Grace Alone Online

Earth is crammed with heaven. God comes down from heaven and touches the earth, filling it with his glory. But only those who see take off their shoes.

Our readings this morning invite us to be among those who see. They invite us to see the earth crammed with heaven, to see how God in Christ has come down from heaven and touched the earth to fill it with his glory.

Has God rejected Israel or not? Will God save Israel or not? These are the questions arising from the text. Even more troubling, however, is the picture these verses can give you of God. God seems unfaithful – one time calling a people to be his own and then rejecting them only to call another. What is to keep God from rejecting the Gentile church? Can God be trusted when he makes promises . . . when he claims people . . . any people . . . Gentile or Jew?

How easy it is for us to enter church and turn our eyes upward to the cross and leave the world behind. All we can see is Jesus and seeing him, we can forget where we are or what he would have us be doing. We can simply gaze at Jesus, hanging there on the cross, dying for us and forget that we live in the world and that God has chosen us to be involved in his mission. Here. In time.

When we look up bible passages that meet only our momentary needs to avoid worrying, avoid temptation, help us through the day, Christianity becomes something it was never intended to be: a private, personal religion. It becomes something you turn to not when you enter the world but when you retreat from it. It’s something you read in your private devotional time and you look forward to that moment when it is “just me and Jesus.” God becomes something like our best friend, a person who supports us when times get tough, and someone who helps us accomplish our plans and fulfill our dreams. The problem, of course, is that we have reversed roles with God. Rather than us being servants in God’s kingdom, God becomes a servant in ours. Rather than us being brought into God’s greater story, God is brought into ours.  We explore why Paul is willing to sacrifice even himself for the sake of his Jewish brothers and sisters to come to the knowledge of Christ!  What does it mean for you and me?!

Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ.  Paul makes it a point of reminding us that even though we live among the ruins of sin in the world and in our own lives, that Christ's death and resurrection restores the ruined world to God.  We are given new life; forgiven life.  He teaches us that a new perspective to view our suffering world, one in which we can be sure that in spite of the those things in our lives which seem to separate us from God, or make us think that God has abandoned us, that in the midst of the pain is Christ resurrection glory ....  which is eternally ours.  In it we can see that it is not Christ who is with us, but we who are called to be in Christ.

What is the life Spirit of all Christians as they struggle daily with evil and pestilence in the world, their own temptations, fear, mistrust? Do we look to ourselves? The security that is offered on commercials, in the news, to our government, local authorities to help us through? In his letter to the Romans, Paul has presented us with Christ, who creates us new as we are buried with Him and rise to new life in Him. He presents us with Christ, Our Deliverer. Then, he shows us God, Our Father, who is loving and forgives our sins daily. Today, Paul continues talking about the work of the Trinity in chapter 8. He presents us with the work of the Holy Spirit, Our Intercessor. We are here today because God’s Spirit in us points us to look only to Him who has delivered us, to Him who is our Father. Today’s theme: The Holy Spirit, Our Intercessor.

We continue to preach through Paul's letter of Romans.  Last Sunday, Paul presented "Christ, our Deliverer".  This Sunday, he presents his readers to "God, Our Father."  God claims sinners His children and heirs through the sacrificial death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.  God is Father to all creation, but creation has abandoned God.  He delivers them through His Son, and claims them no longer as slaves to sin, but as sons and heirs of God and His Kingdom.  Why?  How can this be?  .....

Continuing on in our sermon series on the book of Romans, Paul talks about our struggle to be faithful to Christ and not sin; about doing what we do not want to do instead of what we know to be that very thing which pleases the Lord and shows our love for others. Paul’s answer is illustrated through a common image known to all during the life of Paul …. Through an image on a silver chalice. As Christians we still struggle with faithfulness, Christ proves himself faithful. Christ is both conqueror of death and merciful Savior. Christ also comes to us in bread and wine, in a chalice, with forgiveness given to us in his body and blood.

4th of July reflections on the opening phrase of the Constitution "We  the People in order to form a more perfect union..." has meaning deeper  than the individual person, or the individual person's history.  An  interesting parallel exists between what the history of our constitution  means for us today, and what Moses tells the people of Israel in Deut.  5:1. (And, it's not any prophecy about the USA or that we are a chosen  nation!).  Find out how and why Christians belong to two nations!

Power is one of Paul’s main themes in the letter to the Romans. Last week we saw the power of God, through Christ, in Baptism. Paul, however, presents both the power of the Law and the power of the Gospel throughout his letter. But the power of both are totally different. Today we explore Romans, chapter 7:1-13. Here we learn that the power of the Law never justifies and never makes us righteous. And, to live by the law means making yourself look righteous before God. But to live by the law leave Christ out of the picture. You cannot live by the power of the law and the Gospel. We learn that being buried in our Baptisms with Christ, is live under the power of the Gospel.