Proper 13 / Pentecost 11 / OT 18
Devotional
Water From the Well
Lectionary Devotional For Cycle A
Object:
They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants....
-- Romans 9:4
Having just concluded the ringing declaration that nothing "will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord," Paul then turned to the most difficult challenge to such a belief. If Jesus was the Messiah who God had sent to God's people, the Jews, why had the majority of the Jews rejected Jesus? Did not such rejection either mean that Jesus was not the Messiah or Christ or that the plans of God could be defeated by the rebellious choice of humanity? Paul would develop his answer in chapters 9-11. But in these verses, Paul made clear that the change that had occurred in his life on the Damascus road had not meant that he had ceased to be a Jew. His identity was so complete that if it would have made a difference, he would gladly have sacrificed himself for the sake of his people. "For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh."
The hope of humanity was seen in what God had done through Israel. Paul catalogued the gifts of God to humanity through the Jews -- adoption, glory, covenants, the giving of the law, worship, and the promise. It is good for Christians to be reminded of their indebtedness to Judaism. Christianity is not a rejection of the beliefs and experience of Judaism, as Marcion taught, but a further development and understanding of the truth of God first revealed in Judaism. We are the heirs of faith that began with the promise to Abram that through his progeny all the families of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3). We are the recipients of that blessing. For the church to divorce itself from Judaism is to reject our own family.
-- Romans 9:4
Having just concluded the ringing declaration that nothing "will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord," Paul then turned to the most difficult challenge to such a belief. If Jesus was the Messiah who God had sent to God's people, the Jews, why had the majority of the Jews rejected Jesus? Did not such rejection either mean that Jesus was not the Messiah or Christ or that the plans of God could be defeated by the rebellious choice of humanity? Paul would develop his answer in chapters 9-11. But in these verses, Paul made clear that the change that had occurred in his life on the Damascus road had not meant that he had ceased to be a Jew. His identity was so complete that if it would have made a difference, he would gladly have sacrificed himself for the sake of his people. "For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh."
The hope of humanity was seen in what God had done through Israel. Paul catalogued the gifts of God to humanity through the Jews -- adoption, glory, covenants, the giving of the law, worship, and the promise. It is good for Christians to be reminded of their indebtedness to Judaism. Christianity is not a rejection of the beliefs and experience of Judaism, as Marcion taught, but a further development and understanding of the truth of God first revealed in Judaism. We are the heirs of faith that began with the promise to Abram that through his progeny all the families of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3). We are the recipients of that blessing. For the church to divorce itself from Judaism is to reject our own family.
