Daily Liturgy and Scripture

We spend a lot of time questioning the motives of ministers, but it seems that Paul didn’t struggle with the same issue. He he says that indeed, some do have the wrong motives. Even in the case of these preachers, Christ is still preached, and that is the most important thing. In a time where people leave a church because they don’t like the music or because they disagree with someone, keeping Christ as our most important priority can sometimes be difficult. It should still be the most important thing.

In the letter from Paul to the church in Philippi, Paul starts by greeting them warmly. These were people he knew. It is likely that this letter was written by Paul while he was in prison, so he probably missed his friends all the more. There is definitely a sense of working not only with the church in that prosperous city, but also of working with God, who would complete the work.

Paul finishes his letter by bring together a whole host of names. This wasn’t just to show that he had a lot of friends. The Roman church was not one he had started, but he had friends there. Also, this section of names does a great deal to reinforce Paul’s “none of us are all-stars” idea that pops up in several of his letters. Everyone needs help, and the Church is designed for us to love and serve one another. These people Paul mentions are with him in that endeavor.

Paul is closing in on the end of the letter, and he is once again bringing together Jew and Gentile. We’ve covered a lot of ground, from the reminder that the Jews are not excluded to the warning that Gentiles are not better believers. Now he puts them into community with one another, showing that both spiritual and material blessings can be shared back and forth. Of course, neither side is only expected to share one thing; all of us should share both. That is the interdependence that Christ left behind, and it should be demonstrated among us in the Church today.

Today starts a season that leads to Easter, and we begin with repentance. Many churches will be observing this with ashes, a reminder of our own mortality. As we approach this season, remembering the sacrifice Jesus made for us, it is a loving response to make a sacrifice of our own. Whether this is part of your faith tradition or not, it is a good practice to keep in mind peace we have with God, given to us by our Savior, as we walk the road to the cross.

Just as in the last chapter Paul talked about how Christians are not purely spiritual creatures who need not worry about what's going on around them, in this chapter he reminds them that being followers of Christ does not free them from being law-abiding citizens. Of course, several of the commandments are also no-brainers on both sides (no Christian would kill someone and think it was okay by Jesus), but generally, Christians should be members of their community at large so that the community of Christ may be among their neighbors.

Since Paul opened the letter to the Romans with some pretty weighty spiritual and historical stuff (the Law, salvation, and a healthy dose of theology) now he brings it to street level: the gospel is also bodily, and we are the body of Christ. These things he has been teaching are not to float in space, like ideas that never touch the ground. How we treat one another really matters, and that is where salvation takes on skin. Love must be sincere, and harmony should be sought.

Paul certainly does not wish to make the Gentiles think that God has prestiged them above the Gentiles, as that would be breaking his own covenant. As Paul said before, “not all Israel is Israel.” Not all who are children of Abraham are followers of Christ, and both are needed. Still, Israel is the original promise. It has not gone away, but those outside Israel are included in that enduring promise, “grafted in” like a tree. God doesn’t change, but he is always working to redeem us.

Paul returns to complete a thought from earlier in his letter, about the enfolding of both Jew and Gentile in the new law of Christ. This time, he has put it after a section about salvation belonging to God (yesterday’s reading from Romans 9), so it is worth repeating. Salvation indeed is God’s, but all can accept. He also extends another challenge, to share Christ. How can anyone accept that which they have never heard?

Since Paul has talked about our redemption in Christ, he turns now to a problem that must surely have kept him up at night: what about the Jewish people? Didn't they reject Jesus? While they certainly did, Paul does bring a bit of peace into the middle of his discussion. Of course, God is capable of redeeming anyone. And not the entire Jewish world is flatly rejected because of the work of the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus. The promise of Abraham, as Paul already said, is about faith. Jews and Gentiles alike can hold to that promise, and rejection is not doled out to all God's children of the promise. God is still in the redeeming business.