Daily Bible Reading: Lamentations 4-5 and Romans 16

Lamentations 4 – This section of Lamentations is about what it was like to be in Jerusalem after its fall in 586 BC. As much misery as we may have experienced, it is not anywhere near the desolation that affected the inhabitants of this city. There are places in the world where life is as terrible, but I have not known anything like this.

“Happier were those killed by the sword, than those pierced by hunger, whose life drains away, deprived of the produce of the field. The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food in the destruction of my people” (4:9-10). The prophet goes on to warn Edom that her destruction will also come.

Lamentations 5 – The people of Israel are terribly persecuted and bear the yoke of their “fathers’” crimes. They suffer all the terrible things people suffer today in Sudan and Congo and other conflict-ridden hotspots: famine, violence, rape of their women and abuse of the young.  “Make us come back to you, Yahweh, and we will come back.” (5:28)

Romans 16 – Good-byes and commendations.  He mentions Phoebe, a deacon from Cenchreae, and many other workers in the church, some of whom may be his relatives.  He also cautions them to be wary of “those who cause dissensions and offenses, in opposition to the teaching that [they] have learned . . .” (15:17).

Tertius, writer for Paul, greets them and sends along the greetings of others. Then some last words of benediction and an allusion to the “revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith . . .” (15:25-26).

There has been much recent discussion of whether and to what degree there are elements of Gnosticism in the early preaching of the gospel, and this is one of the passages used to prove that there was.  I don’t think Paul was opening the door to the Gnostic elements that might have been present in his day, but I do think there is in the Christian gospel an intellectual, imaginative dimension that is Gnostic-like.  By this I mean an intellectual and imaginative delight simply in seeing ‘the truth’ (or those degrees of truth we are given a vision of) set forth in the Christian gospel.  I experience it when I consider the way the scripture narrative finds its fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus.  The fact that we know today that the scriptures were actually not dictated by God but were the product of many writers and editors is to me cause for even greater amazed delight and faith in the Holy Spirit—for His one unifying intelligence is the fruit of a great coming together of circumstances, personalities, happen-stances and whatever.  Still it can be seen as a great unifying intelligence.  Anyway, I think this is what Paul is talking about here when he refers to the way the writings of the prophets shape our understanding of Christ.  The power of this gnosis to bind us to Christ, to shape a vision of how great God is, how He embeds Himself in His creation and in our distinctive human consciousness is very great.  I am not sure it is something you must see or appreciate to be a Christian, but it is certainly one of the beautiful things our faith offers.

Daily Bible Reading: Lamentations 3 and Romans 15

Lamentations 3 – If you are not torn apart by the words of this lament, I do not understand it. The comments I have in my notes on this reflect the many different “states of mind” I have brought to it over the years. It slays me every time.

Here are the first three verses:

“I am one who knows what it is to be punished by God. He drove me deeper and deeper into darkness and beat me again and again with merciless blows. He has left my flesh open and raw, and has broken my bones. He has shut me in a prison of misery and anguish. He has forced me to live in the stagnant darkness of death. He has bound me in chains; I am a prisoner with no hope of escape. I cry aloud for help, but God refuses to listen. I stagger as I walk; stone walls block me wherever I turn” (3:1-9).

But then at the deepest moment of despair, we sense an inward turning: “I have forgotten what health and peace and happiness are. I do not have much longer to live; my hope in the Lord is gone. The thought of my pain, my homelessness, is bitter poison. I think of it constant, and my spirit is depressed. Yet hope returns when I remember this one thing. The Lord’s unfailing love and mercy still continue, fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise. The Lord is ALL I HAVE, and so in him I put my hope” (3:17-24).

           

The idea that the Lord is our portion—almost our fate—is so important.  Here we have a Lord that is equally our worst enemy (enemy to all that would let Him down) and our best lover.  We can find our meaning nowhere but in Him, but it is not always fun—he is our portion, nevertheless. The underlying truth is “he does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone” (3:33).

           

“The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.  It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” (3:25-26) This is a good Quaker passage.

           

Another interesting passage – pre-Enlightenment: The Lord knows when our spirits are crushed in prison; he knows when we are denied the rights he gave us; when justice is perverted in court, he knows” (3:34-36).

           

“Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord. Let us lift up our hearts as well as our hands to God in heaven.  We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven” (3:40-42)

           

“You came near when I called on you; you said, ‘Do not fear!” (3:57). This is always what Jesus said when he approached people to follow or relate to him.

