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National Church Council meeting The story told in this reading has a familiar ring to it: Church people quarreling over rites of religious righteousness. The squabbles among the Romans were about keeping kosher and the appropriate day on which to keep the Sabbath. Those became church-dividing issues—literally. The church eventually turned from its Jewish piety and oriented its mission to the Gentile culture. Jewish religious practice withdrew from Christianity and defined itself over against Christianity. In retaliation, Christianity portrayed itself as having replaced Judaism. Paul tried his level best to overcome the hostility. The opening chapters of Romans contain his theological arguments with his Jewish peers. In those arguments he makes the case that there is room within the Torah for a spectrum of adaptations. There is no need for Judaism to be so historically-defined that it cannot accommodate Rabbi Jesus' teachings as part of the larger tradition. In the latter chapters he pleads for compassion on the part of Gentiles who have no larger tradition. Although Jewish practices may be quaint and sometimes arbitrary in a Roman world,they are genuine expressions of faith in and service of God's mission. Questions of justice enter the debate. The Gentile church is about the freeing of slaves and amnesty for sinners. Jews are concerned about Roman domination of cultures and merciless empire-building. Each community has a legitimate cause, but uses it as an argument against the other. It is so easy to condemn the other in the name of having it right. And if the gospel were about getting it right,
there might be room to make decisions But this same letter to the Romans contains this expression of the gospel:
Our religious practices can be impeccable, but God is not interested in our religious differences. God was angry with the theologians who counseled Job
that religious practice God is utterly free to be who God wants to be. In utter freedom, God makes choices; makes choices for our sakes; sets self-limits for our sakes; dies for our sakes. But those are God's choices. They are not motivated by our practices. They are motivated by God's compassion for our helplessness and need. On the other hand, Paul does not consider various religious practices to be invalid. Paul is, in fact, much more tolerant than I am. But religious practice is intended to open us so that we do not prevent God from making the choices God's mission needs to make. We cannot claim to know God's will with certainty. The best thing for us is to adopt a posture of voluntary transparency so that our perceptions do not control the vision. Our religious practices should be windows, not mirrors. Mirrors show us only our own images, the shape of God looks like the one expressed in our religion. What God is actually doing may or may not look anything like that. We can only wait for revelation from God's own self.
This is gospel so relentlessly crystalline that it slices and shreds every scrap of our self-declared rightness. It cuts away the falsehood of religious certainties
and allows us to enter with confidence So far, we must settle for the mediated presence of God: mediated through Word and sacrament. All the more reason to take seriously Paul's plea that we cherish each other. Where there is no communion there is no revelation. Where there is no communion
there exist only solitary self-righteous narcissism The seven marks of the church include not only Baptism, Eucharist and the Word proclaimed, but also People gathered, Confession and Forgiveness, Prayers for all people, and Provision for those for whom no provision has been made. These are acts of communion. There is no revelation apart from our being together. It's tough to swallow, but it is, in the end, it is the Good News! Amen. + Raymond L. Schultz, National Bishop |
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