the reading
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.
For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.
the sermon
Twentieth-century theologian, Karl Barth, likely best known for his commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, has said that if you get this verse wrong, then you’ve misunderstood the whole book of Romans.
Everything Paul means by grace, judgement, election, and hope hangs on getting this one verse right.
So let’s not get it wrong!
Paul is writing to a church that’s coming apart at the seams.
Prior to this letter, the Jews were expelled from Rome by the Emperor Claudius (likely because of conflicts over Christ).
When the Jewish believers returned several years later after Claudius’ death, they found Gentile-led congregations with their own rhythms and practices. And the Gentile believers looked at what they saw as Jewish unbelief, or basically desertion.
Both sides were pointing at how the other had walked away, with God essentially turning His back on them.
The disqualified one another.
And it’s into this tension that Paul writes:
“For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.”
the disqualified one
I want to share a story with you.
As some of you may know, my journey to getting ordained started over 20 years before it ever actually happened. And in that 20 years, there was a lot of feeling disqualified. Not from forgiveness, but more from being used by God.
I felt certain that I got the call to pursue ordination. So I stepped out and did everything I knew that I could to move me in that direction.
I pursued education.
I served in all kinds of ministries.
I took on leadership roles.
I felt certain that I had positioned myself to become the next youth pastor. The fulfillment of my calling was right there.
Then I watched as I got passed over because a couple people in leadership over me didn’t really understand me. I was disqualified.
And it’s a pattern that kept repeating itself. I’d brush it off as no big deal, and then a few years later, another opportunity would come up, only to get brushed to the side… again.
There were times when I questioned whether I actually ever heard God’s call at all.
I felt disqualified.
I honestly felt like it was never going to happen. Which is crazy, because I feel like I knew what I brought to the table. I was confident in my experience and education and my relationship with God.
It’s funny how it works, but I think that often when people overlook us, we can feel like maybe God is overlooking us too.
everyone failed, and God showed up anyway
When Paul catches wind of what’s happening in the church in Rome, he needs to tackle this head on. He writes,
“Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy.”
So while the Jews and Gentiles are trying to measure their own faithfulness over one another, Paul is pointing out to them that neither side of this argument is right.
He’s basically telling them that no one gets to stand over another because everyone stands equally in need.
In the fourth century, St. John Chrysostom wrote in his Homilies on Romans that,
“God has concluded them all in unbelief… not that they may remain in disobedience, but that He may save the one by the [stubbornness] of the other.”
Earlier in that same homily, commenting on why no one gets to boast, he writes,
“the whole comes of grace from above”
In other words, God’s grace has nothing to do with achievement or accomplishment. It’s not something you can earn.
The gospel isn’t ‘some people fail, some people don’t.’ It’s ‘everyone failed, and God showed up anyway.’
This is where Paul throws in this statement that Karl Barth thinks is so important.
“For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.”
And he’s not saying that we’re all imprisoned exactly the same way. I think sometimes we get quick to measure our faithfulness against someone else’s failure. And that’s exactly what Paul is speaking against.
It doesn’t matter what you or someone else may say disqualifies you, we’re all imprisoned together. And we all equally receive God’s mercy. It may look different for you than it does for me. But we all need it, and we all get it.
Barth preached on this to prisoners once (collected in Deliverance to the Captives), saying,
“God has mercy on all, though on each one in his own way.”
irrevocable
There’s one other word in here that I want to take a look at with you, because it’s a really important one.
In the middle of all this, Paul writes,
“For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”
Irrevocable.
This word that Paul uses here means that God doesn’t take back what He’s given. There is no buyer’s remorse from God!
Paul is leaning on this idea that when God says something, that’s it. There’s no changing the promise.
Listen…
This is the God who in the beginning said, “Let there be light.” And there was light.
This is the God who told Abraham that because of his faith, his descendants would be like the stars. And even today, we are living examples of the fulfilment of that promise… the same promise that Paul is defending in our passage today.
This is the God who said hanging on the Cross, “It is finished.”
When Paul tells us that the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable, it means that there’s nothing anyone can do to take them away.
God’s gifts and calling never come with an expiration date.
What we see in our lives as failure, God sees as the doorway to mercy. And God’s mercy doesn’t wait for us to stop failing. It meets us in the very situation we thought disqualified us.
This keeps us in a position where we don’t need to listen to the voices that try to keep us down. We can trust God to lift us up and give us gifts like salvation. And that He will stand by the callings He gives us, whatever it is.
It also prevents us from looking at the source of those voices as our enemy who’s just trying to keep us down. We’re all in the same boat together, all in need of the same irrevocable mercy.
That mercy isn’t just something we receive. It’s something we promised to pass on.
with God’s help
There’s a question we ask at the font every time someone is baptized in this church.
Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
And the answer is always the same.
I will, with God’s help.
It’s not, “I will if they deserve it.” It’s not even, “I will once I understand them.” It’s just, “I will. With God’s help.”
Here’s what makes that question so hard. Jesus doesn’t just ask us to be kind to people in need. He’s making a much bigger claim than that. He says, in all persons.
He says whatever you did for the hungry, the lonely, the overlooked, you did it to me.
There’s a line from a study on the Baptismal Covenant I’ve been working on that puts it this way: The king and the person in front of you are the same person, encountered from different angles.
So if that’s true, then the person who overlooked you carries Christ too.
The one who couldn’t see what you brought to the table.
The one who passed you over.
The one whose voice tried to convince you that you were disqualified.
And don’t forget that sometimes that person is the one in the mirror.
Christ is in them too, whether they’ve ever acted like it or not.
That’s the harder half of this Good News. It’s one thing to believe you’re not disqualified. It’s another thing to stop treating the people who made you feel that way as your enemy.
We’re all in the same boat. All imprisoned in the same disobedience. All equally in the need of the same irrevocable mercy.
So this week, look for Christ in the face of someone who’s easy to overlook. And look for Christ in the face of someone who’s overlooked you.
Neither of those is optional if we’re going to keep the promise that we make at that baptismal font.
I will, with God’s help.
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