish.

 

But as Paul says in Ephesians, Jesus tore down that dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile. So Paul warns that the Gentile Christians should not continue to look down on Jews, even though those Jews had rejected their Messiah. Rather, he says, they should pray for their conversion.

 

Be thankful that the Jews accomplished what they did as God's people. For without what God did through the Jews of the Old Testament, there would be no Gentile Christians either. Which leads to the second message Paul had for those Gentile Christians in Rome.

 

It's a message with clear implications for us today. It's a message that comes with a warning. Paul says that Israel of old was like a tree, a tree that God planted when he made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, including the promise that the Messiah would come through them to save all nations.

 

Israel was a tree that God nurtured by dwelling in their midst in the tabernacle and in the temple, giving them growth and abundance of life. Israel was a tree that God pruned and shaped according to the law of Moses given on Mount Sinai, cutting away that which was sinful so that that which was holy could flourish. And as God's tree, as God's people, it was Israel that had done the heavy lifting, not the Gentiles.

 

As Paul said at the beginning of this whole argument two chapters earlier, to the Jews was given the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the Torah, the temple, the promises. It was the Jews, not the Gentiles, who were given those things, and they were the ones who were expected to use them according to God's design. When they failed or missed the mark, they were held accountable.

 

The Gentiles weren't. The Gentiles were not accountable for the laws regarding fabrics or foods or fields. The Gentiles didn't face God's extra measure of judgment like Israelites who built the golden calf or who married pagans in the days of Phinehas.

 

The Gentiles were not entrusted with the scriptures and the promises. Those things were given to the Israelites. And while they were never perfect in their task, the fact remained that by the power of the Spirit they did well enough that everything was in place for the arrival of the Messiah when he came.

 

And so, Paul says, now that the Messiah has come, some of those natural branches have been broken off of the tree because they're dead. Dead branches, dead in their unbelief. And new branches have been grafted into the tree from outside.

 

Many Jews had fallen away from the faith, Paul says, and many Gentiles had come to faith but he offers a word of caution. The fact that so many Jews had fallen away should not fill the Gentiles with pride, as if they're somehow better because they did believe. That's a temptation we're all too familiar with in our own lives.

 

How easy is it for us to look back on the sins of previous generations and think, well, I wouldn't have done that. How easy is it for us to look at the monstrosities of history and assume that, well, if I had been alive at that time, I would have joined the right side. I would have fought for the right cause.

 

How easy is it to be the hero in our own hypotheticals? So Paul cautions the Gentile converts against such thinking, against looking too harshly at their Jewish neighbors for rejecting the very Messiah they were supposed to be looking for. Rather than filling them with contempt, Paul says, such rejection should fill the Gentile converts with fear, a holy fear. After all, if God is willing to cut off the normal branches when they die, branches that he spent generations cultivating and tending to, if God cuts off those branches in which he's invested so much time and energy, do you not think he will cut off Gentile branches if they die in their faith? So note well, Paul says, both God's kindness and his severity.

 

He's kind enough to graft you in, you Gentile Christians, and he's severe enough to cut off his own people when they persist in unbelief. He'll cut you off too, Paul warns, but his desire is that all would be saved. So don't think for a second that God won't graft back onto the tree any dead branches, Jew or Gentile, who come to life through faith.

 

And then Paul concludes chapter 11 with this final thought. He acknowledges that there's a certain hardness of heart that has come upon a portion of Abraham's descendants, ethnic Israel, but the result, he says, is that the Gentiles have been brought into the kingdom of God. And thus, Paul concludes, all the branches on God's tree, both the Jewish ones who have grown naturally from the trunk and the Gentile ones who've been grafted on, all the tree will be saved.

 

The salvation of all people and the creation of a new Israel from all people, nations, and languages. That was always the point. And as for those first century Jews who became unbelieving dead branches, Paul agrees, they have made themselves enemies of the gospel, but, he says, that doesn't fill God with anger or bitterness, it fills God with sadness.

 

Those first century Jews who rejected Jesus as Messiah, they had grown up as the people of God, circumcised into his covenant, worshiping at his altar, gathered around the words and promises he had given through Moses and the prophets, and they still held a special place in his heart. And God did not regret in any way giving them the gifts and the calling that he did, even though they turned their back on him. He still desired their presence at his table.

 

And in that, Paul simply echoes what Jesus himself taught in the parable of the prodigal son. There is great rejoicing over the Gentiles who have come and been welcomed into the people of God, but the welcoming of the Gentiles doesn't mean the father stopped caring for the older brother. He is invited to the banquet, too, and that's where we find our comfort today.

 

Simply put, all throughout chapter 11, Paul shows us over and over again that we have a God who loves to forgive sins. We have a God who loves to save people. We have a God who, in Christ, was reconciling the whole world unto himself, which means that in Christ, you are reconciled to God.

