Sunday Praise & Worship 10:00
Christian Education - 10:00 - Casual Dress - Loving Childcare

Key Verse: Romans 15:13 "I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit."

This first Sunday of Advent, we begin a new worship series focused on the practice of sharing our faith in Jesus Christ with the world. The Advent, or coming, of Jesus into the world, whose birth we especially celebrate this Christmas, is Good News indeed. The Greek word for Good News is evangel (euangelion). It gives us the English word evangelism. This Good News, the message that God is with us in Jesus Christ, is meant to be shared. We don't go tell it on a mountain as a favor to "sinners", or as a holy obligation, the Good News simply flows out of our lives like a fountain of grace and love.

Paul's letter to the people of the Way gathered in Rome began with a jolting invitation to see themselves as connected with all of humanity. In Romans 2:1, after a laundry list of idol worshippers and sinners that includes those who are greedy, who hate, envy, and murder others, as well as those who are heartless and unforgiving, Paul writes: You may be saying, "What terrible people you have been talking about!" But you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you do these very same things.

Throughout the letter, Paul struggles to join seemingly opposed concepts: the freedom and obligation of grace (see Romans 6); the exclusive and inclusive nature of the Body of Christ (see Romans 9-11); our competing desires to satisfy God and to satisfy our selfish (and deceptive) desires (Romans 7). Paul's letter to the Romans is considered to be his magnum opus - the summation of what scholars call "Pauline" theology that ensured the People of the Way of Jesus Christ would not merely be a sect of Judaism but would embrace Gentile (non-Jewish) followers and become a new kind of religious understanding of God in the world.

This passage from chapter 15 (verses 5-13) returns to Paul's opening vision of a faith community that embraces all people - only this time Paul states his argument positively. Instead of arguing that we are bound together by our common need for God (our universal weakness for giving our hearts to created things rather than to the Creator of all things), Paul here encourages us to take our place in (and to welcome all others into) the community of God's family, created and called to glorify our merciful and loving God.

How do we glorify God, according to Paul? Verse 7 commands us to "accept each other just as Christ has accepted you." Paul acknowledges that Christ came to demonstrate the faithfulness of God's promises to the ancestors of the children of Jacob (whom God renamed Israel). Then Paul goes out of his way to demonstrate that the Hebrew Scriptures (what we call the Old Testament and what Paul would have simply called "Scripture") promised that membership in God's family is meant for Gentiles (non-Jewish people) as well as for Jews. He quotes four scripture passages (Psalm 18:49, Deuteronomy 32:43, Psalm 117:1, and Isaiah 11:10). This collection is unique in all of the New Testament. Nowhere else does a writer buttress an argument with as many scripture passages. And Paul demonstrates that they come from all three collections in the scriptures: Deuteronomy from the Law (Torah), Isaiah from the Prophets, and two Psalms passages from the Writings.

Which is to say: Paul thinks this concept of throwing opening the doors of God's Kingdom to welcome all people into the mercy and love of God in Christ is of crucial importance in how the People of the Way of Jesus live out their faith. God has not meant for us to be an exclusive club, but a community that embraces all people everywhere, throughout the world - for the glory of God. Look again and the passages Paul quotes. What are we called to do? Sing praises to God together, Rejoice together, Praise God (all you people of the earth), and place our hopes in Jesus Christ.

Paul's final prayer is for God to keep us in happiness and peace as we place our hope (belief) in God. And then comes a blessing: that we would overflow with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. We share the Good News of Christ's life among us all because the Holy Spirit sustains an eternal fire of hope that all people will someday be a part of this never-ending song of rejoicing and praise of our awesome and wonderful God.

Questions for Reflection

1. Jesus preached that the kingdom of God was close at hand, perhaps already among us, but that to enter it, we had to "become like children" and "repent". Often, we understand the word repent to mean "be sorry for your sins". The Greek word is metanoeo, a combination of two words which mean "to think differently" or "to reflect afterwards". How does Paul here call the church to repent (in the sense of thinking differently)?
    
2. Look at the beginning of this chapter in Romans. Paul calls for consideration, harmony, patient endurance and encouragement in the community of the Way. He also quotes Psalm 69:9. How does this verse speak to you as you experience the opposite of these traits in the church? How does it encourage you to strive to praise Go by living them out yourself?
    
3. The hope Paul talks about in our key verse (above) comes from God (Paul mentions this fact twice). How is the hope that God gives you related to your attitude toward strangers outside the church (geographically and theologically)? What hope does God give you for the church and for the world (what do you hope for)?
    
4. How has the Holy Spirit renewed your hope for the world in worship today?

For Next Week: Please read 1 John 4:7-16 (key verse is 12). Our theme is Outflow Toward God: God's love for us in Jesus defines love and calls us to love each other as the completion of God's love and life. If you can, listen to the chorus of Handel's Messiah titled "Glory to God". How have you experienced God's love in other people? How has your love for others enabled them to know God's love?

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Last modified: 02/11/08