Kalamazoo Mennonite Fellowship
Will Fitzgerald
August 23, 2009
Scripture: Romans 9-11.
In many ways, we are getting to the climax of Romans, the “point” that this book is making. For the last few teachings, we have been resting before the final ascent. We’ve seen how God declares that we will not be condemned, but that God has fulfilled in Jesus everything that is required. God has furthermore given us God’s own Spirit so that we can life that is full of the Spirit instead of being ruled by our finite natures. And we saw that all Nature itself—and even our pains and sufferings—are cooperating for the completion of every good plan of God. And we rest in the conviction that nothing can separate us from the promises and covenant of God.
When I say “we” I mean anyone who is (in Paul’s language) “in Christ Jesus,” those who have declared that Jesus is our Lord, the One whom God has raised from the dead (Rom 10:9,10). We are, declares Paul, the “many nations” that God promised to Abraham as descendants (Rom 4:13,18). We are the ones who have peace with God with full access to God’s grace (Rom 5:1,2). We—whether Gentile or Jew by birth—are the children of promise.
Paul has now told the story of how God’s plan to save humanity at least three different ways.
In the first chapters, he cleverly gets us (whether Jew or Gentile) to admit to our own condition. God “gave us up” to our own sinfulness when we choose not to honor him, and we see this truth as we look around at the evil and bad ways people treat one another and how they ignore and impugn God; but then we realize that in judging others (either as Jew or Gentile) we pass judgement on ourselves.
Paul also takes us through the story of Abraham (Rom 4), who “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and in this way became the father of all who believe. From Abraham, Paul looks forward in time to the coming of Jesus and backward to human origins (Rom 5, 6); just as Adam died, we all die, even Jesus—but his death is not the death of weakness, but a death which was for us in our weakness, and brings our reconciliation to God.
And he reminds us of where God plans to take us (Rom 8)—to a state of “glory about to be revealed to us,” as all creation groans in labor pains waiting for that glory to be revealed, even as we live a life in the Spirit but still undergoing pain, persecution and mortal decay.
And Paul, as a Jew by birth, just as some of us are “Mennonite by birth,” naturally raises the question, what about those who are are Jews by birth but who are not “in Christ”? “Has God rejected his people?” (11:1). What about them? This is not just an academic question for him; he feels it deeply in his heart, and would be willingly cut off from the promises for the sake of his fellow Jews. What about them?
Paul reminds us:
They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah,who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
So, what’s the answer to Paul’s question? Has God rejected his people?
This week, we’ll consider part of the answer, which has to do with whether God keeps changing his mind.
I believe that if we were pressed, we’d probably tell a story like this.
Back before time began, God was all alone. And, existing in all the eternity, alone, God decided, was not enough. So God went to Plan “B.” And God created Man in his image to be a companion — and this was clearly inadequate, too, so God went to Plan B/1: God created Woman, too. God created a wonderful garden for them to live in, and give them everything they needed, including free will. And they messed up, so God went to Plan “C”: God kicked them out of the Garden of Eden.
After a while, God got lonely again, and God executes Plan “D.” God appears to Abraham, and starts to create a new people to relate to. God promises Abraham descendants and land, and God gives Moses the Law for the people to keep. And of course, they mess up, and God creates a whole slew of plans as they promise, but continue to fail through Judges and Kings and Kingdoms. Each time God tries something a little bit different, but it never seems to work.
So God comes up with a really good plan, Plan “M” for “Messiah.” God has been giving the people hints and promises and warnings about this plan all along, but finally God is forced to send the only Son of God to the people and to die for the people, because Jesus is the only one who can actually keep the Law and meet God’s requirements.
But the Jews still don’t pay attention and accept the grace God has for them. So, God comes up with has Plan “M/1” to find someone who will pay attention. And so the gospel, though Paul, is given to the Gentiles instead.
And this plan was really a good one. Well, except that pretty much every Christian group except the very one you are in have kind of screwed it up. Those Roman Catholics with their works; those Lutherans with their infant baptism; those Calvinists with their hard-scrabble view of God; those Episcopalians with their robes and immoral clergy; those Baptists with their political conservatism; those Methodists with their political liberalism; those Mennonites with their … funny clothes. Perhaps God needs a longer alphabet to name his plans …
The problem with this story is it pictures God in extremely human terms: a god who constantly changes his mind. This god has a good heart (but maybe too quick a temper), but who doesn’t know what’s going to happen, and doesn’t quite know how to react when, yet again, his plans fail. This god is puny, powerless and fickle. This god doesn’t keep promises.
Knowing Paul, We can imagine what his answer will be to the question he asks baldly in 11:1, “Has God rejected his people?” That answer: “By no means!” is something we have heard Paul say before. God’s word has not failed (9:6)—that is, God’s promises have not been broken. He reminds us that not everyone who is called a Jew is a real Jew, and this has been true from the very beginnings of Israel. In fact, the story of God’s redemptive plan starts from the beginning of time and had already taken into consideration the sinful reaction of people to the goodness of their own creation.
Of all sinful humanity, God makes promises to Abraham about his descendants.
But not all of Abraham’s descendants. His son Isaac was the child of promise, not his son Ishmael. Was Isaac better than Ishmael? By no means, but God shows mercy to Isaac.
But not all of Isaac’s descendants. Isaac had twin sons—Jacob and Esau, and it is Jacob who is the child of promise. Was Jacob better than Esau? Anyone who reads their story must conclude no—but God shows mercy to Jacob.
But not all of Jacob’s descendants. Jacob—renamed “Israel” had twelve sons, of course, and they became the twelve tribes, who are eventually enslaved in Egypt, and God miraculously saves them—but not all of them. Many die in the return to the land promised to Abraham, and only a remnant return, and we have the rest of the Jewish scriptures that tell the story of God saying to a remnant of the remnant, “All day long I have held out my hands,” welcoming all to return to God.
And of this remnant of a remnant, there was only one true Jew, one true Israelite, who is Jesus the Jewish Messiah, Jesus the true Son of Man, the true Son of God, who lives and dies to save humanity and it is through Jesus that the promised God made to humanity and specifically to Abraham are kept.
God’s plan from the beginning was to bring this about. Paul says that Israel became the “object of wrath,” and by this he means, I think, it is through Israel that both God’s wrath and God’s mercy are shown. From all humanity, to Abraham’s descendants; from all Abraham’s descendants, to Isaac’s descendants; from all Isaac’s descendants, Israel’s descendants; from all Israel’s descendants, a faithful remnant; from all the faithful remnant, the one true son of Abraham, the one true Son of Man, the one true Son of God.
And now, with every expectation of God of humanity being fulfilled in Jesus, there comes a great expansion of grace to all humanity. Jews and Gentiles alike can be members of the true Israel, the true “remnant,” the descendants of Abraham and the recipients of Abraham’s promises; not through the flesh, and not through the Law, but through grace and faith. “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”
Next week, we’ll consider the “and therefore…” conclusions, but one thought for your consideration ahead of time. Paul reminds us Gentiles that we have not replaced the physical children of Abraham and Israel as the objects of God’s mercy, but rather that God’s mercy has expanded to include us. Let me suggest that we think this week about ways in which we take undue advantage of God’s mercy; perhaps starting with our own attitudes towards Jews in particular.