August 14 - Proper 15, Year A (RCL)
It all begins
with a question,
this eleventh chapter of Romans.
Has God rejected his people?
Has God rejected the very people
who are known as the people of God,
the people whose name, Israel,
means something like persisting with God
or God persisting.
It’s a logical question, if you’ve been reading the last few chapters of Romans along with us each week,
chapters that try to explain
how it is
that God is at work,
reaching out to people
who were never part of the people of God,
who hadn’t been born into the tribe of Israel,
hadn’t been part of the faith and culture
that Jesus himself was born into,
people who had never even heard
of the God that Jesus calls
his father.
They were outsiders, those people,
Gentiles, they called them,
and one of the things that separated the first Christians
from their Jewish families and friends
was that they said
that following Jesus
was something that was open to anyone.
It didn’t matter who you were, whether you’d be born to it
or had been circumcised, the sign of belonging to God;
it didn’t matter
whether you had grown up keeping the law
or been totally oblivious to it.
All that mattered
was whether you were willing
to follow Jesus,
to trust him.
And if you were, that was good enough for God,
good enough for the God
whose love and grace
would reach out and fill your life.
Which is fine,
but what about all those people
who were born into the people of God?
What about the ones
who had been keeping the law,
making sure
not to eat the wrong things
or do wrong actions
or think wrong thoughts?
What about
the people of God
from way back?
What about the Jews?
This is a big question for Paul
and for the early Christians,
especially the ones
who themselves
had converted
from Judaism.
It’s a question
about their friends and relatives.
But for most of us,
it’s more academic.
We might wonder
about whether all the stuff in the Old Testament still applies,
we might even wonder
why we bother reading it at all.
But for most of us,
the question of what happens to the people of God
who are still stuck in an Old Testament world
is probably not one we think about
on a daily basis.
And yet, I think it’s important.
It’s important
because what’s at stake here
is not just one small group of people;
what’s at stake here
is the very character
of God.
And what the question is,
is what is God
really like?
Is God
worth trusting?
And they’re asking these questions
in the contexts of a world
where there are many choices of gods.
If any of you
have seen pictures
of the forum in Rome, or even better, been there,
you’ll know that it is full of the ruins
of temples. There is the temple of Castor and Pollux,
the temple of Concord, the temple of Janus, the temple of Jupiter Stator, the temple of Saturn, the temple of Romulus. the temple of Venus and Roma, and the temple of Vesta.
And then there are shrines
some to emperors named gods,
others to smaller deities.
And each of the gods
had their own interests;
each of them
had their own followers.
And each of them
had distinct characteristics.
So it’s an obvious question.
What is this God
of Jesus like?
And Paul’s answer?
This God, you can trust.
This God
won’t let you go.
This God
is the only God.
And not surprisingly
when someone makes claims like that, someone else says,
“So prove it!”
And that’s what the last few chapters of the letter to the Romans have been about,
proving
that God is trustworthy,
trustworthy for anyone
who chooses to follow him.
Which is all fine,
until you think back
to what came before Jesus.
What about all those people, the ones who trusted him then?
There was nothing about Jesus back then.
So what happens
to them?
And Paul’s answer?
God is trustworthy.
God is trustworthy, even for them.
The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
God has chosen them.
God will not
forget them.
You see
God had made
a whole lot of promises to those people.
God had promised
to be their God;
God had promised
that they were somehow special, somehow chosen.
So what’s that got to do with us?
Why is it so important
for us to read this part
of this letter
this Sunday?
It’s important
because it matters
who God is.
it matters
whether we can trust God.
We live in a world
where trust is in short supply.
Right now, we’re in the early stages
of a presidential campaign.
At last count, nineteen people had declared themselves candidates for the Republican nomination for President,
and that’s not including Sarah Palin.
Each and every one of them,
is saying,
“Vote for me.”
What they are asking publicly,
is that we vote for them
because you agree with their policies,
but underneath, what they are saying is
“Vote for me. You can trust me.”
This week, the news has been full of the riots that began in Tottenham in London and spread across Britain.
Some people are saying
it’s simply a matter of law and order.
Jail the criminals, and the whole problem will be solved.
But others say, we need to look deeper.
There’s the young man who was asked early on,
“Why are you doing this?”
He said,
"Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us...and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press. Last night a bit of rioting and looting and look around you."
They can’t trust the police. They tried to say so, and no-one would listen.
They can’t trust the government. The programs that may of them rely on
have been drastically cut, in order to claw back some public money.
They don’t trust society at large, because they’ve been sold the story
that it’s possible, with hard work and persistence
to succeed.
But it hasn’t worked; there is one job in Tottenham
for every 54 people looking for work.
Who can they trust?
And along with the riots, the news has followed the incredibly volatile stock market, alternately jumping and dropping hundreds of points. And yesterday in the New York Times, it was reported that one town has cut its retirees pension benefits by 50 percent. Who, or what, can you trust?
And the apostle Paul’s answer
is that you can trust God.
You can trust God, because God keeps his promises.
God keeps his promises
without
exception.
It doesn’t matter
whether other people renege on their promises, even their promises
to God.
God keeps his promises.
Over the last couple of months, in our Old Testament readings,
we’ve heard what those promises were, promises to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob:
a land to call their own,
descendants,
and most of all,
a God
who would be their God.
And when they stood on the brink of the promised land
after their Exodus from Egypt, Moses reminded them
“Be strong and bold; have no fear or dread of them, because it is the Lord your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you.”
And God did not forsake them.
When they insisted on having a king to lead them, and that king
was a disaster,
God did not forsake them.
When they got sick of having a God they couldn’t see, and decided to have a backup plan
of local gods,
God did not forsake them.
When they ignored the laws god had given them given them for their own good,
God did not forsake them.
And even
when God sent his own son,
and they conspired with the Romans
to crucify him,
God did not forsake them.
That’s Paul’s point.
That’s what he wants to make clear.
No matter what, God will not give up on his people.
God is absolutely trustworthy.
And it’s the same for us.
God will never forsake us. God will never give up on us.
God
is absolutely
trustworthy.
So in these times of uncertainty
when we’re not sure
what will happen to the economy,
when unrest and violence seem to threaten us,
when our government - both sides of it - sometimes seems
either helpless or useless,
know this.
You can trust God.
You can trust God. Totally. Absolutely.
No matter what.
Because God does not, will not, give up on us.
God
can be trusted.
© Raewynne J. Whiteley 2010