 

In Christ and through baptism, you are a branch on the tree of true Israel. You are sons and daughters of Abraham through faith, heirs of the promise Abraham was given. And the same God who does not regret giving promises to Israel of old, he doesn't regret the promises he made to you, either, in your baptism.

 

The same God who broke down the distinction between Jew and Gentile, he's welcomed you into his one holy church, his universal church, his church of all time and all places. He rejoices in your salvation. And when the time comes, he will welcome you, he will welcome all his people into your new home and his new creation.

 

That's the promise God made to Israel of old, that's the promise God extended to Gentiles in the days of Jesus, that's the promise that is yours today, and the reality that is yours in your baptism. So may our Lord sustain us, united as his people of all languages and all nations, may he sustain us as his church until the day of Jesus' return. In Jesus' name, Amen.

 

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Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Dear friends, in Christ, for this morning's meditation, we come again to the gospel given for us. Jesus said, O woman, your faith is great, be it done for you as you wish.

 

And her daughter was healed at once. This is from this morning's text. The Lord be with you.

 

Thank you. It's interesting that this one line is the only line in this pericope where the word faith is mentioned. And it's to this woman who has said nothing about faith, the word faith.

 

So, what do you think of when you think of someone with a great faith? Often in our society, and very much in our American society, it's usually someone who's got, they've got a little pizzazz to their spiritual life. They've got a little extra knowledge, a little extra fervency. Man, I wish I could have strong faith like that.

 

And suddenly we hear faith being preached about, almost like it's a virtue. Boy, if only I could have the faith like that. You know, I remember once going off to a Lutheran school, and one of my roommates came back and told people in the local congregation, well, how's Doug doing? Oh, faith.

 

Not Clarence Dub Barnett's kid, not that way, not that way. But that brings us to Matthew then, because it is quite, it is quite interesting. And Jesus went away from there and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon.

 

We hear that and go, okay. Well, Tyre and Sidon is outside Israel. It's not part of the promised land.

 

In fact, it's over on the Mediterranean Sea. There are seaports. You hear about them sometimes today even.

 

I think today it would be Lebanon, back then it was Phoenician, it was different ones, but they were not Israelites. Yet, Tyre and Sidon, interesting that reference. And behold, a Canaanite woman, that's one of the locals.

 

She's not one of us, not by blood. Well, I can't even say that. We're not even one of us.

 

But a Canaanite woman came out from that region and began to cry out, have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David. My daughter is cruelly demon-possessed, but he did not answer her a word. Interesting that a Canaanite woman would come to the Lord and say, son of David.

 

Except that you know this region, we don't know because I know you didn't get up and read about this this morning, but if you'd go to 1 Kings chapter 17 about the newly ordained prophet Elijah, about 700 years before this event, you would know that he had dealings with a certain widow from a place called Zarephath, the widow of Zarephath. Well, Zarephath is a little community between Tyre and Sidon. This prophet of the Lord named Elijah came to this widow, and the Lord direct… because the Lord directed it, he didn't go there because he was looking for a new mission field.

 

He went there because it was by the Lord's bidding. And so in that place he met this widow, and she had a very ill son as it were as well, but it really didn't matter because it was a time of famine, no food. And yet you might remember the account about Elijah then asking her what she had, and she had a little handful of flour, just a little handful of flour.

 

And so she put it by his direction into a jar, and from that jar she drew out enough flour for her to have bread for her life and her family for months and months and months. It was a miracle of the Lord through his prophet Elijah who was sent to her by the Lord's bidding, not his own bidding, to this little place called Zarephath. So it's not coincidental that we see that Jesus is going to Tyre and Sidon, and there a Canaanite woman of all people approaches him and pleads for mercy because she has a very, what a very ill daughter, demon possessed.

 

But she calls him son of David. So you go, oh, maybe news traveled generation to generation to generation, and this woman and her family knew Israel and knew they were also called to be part of Israel by the prophet Elijah who brought the name of the Lord even into their Canaanite community way back then. This is how the Lord operates.

 

He's not looking for your blood relatives. He's looking to bring His name to be set forth among you in your family the same way He does with us today in the name, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We say so many things here in the church in the name.

 

You're baptized into the name. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We're going to sing it again today, but it's interesting this account.

 

So she addresses him, and he says nothing. Oh, you're one of us. Oh, you're a true believer.

 

What faith do you have? No, he says nothing. But the disciples say plenty because they're bothered, and you can see. It's just, he didn't answer a word, but his disciples came to him and kept asking him.

 

That's very interesting. They kept asking him. They persisted asking him, saying, send her away.

 

Get rid of her, for she's shouting out after us. She's making a scene. Do you like to be in the middle of scenes? Nobody likes to be in scenes.

 

Everybody gets away from the scene, but she's making a scene, and she's making a scene there with Jesus and His disciples, and so they're going to try to do something about it. Send her away. She's just a Canaanite, I guess you'd wonder.

 

But he answered and said, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The lost sheep of the house of Israel. Okay.

