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Romans 2:1-4
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
Alright. Well, welcome. My name is Jeremy. If we haven't met before, it's great to have you here with us. We are getting close to the end of our series in the book of Romans.
Speaker 1:We actually have tonight and then we have next week and then that's it. And so far in four weeks, we have covered one chapter of this book. That is okay. Because the plan is that we're gonna work our way through Romans bit by bit over the course of this six week series. And then we're gonna pack it away and we'll move on to something new with the commitment that next year we'll return, we'll pick up Romans where we left off, and we'll just keep working through it.
Speaker 1:And we'll just go along in this manner however many years it takes us to work our way through the whole book here. Because let's be honest, twenty, thirty, forty weeks straight through Romans seemed like a bit much even for me to handle. And so we're gonna spread it out this way. That said, I do wanna go back and look at chapter one for a moment. But first, last week was Pentecost Sunday.
Speaker 1:And I spent a bit of time introducing both the idea of Pentecost, but also the liturgical calendar for some of us. We follow the Christian calendar here at Commons. Now, sometimes it's in the background. Now, we are entering into the season of ordinary time, and this is a season where the calendar sort of recedes from view for a while. But the season of ordinary time is actually introduced with what is known as Trinity Sunday.
Speaker 1:That's today and Kevin talked about that a bit earlier in worship. And so just as last week, as we remembered the gift of the Holy Spirit, this week we remember the doctrine of the Trinity. Now, there's a common wisdom in the church tradition that says, if you talk about trinity for more than a few minutes, you will inevitably slip into heresy. The idea behind that is that the trinity is inherently mysterious. Somehow, God is father, God is son, God is spirit, that that can still be a single unified God of creation.
Speaker 1:Our attempts to parse or explain or even to make sense of this mystery always have to be held as limited. And yet, as Richard Rohr says, if you get Trinity, you get Christianity. That God is somehow within himself an unending eternal dance of giving and receiving. A mysterious, benevolent relationship without beginning or ending that is the fundamental source of everything that exists in the universe. The church fathers called this the perichoresis, the eternal dance.
Speaker 1:It's from Latin. That choresis is where we get choreography and dance in English. Peri means around. It's where we get things like perimeter in English. And so, you want an image for God, imagine father, son, and spirit dancing around each other.
Speaker 1:That is as orthodox orthodox an image of God as you will ever find in the Christian tradition. If you can imagine a father who would dance with Jesus. If you can imagine a spirit who would dance with the father, you are well on your way to becoming Trinitarian theologian. Now, one of the high points of Trinitarian theology was captured for the church in what we call the Nicene Creed. Now, Trinity in its full expression is not explicit in the Bible.
Speaker 1:It was wrestled through in the first few hundred years of the church. But, let me read you the church's language to describe Trinity in this creed. We said, I believe in one God, the father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of God, begotten of the father before all worlds. God of God, light of light, very God of very God.
Speaker 1:Begotten, not made being of one substance with the father by whom all things were made. And, I believe in the Holy Ghost. The Lord and giver of life who proceeds from the father and to with the father and the son together is worshiped and glorified and who are spoken above by the prophets. Amen. And so, this Trinity Sunday, may you sense today that love and relationship and dance are at the center of everything that exists.
Speaker 1:And that you are an expression of the sacred, generous love that has existed since the divine since before there was anything but God. That is who God is and this is who you are. Let's pray. Trinity of love, maker of both man and woman in your image. Help us to learn to accept ourselves for who we are, and to know that our deep need for each other, this is part of your image placed in us.
Speaker 1:We don't presume to elevate our language or theology or words above the mystery of trinity. And yet humbly, we acknowledge that love and relationship are the ground of all being. That generous giving and receiving has existed before time. That joyful celebration is the source of creative energy in the universe. And, that unity in difference is the fabric of creation.
Speaker 1:May we get trinity so that we might come to understand our Christian faith in new ways. As we return to Paul today, your child, your servant, your ambassador, ambassador, who invites us to know this God for ourselves. May we read his words with wisdom and with understanding in the light of your generous expression. The gift of your son who invites us toward you. May we journey that path together.
