How do We Anticipate the Kingdom?
Romans 15:1-13
We live a life of expectation. In the Evangelical churches, we are busily occupied in the task of examining the prophecy of Scripture to determine if this is the season that the Lord will return. We don’t all agree on the particular order of events, but we are united in the expectation of the Lord’s return. The songs of heaven dominate our songbooks. We think about mansions over the hilltop, what things will be like when we all get to heaven. We sing the pearly white city and Peace in the Valley. We groan in what Paul calls the “standing evil age.” This expectation is at the center of our lives.
In more formal “mainline” churches which weekly confess the creed or confession, we confess the resurrection of the dead and the life to come. Even though it is more subdued, the confession of the Lord’s return is still there. In the Latin creed, we see the word “advent” mentioned, from which we get “adventure.” This text is chosen this year for the second Sunday in a season called “Advent,” a season in which we reflect and prepare for the adventure of the coming Kingdom.
So when we look at the text from Romans this morning, we ask, “Where is the Second Coming in this passage?” It seems to deal with how the members of the church should get along in the here and now. It seems like eminently practical theology. When we are told that the Scriptures are for our “learning that through patience and comfort might have hope,” the texts Paul quotes are not the ones about the second coming. Rather, they are to encourage us along the way.
So how is this an Advent text? The answer is that Lent is a season of preparation for the Lord’s return to earth. The Second Coming is only a great hope for those who are prepared for His return. Part of the preparation is found in searching the prophecies of Scripture which talk about his return. The Christian life according to both St. Paul and St, John emphasize that we should orient our lives to look up to where Christ is seated at the right hand of God as well as to fix our hope upon His return. By doing so, we realize the great transformation we will undergo. We shall be pure, even as He is pure. But John tells us that we anticipate this by sanctification. This orientation of our faith drives us to be what we will become. So in a sense we not only set our thoughts upon the return of the Lord but also on the Christian life in this world. Francis Schaeffer titles one of his books: “How shall We then Live?” Since we are Christians on this great adventure, we appropriate and model the coming Kingdom in all we do.
Paul had already talked about the final restoration of creation in the 8th chapter of Romans. So what we read here has to be interpreted in that life. He has already talked about how one enters the Christian community of believers which is justification of faith. So the first and last steps have been discussed already in eloquent detail. This text as well as much of the latter parts of Romans deals with how one lives between these two seminal events. The lectionary text reading for this week actually starts with verse 4, but I think it better to start with the first verse. Paul is describing how Christians should relate to each other. In the light that in heaven there will be one body of believers, united in love, and perfect according to God’s ultimate design for humanity in the restored creation. The swords will be beaten into plowshares, the spears into pruning hooks. People will not learn war any more, and everyone will know Him, from the least to the greatest. So the model of our conduct is to be what we will be. The Kingdom is not just future. In a sense, the future is to be lived by the church in anticipation.
Boasting and bragging is always a cause of strife. How many of us are provoked to jealousy when we see a bumper sticker like: “My child is an honor student at such and such an academy. Our children might not excel in that area and we might be too poor to send them to private school. We think about how upset this nation was when it was discovered that the elite were gaming the system by having someone take their entrance exams in place of their children so they could get into the elite schools. Such behavior is not to be the characteristic of the Christian churches. What does Paul say here?
Paul says that the “strong” ought to bear the infirmities of the “weak.” He does not elaborate which group is the strong group and which is the weak other than he includes himself with the strong. As much of the controversy in Rome had to deal with the relations between Jew and Gentile and the need to mold such disparate groups into a unified church, we should perhaps start here. The Jews would have considered the Gentiles weak. They were not yet as informed about the finer aspects of the Torah and the oracles of God which had been given especially to the Jews. The Gentiles, on the other hand could boast of their freedom. They realized that the Christian had been set free from being bound to Jewish customs and traditions, at least the ones which were extra-biblical. So Paul does well not to define the strong and the week. Perhaps we should be humble enough to recognize that we are not as strong as we might think.
