The sermon of July 7, 2013 at First Presbyterian Church, Soddy Daisy, TN
Readings: Isaiah 7:1-17, 23-25; Romans 1:1-7
When we mention Paul, and the fact he was a Jew, we
often think only that he preached the fact that we are saved by the work of
faith against the idea that salvation comes from following the Law. This is a very important part of Paul’s
message to us but Paul’s understanding if the Gospel goes much, much deeper.
When we pick up our Bible and open to the New Testament,
the first epistle of Paul we encounter is his letter to the Romans, and
therefore it is natural we may think this was the first letter he wrote and
maybe the first congregation he formed. But Romans was one of the last letters
he wrote late in his life and to a church he had never visited much less
participated in its formation.
That Paul was a Jew, that he wrote to a church in Rome
that he had yet to visit, and did it late in his ministry is our blessing. Paul
went to great lengths to carefully describe his understanding of Christianity forged
over twenty or so years of experience to layout his perspective before he met
these Christians for the first time. This is why the Letter to the Romans
deserves to be read carefully, it reveals Paul’s understanding of the essence
of Christian life.
As a Jew, Paul had a personal world-view characterized
by his existence in a greater history of humanity and God; not as his individuality. Today, we live in a culture totally
preoccupied with being, what were are
going to make of our self, what novel we are going to write, what lasting
impact on the world we are going to leave.
For a Jew, history defines the relationship between God
as Lord the Creator and the created, both Jew and gentile. The history of the
Creator and created defines reality and that means the only way to survive is
by the grace of the Creator. Such a view says we have no control over our
destiny because God controls our history. Our desire to be free of the limits
of God’s history is the source our rebellion and defines sin. To a great extent
that is modern individuality.
Paul understands history as more than the past; it is the
unity of the past, present and future
(parousia). The Letter to the Romans explains a history that contains the
historical future or consummation to the relationship of God, the Lord of
Creation, and all the created people. Since
the Christ event is part of the history, it means something new happened the
nature of the historical relationship between Creator and created, the gentile
is now inside that history.
These first seven verses give us a beautiful synopsis of
this Christian belief. Paul makes these six points:
I am called to
be an Apostle who is a slave to Jesus Christ. (v1)
I am set apart
(excommunicated, called) for the Gospel. (v12)
The Scriptures
foretold Jesus the Messiah (who) descended from David as a human (and) through
the power of his resurrection, God declared Jesus Son of God with the power of
the Holy Spirit. Therefore, Jesus Christ is our Lord. (v2-4)
He is the
source of grace and calls us to be his ministers obedient to faith. (v5)
His grace is
for everyone including the gentiles. (v6)
Everyone who reads this letter
(hears this proclamation) is called to belong to Jesus Christ and to be saints
sharing His grace and peace. (v7)
Verse 1. “Paul, a servant
of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God…”
The history of the Creator and created defines us. It means
the only way to survive is by the grace of the Creator. In God’s history, the
Creator chose to set apart the Jewish people for its special relationship to
God. This relationship also defines our history as being set apart from God. (The
Greek word for set apart can mean called,
excommunicated or removed.) I wonder
if Paul chose the word for this ambiguity?
How does Paul see Christ in this unfolding history? Paul understood that the relationship of Jesus
to history was like the relationship of Adam to history. Sin entered history
through Adam. When sin entered mankind, it entered all mankind making us all sinners. We are disobedient from birth.
Christ entered our unfolding history as the new Adam. Righteousness
and reconciliation entered history through Jesus. Jesus healed the corruption
of sin and established a new covenant
of promise for all people. This new covenant stands beside the covenant of hope
God made with Abraham and the Hebrews and points to the historical future of
our relationship to God.
Verse 2-3: … he
promised (the Gospel) beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, …
the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the
flesh.
The Isaiah reading emphasizes a critical part of that history. Isaiah says the impending Assyrian captivity
is the beginning of the unfolding of God’s action to redeem not only the Jew
but all his people. As a Jew, Paul was painfully aware of God’s action - that
the temple of these once noble chosen people was destroyed and the people
reduced to the status of slaves of Assyria, then Babylon, then Alexander and
finally Rome. Only after these things passed will the child Immanuel, God is with
us, come and eat curds and honey and know how to refuse the evil and choose
the good. Paul understood Jesus in this historical context, that is,
Jesus answers the answer, “What will God do in the history of both the chosen people
and all people to honor the covenant with Abraham as father of all nations?”
Verse 4: (He was) declared to be Son of God with
power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus
Christ our Lord…
The man Jesus, this God
is with us who knows evil and chooses the good is resurrected from the dead
by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Creator defeats death, the sole enemy of
the created, and that power declares he is Lord of all. This is the Lord we
serve. These verses 2-4 are the theme of the entire letter.