Speaker 1:May we set aside judgment and condemnation of one another. And, may we be an encouragement to other just the same way you have been to us. In the strong name of the risen Christ, raised by the spirit and reunited with the father, we pray. Amen. Alright.
Speaker 1:It took us a month to work through the opening chapter in the book of Romans. We've got this week and we've got next week to get through chapter two before we pack Romans away, because that's what I wanna cover at least this year. But we've got four verses on the agenda tonight, and that is a lot to cover again. And I've already spent some of my time talking about Trinity, so I'm not going to do a full recap this week. You can always jump on our podcast or our YouTube channel to catch up.
Speaker 1:All the links are right at the bottom of the page at commons.church. Let me say this though. Last week, Paul kind of dropped the hammer on us a little bit. He went from the righteousness of God straight into the wrath of God. And to be honest, if you're not ready for it, it can be a pretty jarring shift.
Speaker 1:But what Paul actually says is that the anger of God is revealed not against us, but against all the sin and brokenness and godlessness and wickedness that pulls us away from God. God is not against you. God is always for you. God is against all that hurts you. Now, Paul is going to return to this theme of God's anger and wrath in the second half of chapter two.
Speaker 1:And, that's what we will get to next week as we close off Romans for this year. But just when we might want to get even a touch high and mighty about who is and who isn't on Paul's naughty list that he gave us at the end of chapter one. Paul seems to be very aware of this very human tendency. And so, as he opens chapter two, it's almost like he self corrects for us a little bit. In chapter two verse one, he says this, you therefore have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else.
Speaker 1:For at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself. Because you who pass judgment do the same things. So, bottom line, everyone is included in the conversation from last week. We all have something that is pulling us away from God. Nobody gets off the hook, so don't even bother pointing your finger at someone else.
Speaker 1:Paul is saying that if you read chapter one verses 21 to 32 and your first instinct is them, then you missed his point. He's not done though. He says, for we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So, when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you honestly think you will escape God's judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness?
Speaker 1:His forbearance and patience not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance. So, that's chapter two verses one to four. Now, again, lots going on in this passage. But, the first thing is to perhaps go back to the first line. Where Paul says, you therefore have no excuse.
Speaker 1:And, the question is, who is the you? See, one of the tough things about the bible is that this was not written for us. Now, it was preserved for us by the spirit and God speaks to us through it today, but it had an original audience and an original context that we have to work to reconstruct if we wanna understand it. And one of the things that is always coming up in Paul's writings is this ethnic tribalism that was so deeply ingrained in both the Jewish and the Roman cultures. We've already seen this a bit in chapter one.
Speaker 1:When Paul pushes the Romans to see themselves in the same category as the barbarians. You are not better than them he says. Well, now here there is some of this Jew Gentile stuff going on. Last week, as Paul was introducing the concept of the wickedness and godlessness that pulls us away from the divine, he said this in verse 20. That since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his divine power and eternal nature have been clearly seen.
Speaker 1:Being understood from what has been made so that all people are without excuse. See, that is a very Jewish way of saying that the Gentiles don't get off the hook. See, in second temple Judaism, the Jews had been largely absorbed into the political world of Rome. Now, if you go back to the old testament, what you'll see is that they had a temple that was where they worshipped and that was destroyed by the Babylonians. It was rebuilt while the Persians were in control.
Speaker 1:Since then, the Greeks and now the Romans have come to power. And so, second temple Judaism is a term that we use to describe the period where the Jews worshiped in that second temple. It's also a term that we use to describe the political environment where they were subject to all of these different foreign powers. While they worshiped in the second temple, they didn't have their own political sovereignty. And that meant that they had to interact with all kinds of different religions and peoples and groups and politics.
Speaker 1:So, whereas in the Old Testament, for most of it, they could basically be separate. They just couldn't reliably do that in the second temple. And, that posed all kinds of new tough theological questions. Now, God had revealed himself in Torah, in law. Well, what about all these people who they are now living beside and working with who don't know the law?
Speaker 1:And so, what was developed was this idea of natural law or general revelation. So, you get this in pagan philosophies like stoicism and you get this really heavy in second temple Judaism. The idea that creation itself says something about God. Even if you don't have the law, you should know something about who God is. Right?
