Romans 1:1-7
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God — the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Last week I went to a watch a high school football game and was surprised by the gospel. I was standing outside a fence, just a few feet from the cheerleaders and players while watching the end of the sophomore game and waiting for the varsity game to begin.
The cheerleaders were buzzing around with excitement – arranging their stuff, fixing their hair and generally being “cheerleaderish.” Suddenly, one of them looked up and said, “Hi Tommy!” I knew she wasn’t talking to me so I glanced to my right and saw a high-school aged boy who I figured had to be “Tommy.”
I noticed right away that he might be mentally handicapped – just by how he spoke and moved – and I was right. But the cute cheerleader was unfazed – and, in fact, didn’t seem to notice. She said, “Tommy, you want to come over here and hang out with us before the game starts?” Tommy responded with what I can only describe as a squeal of excitement. He put his finger to his chest as if to say, “Me?!” The cheerleader nodded, “Yeah, come on over!”
Tommy began to jump up and down and clap his hands in unabashed joy. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a human being look so happy. And I’m sure I haven’t seen an act of such kindness at a high school football game! Someone helped him find the gate in the fence and he hurried through squealing and laughing all the way.
Even though I didn’t know anything about that cheerleader or anything about Tommy, I was surprised to feel tears come to my eyes. When I tried to tell the story later – it happened again. Then it dawned on me – what I had see was a little slice of the gospel.
Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul uses two little words that are very easy to miss in this passage. We tend to focus on the big words, and rightly so; words like “apostleship,” “God our Father,” and even, “Lord Jesus Christ.” But the two words I am talking about are “you also.”
Paul is writing this letter to gentiles, that is, non-Jewish people living in or around Rome. These are people who would have been strangers to the God of the Hebrews; people who had been steeped in pagan traditions of capricious and cruel gods who not only did not love them but punished them with glee.
In a sense, Paul is writing to people like Tommy; people who were outside the fence, unacceptable to and unloved by their gods. To them Paul writes,
And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
In Ephesians Paul says it this way:
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. Ephesians 2:13
Do you hear it?
“You, also!”
You, who have always felt far from God. You, who have always assumed that your sin and failures somehow disqualified you from the love of God. You, who have tried so hard to do good and be good but fear that you have not done enough. You, also, are called to belong to Jesus Christ!
We are all like Tommy standing outside that fence longing to be loved, longing to be invited to come in. Jesus is God’s invitation. The gospel is the good news that we are all invited to belong to Christ; we are all invited to share his grace and peace.
All we need to do is accept the invitation.
Pastor Brian Coffey
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