What a different spirit this comes from than the one we bring the Lord today in our pride and refusal to bow before His role in the circumstances of our lives, even those that are dire. I try to imagine what it is like to have been a Jew after Hitler, reading these lines—what fury must they have kindled in the breasts of Jews toward God, but what confusion too. The wonderful movie called The Quarrel wrestles with this.

How so we reconcile ourselves to this experience of God’s mysterious presence in the sufferings we endure because of human unfaithfulness to His Love and because of the complexity of the reality God places us in?

Romans 15 – Paul encourages us to serve our neighbors, put up with their weaknesses to build up the church.  Then Paul quotes or alludes to psalm 69—“I am scorned by those who scorn you,” but this fits less well than verse 7 of the same psalm:  “Let those who seek you, God of Israel, not be disgraced through me (‘hindered’ might be more apropos).” The NRSV has “dishonored.” The JB says, “Let those who seek not be ashamed of me.” This last seems most conducive to the use Paul is making of the psalm.  It is interesting because it permits Paul too to make a generalization about the uses to which sacred writings may be put.  He says, “Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope” (15:4).

Paul goes into the role Christ plays as reconciler.  He came to “confirm the promises given to the patriarchs” (15:8), AND to evoke the praise of the gentiles [for as they—we—learn of the way his steadfastness to the Jews has been confirmed, so we too are led into relationship with Him. He cites several OT passages that allude to the fact that God’s name will be proclaimed among the nations or the gentiles [2 Sam.22: 50, Psalm 18:50, Is.11: 10 (JB)—the root of Jesse shall “be sought out by the nations”] ** The JB is uniformly better at translating OT passages in such a way as to make it appear Paul actually might have been using them appropriately.

Paul reviews his success in spreading the gospel among the gentiles.  He has not gone where other evangelists have been but only to those who have not heard (15:14-21). These missions have long kept him from coming to Rome, but now he plans to come on his way to Spain.  But first he tells them he must go to Jerusalem to bring the money he has collected to the saints there.  He anticipates trouble in Jerusalem: “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, . . . to join me in earnest prayer to God on my behalf, that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea . . .” (15:31).

Daily Bible Reading: Lamentations 1 and Romans 13

Lamentations is a poetic description of the desolation Jerusalem suffered in the wake of its destruction in 586 BC—attributed to Jeremiah. Each “chapter” of Lamentations consists of a 22-verse poem.

Lamentations 1- “How lonely lies Jerusalem, once so full of people! Once honored by the world, she is now like a widow; the noblest of cities has fallen into slavery” (1:1).

        

The “bride” of Yahweh cries and is without any allies or friends. Her people have been carried away and are “surrounded by enemies, with no way to escape” (1:3).  No one comes to the Temple any more. “The Lord has made her suffer for all her many sins” (1:5). It is amazing to me that Jeremiah had no issue ascribing all the things they suffered with God’s anger. He clearly sees ALL THINGS as coming from God: the beauty of the cosmos, the moral arc of all history and the terrible pain and suffering that come from “man’s” sin. God is the designer and creator of the universe. There is no other equal force to which the bad things can be ascribed.

“He took note of all my sins and tied them all together; He hung them around my neck, and I grew weak beneath the weight” (1:14).

        

“The Lord is in the right, for I have rebelled against his word“ (1:18)

        

“My enemies are glad that you brought disaster on me. Bring the day you promised; make my enemies suffer as I do. Condemn them for all their wickedness; Punish them as you punished me for my sins” (1:21-22). 

Romans 13 – Paul tells us that we as Christians are “subject to the governing authorities,” that they have in some sense been “instituted by God” (13:1). He is assuming, of course that they really are “not a terror to good conduct, but to bad” (13:3).

I think in light of some of the very evil governments we have seen, however, that we must use this measure first to see what they are a terror to first.  If we do what is good and find ourselves in trouble with state authorities, then we are dealing with a different situation – a government that cannot claim justification by God. But if the government is a “terror” to bad conduct and bad conduct alone, then Paul has no trouble seeing them as serving God (13:4).

“Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (13:8). George Fox loved this passage but reduced the message to six words: “Owe no man anything but love.” It was used by Friends as a reminder that we should never get ourselves into debt.