Speaker 1:The Prussian philosopher, Immanuel Kant wrote about this. He called it moral oughtness. It's just a sense of what ought to be. Like what's right in the world. And I think we all kind of get that at some level.
Speaker 1:Even if that sense gets terribly damaged at times, we have a feeling, a desire, some kind of knowledge for what is good and healthy and life giving. We are all made in the image of God, even the most vile person you have ever met. There is still something of God in there. And part of that image, it pulls us to know him. Well, Paul takes that idea and he really runs with it.
Speaker 1:He says, not only is there a sense of oddness, but God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, they can be clearly seen. They can be understood just simply by being alive and looking around at creation. Nobody is without excuse. Your very breath speaks to you about God. You know, there's actually a Jewish rabbinic teaching that says that the name of God, the personal name revealed in Torah, Yahweh, is meant to remind us of breathing.
Speaker 1:So, Yahweh means something like I am or maybe I will be in the Hebrew language. But it's the first person singular form of the verb to be or in Hebrew. And a lot of linguists believe that to be this was originally just an exaggerated form of the sound of breath. It's possible that if you slow down enough and you can just really listen to your breathing. The inhale and the exhale, the rhythms of life that surround you, you might have a sense of what Paul is talking about.
Speaker 1:The creation speaks about God, his eternal power, his divine nature, the sacred longing to reconcile all things in heaven on earth back to God. All of that is there in your lungs. But this argument that Paul's making, this is an argument that is for the Gentiles. You see, even though Jews are subject to the same general revelation, Paul doesn't need to appeal to natural law to speak to the Jews because they have the specific revelation of Torah. And Paul wants to speak to Jews about God.
Speaker 1:He can just straight up quote the Hebrew scriptures. Scriptures. And, we actually saw him do that last week as well. He quotes from Habakkuk. And, so, any Jew who is part of the Roman church sitting in the community listening along as this letter is read, they are very likely, very comfortably nodding their head and agreeing, yeah, you're right.
Speaker 1:The Gentiles are without excuse. Perhaps, just the same way that some of us were probably nodding along in our hearts saying, yeah, they need to get their act together when we listen to Paul ramble off his list at the end of chapter one. But then, chapter two comes along. And Paul says, you therefore who pass judgment on others, you also have no excuse. Now, what some people have wanted to do with this is say that chapter one is all about the Gentiles and chapter two is all about the Jews.
Speaker 1:That's missing the point. Because Halls whole agenda is to say, no, we're all in the same boat. And so, he uses an argument tailored for Gentiles in chapter one, general revelation. And absolutely, he turns his attention to the Jews in chapter two, specific revelation. But if we read through this and we say, well, one is for us and two is for them or one is for non Christians and two is for believers, then we have done damage to the text.
Speaker 1:Because there is no us them divide here. In fact, that's his central thesis. Paul is just getting at that from both sides of the story. Now, in linguistic terms, if you wanna make this point, you can look at the repetition he uses. Chapter one, since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities have been seen and understood so that all people are without excuse.
Speaker 1:Chapter two, you who pass judgment are also without excuse. That repetition is meant to link these two arguments together. And so, you separate chapter one and two too far, you lose the larger meaning here. There is one story of grace and we are all part of it. Now, that said, we still have this warning about judgment and the reminder about repentance to consider here.
Speaker 1:And, one of the really interesting things are the parallels between what Paul and Jesus have to say when it comes to judgment. Paul says, at whatever point you judge another you are condemning yourself. Jesus says at the start of Matthew seven, do not judge or you too will be judged For in the same way you judge another, you will be judged yourself. But that leaves us with a bit of a problem, doesn't it? I mean, we are going to need to make some judgment calls at some point.
Speaker 1:In fact, the Greek word kreno here actually doesn't mean judgmental in a negative way. It actually just means making decisions, deciding things, measuring or evaluating anything. It's tough to go through life without doing any of that. So, let's take a moment to take a quick look at Jesus and then we'll come back to Paul here. Jesus says, in the same way you judge others, you will be judged.
Speaker 1:He then goes on to say, why do you bother to look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye while paying no attention to the plank in your own? You hypocrite. First, take the plank out of your own eye and then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from your brothers. So, in the context here, Jesus is not actually saying there is never a time to make judgment calls. Sometimes, your brother really does have a speck in their eye.
