Today's Meditation - Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Today's Meditation

Read Romans 1:16-25

¹⁶For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ¹⁷For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.” ¹⁸For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth.

¹⁹For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; ²¹for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. ²²Claiming to be wise, they became fools; ²³and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles. ²⁴Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, ²⁵because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

     I'm so happy that the Daily Lectionary has readings in the book of Romans for the rest of the month of June.  Romans is one of my favorite books of scripture.  

     Today's passage goes along with yesterday's and you should really read yesterday meditation before you begin todays.  Because here the passages go on to explain why Paul has taken the position that he has regarding the Gentiles.  For him, the Gentiles were always part of God's plan from the beginning.  Verse 20, 21 says, "Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made.  So they are without excuse; for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him....", but instead they "exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles." (verse 23)

     Now that Jesus has come to redeem Israel, Paul wants the Gentiles to realize that Jesus has come to redeem them as well.  Paul wants them to recognize the divine, to see God's eternal power through the things God has made.

    The Gentiles have not lived with, been taught, or have had the rich relational connection that the Jews have had for generations, as mentioned in the beginning of the letter.  Therefore, Paul wants to appeal to them using a different connection - a creation connection, an act connection - that they can see.

     This is why I really like what Paul does here.  For me, making connections with Old Testament figures/characters/people or even New Testament figures/characters/people is not as compelling as seeing God in action through my everyday connection.  I see God at work in creation every day.  I see God at work in the people around me.  I have less interest and less connection with Moses and Noah.  I would have a difficult time tracing "my roots" back to them and caring about them as part of my family connection with God.  I'm not really part of that "tribe".

     One of my favorite hymns is relatively new (in terms of the age of hymns) called God of the Sparrow.  But it uses God's creation and the people in creation in recognizing the divine and God's eternal power.