Romans 8: Isn't this great, Dad?

I said at the beginning of Romans that I wouldn’t pretend to play the deep thinker. Well – if Romans is deep water, then Romans 8 is its Marianas Trench. A great thinker, scholar and preacher like Jim Stewart (the new pastor at North Avenue Alliance Church, where Joe and I visited this morning) could spend weeks in Romans 8 alone and never come up for air.  Me – I’m content to splash around in it like a toddler in an inflatable pool.

In fact I remember Imani’s first time in such a pool. She was less than two, just splashing around and dripping water on my head, talking nonsense and jus’ lovin’ it. If she could talk, she would have been saying: “isn’t this great, Dad? Isn’t this great?”

And on this warm, slow summer night so much like that blessed evening about 15 years ago, that is how I will read Romans 8.

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

“For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, `Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

 “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.”

Isn’t this great, Dad? Isn’t this great?

“We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

“If God is for us, who can be against us?”

“Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies – who is he that condemns?”

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”

“I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Isn’t this great, Dad? Isn’t this great?

Romans 7: the bitter Fourth

Today is July 2, the first day of Independence Day Weekend. For me, July 4 marks five months. Until today I had never thought that, to the Loyalist Americans, July 4 was not a day of celebration, but a “Day That Will Live in Infamy,” the day the long-resisted, long-feared separation finally occurred. What happened that day changed their identities, their hopes for the future. They had taken oaths of loyalty and kept them in the sight of God and man. Yet their partner – the land beneath their feet, the society around them, the Crown overseeing it all – had been violently ripped from them.

And they must have wondered, as I wonder: God of our fathers, what now?

I mention this because Paul raises the question of the widow being free to remarry because her covenant with her husband died with him. For Paul, it’s an illustration about being dead to the law and alive to Christ. He’s not interested in the real-life details. But I am. His illustration raises some real questions.

Here is what I DO know: I know that I am free to remarry, in the sense that it is not sin to do so. I know that God made man for woman and woman for man, and that short of a special calling to celibate service, marriage is the divinely-ordained “natural state,” a compact for mutual benefit. I know that husbands are called to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

It does not rise to the level of Scriptural authority, but here is what I have learned from reading, reflection and wise counsel, since Diane died:

Grief first, dating and remarriage second. It is almost impossible for grieving people to do the “hard work” of grief AND love a mate or prospective mate “as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” Instead there is a tendency to “medicate” one’s pain with the analgesic of affection and attention. Ibuprofen is good but not if I use it to walk on a broken foot or ignore an infected tooth. That is not “getting on with life” or “toughing it out” – it is foolish because it only worsens the condition and extends the period of recovery. And to the extent that others are hurt when I use them as painkillers, it is selfish. As my friend Rich Parker says, “one has to remember that there are other people involved.” The scriptures do have much to say on the subject of selfish fools, none of it good. “There is a way that seems good to a man……”

At the Christian coffeehouse in Montpelier last night, I sat next to a brother who told me he remarried shortly after his wife died. Big mistake, he said. The house of cards collapsed quickly, with people he loved trapped inside. He said to me, “I’m not trying to tell you what to do, but……” I tell myself sometimes that I am not That Kind of Person who would make That Kind of Mistake. But again I must invoke a proverb of Solomon the Wise:  “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

And so like the honest Loyalist of 235 years ago, I leave the familiar, beloved ground and set sail for uncertain shores. There is no joy in it, but there is acceptance, and openness to unknown blessing as one life ends and another begins. The Fourth will always be recalled with sadness, but my oath to the King remains, as does my trust in His protection. All may change, but Jesus never, glory to His name.

Romans 6: On the Road with Jesus

A dull theological term (just four words in and already I am redundant) called “identification” describes the link between the life of Jesus and our own, which Paul describes in chapter six.

In the River Jordan, at a desert ford (Salim, perhaps) south of Galilee, John baptized Jesus. The baptism of the Essene monastics and the early church symbolically submerged the old life in dark, airless waters of death; a new life arises, coming up for the Light of Christ and the Air of the Spirit, alive through and to God. 

In baptism, death, and resurrection, Jesus goes before his bride. Walking ahead on the road of life, he shields her at great personal cost from hidden pits, landmines, and highwaymen. The road to eternity is safe for those who follow in his steps: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

Death no longer has mastery over Christ – nor us.

He is dead to sin – as am I, if I follow behind him on the road, heeding Paul to “in the same way count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus….do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.” My savior has given me knowledge, power, encouragement, his example, and his Comforter - how firm a foundation – what more can he do, save take away my personal choice?

I am standing in the road, uninterested in going forward and distracted by something going on in the bushes. Ahead of me, Jesus stops. He turns. He beckons. “Follow me,” he says. “I am the Way.”

I know this. I see that He is a trustworthy protector and companion. Still I say to Him, “I am tired. I need to rest by the side of the road.” Ahead of me he beckons and says, “Come unto Me, Guy, and I will give you rest.”

I say to him, “how can I rest by going forward?” He says, “I am the beginning and the end of your road, Guy, and indeed of all roads. Nothing is impossible with me. Walk and find strength and refreshing.”