Christ, who is our Lord, in fact, Lord of heaven and earth, sets the example of how the “strong” should behave. He had every right to exercise His authority. And He was truly “strong.” Paul says that He did not do so. He did not come to please Himself. Instead Paul quotes the 69th Psalm which says that the reproaches of them who reproached Thee, fell on me.” In the original context of the Psalm, it seems that David had suffered because of His confession of Yahweh. People had reproached Yahweh, and this fell upon David. It is true that the Christian has to bear reproach as a follower of Jesus Christ. As He was crucified, we are called to take our own cross and follow Him. The reproaches of Christ fall upon us.
But this understanding simply does not seem fit the context of Paul’s argument here. Rather, it seems that the context demands that it is Christ who bears our reproach. We read from Scripture that He Himself bore our infirmities. He bore our sins upon the cross. He took the reproach that we so richly deserved. In other words, the strong Jesus bore the infirmities of His weak brethren. This becomes the paradigm for us as well. The church receives repentant sinners, some of whom lived very reproachful lives. It sometimes takes time for this new Christian to put off the reproachful conduct of the old life. Such behavior can cause the entire church to be condemned by those who are without. In other words, these churches, which are often on the wrong side of the tracks are reproached, often by the established downtown churches, whose ministry to the poor and weak is to throw a biscuit at them out the back door while shutting the front door to them.
Now we come to verse four which talks about the comfort we get from Scripture and what we can learn from it. As Paul is addressing both Jews and Gentiles, he is upholding the authority of what we call the “Old Testament.” There has been a tendency in the modern churches to relegate the Old Testament to the dustbin og history. Nothing could be a greater mistake than to do this. There was no New Testament written in the time of Romans, although several books of it might have existed at this time. Paul was careful to teach all the bible to the Gentiles as well as Jews. Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles can never be quoted as saying that the Old Testament is for the Jews and not the Church. The Christian understanding of the Old Testament was quite different that either the Sadducees and Pharisees, it was nonetheless, the Word of God. The Christian’s reason for hope is based upon both the Old and New Testament. Jesus Himself also fully upholds the Old Testament.
The Old Testament, by the way, constantly mentions the incorporation of the Gentiles into Israel, especially the Book of Isaiah. But even the Torah talks about it. There is to be one Torah for Israel and for the stranger that lives within the community. Strangers were to be welcomed. In addition, the Christian understanding of God’s promise to Abraham was that he would be the father of many nations, not just one. Isaac was only a typre of the promised “seed” which is Christ. So the same Scripture which founds the basis of our hope is hope for all nations (Gentiles).
So Paul continues to conclude that the church is to unite both Jew and Gentile into one church which will glorify God together. We might learn from this within our badly fractured denominationally defined church that unity of the Body of Christ is the ultimate goal of God’s purpose. There will be no denominations in heaven which should cause us pause to think how our division is anticipating this unity. So whan Paul says to “accept one another in the same way God accepted us to the glory of God,” he is making a profound statement which is supposed to address the here and now, and not just our heavenly home that is coming. How did Christ accept us? As Jews only? – no, but Gentiles also. Did Christ die for the Methodists alone? What about the Baptists, Presbyterian and other denominations.? We can see a little of how God feels about this in the first Great Awakening around 1740. Jonathan Edwards was a high Calvinist, Whitfield an evangelical Calvinist, but Wesley was an Arminian. So much heat came from the Calvinist-Arminian controversy. Yet God used all three to awaken the people of Great Britain and America. What was important is that all three preached Jesus Christ and that people needed to repent and follow Jesus. It is amazing how little the Calvinist-Arminian divide is to the work of the Holy Spirit.
Paul goes on to quote several Scriptures to show that the Gentiles were included in this great hope from the very beginning. The comfort and instruction of Scripture was for them too. This leads to the concluding prayer that the God of hope fill you all with all joy and peace in believing, that you might have abundant hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” Here we have three of the themes of Advent put together. We light candles for “hope,” “peace.” “love,” and “joy.” Even though love is not directly stated, it is strongly implied in this passage also. So we can see the Advent themes here stated. We have to appropriate these themes into our Christian life. Surely we set our gaze towards heaven and the coming Kingdom. We await for these things by living the life of that age now. Let us endeavor to have peace within our church, among our individual members, but also the church as a whole. Let us love each other. Nothing is more contagious than joy. And the hope we have is no wishy-washy hope, but a hope that is grounded in Scipture and reinforced by the Holy Spirit which resides in us and the church as a whole. May we be what we shall become. Amen.
