“If it is you calling, Lord, bid me come to you.” We have all been called by Jesus–usually in a tiny, whispering sound, barely audible above the roar and clamor of our lives. That is why we must take time every day to pray, to listen in silence to the Walker on the waters. But we can’t ever forget who bears us up and keeps us from sinking like Peter–sinking like a Rock. It is not the water–it is most certainly not our power. It is the hand of Jesus, the Word of Life, the presence of the One who is Emmanuel–God with us. That means we cannot pray “Lord, Lord,” and then ignore what Jesus told us to do. Our faith must be coupled with obedience–active love of God in the sacraments and prayer, and active love of our neighbor, doing good and avoiding evil.
In this year of St. Paul, we should take the Church’s cue and stop ignoring this second reading, this precious five verses that begin three of the most powerful chapters in Paul’s writings. This section of Romans is as great as Beethoven’s fifth symphony, and the Church’s choice of these verses is much like playing the first eight measures of that symphony and then quitting. I want to yell “don’t stop just when it’s getting interesting.” So when you go home today, carefully read all three chapters, 9 - 11, and add Romans 7 and 8 while you are at it.
What is it that you want out of life? What do we all want? Aristotle sums it up well: we want to be happy. Genesis goes way beyond that–God’s plan is always greater than our own–by saying that God wants us to be His image and likeness. That’s what the Father intended in the beginning: to make us divine, to endow us with divine happiness. We turned our backs on that–in the persons of Adam and Eve, and in our own sinful pursuits of happiness in lesser things–possessions, illicit sexual practices, disobedience. We told God–and continue to tell Him–no thanks; I’ll do it my way.
The Father could have washed his hands of us as a failed experiment. But, when we least deserved His love, he poured it out even more. In response to our infidelity, He remained faithful. Of all the weak, sinful, disobedient, rebellious peoples on earth, he chose father Abraham, infused faith into Abraham, and promised to make of him a mighty nation in which all the peoples of earth would be blessed. This nation–God planned–would be so faithful to the one God that they would attract all other peoples, convert every nation, and be the firstborn of many siblings that all loved God and loved each other.
That’s what firstborns are supposed to be, aren’t they? They should be models of obedience and right behavior. They are supposed to do what father and mother tell them, and show their younger siblings how to be respectful and obedient and kind and gentle, loving their parents and helping each other. But even in families do we find weakness and sin–backbiting and disobedience. The firstborn is often rebellious. In fact, I suspect that I was such a firstborn–first adopted–handful that my mom and dad changed their plans and didn’t adopt any more.
So it was in the family of God. Abraham was chosen and became very like God through the obedience of faith. He was, in a real sense, the model for all firstborns of God. But Abraham’s firstborn, Ishmael, abused his younger brother, Isaac, and was rejected. Isaac’s firstborn, Esau, was a selfish lout, and was rejected. His younger brother Jacob was chosen over him, but he was a piece of work, too. In fact, he was such a selfish cheat that God renamed him “Israel,” which means the guy who fights God. Throughout the OT, we read stories of the descendants of Israel not acting like the ideal firstborns, attractive to the nations and loyal to the One God. No, they lied, cheated, fornicated and stole their way through history. Time and again God let them have what they wanted, let them wallow in their sin and receive the natural consequences of that sin. Time and again they turned to Him and repented, were rescued, and then went right back to their disobedience. Out of twenty successors to Solomon–who turned into a jerk in his old age–only three of these kings of the Jews, the southern kingdom, were faithful. Out of nineteen kings of the northern, more prosperous kingdom, none were faithful to the One God. So God said, in effect, you want to play politics with the big boys? You want to get in bed with Baal and Astarte? Fine. And he let them be led into exile, and let their temples be destroyed. Even after their exile, they continued to practice injustice and disobedience, erecting laws that allowed them to disobey the Ten Commandments through big loopholes.
Did God give up? No. When we are weakest, when we are most disobedient, when we are mired in self-destructive choices, He loves us even more. He created one more masterpiece woman, a new Queen Mother, Mary, and asked for her obedience in faith, and she gave that assent–be it done to me according to thy Word. And God became human. The divine image again walked the earth in human flesh. All the gifts that God had poured out on Israel–the law, the covenant, the divine presence in the Temple and the rest–were brought to fulfillment in Jesus, Son of God become Son of Mary. God assumed our sinful flesh so that God could suffer with us, and become the model for our own suffering, and win us the power to endure our own suffering. Then we, the Church, the Israel of promise, can through our patient acceptance of suffering attract others to accept the obedience of faith. We can, like Christ, reign from our own crosses and become sources of divine power for a suffering, despairing humanity.
See then that a difficult passage in Paul–that he would take on the covenant curses for the sake of his people–actually makes sense in the light of the cross. Paul did everything to win over his blood-kin to the Gospel: beatings, shipwreck, taunts and hostility, imprisonment. When the Jews largely rejected their Messiah, Paul established churches that were largely made up of Gentiles–you and me. The challenge, then, to us is to love each other and serve the world and endure suffering and worship God so well, by the power of the Spirit, that Jew and Gentile alike say “see how they love one another,” and come and experience the life of Jesus Christ themselves.
See what our call is? See how all Israel can be saved? See why we gather here to hear God’s word and break the bread that is the Body of Christ? It’s not so we can stumble through next week or fulfill some obligation. It’s so we can be equipped for love and service so we can attract Jews and Gentiles together into the Body of Christ. Let’s pray: Lord, expand our understanding of Thy plan beyond our tiny horizon. Change us by this sacrament. Convert us to images of Thy Son, Jesus. Give us strength to offer our sufferings up with His, to forgive those who hurt us as He did. Make us into a people who can attract the unsaved to Thy Gospel, to Thy sacraments. We ask it in the name of the same Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