Paul reminds his readers that “salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near.  Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. . .” (13:11-12).

Daily Bible Reading: Jeremiah 51-52 and Romans 12

Jeremiah 51 – Oracle Against Babylon Again – Jeremiah here repeats that the “moral arc” of God’s dealing with Israel and Babylon will be long, but in the end Babylon whom God used to punish the unfaithfulness of His people, will also be brought low by its “kingdom from the north” [Persia].

“The Lord made the earth by his power; by his wisdom he created the world and stretched out the heavens. At his command the waters above the sky roar; he brings clouds from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning flash in the rain and sends the wind from his storeroom. At the sight of this, people feel stupid and senseless; those who make idols are disillusioned because the gods they make are false and lifeless. . . The God of Jacob is not like them; he is the one who made everything, and he has chosen Israel to be his very own people” (51:15-19). This monotheistic approach to religion, this Creator God held high by the people of Abraham, will – after everything – show that the wonders and miracles of nature are also reflected in the history of humankind.

God is a mace that will be used against Babylon: “I will dry her rivers up, make her springs run dry, and turn Babylon into a heap of stone, a lair for jackals, and thing of horror and of scorn with no one living in it” (51:36). 

Jeremiah sends Seraiah, brother of Baruch, to read every word of the Babylonian oracle to them and then to throw the scroll into the Euphrates saying “so shall Babylon sing, never to rise again. . .”(51:64). “The words of Jeremiah end here” (51:64).

Jeremiah 52 – This chapter seems tagged on to just put the key events of Jerusalem’s fall into a very brief historical context: Zedekiah was 22 when he became king (597 BC), and served 11 years before the end came for Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah (586 BC).  In his ninth year, the siege began.  When he was captured his sons were killed before his eyes and then he was blinded and taken in chains to Babylon. The valuable fixings of the Temple were carried off.  The High Priest, Seraiah, his next-in-line, Zephaniah, and a number of others were killed in Riblah.  A total of 4,600 people were taken into exile.  In Babylon, the king Jehoiachin remained in prison until 561/560 and then he was released and treated honorably at the expense of the government there until his death.

Romans 12 – “Do not conform yourself to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect” (12:1). As the body has many parts so we, though many, are one body in Christ (12:4-5).  All these words are so precious:

“Let love be sincere; hate what is evil, hold on to what is good; love one another with mutual affection. . .” (12:9).

“Bless those who persecute [you], bless and do not curse them. . .do not be haughty but associate with the lowly; do not be wise in your own estimation.  Do not repay anyone evil for evil; be concerned for what is noble in the sight of all. . .Beloved, do not look for revenge but leave room for the wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ Rather, ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.’ Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good” (12:9-21).

These words of Christ are here even before the first gospel was written, one of the relatively few occasions where we hear Paul repeat Jesus’ teaching rather than reflecting on what Jesus did—in his dying and rising again.

Daily Bible Reading: Jeremiah 38-39 and Romans 6-7

Jeremiah 38 - Jeremiah counsels surrender again.  The princes want him dead because he disheartens the soldiers and people of the city with his words.  The king, Zedekiah, seems to give them leave to do what they want. So they put him in a cistern that is in the Court of the Guard, a cistern filled with mud.  A man named Ebed-melech, a Cushite (Ethiopian), pleads with the king to let him take Jeremiah out and he does.  The king seems very easy to manipulate. Zedekiah then sends for Jeremiah again.  Jeremiah fears the king will kill him if he speaks God’s word, but the king reassures him.  So Jeremiah urges surrender again and assures him, the king, that he will live. Zedekiah says he fears the men of Judah who have gone over to the Chaldeans; he fears they will mistreat him if he surrenders.  Jeremiah assures him he will be all right.  The king seems afraid of everyone at this point.  Jeremiah says he will not disclose to anyone the nature of their conversation.

Jeremiah 39 - Jerusalem is captured (fourth month of eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign--July of 587 BC). Zedekiah flees but is caught on the plains of Jericho.  King of Babylon has Zedekiah's sons slaughtered and Zedekiah’s eyes put out [Shakespeare must have read a little Jeremiah]. The king is then placed in chains.  The walls of the city are destroyed and the people deported.  The poor are left behind and given farms and vineyards (39:10). Jeremiah is treated well, given over to the care of Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan.

