Psalm 17:1-7, 15 • Genesis 32:22-31 • Romans 9:1-5 • Matthew 14:13-21

The theme for this week is “how God changes us.” In Genesis 32, we read the story of Jacob and how he was changed after wrestling with God. Psalm 17 provides an example showing that we often fail to realize that any good we do is simply God working through us, but we can be transformed whether we realize the source of that good or not. Our sermon outline titled “When One Cries…” features Romans 9, where it discusses how God changes us by helping us to develop compassion for others in our journey of faith. Lastly, Matthew 14 tells the story of feeding the 5000, which illustrates how God uses our participation in working with others to change us and increase our faith.

When One Cries…

Romans 9:1-5 NRSV

You might start with an example of empathy you’ve seen or experienced—something as simple as a time you cried during a movie.

Have you ever wondered how the people who make movies get babies to cry on cue? I recently watched a short video featuring Elaine Hall, who works in Hollywood as a “baby wrangler.” A “baby wrangler” is someone who interprets between what the director wants a young child to do in front of the camera and the baby or young child.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCuvt8wjKX8&app=desktop – You can either show the video or part of it, or you can use the summary that follows.

Elaine noticed early on the empathetic nature of babies and young children. So she used empathy to get the baby to respond as she wanted. When she wanted the baby to cry, she cried—loudly. And when she wanted the baby to stop crying, she stopped crying and reassured the baby that everything was OK.

If you’ve ever had more than one small child at home, or worked around a number of small children, you’ve probably found this to be true. Whenever one started crying, others followed suit. The New York Times wrote an article in 1989 highlighting new research (at that time) showing that babies are born empathetic. Researcher Jean Piaget originally thought that empathy wasn’t possible until a child’s cognitive abilities had developed enough, like around 7-8 years old. The 1989 studies showed that babies from a few months old through their first year “react to the pain of others as though it were happening to themselves. On seeing another child get hurt and start to cry, they themselves begin to cry, especially if the other child cries for more than a minute or two.”

Empathy is not limited to babies. All of us experience empathy. Many men don’t like to admit when they get tears in their eyes from watching a movie, or listening to a sad song, but watch them when their child or spouse gets hurt. We feel for others—and this is one of the greatest gifts God gives us through Jesus.

The idea of empathy for other people is talked about and illustrated in Scripture. Let’s look at a passage where the apostle Paul shows his empathy for his people, the Jews:

I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit—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 own people, my kindred 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 them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 9:1-5 NRSV)

We can almost feel Paul’s grief and sadness over the unwillingness of most Jews to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. He points out that if anybody should have recognized Jesus as the Messiah, the Jews should have, since they were given the covenants, the law, and the promises, as well as stories of the patriarchs’ faith. The Jews were aware and watching for the Messiah, but they missed him, and Paul is sad about their “stuckness.” The Jews were expecting a Messiah who would deliver them from the political oppression they were in under Roman rule. When Jesus didn’t fit that expectation, he was killed, and the Jews remained stuck.

Paul is demonstrating his love for these who remain stuck. Perhaps you’ve felt the same feelings toward others who are stuck in the law, stuck in the lies that they are not worthy of God’s love or that God doesn’t love them. It’s this love that Paul speaks of to the believers in Corinth when he says this love compels them to view others differently—no longer viewing the world as “us” and “them,” but to see all as people Jesus died for. We want to view all as those whom God loves and to whom Jesus’ sacrifice applies.

What are the key takeaways from this passage?

• Even when we love God, we can become “stuck.” The Jews worshipped God and kept the old covenant, but they became rigid in their understanding of God. They put God in a box, placing expectations on how God should fulfill his promises. We do the same. It’s easy to lump people into categories—saved and unsaved, forgiven and unforgiven, children of God and not children of God, us and them. How have you put God in a box? Who do you think might be exempt from God’s love, or from the forgiveness of the cross? This leads right to the 2^nd key takeaway.
• Those who are “stuck” deserve our empathy, not our judgment. It can be tempting to dismiss those who seem stuck in old traditions or beliefs. We might think, “Why can’t they just get it?” Our role, however, is not to demean but to encourage and affirm God’s love for all people, regardless of beliefs. We hurt because they are stuck, we grieve for their unbelief. We cry because they don’t know their Abba/Father.