Shuffling forward I mutter, “I want a closer look at what’s happening in the bushes.” He says, “broad is the path that leads to destruction, but narrow is the path that leads to eternal life. Remember the darkness of your heart when I first came knocking on its door – what benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of?”

Tonight I sang at a Christian coffee house in Montpelier. Sunday, I sing at North Avenue Alliance. Today, I started writing Diane’s biography. Oh my Way, my Beginning and End, my Rest – sing with me, bring life to my words, help me walk forwards to you and with you, shedding my useless bloated vanity that shuns your way, seeks its own rest, and is an end unto itself. Of all my gifts, the one you treasure most is a tender, loving, obedient heart.

“There is a joy in the journey

There’s a wildness and wonder to life.” – Michael Card

Romans 5: How does Suffering Produce Hope?

With Paul I rejoice that by the grace of the cross, through faith, I now have peace with God. The Jew in me joyfully lays down the unbearable burden of trying to please a holy God by being good.  The good news is that the Holy One of Israel understands my moral weakness and has taken up the full burden of righteousness himself. I need only walk by His side. The Gentile in me weeps with relief that the capricious gods of Rome and Greece are false, and that the One God is knowable, and known, and knows me. There is gno longer any gneed for gnosis. God has made his wisdom accessible to all people, stupid or smart, Jew or Gentile, the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker.

With Paul I rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Now I see it through a glass darkly; one day, face to face, Hallelujah, my heart thrills. Just thinking about it is enough to make me get up out of the bed in the morning and then some.

With Paul I even rejoice in my sufferings, because they produce perseverance, which produces character. In training for the July 31 Colchester Triathlon I find that my hours in the Racquet’s Edge pool have produced new strength and stamina. On really good days I simply surge up and out of the water with every stroke. I get the sufferings-perseverance-character parallel between physical and moral strength. Larry Staab, a fellow swimmer and brother at JCC who endured the notorious Hell Week of Navy SEAL training with a broken foot, has encouraged me in this regard.

But I DON’T get the last link in Paul’s chain of suffering: hope. How, exactly, does the suffering that produces perseverance and character culminate in hope? What’s the connection there? To me, it is not humanly intuitive, as is suffering's link with perseverance and character. As I finish the passage - “And hope does not disappoint us, for God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given to us” – I see I have partially misunderstood the teaching about suffering, perseverance, and character. God is not my Jillian Michaels of America’s Biggest Loser, my trainer in self-improvement for my benefit. In His eyes I am identified with Christ. As His son underwent suffering and perseverance and displayed character, so must I; and as His son endured all in hope and joy and was resurrected unto glorious life, so will I through His Spirit of Power.

As the Spirit uses sufferings to produce Christ-like perseverance and character, He also bestows on those “in training” the strength-enhancing gift of Hope, the protein of the soul. “I am my beloved, and He is mine, his banner over me is love,” said the expectant bride in Song of Solomon. “I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand in the last day,” said suffering Job. The Spirit gives me strong hope as I give Him my waiting and suffering; now, in the Garden; daily, under the Cross; one day, at the Resurrection.

Romans 4: Father Abraham had many sons; I am one of them, and so are you

Romans 4: Father Abraham had many sons

I remember a ridiculous Christian camp song, "Father Abraham had many sons/ many sons had Father Abraham/ I am one of them, and so are you/ so let's just praise the Lord" and then we would wiggle our right arm, then our left arm, etc.....

The song is silly but the words are true. I am a son of Abraham. Abraham is Guy Page's forefather. Paul, a son of Abraham according to the flesh, says so in Romans 4, in stirring language that goes more than flesh deep, right down into my heart and soul.

In Chapter 3, Paul introduced a New Thing: Universal Peace With God, for Jew and Gentile alike. The Romulan lion shall lie down with the Vulcan lamb.

"But hold on just one blasted minute, there, Paul,” the Judaizers respond. "What about Abraham? What about David? According to the family Torah scroll, my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grand-father was David’s court dogcatcher and second cousin once removed! And that makes us kin to Abraham, too! Are you absurdly suggested that I am related to some gentile [dog] just because he says he believes in Messiah?"

In Chapter 4, Paul responds:

Our Father Abraham was declared righteous because he believed God. Before he was circumcized. Just like your gentile brother. In the eyes of God, that makes him a Son of Abraham.

Abraham received and believed his promise that his offspring would inherit the earth. Before the law was given. The Law did not, could not, justify Abraham. Just like it does not and cannot justify your gentile brother. In the eyes of God, that makes him a Son of Abraham.

Abraham believed God that he would become "the father of many nations." Not just Israel. Many nations. Including the nation of your gentile brother. In the eyes of God, that makes him a Son of Abraham.

Against all hope, Abraham believed that life could be brought forth from the dead. Both he and Sarah were old and effectively "dead" as potential parents. But God, but God......

“Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why ’it was credited to him as righteousness.’ The words ’it was credited to him’ were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification."

