Romans 15: 1-13

(Sermon by Pastor Michael D. Schultz 12/09/07)

INTRODUCTION:

[Gettysburg clip from Remember the Titans.]

When Paul wrote to the Romans, he wasn’t telling a football team to come together.  He was telling church people to come together.

Hear An Encouraging Word On Being Accepting

I checked back in old sermons to see if I had used the example of whether or not to serve beer at the church picnic.  Turns out I had – September 15, 2002 – I’m sure you remember that.  So we’ll use a different example today.  What would it be like if we were breaking ground for a 20,000 square foot youth center two months from now (we’re not) and the big debate amongst the members of the church were: Should we borrow money for this project?  Some folks felt that the youth center would never be built if we don’t borrow money, and other folks truly believed that it would be wrong to build something we don’t have the money for, that we should have all the money up front before we stick the first shovel in the ground. 

I’ve met different people who are on one or the other side of that issue.  I’ve even met some people who say they want their church to be in debt up to their eyeballs so that when Jesus returns they can laugh at the bank all the way to heaven.  Do you know how many different angles and perspectives and approaches and opinions there are for how to finance a building?  It’s not sinful to borrow money to put up a building, it’s not always wise, but some people may mistakenly feel that it’s wrong.  What are you going to do if the incorrect feelings they have are holding up progress on the project – smile at them at church and go home and talk about what idiots they are and why don’t they get it?

This part of the letter to the Romans is all about being accepting; accepting toward those who are weak in faith.  With this example of borrowing money, you could hash it out for a year, finally gather consensus about how you’re going to do the project, and still, figuratively speaking, there could be more blood on the ground than there was at Gettysburg.  The issues were resolved, the course of action determined, but if the weak in faith were trampled by those who felt they knew their Bibles better, then what looked like progress was actually failure. 

How weak in faith were the disciples and how much of their weakness did Jesus endure and for how long did he endure it?  Just as important, if not more, why did he tolerate their weakness – because it was the right thing to do and he could feel good about the fact that he’d done the right thing?  Jesus endured their many and obvious weaknesses all for their sake, to patiently build them up.  It was a three year clinic on patience with those who are weak, all for their good.  Immature as they were, he accepted them.

Why did Jesus accept you or me?  Great appeal?  Incredible potential?  Off-the-charts commitment?  Sensational unconditional love we show all the people around us?  Today we fall beneath God’s scrutiny in the matter of being accepting toward others.  How do we fare?  If we’re being sincere when we sing “Chief of Sinners Though I Be,” then there is more sin in us than in all the psychopathic serial killers and Satan worshipers the world’s ever seen.  If we’re listening to God’s law, then we, not someone else, we have a place in the deepest level of the lake of fire.

And that is where Jesus showed up, in the abyss of hell, forsaken by God as our substitute.  “Jesus shed his blood for me,” the very worst of sinners.  He accepted you and me, disgusting to God as we were. By his death he washed away the caked-on spiritual grime, sent away the landfill spiritual stench, accepted us despite who we were, because of who he is – loving, forgiving, accepting.

How do we come together after hearing that?  After it says, “so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” you’d almost think it was time to sing a hymn.  Not a bad idea, but what does he say?  Accept one another.  Christ accepted you.  Accept one another.  As weak in faith as someone else might be, funding a building, beer at a picnic, however aggravating to you their weakness may be, be accepting toward them, knowing that Christ was and still is toward you.

It is not easy, but God isn’t stingy.  The endurance you need to bear the weaknesses of others, the encouragement you need to build them up in their weakness are endurance and encouragement that God gives you as you read the story of how God has always given his people what they need to serve him and to serve people.  That’s different than a football story where “WE need to come together.”  Be optimistic about accepting one another – God promises that he will make it happen.

When God’s grace and God’s power and God’s love are in the mix, then the highest hurdles can be crossed, the thickest walls smashed, the biggest differences demolished.  For Christians in Rome, the big issue was Jew/Gentile differences.  Put up with them?  Bear with them?  Not because I’m supposed to but because I want to?  They’re so different.  They think differently, act differently.  They’re not like me at all.  Do we even want to think about…  God the Father and God the Son in heaven and the Father says to the Son, “Go, live your life and give your life and save them all.”  And the Son says, “But they’re not like me at all.”

Four passages about Gentiles reminded Jewish Christians in Rome that those different Gentiles had always been included in God’s plan of rescue.  Good thing!  Most all of you are the different ones, Gentiles, not Jewish like Jesus – and God’s plan always included you.  And now you look around you and whom do you see?  More people who are different than you.  Is the neighborhood changing?  Maybe you know some Spanish words but do you know any Mandarin or Bosnian words, or are those people so different that someone else is going to have to reach them?  And if no one does?

Before we can think about reaching people who are different, we’ll need to accept them, people whose foods and language and customs are different, but whose souls are the same –stained with sin, washed and covered with holy blood.  Exactly one hundred years ago Teddy Roosevelt said that if immigrants truly wanted to be Americans they needed to forget their own language and speak English.  There are certain emails that get forwarded, quoting him and saying it should still be that way.  Accepting toward those who are different than you or slamming the door on them?

Accepting the weak in faith and those who are different than you is going to be ongoing, taxing work till Jesus appears in the sky.  Gladly bearing the weaknesses of others and proactively making inroads into the lives of people who are very different than you – you’re going to be tempted to think that there are better, easier, more enjoyable uses of your time than all of that, till this Word of God enters your ears and the Spirit touches your heart and your sinful self is nailed to Jesus’ cross and you hear God speak a blessing that tells you that you can over flow with a hopeful and positive attitude of being accepting toward everyone as the God who gives hope fills you with the joy of salvation and the peace with him that surpasses understanding.  There’s a truckload of work to be done to be accepting, but there’s a truckload of blessing in these words to get the work done:

May the God of hope fill you will all joy and peace as you trust in him, that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

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