Verse 5. (W)e
have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among
all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, our Lord.
Paul has said he was set apart as an Apostle in a new
covenant of promise, now he tells us this new covenant sealed by our Lord has set us all apart as Apostles. You may be
thinking ahead now, because if we are set apart as Apostles what is our duty?
It is to be a slave of Christ and share God’s grace with the world. Paul has
captured the entire essence of Christian life and we are only at the fifth verse
of his letter!
Verse 6. “This includ(es) yourselves who are called
to belong to Jesus Christ.”
Lest we forget or
misunderstand, Paul repeats himself. If
you are called by Christ, you are set apart as an Apostle. For a sinner, this
is a “good news-bad news” message. The good news is obvious, by grace we are
saved, but the bad news is we are set apart, as if we have a TV camera
following us everywhere, broadcasting our every move, or like we are a city of
a hill.
Verse 7. To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called
to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ.
The verse is clearly addressed to the Romans but it is
addressed also to “all who are called to be saints.” That means us, friends. Paul
closes his salutation with these words, Grace to you and peace from God – two powerful words.
If you were a Greek Jew that the Roman congregation was,
“Grace” and “Peace” would strike you as significant. Grace is the Greek word
that sounds very similar to the Greek word for “greetings.” “Peace” is the Greek word for the Hebrew
word, shalom. As you may remember, “Peace be with you” is a Hebrew greeting that
goes back to Gideon when the Lord said, “Peace be with you, you shall not die.”
and Gideon built an altar to God and named it, “ The Lord is Peace.”
With these two words, one Greek, one Hebrew, Paul signifies
the history of Judaism and Christianity are bound together as a single
unfolding relationship between God and all humankind.
Reading these scriptures and their commentaries, led me
to think about the way Paul captures the essence of Christian life. We find our
strength in the humility of being a slave to Christ. We who are set apart in
the world as distinctively Christian carry the obligation to proclaim the Lord
ship of Jesus. We are guided by the scriptures. Those scriptures reveal our
history of the created to the Creator. We are led to share the grace of God we
have with the world.
This letter on history also led me to think about First
Presbyterian Church in Soddy Daisy in a different way. I decided to define
First Presbyterian Church not just as this congregation of people sitting with
me, but to do it Paul’s way to define it by its unfolding history as God’s
creation that has a past, present and future.
You do have a grand history and relationship to God that
spans 185 years. You are distinctively Christian. You are the first non-Indian
church organized in Hamilton County, by a thoroughly Scottish Presbyterian, one
of whose descendants became editor of the Atlanta Constitution and a strong
supporter of civil rights for African-Americans. You have produced a moderator of the General
Assembly and seminary professor.
As best that I can determine you have sent at least 18
young people into the ministry in the first 150 years, have elected persons to
almost every political office of Hamilton County, and as I learned on July 4th,
there is at least one more young woman entering seminary this year.
As we look at that unfolding history today, we still see
God’s grace at work in the tireless work of our members with the children of
the community, both with our meal and program Wednesday evenings and vacation
bible school beginning today. The youth of our church are important for several
reasons. Every child raised in a
Christian environment is a seed waiting to be cast on fertile ground as an
adult whether it is in Soddy Daisy or Timbuktu.
Every child raised in our church is a fulfillment of our baptismal vows.
Every child raised in our church is part of the history of our relationship to
the Creator.
I see God’s grace in those who are committed to Bible
study Sunday mornings at Church School, in home devotion and in worship. I see
it in your commitment to maintaining your historical presence in the community
through the Gospel Sing and Yard Sale. I
see it not just in the support by Presbyterian women but also in all the women
and men of the church who seek effective ministry to our community. I see it in
the selfless commitment of the members of our music program. I see you as the
history of all these things.
History is a valuable lesson. God’s history with his
people shows that God is in control. But, what about the part of our history
called the future? God is the one who is calling us to a Christian vocation. I
almost titled this sermon “The Church that Could,” because the logical question
is “Where are we going?” Are we satisfied? Can we do more? Do we need a bigger choir,
a youth leader, new directions for growth and/or movement, new ministries in
the community? We can do anything the
Holy Spirit empowers us to do but we can do nothing more. To do that, we need to listen carefully for
the call.
The way to begin is to understand our history, its past,
its present and its future. Our time in the history of First Presbyterian
Church is now, our task is to ensure we keep the foundation strong for the next
185 years. As Paul said to all you saints, Grace to you and Peace from God. AMEN
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