Romans 6 – Paul warns them that just because Christ’s grace is always more abundant (or abounding) than the sin it overcomes; this is no reason to be indifferent about sin.  Some sarcastic critics were perhaps saying they should sin even more to increase the flow of grace to them. But those who have “died to sin” should no longer live in it.  Baptism into Christ is baptism into his death—the thing that should be visible in us is his resurrection or newness of life (6:2). “Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as [being] dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus” (6:11). Sin is equated with “desire” here.  Being out from under the law does not mean being free to sin; it means being free from sin.  This freedom from sin “leads to sanctification, and its end is eternal life” (6:22).

There is some little tension in Paul between the realized eschatology he expresses here and the deferred eschatology he talks about elsewhere.

Romans 7 – Paul discusses the freedom from the law that comes with the death we enter into in Christ.  The idea seems to be that the law only has jurisdiction over those who are living in the fall, to give them knowledge of the sin they are in; but when one enters into the resurrected, restored life given in Christ, the law no longer holds sway. “[N]ow we are released from the law, dead to what held us captive, so that we may serve in the newness of the spirit and not under the obsolete letter” (7:6). The law is what shows people that they are sinful. He also seems to be saying that the law itself gave us new ideas or occasions to enter sin, as if by pointing out sin to sinful men, it lured them into sin even more—is this right?  Sin became “sinful beyond measure” (7:13--unendurably sinful?) under the law. “For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.  Now if [I] do what I do not want, it is no long I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. So, then, I discover the principle that when I want to do right, evil is at hand.  For I take delight in the law of God, in my inner self, but I see in my members another principle that was with the law of my mind, taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.  Miserable on that I am!” (7:20-24)

Daily Bible Reading: Jeremiah 37 and Romans 5

Jeremiah 37 - Chronologically, this chapter follows 34:1-7. Zedekiah is installed as king by Nebuchadnezzar, and he will not listen to Jeremiah. But he does send people to ask Jeremiah to intercede with God for the people.  Pharaoh’s army is on the move to Jerusalem and the Chaldeans (Neo-Babylonians) will abandon the siege of the city for a time.  But the Lord warns Jeremiah that the Egyptians will turn back and when they do, the Chaldeans will return to destroy the city. 

While the Chaldeans are away, however, Jeremiah takes the opportunity to go and see his family—again over the issue of some inheritance. He is accused of deserting to the Chaldeans. He is arrested and beaten, left in an underground cell.  Zedekiah sends for him and asks him for a word from the Lord.  Jeremiah tells him again he will be handed over, but asks that he not be sent back to the cell he was in. Instead Jeremiah is placed in the Court of the Guard where he had a greater degree of freedom, can talk to people, etc. and is given a loaf of bread a day until all the bread in the city is gone.

Romans 5 - Our peace with God is through Jesus.  Through Him we have access to God’s grace and we are able to hope realistically to see the glory of God (5:2). It is by attaching ourselves to the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, that we love God as we need to love Him.  Paul seems to say, however, that our experience of redemption is at least partly something we have hoped for but do not yet possess; but he wants us to believe that this hope is well-founded. Our love for Him is great because he died for us, not when we were loveable and devoted to him, but when we were lost in sin. This is unique. “Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die.  But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (5:7-8).

Christ is compared with Adam: “Sin came into the world through one man, and his sin brought death with it. As a result, death has spread to the whole human race because everyone has sinned. ” (5:12-13). “From the time of Adam to the time of Moses, death ruled over all human beings, even over those who did not sin in the same way that Adam did when he disobeyed God’s command” (5:14). I think the death Paul speaks of here is a spiritual death. And he plainly says that the man Adam is a “figure of the one who was to come” (5:14). The “figure” of Adam in the Genesis story is the figure of the human who has lost the vision of humanity that the creator intended to “gift” us with. A restoration of that “gift” is what comes to man through the grace that flows from seeing Jesus as God poured out for us.

“So then, as the one sin condemned all people, in the same way the one righteous act sets all people free and gives them life” (5:18). “[J]ust as sin ruled by means of death, so also God’s grace rules by means of righteousness, leading us to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (5:21).

Paul is not easy to understand, and I can only say about it what God has given me to see in it, and I cannot be certain I see it all correctly. I remember that one of the things about Jesus that made it difficult for me to “see” him as God incarnate was that as a young, secular, revolutionary (left-winger back in the 60s), I was used to idealizing people who had fought for justice and died, people who had sacrificed themselves for the underdog. And there were many such people in human history, or so I thought then. Why was this one man held aloft as uniquely self-sacrificing and important? 

