Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 14:13-21
Today’s epistle lesson is poignant. Paul’s confession betrays his deep disappointment. “I wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ if it could mean that Israel would come to faith.” Apparently, Paul fears that Israel itself is at risk of being accursed and cut off because, by and large, his people have ignored the apostles’ preaching. It’s not what he expected.
He has been swimming against the current and cutting against the grain for years, so utterly taken-up in his vision of the gospel. He’s utterly convinced that this gospel is the word of God and that this gospel will bring both Jew and Gentile together into one household of faith. But, it will be, not by Torah-observance, but by witness to the risen Christ. God has removed all curse from humanity in the mystery of Jesus’ resurrection. The promise of Scripture is now fulfilled in the age of resurrection. Indeed, remember from chapter 8 Paul’s expectant vision of the resurrection of all creation on the basis of Jesus’ resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus is the end of the old way; the beginning of a new one. All else is illusion. It seems that for Paul nothing else matters. This gospel is the truth of God. It’s an innovative view and one in which Paul finds himself on the defensive. Paul has his attackers yet he knows how to strike back and press on using his bully pulpit. Oh, and make no mistake, he does wield an effective bully pulpit! Just read Galatians, written a brief time before Romans, to catch the aggressive vehemence of a man utterly convinced that he’s correct and his opponents are wrong.
Nevertheless, in today’s passage Paul is disappointed and dismayed. Apparently, his clear expectation hasn’t panned out. Jews have not rallied to the apostles’ preaching as he expected. But for Paul responding to God in Christ is the way to life away from condemnation. Does that mean his own people are now accursed because they have ignored the apostles’ witness to Jesus?
What do you do when your expectations don’t pan out? What happens when the way that you were certain is the clear way of God doesn’t end up where you expect, seems to go nowhere, or loses its clarity with the weeds and brush of uncertainty and questions? It is tempting for the one who is accustomed to the clarity of a bully pulpit to push on and whack the weeds! It’s tempting to remain convinced of the correctness of one’s vision and slash through the obscurity, trying to make it all make sense.
And Paul, no shy or reticent hero this, will indeed press on into the next two chapters of Romans to answer his own questions and assuage his own uncertainty. He will find a way to answer, “No, Israel is not accursed, even though they are not now responding to the gospel.” He will massage and remold biblical notions of election and faith to construct an answer to his questions. He develops in chapters 9-11 a theology of God’s sovereign election (or predestination) whose nuances have both inspired and haunted the church for over 2,000 years.
Now it is that some twenty years ago our General Synod revisited Paul’s anguish here in Romans 9. “How will the Jews avoid being accursed?” The General Synod resolution didn’t argue the fine points of Romans 9-11. Instead, it challenged Paul’s premise itself. Judaism’s relationship to God, and its status as the elect of God, has nothing to do with whether or not it accepts Jesus as Messiah. Instead, we -- Christian and Jew -- are both heirs of one faith, though since the first century we have pursued that heritage in different directions. We are both communities of the children of God, though we are categorically different in how we relate to God. One is not superior to the other. Nor is one a perfection of the other.
In that vein the Gospel lesson is such an uplifting alternative vision. And the fact that today we celebrate holy communion at Christ’s table providentially illustrates and underscores the Gospel lesson today. We see Jesus, filled with compassion healing the people all day. At the end of the day when dusk approaches concerns arise for how the people will find food? Jesus instructs the apostles, “Make everyone sit down together--right where they are.” He takes bread, blesses it, gives thanks and gives it to the apostles to give to everyone seated there together. And they eat and are filled. Can we not hear the overtones of eucharist--holy communion? Do we not see God’s communion in a welcome table, when dusk sets in and renders the way obscure?
This story offers an alternative vision. When our expectations are not met; when our way that we were convinced is God’s way doesn’t go where we expected, what do we do? We can admit our lack of understanding. We can admit our gaps in knowledge. And admitting our own uncertainty, we can then simply welcome everyone to the table, invite them to sit down together, give thanks, and eat. Just like Jesus did.
Amen.