Application:

• Recognize that we all are on a spiritual journey in our relationship with God, and growth never stops. We are constantly growing in our love for God, in our understanding of God’s love for us, and in our love for others.
• Accept others where they are, even as you lovingly encourage them to reflect on God’s love for all. The story of the blind men describing an elephant reveals how all of us only see facets of God. We are at different levels in understanding, and each level is essential toward our continued growth. Just as we wouldn’t expect a first grader to do algebra, so we must keep our expectations about spiritual understanding applicable to each individual’s progress on the journey.
• Embrace your natural empathy. Try to understand what is shaping the other person’s view, even as Paul understood how the Jews’ disappointed expectations of the Messiah shaped their view of Jesus. Ask God to help you see others as he sees them, through his eyes of love.

Babies have it figured out. We’re all in this together, and when one of us cries, we all cry, whether we show it or not. No amount of logical arguing is going to change a person’s viewpoint. No well-thought-out Facebook post is going to finally make a person see their theological error. Empathy—which is based on the love Christ gives us for others—is the answer. If we really have the same heart for other people like the apostle Paul had for the Jews, like Jesus has for us, we will acknowledge it is not “them” and “us,” it’s just us. So we love people, we accept people, we encourage people, and we trust the Holy Spirit to work in all our lives.

Small Group Discussion Questions

Psalm 105:1-6, 16-22, 45b • Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28 • Romans 10:5-15 • Matthew 14:22-33

This week’s theme is God’s unlikely story: how God uses counter-intuitive heroes and broken people to get the epic of redemption told. Genesis 37 begins the story of Joseph—the prideful dreamer who was sold into slavery. Psalm 105 is the poetic retelling of Joseph’s redemption story. Matthew 14 tells the story of impetuous Peter walking on water, falling in it, and walking again. Our sermon, “Paul’s Rosetta Stone,” is based on Romans 10. Paul is in the middle of connecting the Hebrew story of redemption with the gospel. The long and very human story of Israel crescendos in Christ, then continues in the long and very human story of us.

Paul’s Rosetta Stone

Romans 10:5-15 ESV

In the summer of 1799, a French foot soldier was working on a building near the town of Rashid (Rosetta). They used whatever materials they could find—scrap lumber and metal, even ancient stone and ruins that were in the sand. This soldier noticed a particular stone covered in ancient writing, and went to his superior officer to tell him about it.

The ancient writing was in three languages. Two were Egyptian—one in hieroglyphics and one demotic (more like written script of languages today)—the third was ancient Greek. No one had ever been able to translate hieroglyphics before, so the Greek (which people could read) became the key to unlocking the hieroglyphic language. Light flooded into the mysterious Egyptian history and overnight Egypt became a place and story known to the world.

The Rosetta Stone was the first key to unlocking this mystery. Just a random piece of stone that someone took the time to notice. The writing on it isn’t very interesting, just a few regional laws that were being passed. But the stone itself made all the difference. In modern language, the term “Rosetta Stone” has come to mean a key piece of evidence or data that makes everything clear.

Paul’s letter to the Romans is the Rosetta Stone of the Christian story. This longest of Paul’s letters helps to hold together and translate the history of Israel with the current story of what it means to be God’s people in Christ. This is the key that fits the lock, or better yet, the view that gives us the vantage point to see all of the history of redemption—from the first Adam to the second Adam, from the children of Israel entering the promised land to a small house church in Rome gathering around the gospel.

In Paul’s Rosetta Stone, he lays the words of the old covenant in the Old Testament, next to the new covenant reality of life in Christ. He shows how the reality of Christ unlocks the ancient mysteries and translates and connects the old story with what God is currently up to.

The story of Jesus doesn’t destroy the story of the Old Testament—it completes that narrative. Jesus is the twist ending.

Look at these two Scripture passages to see the Rosetta Stone in action. The first is from a moment when God renewed the covenant with Israel, just before Moses died and they entered the Promised Land. Notice God’s words to Israel:

For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?” Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?” But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it. See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. (Deuteronomy 30:11-15 ESV)

Now, look at the next reading, centuries later, that Paul sends to the community in Rome:

For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:5-9 ESV)

Do you see this echo at work? Paul is laying out the completion of the Israelite story, even to the point of using the Israelite scripture!

Too often, modern Christians tend to separate the Old and New Testaments. Some even make the serious mistake of saying the Old Testament God was somehow a different person than Jesus, or that Jesus was God’s plan B.

Paul says just the opposite here, even to the point of exactly paralleling Israel and us. His point here is that in the days of Moses, people would “live by” (v. 5) the law—they had that deeper, richer life of knowing God by following the works and rituals of the law. All this was only meant to point ahead to Christ, to pre-shadow him.

Now that Christ has come, God himself can live in us. The connection between us and God is complete—not known only in the distant fragments of Israelite practice. To go on doing the rituals of the law was like keeping on your wedding dress days after the ceremony—you needed it in that moment, but after vows are said, the dress has done its job.

Paul translates the story of Israel through the gospel to show that it is completed only in Christ. Now we “live” by knowing Jesus, not following the works of the Law. We live when “you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (v. 9).

So, there’s our first point: Romans is the Rosetta Stone of the gospel, translating the historical Hebrew experience by Jesus, as experienced by the new Christian community.

Think about your own life in terms of the gospel as a kind of “Rosetta Stone.” Theologian Dick Keyes talks about a trip he took as an irreligious young man when he was a student at Harvard. He had been reading about Christian faith and was haunted by the truth of it—the gospel wouldn’t leave him alone. During this trip, he stayed at a hotel and ended up reading through the Gideon Bible that was on hand.

He was struck by the insight Scripture had into human life. He noted that the psychology and story of being human was illuminated by the gospel in a unique and accurate way. The gospel was the Rosetta Stone for his experience in life. Soon after, he turned his life over to Christ and has been in ministry ever since.

He found, as G.K. Chesterton put it: Christian faith is the key “because it fits the lock.”

Universally and throughout history, people have found themselves uncomfortable and alienated by human life. There never seems to be enough to feed our egos, our selfishness knows no bounds, and our appetites and pleasures drive us crazy. The secular liberal world might call it “maladjustment,” the New Age world might call it “lack of enlightenment” or “misalignment,” but the gospel has always called it “sin.”

The reality of sin and the need for redemption is an insight that resonates with the deepest of the human experience. Like the Rosetta Stone, putting the story of the gospel next to our own twisted, frustrated, exhausting human story makes sense of life. The gospel makes sense of the enigmatic story of life itself. It is the correct translation.

• To our feelings of misalignment and alienation, the gospel offers the diagnosis of sin, and Christ the cure.
• To our enormous egos and pride, the gospel offers the fact that we are the royal sons and daughters of God.
• To our insatiable, insane appetites and desires, the gospel offers ethical and moral structure that houses and heals us.
• To the pain of our human loneliness, the gospel offers the connection and warmth of the Christ community.

It fits the lock.

Now, let’s look at who Paul was writing to.

The church in Rome had been running for a few decades now. A few years before this letter, the Roman emperor had kicked all the Jews out of Rome in a political move. It was a horribly racist move to consolidate his power.

While they were gone, the Roman Christian community grew and took on its own identity—and was made up entirely of non-Jewish believers because the Jews were gone. What you had in that community instead of Jewish people embracing Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah, was people who had been involved in the Greco-Roman cults, for whom it probably made more sense that Jesus was the Son of God. The Jewish people struggled with exclusivism and tension toward non-Jewish people; the Gentile people struggled with suddenly having to change their licentious sexual habits and focusing on worshipping one God instead of dozens.

When the leadership of Rome allowed the Jews to return, the church there had been running without them for a while. Not surprisingly, tempers flared, and divisions arose between Jewish and Gentile Christians. Paul spent a lot of his letter, and a good amount of his other letters, addressing this kind of tension. In chapter 14, he offers a long discussion on how eating meat that’s been sacrificed to idols, then sold in a butcher shop, is essentially irrelevant for God’s people. “Non-essential” issues like this shouldn’t make for division or judgmental attitudes in the community.

For one of the first times in history—and more successful than the world had seen before—a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural family of faith was starting. The main people groups Paul was writing to—the Jews and the Greco-Roman community—were quite different. For the average faithful Hebrew, life was a strict regimen of rituals and community occasions, with a high moral code and certain rhythm. For a Roman at the time, religion was a matter of rituals used to buy off the distant gods for good harvests, health and healthy children. Your religion didn’t have anything to do with your moral life (the philosophers ran that), and Roman men had almost no limits on their sexual recreation. Life involved a lot of drinking and partying.

Imagine a tight-laced fundamentalist and a bohemian liberal suddenly finding themselves part of a new faith community. Sharing meals, sharing beliefs, and calling themselves a family. It’s no wonder then what Paul wrote in verse 12-13:

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:12-13 ESV)

That’s the story. This is a community not favoring one specific heritage (as Jews may be tempted to believe) and not just another god among many (as the Greeks and Romans may struggle with), but one God for all the world, drawing them together into one family. The Jewish story is complete, bringing God’s promise to Abraham that his descendants would “multiply as the stars of heaven” (Genesis 26) through the stewardship of the Jewish people now to this universal family of Christ that transcends all boundaries.

So, how do we take the Rosetta Stone into our own lives? What does this mean for us on Monday?

• First, God keeps his promises. Jesus wasn’t God’s Plan B after the Law “didn’t work”— he was the planned end of the epic story. God doesn’t have a Plan B for you. He’s bringing your story through, sometimes despite your best efforts. You are God’s plan A.
• Second, the gospel is the Rosetta Stone of life. When the circumstances of your life don’t seem to make sense, translate them through the gospel. Is this making you more like Christ? Is this circumstance freeing you from your own ego and expectations? Is God calling you to do something in this moment that’s new and out of your comfort zone?
• Third, God’s end goal was always to draw all people, from every nation and tongue, to the possibility of life in Christ. We aren’t democrats or republicans (or whatever political party in your country)— we are Christians. We aren’t blue collar or white collar, rich or poor, we are in God’s royal family and that’s what matters most.

Small Group Discussion Questions

Genesis 45:1-15 • Psalm 133:1-3 • Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32 • Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28

This week’s theme is God’s faithfulness to reconciliation. In Genesis 45, God is faithful to Joseph by bringing reconciliation and redemption between Joseph and his brothers. Psalm 133 sings of the beauty of brothers living in unity. Paul is adamant of God’s mercy to both Jews and Gentiles in a letter to the Roman church while Jesus is recorded in Matthew’s Gospel extending mercy beyond the house of Israel to a Canaanite woman.

God Forbid

Romans 11:1-2a. 29-32 NRSV

Start with a story of a time you questioned whether God had rejected you, perhaps before you came to an understanding of his grace. Or share a story of someone who believed he or she had been rejected by God.

When you read through the Old Testament—especially through the Psalms and the Prophets, you see many times King David or the Israelites believed God had rejected them. This is a real feeling, and something Paul addressed to the Romans. Let’s read our text for today.

I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. … [skipping to verse 29] … for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.  Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all. Romans 11:1-2, 29-32 NRSV)

Notice that in this reading Paul asks a pointed question, “Has God rejected his people?” and then provides an intense answer, “By no means!” Then the lectionary reading omits the next 26 verses, where Paul is sharing details to the readers of this letter, which follow a meandering path where Paul attempts to show us how he got from his question to his answer.

This path recounts the story of Elijah and Baal with some prophet and psalm references thrown in. He includes some discussion about Israel’s failures which somehow opens a door for the inclusion of Gentiles. Then there is a metaphor about an olive tree that supports both natural and grafted branches. This sets up a warning for his Gentile Christian audience that they should not think their inclusion amounts to the Jews’ exclusion. Paul seems intent on making the point that God is not choosing between the Jews and the Gentiles but is working all things together in order to include everyone. Those omitted verses could contain a few sermons of their own. The verses add details Paul uses for the readers of this letter, all of which lead up to Paul answering his initial question: “I ask, then, has God rejected his people?”

The context shows us that Paul has been talking about Israel’s constant rejection of God. In Romans chapter 10—and remember that chapters and verses were added later, so this is a continuation of Paul’s thought—Paul writes about Isaiah’s prophecy that God would be found by those who did not seek him, and he would show himself to those who did not ask for him—a continuation of Paul’s point that Jesus offers salvation to all. Then Paul makes reference to this about God and Israel:

But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.” (Romans 10:21 NRSV)

The context implies that Paul is raising this important question because his Gentile converts have somehow reached the conclusion that God has rejected the Jews. (Unfortunately, this idea still lives in many Christians today. After all, because Jews don’t accept Jesus as their Savior, God must reject them. That is a misguided conclusion that Paul is addressing.)

But it’s not just Israel. Most of us ask the question from time to time: Has God rejected me? After all, there’s times I have turned away, walked a different path, been more worldly than righteous, not sought God, etc. Has God rejected me? Have my sins and failures outweighed any good I do—as if God has us on some kind of justice scale?

Going further, we also face the conundrum of finding it easier to answer Paul’s question with a “Yes” when we think the people God rejects doesn’t include us. It can be easy to cast judgment and condemnation on others because of what they believe or don’t believe, what they practice or don’t practice, how they live or don’t live. If we believe God is passing judgment on those who are “less than” us—in terms of spirituality, obedience, etc.—we are hopeful he is not rejecting us. But even in that twisted way of thinking, we are still asking the deeper question, has God rejected me?

That’s really what’s at stake. As soon as we attribute to God a heart of rejecting people because of their failures, sooner or later our own failures will convince us that we too must be rejected. Before Paul goes into his long meandering path for his readers, he immediately answers the question so bluntly and harshly that he implies that asking the question itself is preposterous.

The NRSV I’m using here translates Paul’s terse “NO” with “By no means!” Other translations go with “God forbid” or “May it never be!” All these translations are trying to communicate the intensity of Paul’s “NO.” The word would be hard pressed to find its equal in being so emphatic. I might say it this way: to even ask the question is to admit a misunderstanding of who God is as Father, Son and Spirit. It is to acknowledge a misunderstanding of who Jesus was, is, and is to come. It is to neglect the truth of the gift God gave us at the cross, in the resurrection and in the ascension of Jesus. It is to make an assumption that God forgave only some at the cross, that Jesus is the Savior only to some.

Paul presents his Gentile friends with the closest evidence at hand for his answer—himself.

For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. Romans 11:2 NRSV

You can’t get more Jewish than that! Paul has done the one thing this Gentile church perhaps needs reminding to do. He has made it personal. It’s easy to talk about the “other guy” instead of looking at our own failures and shortcomings. Have you noticed how easy it is to do that? Paul knows why he is not rejected by God. It’s not because he is a Gentile and it’s certainly not because he was a good Jew. Paul knows that it is only by God’s mercy and grace that he is accepted and embraced by the Father. It’s not about him, it’s not about the Jews or the Gentiles. It’s about who God is as revealed in Jesus Christ.

Now we go to the end of the chapter, and the rest of our lectionary reading.

For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all. (Romans 11:29-32 NRSV)

Paul seems to know that he needs to change their focus. They should not judge God’s faithfulness by human unfaithfulness. He doesn’t want them looking at the Jews to judge who’s in and who’s out. But they also shouldn’t look at themselves, either. They are to look at God’s faithfulness to his people throughout their history.

God’s faithfulness is not a faithfulness to favoritism — it’s a faithfulness to himself. God keeps his promises and never goes back on his word. “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” This is the truth of who God is that prompts Paul’s intense reaction to any questioning of God’s faithfulness to his people. It’s God’s character Paul is defending. He’s not defending the Jews nor is he trying to denounce the Gentiles. What’s at stake is belief in the God of mercy who has been revealed in his faithfulness to us in Jesus Christ.

We do not want to miss the opportunity to make this text personal. “Does God reject us?” Have our failures added up to a point of no return? Is our heritage too tainted for God’s presence? Is there anywhere we can look to secure our own inclusion in God’s acceptance? There is only one place to look, and it’s not on our performance or heritage. It is on God’s faithfulness to his own Son, who includes us in his life.

As we look at Jesus, God’s Word to us, we will come to see that the Father would no more break his promise to us as he would reject his own Son. The Father speaks a promise to us in Jesus that he will never take back.

We are disobedient. God knows this and is not in any way surprised by this. Our disobedience continually points to God’s mercy. This is Paul’s main point. God will not—indeed cannot—reject us because of who he is. He is mercy.

We may never understand the “How” of God’s inclusion. Much of how God works his promises into eternal reality remains a mystery to us. God is merciful because God is mercy. This is how we know God did not reject his people; this is how we know he never will. We can say “no” to God; we can reject him and that decision will affect our life. We can live outside of his joy and his love and his mercy, but it is never because he rejects us; it happens only when we reject or disbelieve him.

God is a merciful God. Period. This is news many people need to hear. Many live outside this truth, which leads to doubt, fear, anxiety and misery. When someone tells you they feel God has rejected them for any reason, tell them who he is and help them say, God forbid.

Further, if you ever begin to question God’s faithfulness to his promises and purposes for you, or if you ever begin thinking that maybe God has rejected you, I pray you remember God’s mercy and answer your own question with—GOD FORBID!

Small Group Discussion Questions

Psalm 124:1-8 • Exodus 1:8-2:10 • Romans 12:1-8 • Matthew 16:13-20

This week’s theme is God working out his miracle in us. Exodus 1 tells the story of Moses’ mother putting him in a basket and God miraculously intervening. Psalm 124 tells the story of God saving Israel again from ruin and defeat. Matthew 16 is the pivotal moment where Peter—an unlikely voice—starts to miraculously understand who Jesus is. Our sermon, “God’s Revolutionary People,” discusses Romans 12. The people of Jesus are defined by a miraculous unity in diversity and purity. This revolutionary community crossed ethnic, political, and socio-economic barriers with a supernatural love.

God’s Revolutionary People

Romans 12:1-8 ESV

Begin the sermon by reading Romans 12:1-8 ESV

Paul presents some revolutionary ideas here and elsewhere in Rome, and we are going to talk about them, but first, we need to talk about parachute pants. Big hair. Bell bottoms. Pedal pushers. Stonewashed jeans. We can all think of styles that seemed like the thing to be wearing at the time, but in retrospect look than a little silly.

Ask for examples of other fads that faded. (Examples: headbands, fingerless gloves, beehive hairdos.) This could be a fun discussion.

Maybe this is a silly example, but it demonstrates an impulse we find all over in human society: conformity. Even, sometimes especially, in cultures that claim to be open-minded and diverse, fashions, many celebrities, and much of the “modern” art looks and sounds the same. If you look back on what “everybody was doing” twenty years after the fact, it can be a little embarrassing.

This conformity appears in places as innocuous as fashion trends, but it can go into darker places. Think of the Chinese young people almost a century ago all dressed as Mao Zedong. Think of the fierce and immediately recognizable aesthetic of the Nazi party. The ideology came with a uniform, the perspective came with a look, and the number one enemy in these situations is diversity.

Keep your scrunchie in place and your Bugle Boys pegged for a moment, and we’ll come back to it.

In the densely packed hallways of the book of Romans, a few themes ring out over and over. One of the main themes was unity—not surprising, considering the historical circumstances of the letter.

The Roman church was founded a few decades before this letter and believers had been living and working as a Christian community. But a few years before this letter was written, the Emperor Claudius had kicked all the Jews out of Rome. Consequently, the church there became exclusively Greek and Roman believers. Five years later, the Jews were allowed to return.

The Roman church developed divisions quickly between Jewish and Gentile believers. They had extremely different backgrounds, faith played a different role in their cultures, and these were communities that had defined themselves against each other for centuries. It’s no surprise, then, that unity is a major theme for Paul throughout his letter—as one family in Christ, we gather around one set of beliefs and behavior, and these cultural divisions of the past are no longer relevant. That was ideal, but it’s an ideal the church has been trying to live up to for two millennia with only partial success.

Paul describes his vision of the body of Christ:

For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. (Romans 12:4-5 ESV)

What Paul describes here cuts against the tensions that were going on the church. Conformity had become the theme—conformity to circumcision, Sabbath-keeping, dietary laws and other cultural practices that had nothing to do with being in Christ.

Especially in a relatively small, persecuted community like the church in Rome, conformity was one of the ways to keep together, one of glues that held them as a unit. Paul says that the gospel is stronger and more durable than conformity, and calls us to appreciate a diversity of callings and expressions within the Body of Christ.

Appreciating that diversity, even depending on the diversity of gifts, is the way the body of believers stays healthy. We’re not to compete with each other and try to find the in-crowd, but to accept ourselves and others and appreciate the differing voices that harmonize into one song.

So this stands against our natural default tendency to conform—to slip into cults of personality as silly as hairstyles or as dangerous as dictatorships. Paul calls us to step out in faith and embrace the unique ways that God has made people, even to the point of working together as one body. That’s not easy, but it’s the best life.

This revolution is like nothing the world had seen before. Biblical scholar Tim Mackie imagines one of Paul’s communities gathering (paraphrased):

Say you’re a Cyprian day laborer who drifted to Galatia (modern day Turkey) to find work. You hear in the town square there’s this leather worker named Paul who is constantly talking about a new King …. You get curious and go to see what his community is about … these people gather in a house community and you show up. You find three Jewish families, one who is very wealthy and brings his Egyptian slave. There’s a Roman metalworker. Three other people from Cypress where you’re from. There’s several homeless people, one is Asian, one is Macedonian – and you all sit there together. Then Paul talks about how Jesus died for all of us as one unit. Then you share a meal together. There’s nowhere else where anything like this is happening!

This kind of inclusion was mind-blowingly revolutionary at the time. Think of the master and slave mentioned there. Slavemasters generally saw their slave essentially as an appliance, not a person. In their home environment, they would never have sat at the same table and eaten together. Even if circumstances shoved you all into the same room together somehow, you certainly wouldn’t share beliefs. The Macedonian would have their own gods and the Romans would have theirs. There might be a single cult that worshipped Caeser, but that was pretty nominal, and not what you probably considered your people’s faith.

Paul asks them to give up all that division and to meet in these small diverse communities as an outpost of the new humanity in Christ—the new humanity that didn’t fall into conformity or old cultural divisions, but was part of a family that transcended these individual categories. To paint that, he calls us the “one body” of Christ.

And at the same time, he values diversity:

For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. (Romans 12:5 ESV)

Paul develops this in several places in his writing—the metaphor of a body in which all the parts not only appreciate each other, but depend on each other. There’s a celebration of diversity and difference rather than an attack on it, and this is the kind of complex relationship that can only be called love. Human beings, as displayed in the brutal uniformity of atheist empires, aren’t capable of allowing diversity in a relationship without some supernatural help!

C.S. Lewis drew the analogy between Christ and salt in our food. If someone had salt for the first time, and we told them we use it in most of our cooking, they might assume that everything tastes the same. But salt only brings out the flavor of the steak, potatoes, cabbage or whatever we put it into, that the diversity of it is magnified and celebrated by the salt. The uniqueness of each dish is brought out by the salt, just as the unique makeup of each person is accentuated and brought to life by Christ.

This is one of the revolutionary ideas that Paul puts forward here. The world hadn’t seen communities like this before, at least none that were near as coherent or lasted as long.

How do we take this revolution to our lives as a church? We live in a very different world, especially in the West, in which dividing along cultural and socio-economic lines is considered backward and barbarian. In Paul’s world, it was the order of the day and part of keeping society running smoothly. And yet despite all our modern lip service, these divisions still exist.

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. (Romans 12:6-8 ESV)

We might look up to pastors because of their gifting when Paul lists that here with all the other gifts, actually after the gift of being a waiter/host/food-prepper. We divide ourselves along lines of education. If Jesus had what would have been thought of as a bumpkin or hick accent, would we have judged him? Categorized him?

We have our own divisions along the more traditional or contemporary worship expressions. Hymnal-thumpers look down their noses at PowerPoint-praisers as non-serious and self-focused. PowerPointers look at traditionalists with contempt as stodgy and obsolete. Yet Paul says that they both have something to offer the church, and we hold space for each other in love, life will be richer and better if we honor diversity.

These divisions may be small, even silly, but even these small fissures can become fault lines in the Christian community. We gather around the Trinity, which is a community in itself, and that love in diversity should be reflected in our lives.

The second revolutionary idea discussed here and elsewhere in Romans is even more uncomfortable than embarrassing 1980s styles. Sex. One of the most talked-about topics in human history—everybody has an opinion on it, maybe two. Wars have been fought over sex, and every other generation is convinced they invented it.

We may wonder why Paul talked about it so much. Sexual relationships and issues come up dozens of times in his letters, and it’s interesting how the church is uncomfortable talking about the topic! But it was a revolutionary marker of what it meant to be God’s people at the time, especially in Rome.

Roman wives were expected to keep to what might be familiar to us: absolute monogamy to one husband throughout their whole lives. Roman men were completely the opposite. Recreational sex was the cultural norm. Regular, upstanding Roman citizens went to prostitutes (often at their religious temples) and routinely used their slaves (men and women) for what one ancient writer called “everyday urges.” Sex with their wives was important because it was connected to childbirth, but most of the time erotic encounters for men were just an appetite like eating and drinking.

For Paul to call the Roman men in the believing community to sexual purity was absolutely revolutionary. That injunction as part of their new moral code in Christ would have been completely disorienting. It was progressive, disruptive, and most surprisingly to our modern ears, deeply feminist! But it makes sense. If we live in a society where there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, then the same sanctified ethic applies to all.

Instead of the pervading understanding of your body as your own property which you could use as you wanted, Paul asks them “to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world.” (Romans 12:1-2 ESV). You are not your own anymore, nor are you the slave of your insatiable, maddening desires. Your body is no longer just an afterthought that’s disconnected with your spirit and can be used how you see fit. Your soul, mind, and body belong to the Lord.

So, what about Monday? What do these two revolutionary ideas—unity in diversity and sexual purity—have to do with us two thousand years later?

There are several applications, but let’s briefly look at two.

Revolutionary Unity in Diversity

This is one of the great miracles of being God’s people­—young and old, male and female, all levels of education and physical ability have importance and a voice. Look at the rich imagery the prophet Joel talks about in the kingdom age:

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. (Joel 2:28 ESV)

Revolutionary Sexual Ethics

If nearly complete sexual license doesn’t sound familiar to you, then you haven’t read the news in quite a while! Promiscuity on the level of Roman society and our present society causes innumerable problems with exploitation, corrosive relationships, and addiction, just to name a few. In this society, the Christian commitment to sex within marriage isn’t just unique, it’s revolutionary. A revolution of healed relationships, women not living in fear of exploitation, and celebration of God’s great gift of physical love rightly enjoyed should be the order of the day among the people of God.

Relationships, love, diversity and celebration—these are the rich and dangerous ideas of what it means to be God’s people.

Small Group Discussion Questions

Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45 • Exodus. 3:1-15 • Romans 12:9-21 • Matthew 16:21-28

*The theme for this week is “the blessing of following.” In Exodus 3, we read the story of Moses and the burning bush, and we learn that God always equips us for any leadership role we’re given. Psalm 105 reminds us to seek the Lord and glory in his name, to give thanks and to praise. In Matthew 16, Jesus reminds Peter and the disciples to trust him, deny ourselves and follow him. The sermon outline, titled “True Discipleship: Loving as Jesus Loves” discusses the attributes of disciples of Jesus.

True Discipleship – Loving as Jesus Loves

Romans 12:9-21 NRSV

Ask the members to give a practical characteristic or example of what a “true disciple of Jesus” might be like. Then ask the same about someone “loving as Jesus loves.” Note the similarity in answers.

You may have noticed an emphasis in Equipper articles, GCI Update letters and RCL sermons on the new commandment Jesus gave. Most are familiar with John 13:35, which reminds us that disciples are identified by our love for one another. verse 14 describes this love:

I give you a new commandment that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you should also love one another. (John 13:34 NRSV)

So how are we to love one another as Jesus loves us? There are several passages in the Bible describing practical ways Jesus loves; today we will look at one passage in Romans. Let’s read it:

Read Romans 12:9-21 NRSV.

Let’s take this passage one thought at a time and share how Jesus loved us and how we can love others in a like manner.

Let’s take this passage one thought at a time and share how Jesus loved us and how we can love others in a like manner.

A suggestion is to either open this up for discussion, or give examples for these statements. You most likely won’t get through all of them, so encourage the members to come up with examples throughout the week and share at discipleship class or small group. After each statement ask, how did Jesus do this? What is a practical application today?

• • Let love be genuine
  • Hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good
  • Love one another with mutual affection
  • Outdo one another in showing honor
  • Do not lag in zeal
  • Be ardent in spirit
  • Serve the Lord
  • Rejoice in hope
  • Be patient in suffering
  • Persevere in prayer
  • Contribute to the needs of the saints
  • Extend hospitality to strangers
  • Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them
  • Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep
  • Live in harmony with one another
  • Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly
  • Do not claim to be wiser than you are
  • Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all
  • If it is possible, so far as depends on you, live peaceably with all
  • Never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mind, I will repay, says the Lord.”
  • If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning colas on their heads
  • Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good

It’s a tall order to be a disciple of Christ. There is a lot in the above list and it’s easy to focus more on our failures than our successes. Further, when we look at Romans 12 as a list of things we should not do, it’s easy to feel discouraged, because like Paul, we often find ourselves doing the things we do not want to do, and not doing the things we want to do. Discipleship is a life-long process of growing in grace and knowledge. It is loving others more today than we did last week. It is asking God to help us see others as he sees them, as his beloved. It is asking God to love with his love. It is asking God to make things plain for us.

So let’s simplify this passage and summarize these qualities—focusing on what we do rather than what we should not do.

• A disciple is someone who follows Jesus and attempts to love as he loves:
• A disciple is loving, kind, and authentic, honoring others whenever possible (vv. 9-10).
• A disciple is passionate, hopeful, and willing to help and serve others, and when difficulties come, bears them gracefully through lots of prayer (vv. 11-13).
• A disciple is empathetic, realizing how interconnected we all are as God’s children (vv. 14-16).
• A disciple is peaceful, both within and without, and promotes peace even when wronged (vv. 17-20).
• A disciple is an encouragement to be good and do good and believes that “being right” is much less of a priority (v. 21).

In other words, a disciple is someone who loves as Jesus loves, and is known to be a disciple of Jesus by his or her love for others.

Small Group Discussion Questions