This is STILL for me a problem with those who focus entirely on Jesus’ social justice message. He is not particularly unique on this level. But if he is God, and He has emptied Himself of power and majesty to die for the unholy, unheroic and unworthy so as to "raise them up" in some way to SEE themselves as worthy of awe and life eternal – THIS I can finally SEE as something very unique, very essential.

Jeremiah 36 - Years 605-604 BC.  Jeremiah sends for Baruch to write a scroll containing all of his prophesies he has made from the beginning, during the reign of Josiah, down to the present.  He hopes that if the people hear them all, then certainly they will repent of their unfaithfulness before it is too late. During a fast, Jeremiah says “I cannot go to the house of the Lord; I am prevented from doing so” (36:5). So he sends Baruch to the Temple to read it. He reads it all to the people.

Gemariah’s son, Micaiah, reports what is read to the Temple officials meeting in the king’s palace.  Baruch is ordered to there and read it again. The words of the scroll frighten them and they go to tell the king.  But they advise Baruch and Jeremiah to flee. 

The scroll is brought to the King—it is winter and they sit before a fire—and here the scroll is read for the third time.  But the King will have none of it. As Baruch reads the prophesies of Jeremiah, the king cuts pieces off the scroll and throws them in a fire.  He feels no fear of what it says. Jeremiah and Baruch are ordered arrested but Yahweh has hidden them. 

When Jeremiah hears how the King has “received” his words, he proclaims a curse on Jehoiakim: his heirs will never rule in Jerusalem and his corpse will be “thrown out where it will be exposed to the sun during the day and to the frost at night” (36:30). Then he (Jeremiah) orders Baruch to rewrite the scroll.

Romans 4 – The place of God’s promises in the world of faith is examined here.  Paul examines what Abraham did that “justified” him.  Paul’s scripture says that Abraham’s “belief” (JB uses “faith”) was credited to him as righteousness, not anything he did. Paul refers to David too, to something he said—that the blessed (“justified”) are “they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered” (4:7 - quoting psalm 32: 1-2). This blessedness is not something reserved only for the “circumcised.”  Abraham was not circumcised when he acted on his “faith” in God (4:10), his belief that the promises of God to him would someday be fulfilled. Circumcision was just “a sign” or seal of the “justification” he received because of his faith. The promise was made because of his faith, not because of the sign he was given to remind him (and his heirs) of it. Nor was the promise a reward for adherence to the Law, which would be given later through Moses.

It is God’s promise to Abraham, part of which referred to him being “the father of many nations” (4:17) that is the origin of the faith that we and the Jews [and the Muslims] profess. We are the nations referred to here. Abraham relied on that promise even in the face of every good reason to doubt it – this is our model.  In scripture we see the redemption pattern repeated so often and God’s faithfulness to us so concretely demonstrated, that we are encouraged to persist in faith even when it seems absurd. Abraham’s faith is the model, for even without what we (the generations that came after Abraham) have -- the experience of the exodus, the restoration of the Jews after the conquests, the resurrection of Christ -- Abraham trusted in God, obeyed His voice and was found just on that account.

Daily Bible Reading: Jeremiah 34 and Romans 2

Jeremiah. 34 - With Nebuchadnezzar at the gates, Jeremiah is told to go to King Zedekiah, and tell him the Lord is handing the city over to the king of Babylon.  If he obeys, he will die in peace; if not he will die by the sword.  Only the fortified towns of Lachish and Azekah hold out. 

Zedekiah had agreed to emancipate all Hebrew slaves (presumably to provide more defenders for their side; but maybe also because they knew they had not obeyed the command of YHWH to free them every 7^th year); but the princes of Judah went back on the agreement (perhaps after hearing that Zedekiah had established an alliance with Pharaoh Hophra to help them fight the Chaldeans or Neo-Babylonians). They even took people back into slavery after having freed them. Yahweh was angry about the situation. So he tells them He will “proclaim [them] free. . .for the sword, famine, and pestilence” (34:17). They will be dealt with as animals cut in two in the making of an oath – they have broken their oath. 

