Romans 9:1-13
I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
My lord and savior Jesus Christ, amen. We're continuing the series on Romans that we've been working through since June. We have gone all the way starting with Romans four and worked our way up to here, we saw that St. Paul has worked, pulled us that everyone is a sinner, falling short of what God demands, and given a free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, they cannot be earned. He then brought up a series of objections to that asking mostly about what if Salvation is a free gift? What do we do about our behavior. And he linked that to our baptisms, that by being baptized into Christ, we die and rise to new life, to live as Christ would have us. Finally, we made it all the way up to chapter eight, where St. Paul ends with this amazing declaration of God's love, that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. He says, No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved him. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the president, nor the future, nor any powers, neither height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I have to say, if I were writing a letter to a group of people, I'd be tempted to put a period there and right, sincerely, Paul, and ended right. What he does, and what he has been doing is he's been saying something, and then thinking, what's a question that might come after this state? Right. So Paul has been saying, how revocable the promises of God are, how the love of God cannot be taken away? How there is nothing that's can separate us from Christ. And then there's a question. You say, if God's promises are irrevocable, what about the people of Israel? St. Paul has been going out to the to the Gentiles for a long time now. And turning away from the Jews that have rejected this promise, and it is almost like the promise of God has been turned away from Israel, and is now going out to the Gentiles. And so it raises a doubt. You've got this, this great declaration, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ. And the Jews in the background are going but wait a second. Didn't God choose Israel? Didn't he make this promise to them? As he turned away from that, and that is why St. Paul begins with with this discussion of Israel. He talks about the pain that he has, as he looks at his people who are rejecting the promise of Christ, and turning away from God. He says, I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brother's, my kinsmen according to the flesh. St. Paul is looking out at all of the people of Israel, all of the Jews who spend their time in the synagogues who have gone to temple worship who have offered the sacrifices, and he is going out about them. My brothers and my sisters, the people I sat next to as they read the scrolls, as we prayed the song as we sang the songs as we heard the word. What about them? There's so much anguish. It's the pastor's heart that looks out at a people and says they're turning away from the salvation that God has given them. And it hurts. He goes so far, to wish that Jesus Christ I would cut him off. And in exchange, save them all. Can you imagine? It actually echoes something that Moses said in Exodus chapter 32, when God's people had come to the base of Mount Sinai, Moses went up. And while he was up there, they built the golden calf and started to worship it. Moses says, alas, this people have sinned, the great sin, they've made for themselves gods of gold. But now if you will forgive their sin, but if not, please block me out of your book that you have written. In other words, he's saying, Take me, condemn me and save them. Just like all I'm sure, Paul would have would have loved it, if it could have worked that way. Save them, punished me. But it's not how it works. We have seen similar situations, in congregations all across America. People look out at the friends and neighbors and the people who used to sit next to them in their pew. And there are spots that are empty. Your brothers and sisters in Christ who are no longer here. One of those things that do cause this is this COVID pandemic, right? We saw a great resignation, as it came out as people during the pandemic left their jobs. But it also turned out that they also left their churches that many of the people that you know and love, use the pandemic as a reason not to come back. churches across America lost 2030 or even 40% of their attendance. And we look around and we say, where did they go? The pain we can feel. I know as a pastor, during the pandemic, it greatly affected me. I certainly can understand Paul's pain as he cries out about his brothers and sisters in the Jewish family. As I looked out and saw people I loved and cared about, who just disappeared, and stopped returning phone calls, just out of the blue. Not just the pandemic, of course, as we look at those who have disappeared. There are many in here who would love to say, who look at their families, and save, where have they gone? I bet there's many a parent who would gladly trade places with their children. Take me, save them. As they who have been raised in the church, who heard the promises of God and simply don't care. A lot of pain isn't. And I'm willing to bet that you can can feel the kind of anguish that St. Paul does, at least in some way. And so the question, I think that St. Paul is raising about Israel, is the question that we can raise about all of these people who seemed to be missing from our pews. Why didn't the Word of God work? Or has the word of God failed? We have all these promises. We have these shore and true promises of Jesus Christ, we have the sacraments, baptism and communion. Did they work? Or did they fail? St. Paul result recites all of the advantages that the Israelites had, and they had a few right listen to this. He says they are the Israelites. And to them belongs the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the worship and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh is the Christ, who is God overall blessed forever.