Speaker 1:And sometimes, you really can be a blessing by helping them come to see it. I was once having a conversation with a friend about this idea of being judgmental. And I made a joke. I said, you know, you're a very judgmental person. I noticed that about you the moment I met you.
Speaker 1:And I laughed. I thought that was pretty funny, and I moved on to something else. The problem was they didn't actually get the joke. They didn't realize I was making one here about how absurd it would be to say someone is judgmental the first time you met them. And so the next day, this person came back to me and they said, listen, I've been thinking about our conversation all night, and I just really want to apologize if I came across that way.
Speaker 1:That wasn't my intent. And I said, listen, I am sorry. That was not my intent. I was making a joke, and it was a bad one. Actually, it was a pretty good one, but you didn't get it, and I apologize.
Speaker 1:If you ever use that joke, and by all means do, because it's funny. Just make sure that somebody got it. Okay? The question here for Jesus actually isn't about judgment itself. It really seems to be about two things.
Speaker 1:Intent and clarity. So first, is your intent to help someone? Or really, is this just about making yourself feel better by pointing out their mistakes? Because let's be honest here. That can be really satisfying at times.
Speaker 1:And we all do it. Second is clarity. Is there really a speck in your friend's eye? Or are you just seeing things a little bit biased because you've got your own issues you need to deal with? So intent and clarity.
Speaker 1:If your comment isn't honestly for that person, for their good, to help them, then it's not yours to make. And if your comment isn't honestly thought through for bias and blind spots and potential prejudices, then it's not yours to make either. Because this is how God judges, honestly and objectively, but also for us. Even God's judgments are designed to help us, to heal us, to make us healthy. I I think Paul is saying much the same thing as Jesus does when it comes to this.
Speaker 1:When your judgment doesn't look like God's, then it becomes damaging and hurtful and it actually takes you farther away from God. But, in the context of Romans, I think Paul is also getting at something else here. And it's the way we tend to think in us versus them term. You see, sometimes we think to ourselves, you're a bad person and I'm a good person. But probably far more frequently, what we actually tend to think is we are good people and they are bad people.
Speaker 1:It's it's almost like we're self aware enough to realize how wrong it sounds to put ourselves up on a pedestal. And yet, when we talk about our tribes, we sometimes lose sight of that self limiting factor. So, liberals and conservatives, Christians and Muslims, immigrants and refugees, Lutherans and Baptist, Americans versus Canadians. And by the way, I think we've shown this week our politics can be just as immature and silly as anything that happens in America. So let's not get too high and mighty here.
Speaker 1:But even when we may hesitate to judge another person, we are often very quick to judge the other. And I think that's because for me, it's very hard to see anything of myself in the Syrian refugee I encounter on the news. I mean, sure. There is a tinge of humanity inside of me that recognizes I could be in that situation myself. But, I'm not.
Speaker 1:And so, I want to help and I might get a bit teary eyed, but then the video on Facebook ends and I have messages to respond to. And it's only once I take it farther, it's once I get to know an actual person, a human being. So, once I meet the families that we've invested in here at Commons that they stop being them so I can really see them as me. Remember, that's the background. That's the underlying tension here in Romans.
Speaker 1:You've got Greeks and barbarians and Gentiles and Jews and all of these desperate groups that have been brought together suddenly by the story of Jesus. And it's hard to let all of that history go just like that. And we have all kinds of ways that we subtly in group and out group unconsciously. Where we create different standards for each other. This is one of the reasons that it's really important we learn to listen to people we disagree with.
Speaker 1:If you can't fairly articulate the position of a person you disagree with, then you don't actually disagree with them. You disagree with your caricature of them. And that's tribalism. And, it leads to the kind of simplistic us them attitudes that Paul is wanting to confront here in Romans. Because a life lived exclusively in the company of like minded individuals will never help you reach your full maturity.
Speaker 1:But, you see, part of the brilliance of what Paul does is that he constructs this argument so that there is a personal warning. Don't judge others if you don't want to be judged. But then, there is this tribal element that speaks to another darker part of our nature. Be careful how you elevate your group above others. At one of the most powerful forces for social cohesion in culture is the presence of a scapegoat.