“Our” includes our Gentile brother who displays the faith of Abraham regarding the resurrection of Christ from the dead. In the eyes of God, that makes him a Son of Abraham.

The hero of the 19th century British adventure novel "She" by H. Rider Haggard, the creator of Allan Quartermain, has just encountered the title character, a beautiful woman who is 2,300 years old. A rational scientist and historian, he grapples to understand: "the thing was quite adverse to the experience of humanity, and absolutely and unutterably impossible." In the same way did Greek and Roman skeptics struggle in vain to filter the truth of the Risen Christ through their worldviews. Yet showing that faith that at least twice "amazed" Jesus, by God's grace they believed. They became true sons of Abraham. "I am one of them." I, Guy Page, a skeptic and Unitarian born and raised, am a Son of Abraham. The real-life application of that truth (beyond justification through faith) would be a worthy meditation.

Romans 3: Vince Lombardi, and a conversation between a Romulan and a Vulcan

Romans 3: Vince Lombardi, and a conversation between a Romulan and a Vulcan

Back in the sixties, during the heyday of the civil rights movement, someone asked Willie Davis, an African-American starring for the Green Bay Packers, if legendary coach Vince Lombardi treated the black and white players equally.

“Sure he treats us equally,” Davis laughed. “He treats us all like dogs.”

Halfway through Romans chapter three, that is pretty much where Paul has assigned both Jew and Gentile. Both “Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin.” Both have seen God’s light, and shut their eyes. Like a good drill instructor, he's torn 'em down to build 'em up: “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known.” All who believe are made righteous by faith.

And then Paul says something Really Important. The prophets hint at it. Jesus mentions it. Paul makes it crystal clear. This new teaching is for Everyone. Jew. Gentile. If you are breathing and have opposable thumbs, Jesus is for you. This is the world’s first truly Universal Religion. Until now, gods were not very transportable. At best, someone from Them might join Us.

But God, through Paul, Roman citizen and devout Jew, has made Them no better than Us, and Us no better than Them. “Is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles, too?” From now on, the Kingdom is officially We.

The Romulans of Star Trek were patterned after Romans: proud, grasping, superior, contemptuous, with last names that ended in “us”. Leonard Nimoy, a Jew, drew on his heritage to play Spock as an intellectual outsider torn by loyalties to two cultures. The split-finger “live long and prosper” sign so universally beloved by nerds was conceived by Nimoy, who as a child saw a rabbi use it during the High Holy Days, spelling with his hands the holy and unutterable name of God.  Like Jews and Gentiles, Vulcans and Romulans were once the same people. Spock, like Paul, seeks reunification.  I picture a Romulan/Vulcan conversation about Spock going something like this:

Romulan: “Ho, Vulcan elitist! What is this I hear about your fellow Vulcan Spock blaspheming against the gods of the Great Romulan Empire?”

Vulcan: “Greetings, my imperialist cousin of an emotion-soiled planet. It is I who must, alas, ask you: why is this same Spock aligning himself with your intellectually-weak bloodline, except to pollute mine?”

Romulan: “Spock says both Vulcan and Romulus face a threat that will destroy us both.  He says that unless we take immediate action, everyone on all planets will become One with the Borg. What defeatist rubbish! Mighty Romulus shall prevail forever! Still….it is rumored that we have lost outposts. Perhaps Spock has some intelligence.”

“Vulcan: “It is not logical to assume that so intellectually superior a planet as Vulcan could fall to the Borg. And yet…. logic would suggest prudent inquiry.”

Together, they search for Spock.

Romans 2: Condemnation for the Gentile first, then the Jew

In God's economy, both judgment and blessing go "first to the Jew, then to the Gentile." Author Paul reverses the order: at the end of Chapter One, he speaks scathing condemnation on the clueless, godless, blind, futile, darkened Gentiles. Picturing in his mind's eyes the Pharisees looking on in smug approval, he turns on them in Chapter Two and in the best tradition of Jesus BLASTS them for their religious pride, stubbornness, and self-seeking.

I read Chapter Two and cannot help but think of the sad wail of every iconic punch-drunk boxer in every pugilistic drama from "On the Waterfront" to "Rocky": "I coulda been a contendah!" That is how Paul sees the rebellious Jews. As Burgess Meredith tells Sylvester Stallone: "you coulda been great - now, you're a bum." Wasted opportunities. Spiritual dissolution. Lost greatness.

I hear the heartcry of Paul for his doubly-enslaved people in this dirge (set to a minor key, 4/4, accent on first beat):

"Where is our Moses, where are our judges, where are our Davids, they're all lying in the grave/
Gone is Elijah, Gone Nehemiah, none are among us who are Mighty to Save/

(change to higher minor key)

"Prophets you sent us, we have ignored them, beatened and tortured and crucified/
while all our princes, just like our conquerers, fawned and stole and killed and lied"

There were of course many godly Jews, both in and (to use the words of Jesus) "not far" from the Kingdom, who wholeheartedly agreed and were praying for divine victory. But how? How can Israel overcome the political power of Appollo, and the just condemnation of their Creed? But God.....