These Israelites, they had the word of God passed down to them through the scrolls that they read in the synagogues. They had the worship offered at the temple, the presence So God in their myths, they had the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all of the prophets, all of the people that God had sent to gather them together, and bind them to him so that they would be ready so that when Christ came, they would receive him with joy. And yet, they don't. We can say the same in many of our friends. And we ask, what happened? St. Paul's answer for that is not something that can take the pain of the grief away. But simply to say, this is how it has always worked. But the faith of Israel, the faith in the church is not genetic. Or passed down from parent to child. But something that happens in effort that even the best and greatest of the ancient church, going all the way back through the prophets did not always gather together, everyone that was called for the problem. So what he does is he says, We're not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. And not all children of Abraham, are children of Abraham, because they are offspring. But through Isaac, shall your offspring be named. This means that is not the children of the flesh who are children of God. But the children of the promise are counted as offspring. What he's pointing to is that it is it is not a genetic relationship to Abraham, that makes you a part of the promise. Just as the promise of Jesus Christ is not passed down by genetics, but be by being connected to this promise through faith. Abraham had many children, but only Isaac received the promise. Isaac had Jacob and Esau, but only Jacob was the one through whom it was passed down. And if you look at the history of, of Israel, the church in the Old Testament, it has always worked this way to one of the great judges, the prophet Samuel, raised in the temple, one of the great men of God who was who spoke to God who received visions who did everything amazingly well. When he was old, he appointed his sons to be judges to follow in his place. And it didn't work out very well. First Samuel, chapter eight, when Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel, the name of the firstborn son was Joelle and the name of his second Elijah, they were judges in Beersheba. Yet his son did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after game. They took bribes and perverted justice. I don't know about you, but I don't think I could ever claim to be nearly as good as Samuel the prophet, nearly have the wisdom and power of his visions. I've never been able to say Thus says the Lord and actually convey the words that God spoke to me. And yet Samuel to face the same problem. The same thing is true for Elijah, though he didn't look out at his son's and see this problem. Elijah was so upset by the way his ministry was going, that he ended up running into the wilderness and asking God to kill him. By the time he climbs up into the mountain and hears the voice of God, God tells him that he had reserved 7000 in the entire nation. Only 7000 And yet, he is the greatest prophet of the Old Testament, Elijah who stood next to Christ with Moses on the top of the Mount of Transfiguration. We cannot say that the word of God failed. Only that this is how it's always worked. Even Jesus, I don't know if you know this. I'm not as good as Jesus. Even Jesus, His word was rejected. In the passages that we've been looking at in our guide School readings, they come right after in the Gospel of Matthew, a turning point, up until before this, everything has been great. But in chapters 12, Chapter 12, all of a sudden Jesus is being confronted by the Pharisees and the officials, and things are starting to go to not go well. And Jesus is receiving some pushback. And what he does with the parables that come right after that is he explains why this happens. He explains why people are pushing back against the greatest prophet who has ever lived, the Son of God Himself. And one of those is the parable of the sower, where the word of God goes out. And in some places it grows. And some places it doesn't. We just say, this is how the Word of God has always worked. And some people hear they believe, and some people don't. So we're the app, when we ask ourself, has the word of God failed? The answer is no. The promises of God are sure and true. And we know that, because those promises were the same promises that raised Jesus from the dead, the man God, who said, who was who said to his disciples, that he would be rejected, killed, and after three days rise, he did. And the promise that all who believe in Him will rise with him. So that the promises that St. Paul read to us at the end of Romans chapter eight, that nothing can separate us from the love of God, are certain and true as Jesus is alive. And we can cling to those, knowing that Christ will raise us on the last day and give us victory over death. Even as we still think about the grief that we have, but some don't believe that the people that we looked out at the people, we've served the people, we've given God's Word, the people that I've given Holy Communion to may have turned away. We still have the glorious promises of Jesus Christ, knowing that we will be raised from the dead. This gospel is always true. This message is always power. But it doesn't mean that it always takes root and grow. And it doesn't mean that some people won't turn away. And so as we bear this, we still cling to the comfort that Jesus gives us. That nothing can separate us from that neither death nor life, nor powers, nor angels, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, even as we mourn those who have left in Jesus name, Amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai