But concerning Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.” – Romans 10:21

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 7, 2015): Romans 10

On March 30, 1981, John Hinkley Jr. attempted to assassinate the sitting President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. In the attack, Hinkley wounded a police officer, Thomas Delahanty, as well as Secret Service Agent Timothy McCarthy. He also wounded the President, but not directly. A bullet ricocheted off of the limousine hitting Reagan in the chest. However, Reagan recovered from his injuries. But there was one other man who was injured in the attack; Press Secretary James Brady. Brady suffered a serious head wound from a bullet from Hinkley’s gun. Originally, Brady was declared dead. However, after long hours on the operating table, the surgeon who had worked on Brady replied when he heard the news regarding the death of his that his patient that “No one told me and the patient.” Brady ended up living through his ordeal and became a vocal supporter for handgun control. The wound left Brady with slurred speech and partial paralysis, but Brady would slowly recover over the next 30 years. By the end of his life, Brady could walk and had recovered almost all of his cognitive and speech functions.

James Brady died on August 4, 2014, just a little more than three weeks before his 74^th birthday. And in a controversial move, his death was ruled a homicide. It was not that Brady had suffered another act of violence, but rather the determination was that Brady died of the injuries that had been inflicted on him by John Hinkley Jr. more than 33 years earlier. Hinckley had started a process that could not be stopped, even though it took 33 years for his death to take place, and even though Brady had recovered from most of the overt symptoms that he had suffered from following the attack. The ruling says that there is absolutely nothing that Brady could do stop his death from the gunshot wounds he had recieved in 1981 - all he could do was slow down the process.

Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah who looked down at Israel and saw a nation that was suffering from their wounds. But unlike Brady, there was something that they could do about their wounds, they just chose not to do them.  They were an obstinate people who wanted to follow their own will instead of God’s. And yet, God continued to hold out his arms to them – he was unrelenting in his efforts to save Israel and he refused to give up on them. In the case of Israel, it simply didn’t have to be this way. The condemnation and pain was all on their own shoulders. And Paul had been given the task of reminding Israel how they had been forewarned, protected, favored, and tolerated again and again in all manner of rebellions, and how, at last, it was not merely just for God to reject them, but it would have been an injustice on God's part not to have done so! Quickly, Israel (and the rest of the human race) seemed to be walking toward a point of no return.

Scholars have noted that this ends the section of condemnation in Romans. But God is still not willing to walk away. He has a plan of grace for all people. And Paul’s unveiling of God’s plan of grace starts in Romans 11.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Romans 11

I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, - Romans 9:2-3

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 6, 2015): Romans 9

The uttering of the phrase “Let them eat cake” is one of the many pivotal (and memorable) moments in history; unfortunately, in this case the words were probably never said. The phrase is attributed to Queen Marie Antoinette and are used as proof of how out of touch the monarchy in France had become from the common people. According to the story, the members of the court came to the Queen during one of the many famines that took place in France during the reign of her husband, King Louis XVI, and told her of the great distress being experienced by the people of France. One of the ways that they described this distress was by telling her that the people didn’t even have any bread to eat. The Queen’s infamous reply was "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" (traditionally translated as “let them eat cake.”) Of course, the comment was absurd on its face. “Brioche” was made with dough that had been enriched with butter and eggs, making it much more expensive than ordinary bread. If the people didn’t have bread, they definitely didn’t have cake. Marie Antoinette obviously had no idea what kind of problems the average person had to face.

Yet, if Marie Antoinette uttered the words, we would expect that the words would have become a rallying cry for the French Revolution, but they are not mentioned. Even at the trial of Louis XVI and his Queen, the words are absent. These words, that should have formed the charge against the French Royalty during the Revolution, don’t appear until long after the King and Queen had been executed, and this in spite of the fact that most of the evidence that had been brought forward at the Queen’s trial had been works of fiction in the first place. If there was any truth that the Queen had uttered the phrase, it surely would have been used against her at her trial – and yet the words are absent from any reporting done by her contemporaries.

But if the words had been spoken, their opposite was spoken by Paul in Romans. These are the words that we want to hear (but seldom do) from our leaders. Paul responds here against what might be considered his human nature. Paul had been harassed by the Jews throughout the latter portion of his life. Jews had, at times, taken oaths not to eat or drink until the Apostle lay dead in his tomb and charges were brought against him by Jews in front of various kings and governors. It seemed that at every stopping point on his missionary journeys, Jews awaited his arrival, ready to tell lies and make up stories about Paul in order to make his task as hard as it could be, yet none of this seems to have deterred the Apostle from his task. Nor did it lessen the love that Paul had for his own people.    

Many Scholars have noted what Paul does not say in this passage. No one could really fault Paul if he had said "I have great grief and continual sorrow in my heart because of my countrymen” (or maybe “Let them eat cake.”) But instead, Paul insists that he hurts for his nation, and that he would give anything, including a multiplication of the pain that he is already feeling, in order to heal the people of his race.

Paul uses the word “anathema” here, which is translated “cursed,” but the word (which is only used five times in the Christian Testament) means something beyond just a curse, implying not only physical death, but eternal death as well. But Paul’s attitude matched both that of Moses (But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written – Exodus 32:32) and Jesus (When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. – Matthew 9:36). Rather than being oblivious to the needs of the people, Paul felt their pain intensely, and would do anything he could in order to lessen it.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Romans 10

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present 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. – Romans 8:38-39

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 5, 2015): Romans 8           

Handley Moule, the Bishop of Durham from 1901 until his death on May 8, 1920, once wrote about a night that he arrived in Rome with a group of English friends. As Moule describes it, it was a cloudless January night, and the group gathered in the middle of the ruins of the Roman Coliseum. The constellation Orion, the great celestial Giant that stands guard in the sky with his sword drawn and read for a fight, stood over them as the group remembered the lives that had been lost in the city during the foundational days of the faith. Among the ones who had died in Rome during those early days included both the apostle Peter as well as Paul. Tradition holds that Peter was crucified upside down, while Paul, because he was a Roman citizen, was able to escape the pain of crucifixion and was executed by the headman’s sword. But beside these prominent men, countless Christians were executed right there in the Coliseum. Some were crucified, others were beaten; still others lost their lives as they were torn apart by wild animals or dragged to their deaths by having their feet tied to the tails of wild horses. There were many ways execute a person in the Coliseum, but the end result was still the same – the people died.

On this night, in the relative quiet of the ancient place, Moule and his friends gathered and under the light of the stars they read these words of Paul – affirming for the friends that nothing can separate us from Christ. As Paul wrote the words, the situation that he faced must have, at times, seemed overwhelming. Could even Paul have imagined that one day a cross would stand in the Coliseum, placed there by Pope Benedict XIV in 1749 as a memorial of the Christians who had died in the Coliseum and in greater Rome? In fact, Benedict XIV would go even a step further and make the site a public church, forbidding anything to be removed from the Coliseum as well as declaring that the site needed to be cared for – and locked at night. (Unfortunately, in spite of all of this the looting of the Coliseum has continues even today.) But the current state of the Coliseum might be proof of the words of Paul – nothing will separate us from the love of God. What seemed like a great barrier to love, now stands tall as a testament to love

As Moule stood in the Coliseum on that January night, hearing the words that had been written centuries earlier by the Apostle Paul, he must have recognized that his circumstances were so different from that of the Apostle, yet his need was the same. Even he needed the assurance that nothing can separate him from the love of his God.

Over the past 100 years, our circumstances have changed in ways that neither Paul nor Handley Moule could have dreamed. And yet, we stand alongside both of these Christian greats and admit that our need remains the same. We need to be reassured that there is absolutely nothing that will separate us from the love of our God. That separation is something that not even we can accomplish.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Romans 9

Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? – Romans 7:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 4, 2015): Romans 7

Apparently, “Amazing Spider-Man 2” has made the list of 2014 movies that should never have been made. The reason for the negative review on behalf of some critics seemed to have been that they were confused by the plot of the movie; including what they considered to be an excessive number of villains that the movie found it necessary to employ. The feeling for some seems to be that the movie would have benefited from a more concise plot line as well as just one or two key bad guys to keep Spider-Man on the edge. But one of the soft spots of the movie happens to be a scene where Peter Parker watches a You-Tube video in order to try to figure out how batteries work. The problem is that according to the Spiderman metanarrative, Peter Parker is a scientist – the workings of a battery should have been child’s play for him. It may be a small detail for some, but for others it is simply the straw that has broken the movie – it is a detail of which the writers should have been aware, but apparently they weren’t.

Paul seems to have had the same struggle with the Roman church. Paul addresses those in Rome who were well acquainted with the law. The Romans seem to have been struggling with the role of law in the Christian church. This comment may have been directed to the Jews in the church, but it could also have been directed toward the leaders who had learned under the instruction of the Jews. But whoever they were, they were not getting the message. So Paul makes this observation – the law has authority only as long as a person is alive. But once you have died, it no longer holds its authority over you.

The comment makes sense, even though we seem to have missed the truth of the message over the course of history by trying and executing dead bodies, or even removing dead bodies from their final resting place as a further punishment for their crimes. But once we are dead, we are – well, dead. Inflicting pain on a dead body might make us feel better (admittedly I’m not sure why), but it does nothing to the one who has died. The law has lost its authority. Jesus alluded to this when he said “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28).

I can almost imagine Paul pausing as he gets to this point. The unspoken question is simply this – are you understanding this detail of the plot? For Paul, this is the “Spider-Man 2” moment. It is the moment that he hopes the Romans are understanding. If they are in Christ, they have already died. The law no longer has any authority over them. To believe anything else is simply to not understand the details of the plot.

Yet, it is still a plot detail that we seem to struggle with. If we are Christians, then we have died to the things of this life. And if we have died, then the law no longer has any authority over us. Let me repeat Paul’s point. We are dead and, therefore, the law has no authority over us. And this is a good thing, because we were never good at keeping the law anyway.

And this is a part of our metanarrative of which we simply need to make sure we never lose sight. Because we have been crucified with Christ, the law no longer has any authority over who it is that we are.        

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Romans 8

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? – Romans 6:1-2

Today’s Scripture Readings (January 3, 2015): Romans 6

A recent article struggled with some of the reasons why Bill Cosby is receiving so little support from the Black Community. And the conclusion that it arrived at had very little to do with the charges that are being leveled against the comedian. The problem seems to be that the majority of younger Blacks in America have very little remembrance of Bill Cosby as the great American father figure, Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable. For them, the comedian has become more like a cranky uncle who is always complaining about something. For the past few decades, Cosby has railed against the younger generations for everything from how they dress (please pull up your pants) to child raising (where are the fathers of your children anyway.) However, it is decidedly unfair to place the blame entirely on the shoulders of American Black youth. The White Community is struggling in some of the same areas. The things that Cosby has chosen to criticize the youth of his race for could apply to all youth of any race. And now as the rape charges are surfacing against Cosby, the younger generations are starting to talk back. How come you told us to pull our pants up when apparently you were inappropriately pulling yours down? Why is it us that is the problem? Isn’t your part of the problem much greater than ours?

I need to insert a disclaimer here. I am old enough to remember Cosby as the great Father Figure. Even through the race barrier that exists between us, Dr. Huxtable was in many ways the father that I wanted to be. And as Cosby made fun of the youth of his race, I laughed – not at the Black Youth that Cosby was pointing his finger at, but at the White Youth who I believed needed to hear the same message.

But there is another phenomenon that seems to be at work here. As a speaker, I know that the things that I rail against are the very places where I know that I am vulnerable. Recently I spoke to a congregation and I mentioned three of the areas where I believe the contemporary church is currently struggling – three areas where we were telling God to keep his hands off. For me, the three areas were family, money and addictions. Some were not happy with my analysis – effectively proving that I was right; these are the three areas where we will brook no interference from God. But I didn’t arrive at my three areas through a careful examination of my church, or of my culture. I arrived at my three through a careful examination of my own life. These are three areas where I am vulnerable. It might be, and I really have to stress the word ‘might,’ the same for Cosby. It might be that the things that Cosby has spent his considerable fame railing against were the very areas where the comedian needed help. I recognize that we will never really know whether that is true for Cosby, but I know it is true for me.

So Paul speaks the Roman church about the importance of faith and grace; that God was moving in their midst in spite of them. But then he follows up with the next line of thought. So does that mean that we can stay the way we are and never improve? Does faith and grace form the twin pillars of a foundation that means that sin can reign in our midst or that sin no longer matters to God? And Paul’s answer is a resounding no. There is no room for sin in our midst. Christianity is a journey in grace, but it is journey toward perfection. We need desperately to deal with the sin that remains in our lives. And so I rail against the things where I know I need to grow – I rail against the sins that I need to deal with. I can never be content with where I am. I need to be better. I need to deal with the sin and the weaknesses in my life, and I am not doing the job, a job that I believe God has called me to do, unless I am challenging others to do the same thing in the weak areas of their lives.

And if the accusations against Bill Cosby are true, then this may be one of the areas of vulnerability for the comedian. He may have forgot that in the midst of playing the great American father, that he was still a man that needed to tame the demons raging inside of him. That he was on the same journey with the youth that he pointed his finger at – that all needed to be better.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Readings: Romans 7

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. – Romans 5:3-4

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 2, 2014): Romans 5

Over the Christmas season, I read an article that highlighted some Facebook posts over the past year. The one thing that all the posts had in common was that they were written by teens complaining about their lot in life. And I have to admit that there were some classics. One Facebook post read “Don’t you hate it when your maids **** up everything in your room.” Yep, I agree that is tough to have to put up with. Another post read “So my parents won’t buy me a MacBook Pro until I clean up my room. Urg, what a horrible punishment.” I am a little surprised that someone hasn’t already reported those parents to Social Services. Actually, after this comment was a discussion on whether or not the author was spoiled. But the person who wrote the post was deeply offended that anyone would think that they were spoiled. I guess some people just jump to conclusions. But maybe one of my favorite posts was in regard to the Christmas gifts that they had received. “Merry Christmas! I got a MacBook Pro, skis and an iPad mini. No iPhone though. L My parents suck.”

