The Verse I Like to Skip

Romans 8:31-39
I turn to the eighth chapter of Romans as much as I do to any other section in the Bible. It has long been a focal point for me in my journey of faith. I find it to be so helpful in times of loss and transition that I read portions of it at most of the funerals I am honored to conduct. But at funerals I always skip verse 36 because it is there that Paul tells us, "As it is written, 'For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered'" (Romans 8:36).

What does this verse mean? I think Paul is simply underscoring the love of Jesus Christ and its presence in our daily existence. Life can be rough, he is saying, and there are days when we may feel like animals in a slaughterhouse waiting our turn to be annihilated. Even at times like these we are surrounded by the love of our Lord and Savior. But that is likely a problem for many of us. Slaughterhouses do not sound like an environment in which love abounds, and are certainly not where we would expect a life of blessing to lead us. That's because, unlike Paul, we are taking the short view, looking at life only as a here-and-now proposition. For Paul, the love of Jesus Christ is every bit as much about eternity as it is about this morning, or next Saturday, or January 12 of next year. We look at our lives now and want to know that God is doing everything possible to keep us OUT of the slaughterhouses; Paul was speaking to people who faced persecution and famine and nakedness and peril and sword as facts of life and STILL found reason to trust God in Jesus Christ. No matter what you face in life, Paul says, the love of Jesus is there.

So maybe I should quit shying away from verse 36. Maybe I should embrace it for what it is, a statement of absolute confidence in God's love. And maybe we should all let go of the short view, seeing the here-and-now as our only reality, and instead rejoice that no matter what nothing can ever separate us from that love, now or ever.

Prayer: Lord, may we learn to trust in you grace, mercy, and love in this life and in the life to come. In Jesus' name. Amen.

God's Guardrail

Ezekiel 18:1-4, 19-32

If we believe that the God of the Old Testament is a vengeful, wrath-filled God meting out condemnation and offering no love or compassion, then we should pay closer attention to passages like this one from Ezekiel. Yes, God has expectations of the people, but no, God does not delight in smiting or otherwise dispensing with them when they fail. “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that they should turn from their ways and live?… For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God. Turn, then, and live” (Ezekiel 18:23, 32). These verses, set side by side, are reminiscent of the cliché, “This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.” Only in the case of God it is far from cliché. Judgment, punishment of the wicked; these are not the things God wishes for.

Then why would God threaten death to the wicked? Mostly, I think, because it is true. Evil is, in and of itself, a kind of death, a willing separation from God. When we choose to go against God’s will we have stepped away from the life that is possible, the joyful life of hope and promise. “You will die,” is as much a threat from God as it is a warning which God offers the people, like a guardrail on a dangerous stretch of road. Ultimately God is the one willing to die for our transgressions, allowing us to move beyond the limitations of sin and death and to embrace life as an eternal reality. God does not kill for sport or out of spite. Indeed, the God of whom we read in both the Old and New Testaments yearns for us to know life abundantly. Anything less is a tragedy to God.

Prayer: Help us, O God, to live in the light of truth and righteousness, that we may know life the way you intend it. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

A Matter of Life AND Death

Romans 14:1-12

“We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:7-9). So writes Paul to the church in Rome. His intent is to remind readers that arguing over what days on which to worship or what foods to avoid creates unnecessary division within the community. Judgment belongs to God not to us, Paul says. We, in turn, belong to God in both our living and our dying. Human opinions and perspectives are not the basis for our faith.

There are a number of implications to these words, but I want to point to just one. If, whether we live or die, we are bound up in God, then we must learn to accept others who also belong to God whether or not they act like us, or talk like us or, vote like us, or own a car like purs. We should be far too busy experiencing God’s grace to get tied up in details and lose our way. In short, when it comes to God and God’s relationship with humanity it really is a matter of life AND death, which is to say that living or dying we belong to God.

Prayer: Lord forgive us when we allow the most insignificant of issues to stand between us and others. Instead give us eyes with which to see your love poured out for the whole world.