Speaker 1:Someone that you and I can point to together as the source of all of our problems. So, take that moment when you and your friend are arguing about the Edmonton Oilers. The absurdity of how anyone who lives in Calgary could possibly cheer for a team whose greatest accomplishment in decades is multiple first overall draft picks. But just when the argument is reaching a fevered pitch and your friend is about to point out that it may have been a long long time since the Oilers held the cup, It's been even longer since the flames did. And another friend jumps in and says, hey, guys, at least we're not from Toronto.
Speaker 1:Am I right? And what happens? Instantly, all of the anger and the hatred and the tension dissipates because now we've got the Toronto Maple Leafs to make fun of. Well, finding a scapegoat, an outlet, someone else for us to take all of our frustration out on, this is an incredibly powerful thing. And now, you've got Greeks and non Greeks, Jews and Gentiles drawn together by the story of Jesus, but it's hard to let generations of that story go.
Speaker 1:Just read through Galatians if you wanna see how heated this got at times. And so, Paul builds an argument for the Gentiles. And then he builds an argument for the Jews, but he's not separating them. He's actually saying, guys, don't you see this is all part of one story of grace? And this thing inside of us that drives us to compare ourselves and to derive our value in measuring ourselves against each other.
Speaker 1:This is broken. Earlier in this series, we talked about this idea when it comes to your calling. I said, don't compare what you were sent to do with anyone else because that's not going to help you find your way. I think Paul now wants to remind us of that same thing when it comes to our brokenness. God is doing something inside of you right now.
Speaker 1:He is fixing you and healing you. Every time you breathe, he is trying to get your attention and remind you of his presence with you. But, this fixation that we have to shift the focus and to point at others, this desire we have to say, we are better than them. What this does is short circuit the redemptive work that God is trying to do inside of us. Carl Jung said that when we project our shadow onto others, we refuse ownership of ourselves.
Speaker 1:We distance ourselves from ourselves. And, we lose sight of what is happening internally. So, here's my advice. When you feel that need to point at someone else. And you sense that desire to shift the focus onto somebody else's flaws.
Speaker 1:And it rises up inside of you from somewhere deep down inside, then notice it, and name it, and recognize it for what it is. Because perhaps even this can be a gift. You see that instinct to shift the focus, this is part of a self preservation mechanism that comes from your old self that does not want to be changed. And so when you feel it and you notice it, this means that the spirit is alive and present and working on something inside of you. It means that there is a moment in front of you for you to dive into right now.
Speaker 1:Because it means that the kindness of God is near to you. And the patience of God is waiting beside you. It means that he is leading you to repentance. He is calling you to himself. And, it's okay that we're afraid of that invitation.
Speaker 1:Because to respond and be naked and vulnerable before God, this is a scary place. Most of us have spent years learning how to shift the focus of the spirit off of ourselves and onto someone else. But, may you sense today that this instinct to find a scapegoat in your life, this comes from your shadow self. And so, you feel it next and desire to point the finger at someone else and their brokenness, may there also come a new sacred awareness of what God is trying to do inside of you. That he is kind and patient and he is leading you into all that is good.
Speaker 1:Let's pray. God, help us to recognize this thing that is happening inside of all of us all the time. Where when we feel the presence or the pressure of your spirit, pointing to things that need to be changed, pointing to things that could be changed. We react instinctively to shift the focus to someone else. At the point at their flaws, to find a scapegoat, to bring our tribe to the center and push others outside the boundaries.
Speaker 1:But God, may we recognize that that same story we might cast down on someone else. This is the same story that we are part of. And that that mechanism of self preservation in our shadow self, This comes, it rises up because you're trying to do something in us. May we instead learn to trust your spirit, to have the courage and the vulnerability to acknowledge what you are doing, And, the awareness to see where you are trying to shape us inside. So, that you might reform us into the image that you imagined when you created us.
Speaker 1:Image of your son that you present to us. The health and the wholeness and the shalom that you invite us into. God, grant us courage to be vulnerable before you and to trust the leading of your spirit as you guide us. In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray. Amen.