Secretly, I hope someone with a warped imagination just wrote the posts (although each post was accompanied by screen shots of the post.) But if they were real, I feel sorry for the kids. Part of parenting is getting our kids ready to live life, and based on the evidence of these Facebook posts, these kids are a long way from being ready for life. But … even though I think this is the common reaction, I also think that secretly maybe we all wish that we were the writers of the posts. I mean, how many of us would clean up our rooms immediately if we knew that there was a MacBook at the end of the task. (Even adults would jump at the task. Hmmm, I wonder if I had my maid clean up the room if I could still get the MacBook.)

This kind of life might be what we want, but it isn’t what we need. The problem is that while we want an easy life, there is no strength that will result in that kind of life. Paul looks at the Roman Church, and sees a church that was had suffered persecution. In fact, at one point the Roman Church had been severely threatened because all of the Jews had been kicked out of the city. The problem was that the Jewish Christians had occupied all of the core leadership positions in the church. And when they were ejected from the city, the Roman Church, the ones who were left, the ones who had never had to lead the Church before, were given the task. If the Roman Church was to survive, it was going to rest on the shoulders of some people who never expected to ever have to lead the Christian Church. And not only that, even after the Jews were evicted, the powers in Rome were not happy with the Church – and they actively persecuted the Church. And there is no reason to believe that the reaction of the Romans was any different from ours. And too often when we don’t get what we want we think that God is mad at us – our response is often “God what I have done wrong that you would treat me this way.”

So Paul instructs the Romans to glory in our sufferings – to be happy when they suffer, because Paul knew that suffering produces perseverance. Suffering is not something that we glide through. If we are going to get to the other side of suffering without letting it define us, we are going to have to persevere. And if we persevere, we develop character. No longer will the winds of life define where it is that we will go. A lack of an iPhone does not change who we are, because there is a strength that has been developed inside of us that wells up out of us when things get hard. And because we have character, we have hope.

And if I am really honest, when I read the Facebook posts, my sense is that there is no suffering, which meant that there could be no perseverance, which had resulted in a definite lack of character, and a lack of hope. There is no hope that for future of the person who wrote the post, they were maxing out in their lives right now – this was as good as life was likely to get for these authors - and there was no hope that these authors would ever do something that would change the world in which they live.

If there is one thing that I know, it is that this year will hold some bad moments. Every year seems to bring its own share of hurt. It is not what we hope for in the opening days of a year, but we know that they are coming. And when they come this year, I hope you can remember that your suffering is ultimately the reason why you – and we – can have hope. There is a strength and a hope that is developed inside of us when we suffer that can be developed no other way. And for that we can be glad even in our suffering.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Romans 6

What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” – Romans 4:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 1, 2015): Romans 4

I want perfection. I want to strive for it; hopefully continually getting better. I don’t expect that I will ever be perfect, but I know I can be just a little better tomorrow than I am today. I know I can be a better husband, father, grandfather, a better son, pastor and a better writer than I have been in the past. And personally I don’t want to rest on just being good enough. If I can be better, than I want to be better. In fact, I would go even further and say that God wants – expects even – me to do the best that I can do, be the best that I can be. And part of what that means is that I need to deal with the sin in my life.

I know that some around me are very uncomfortable with this concept. Increasingly it seems that what they want is for me to play the part of the Pied Piper of Hamlin – they want me to play my pretty tune and, if I play well enough, then they will follow. But I am just not built that way. I want to strive to be the best – at least the best that I can be - and I want those gathered around me to be the best that we can be - together. To be honest, this world needs a church that is always striving to move forward – always hoping to be better – always working to make this world a better place.

But, having said that, I also recognize that my performance has absolutely nothing to do with my righteousness. My righteousness is totally dependent on God, and my willingness to place my faith in him. And this is exactly Paul’s point. It is not that Paul wasn’t striving to be better himself, or that he didn’t want the Romans to be better. But perfection of performance was never the benchmark for righteousness in the Christian faith. It has always been belief and faith.

Paul uses Abraham as an example. Abraham was righteous, but not because he was perfect or because he had kept the law. At the time that Abraham lived, the Mosaic Law was still hundreds of years in the future. Because the law had not yet been given to Moses, Abraham couldn’t keep the law. And yet he was righteous – and his righteousness was based on the reality that he believed in God, and was willing to follow him by faith. When God asked Abraham to move from his family home in Ur of the Chaldees to Canaan, Abraham didn’t seem to question why – he simply was willing to have faith that if God wanted him to move, then there must be a reason. Abraham moved. He believed in his God, and God blessed him. Abraham was never perfect, but because he believed and had faith, he was righteous.

As we move into 2015, my prayer is that you will believe, and have faith, in God – and because of that I know you will be righteous. But I also hope that you will work to get better at what you do in the next year. That has nothing to do with your righteousness and none of us will ever be perfect, but I believe that it will make your corner of the world a much better place.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Romans 5