Romans 2 – Paul talks about the concept of “judgment” – the judgments human beings make of others and God’s judgment of us all at the end of it all. He warns the Romans that they should not be being judgmental of others. When God judges us all at the end of our lives, He will be weighing us against the standard of truth we set for ourselves. And everyone, he seems to say here, whether Jew or “Greek” [Hellenist “pagans”] or Christian, has a worthy standard (one of goodness and truth) and an unworthy standard (a standard that is self-serving and evil). “God has no favorites” (2:11).

The “pagans who never heard of the Law” (2:12) have access to Truth through their reason or “conscience” “They can point to the substance of the law engraved on their hearts” (2:14).

The Jews, who “know God’s will through the Law” (2:18), must do more than just preach it to others; they must live by it. There is nothing wrong with circumcision or preaching circumcision if you live in accordance with the Law; but circumcision is not magic. It is not the thing that makes you a faithful Jew; “the read circumcision is in the heart—something not of the letter but of the spirit” (2:29).

When, according to Paul, “God, through Jesus Christ, judges the secrets of mankind” (2:16), the truth in everyone’s heart will be known and weighed.

When one considers the whole of Paul’s letter to the Romans, this part of it can be a little confusing to modern readers – it has been to me. He seems to be talking about different groups of people here and coming up with an assessment that many 21^st century westerners would be quite comfortable with – that all people in the world have good people and bad people, good standards and wimpy, self-serving standards.  No matter who you are or what you believe in, God will just look at what your actions are when (and if) you are judged. But I don’t think that is what Paul is saying. It would make no sense. He’s talking about Christians here – those who have come to Christ through Judaism and those Hellenistic “God-Lovers” who have come to Christ from “pagan” roots, albeit Hellenistic and tempered with a philosophical kinship with Jewish values. They have not accepted the rite of circumcision, but have accepted the spirit of the Law that is the central tenet of Judaism. The context will become clearer when we get to the next section of the letter.

Daily Bible Reading: Jeremiah 33 and Romans 1

Jeremiah 33 - Jeremiah is still in prison at the Court of the Guard when a second message from God reminds Jeremiah that despite the destruction they will suffer, God also promises restoration: “I am going to fulfill the promise I made to the House of Israel and the House of Judah.”  A virtuous branch will grow for David (33:15). Yahweh would sooner break his covenant with day and night, with nature and its laws as break his covenant with David and the Levitical priests (33:20-21). 

I think we Christians need to see our "work" in establishing Christ's presence on this earth as a covenant responsibility that we too have often NOT been faithful to. I feel that just as the OT covenant God had with His people seemed a bit “roller-coasterish” so too His promise to the Church through Peter has been just as up and down. We should not see our history as any more constant in faithfulness than that of the Jews. But the covenant, the promise, is still there. We just can’t take it for granted any more than the Jews could take his promises to them for granted. When we go off the track, we need to acknowledge it - see it and make a change.

Romans 1 – A great deal is contained in the opening of this letter.  Paul says he is "a slave” of Jesus Christ, set apart to serve the gospel.  The gospel of Christ that Paul preaches was “promised long ago by God through his prophets, as written in the Holy Scriptures” (1:2). It is about God’s Son—descended from David according to the flesh, but “shown with great power to be the Son of God by being raised from death” (1:4). Through Jesus, God gave Paul “the privilege of being an apostle “in order to lead people of all nations to believe and obey” (1:7).

Paul says that the faith of the Roman community is heralded throughout the world (1:8).  He has been and continues to be eager to visit them.  “I have an obligation to all people, to the civilized and to the savage, to the educated and to the ignorant” (1:14).

The gospel, he says, is God’s saving power (1:16), his power to make people righteous through faith and to “deal with” wickedness and impiety.  People should be able to access evidence of God’s “invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity” (1:20) through the creation.  Paul seems to be addressing the question of the role of reason or human wisdom in achieving human lives that give glory (or properly reflect the dignity God meant man to have) to God.  The Hellenization of the ancient world brought much philosophy and devotion to human wisdom, but Paul says it did little to bring the “righteousness” or “holiness” Jews believed was the mark of dignity God wanted in his creation.  Man’s reason should be able to bring it, but instead it gave way before man’s passions and brought degradation and every sort of vice—wickedness, evil, greed, malice, murder, rivalry, treachery, spite, gossiping, hostility to God, sexual deviance, etc. (1:24-32). Later he will make the claim that outward conformity to Jewish law does little to improve things.