This week
we start reading sections from the letter to the Romans. Romans differs from the rest of Paul’s letters,
in that he hasn’t been to the Church in Rome. The rest of the letters are
written to churches where Paul has been, and often churches that Paul began. So
Paul begins by introducing himself - not
with a physical description, but setting out his credentials, a servant of
Jesus Christ, an apostle; and also sets that in the bigger picture of the prophets and David.
Did you
ever have a pen pal? What did you tell them about yourself?
I wonder
how you would introduce yourself to a group of people who hadn’t met you yet?
A group of
people you wanted to visit?
The church
in Rome is likely to be a mixture of people from both Jewish and gentile
backgrounds.
Paul is wanting
to visit the church in Rome, one reason is to use Rome as a staging point to
spread the gospel into Spain. For that he needs support and money, so it is
important that he lets the people know that he is trustworthy, and of the
shared foundations of the Christian faith. [i]
Listen as
we hear a slightly different version of the reading. Jan is Paul writing his
letter, Dick is saying what Paul may be thinking as he writes.
Creative reading [Spill the Beans]
Rather
than trying to cover the whole section this morning, I will reflect on a few
words and phrases, hopefully this will help as we read more of Romans in the next
few weeks.
Righteousness
of God
– often we think of people who are righteous as some people who are respectable
and with high morals. But here Paul writes of the righteousness of God – and that
isn’t about morals or respectability. The righteousness of God is about God’s faithfulness,
that is God keeps God’s promises.
Another
word that Paul uses a lot is faith. Faith that witnesses to the good news, faith that
encourages, faith that isn’t a belief system, but a response to God’s
faithfulness.
And
Gospel or Good news:
The
gospel is not a doctrine or a creed, but a living message with power to change
lives.[ii]
The living message of Jesus Christ himself. The gospel is Jesus, not words
about Jesus, but Jesus. And the Gospel is founded on the righteousness of God –
God’s faithfulness.
We
live in a time when we are the centre of our own little universe – things like
selfies and technology that allows you
to see only that which you agree with.
But
the gospel is not ‘me’ centred – it is
God centred. The Christian life has God’s faithfulness as a foundation, and the
transforming power of Jesus Christ transforming and challenging and living in
us.
The
righteousness and faithfulness of God call for a response in our lives, as does
the good news of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. But the
gospel is not our response.
Our
response is to live out Gods calling – for Paul that was to be an evangelist to
the Gentiles; what is your calling?
That
is serious question: God calls each of us – not only ministers and evangelists
and missionaries, but all of us.
And
we need each other to encourage us in our calling.
“For I am
longing to see you so that 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, both yours and mine.”
Mutually encouraged by each other’s faith?
How
might we do this?
Christianity
is a God-centred, Christ powered faith – with a foundation of God’s
righteousness –
how
do we respond to God’s faithfulness?
How
do we respond to the living good news of Jesus?