 

Yes, he was, because he is the fulfillment of Israel. By his blood, by his life, by everything, by his sacrifice, the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But she came and began to bow down before him, saying, Lord, help me.

 

If you look up your Greek, it's even in the Greek, Kyrie eleison. That's a phrase we hear in the Lord's church very often. Lord, have mercy.

 

Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. We just sang it.

 

We sang it in English, but it's always been there in the Latin and the Greek before this. And he answered and said, it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. Wow.

 

You're low when you're talking about dogs. Unless we think that our Lord was just trying to get even with her, no. He's just stating the fact.

 

I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. And Lord, help me. It's not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.

 

But then you listen to this. See, because she's interested not in big things. She's interested in the small things.

 

She knows about that small handful of flour. She knows about that small handful of flour that sustained families for months and months and months, and even years through the famine during Elijah. But she came and began to bow down before him saying, Lord, help me.

 

And he answered and said, not good to take the children's bread, throw it to the dogs. But she said, yes, Lord. So let's just acknowledge that she agreed with the Lord on this dog comment.

 

You're calling me a dog. I'll tell you, you know, none of us would have made it through the conversation. Well, I'm never going back there again.

 

That's enough for me. No, she agrees with him. Yes, Lord.

 

But even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their master's table. It's the small things that do big things. With this Lord, He's upside down from this world.

 

And then suddenly we see that He takes heed. Yes. Then Jesus answered and said to her, oh woman, your faith is great.

 

You see, she has big faith because she understands the little things. And she understands the unobvious things of God, that God does not work in His great grandiose ways of power and might and all the rest. She understands that this Lord comes to His people in the small things, a handful of flour, a crumb of bread, because in that is life and full life and everything you need in life and ever want in life.

 

That is the big faith. That's so often when Jesus is talking about have big faith. That's what He's talking about.

 

Big faith that understands our God works not in big ways to the world like, oh man, awesome God. But our God works in the things that are weak in the world's eyes. Our God works in the ways that are, well, what should we say? The cornerstone of His church was on the stones that the knowledgeable builders reject, cracked, broken.

 

That's the stone the builders reject because they want strong, solid stones. So when Jesus comes and responds to this woman about, and she responds about small things like dog crumbs, that's it. That's big faith.

 

Is that how you hear it out there? I dare say, probably not. It's an amazing thing. And because of that it perplexes us like, man, what's the, why does He say your faith is great? Because she understands how this Lord comes to His people, gently riding on a donkey, gently in His Word, placing His name.

 

He empties Himself from all of His power and His might as God's own Son. Oh, He can do all those things, that's for sure. He can prove that, but that's not how He's come to the world, and that's not why He's come up here to Tyre and Sidon at the place of the widow of Zarephath.

 

He comes in weakness and gentleness. Because He comes to broken people like you and me, who never feel like their faith is big enough. That's why it's profound that this passage is not talking about faith.

 

It's simply the woman pleading for mercy. Son of David, have mercy on me. Yeah, woman, great is your faith.

 

You see, because it's not about, oh man, you got awesome faith. It's because her trust and her hope in that moment is on the object, the great thing of her faith. It is this Lord who has come for her sins and the sins of her family.

 

That's the greatness. It's the object of the faith. It's the trust simply in, well, the Lord said it, the Lord meant it, He put His name on us.

 

It's incredible. Even one crumb of bread with this Lord is everything. Even one crumb of bread at this Lord's altar is everything.

 

My body, my blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Man, what great faith. And isn't it interesting that the church, the church for centuries has put into the liturgy as we prepare to come to the Lord's table and receive His crumbs and this little small sip of wine that is His body and blood.

 

The church rings out in the holy, holy, holy of Isaiah 6, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. That's where you and I are here today gathered, not because, I tell you what, I wish they could be like us out there.

 

We know we're not. We're just too Lutheran. It's because we have a fantastic Lord who comes to us in the very weakness of His body and blood given and shed on the cross to pay the price for all of your sins, my sins, all of our sins.

 

Wow. Now that is faith to be followed because that is faith in something not so small but that is amazingly large. The love and the grace of this God and this Lord.

 

Who wouldn't want to come and hear those words into their ears as it is given into their mouths, my body and my blood for you for the forgiveness of all sins. Just like with that Canaanite woman who came to Jesus. Oh woman, how great is your faith.

 

You have gotten it totally. It's the name that you have come to, the name that has been put upon you, and here you are ready with that name. That's how to qualify and have faith in the gospel.

 

Be a sinner. That's when you know you're ready and you're faithful, is when you admit you're sinner and you're coming here to plead for mercy and to receive that mercy. So, Jesus' word to this woman and to all those listening including His disciples, be a sinner looking for mercy, looking for even a small crumb and saying, yeah, that's for me.

 

Knowing that even a crumb from Him is everything. Take and drink, says Jesus to those sinners thirsting for righteousness. This is my blood, my body.

 

I forgive you your sins. Amen. The peace of God which surpasses all understanding.

 

Keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.